I continue to write down rules in my notebook. I'm almost at fifty and it's about ten o'clock at night. I took my dads watch and I keep looking at it on the dashboard.

Rule #37
Always buckle up

I look up and out the front mirror. We don't have anything to defend ourselves so we're useless if anything attacks us. We'll just die. "I opened your Dads gun cabinet," Chase says. I look at him as he pushes his hair out of his eyes. "I took money, bullets and everything he had it in basically. I uh, I didn't know you were an Aquarius."

"Why does my sign matter?" I chuckle as he blinks slowly.

"It doesn't. I'm making small talk," he laughs softly. I put August and June to sleep an hour ago, and they're still asleep after a read them a bed time story. "Can you sing?" He asks.

"Yeah, why?" I drag out as I rest my feet on the dashboard, taking off my tennis shoes and putting them on the ground below me.

"I don't like the silence. Could you sing something?" He darts his eyes to the rearview mirror, to the twins.

"If your asking for a rap solo I don't know one." I look down at my notebook and doodle a flower on the side of the page.

"That's fine. I just don't like the silence." He sighs, looking at me in the rearview mirror. He knows I could be asleep right now, but I rarely sleep. Well I do but I go to bed at like, one am.

"Fine but I'm not that good," he nods as I clear my throat. "Well I'm off chasing my own dreams, and sailing around the world, please know that I'm yours to keep, my beautiful girl. And when you cry a piece of my heart dies, knowing that I may have been the cause. And if you were to leave fulfill someone else's dreams, I think I might totally be list," I sing. I look at Chase. "I told you I'm bad-"

"Not it was good. Really, really good," he smiles, but it's small. "My mom sang too. She was always singing around the house so it uh, it makes me smile when you sing."

"Do I sound like her?" He shakes his head.

"No not at all. Her voice is higher pitched but it uh, makes me happy to hear singing again. I didn't hear it this morning because she was at work so uh." He wipes a tear from his cheek with the pad of his thumb. "So it uhm, would make me feel better if you sang."

I hum, thinking of another song to make him happy. His smile is precious, so are Augusts and June's, so I gotta keep them together or else we'll loose why we're living.

–/\–/\–/\–/\–

Chase pulls into the entrance to the woods and stops, yawning and then looking at me. "Aren't you tired?" I shake my head. I look at the watch, seeing it's two am.

"Drive in more. We need to hide the van." He yawns again.

"The bumps will wake up the twins."

"Take it slow then." He sighs and starts to drive again, taking rocks and turns and uphill climbs, then going off the path and we both start to make a mental map of where we're going. I know he is. By the way his eyes flick to a tree to a big rock to another tree and the way his lips move. He stops when he gets deep enough, looking back at the watch and seeing it's three in the morning.

He turns off the car and looks at me, yawning and stretching his arms up and arching his back as he yawns again. "I'm gonna get some sleep."

"I'll keep watch. We need someone on watch at night in case someone or something attacks." He nods and goes back in the van and sets up a small bed on a seat then quickly falls asleep. I look up and watch through the window. It's even more peaceful then when I would stay up late at night in my house. Its beautifully silent and I love it, but I can't help but hum. My dad snores, and my sisters always humming so I can't stand silence for too long. I watch the world go by and soon the sun rises.