ELLIS

"Take the next turn to the right. That'll lead us to the lake."

     Ellis complied with Violet's request and exited off the interstate. "There must be something seriously wrong with me. A normal person—someone actually with a functioning brain—would have just called the police and dealt with the accident. I mean, what do you think is even happening with your car?"

    Violet waved her fingers around mystically and spoke like a hypnotist. "Don't worry. It's all taken care of."

    There really wasn't a point to even questioning her; she never seemed to answer anything. If only he hadn't been texting and driving, this entire situation could have been avoided. If this wasn't the best public service announcement, he didn't know what was.

    Don't text and drive, or you could end up enslaved and blackmailed by a psychotic purple-haired fan-girl.

    The thought made Ellis suppress a laugh, which turned into a snort through his nose.

     "I'm glad you're as excited about this as I am," Violet voiced with a bright expression.

     Ellis's first impression of Violet hadn't been the best. He had absolutely no attraction to her. She looked like something a rainbow unicorn and a beach-bum had given birth to, but when she smiled, it was a different story. She had the kind of smile that felt like warm light.

     They found themselves pulled into a bait-and-tackle shack just beside the shoreline of a large lake. Old trees with dangling moss and broken oyster shells surrounded the small structure.

     When they parked, Ellis helped Violet to get her backpack and crutches. He felt the shells crush beneath his feet as they neared the green-roofed shack. The wood that held the shop together looked worn and about to give in at any moment. A dusty metal fan was plugged in and made a grinding sound while it simply blew around hot, humid Florida air.

     "I'm not even going to ask why we're here—I know you're not going to tell me, so I'm going to start making up answers myself." Ellis pointed both his index fingers at her in a dramatic fashion. "You're wanted by the mafia because you're an informant for the FBI, and this is the secret meet point for you to deliver the info."

     Violet tossed her head back with a silly but amused expression. "Hey, you haven't exactly volunteered any information about yourself."

     Ellis raised up his palms in defense. "Give and take, Violet. You give me information first, and then I give you information back. Give and take."

     The screen door to the shack slowly opened with a creek. There were the sounds of clomps from within the darkened space inside. Ellis began to regret his decision to blindly follow all of Violet's requests without knowing more about her. For all he knew, she really was an informant, or involved with the drug world. He might have been experiencing his last day of life.

     A wrinkled hand became visible before the rest. The fingers shook and liver spots covered sunburnt skin. The old man had once been tall, but now he was hunched over with a long powder-white beard, an eye-patch and a banjo strapped against him.

     He was a one-eyed banjo man.

     "Ya kids be needin' some bait, ya need to git down to shops in town. I got no mo' bait 'ere," the man informed them.

     Violet carefully took the steps to approach him with her crutches. "Um, excuse me, sir, we're not here about bait. I just have a question to ask you. Do you remember a man named Joey Long?"

     The old man rubbed at his grizzly face and thought long and hard about the name.

     "Joey Long . . . hm, Joey Long . . . yeah, yeah, I reckon I do."

     Violet's lips twitched out a smile. "Can you tell me anything about him?"

     "I taugh' 'im the old banjo and guitar. Use' to love to come 'ere and fish, sure did. I remember when that boy was a youngin', he almos' got bit in two by an alligator, sure did." The man laughed a few times in between his words, which made Ellis and Violet laugh too, even if Ellis had no idea why he was laughing.

     "Can we get a picture together with you, sir?" Violet was being strangely sweet to the old man. Nothing like her usual weird,eccentric self.

     The old man looked flattered and grinned with more than a few teeth missing. "Oh now, y'all don't want no picture of old Bill'ere."

     "We do," she said in a soft, girly voice.

     Ellis was completely mortified. "We do?"

     Violet tried to subtly disguise a light kick against Ellis's leg.

     "Yes, we do," she reemphasized through gritted teeth.

     "We do," Ellis agreed begrudgingly.

     Old Bill stood in the middle with his paint-chipped "Tackle & Bait" sign in the background of the shot. Violet leaned on Bill's left, while Ellis stood at his right and had the misfortune of smelling the scent of Bill's summer sweat.

     Violet smiled brightly and made a peace sign with one hand while the other held her selfie stick. Bill just showed off his lack of dental work with his few crooked yellow teeth displayed. Ellis clearly was ruining the shot with his angry brows and narrowed eyes looking at Violet.

     The camera shutter clicked, and the memory was forever preserved digitally.

     When Ellis and Violet looked at the screen to make sure the picture had come out right, he was surprised by something.

     Violet was really photogenic. She looked so plain to him, but for some reason, when a camera turned on, it was like magic.

     Old Bill offered them what little he had in his shop—candy and sodas—and then they said their goodbyes.

     Sitting back in their respective car seats, Violet dug into the plastic bag of goodies and handed Ellis a few orange-flavored candies. He unwrapped one of them and ate it. It was a huge improvement from the root-beer gum.

     "Skateboarding," Violet said randomly, her sharp blue eyes locking with his honeyed ones.

     "Skateboarding?" he repeated back, completely confused.

     She gave him a half smile and tucked a few strands of lavender hair behind her ear. "How I broke my leg. I skateboard. Though I'm usually pretty good at it."

     Ellis had a hard time picturing Violet on a skateboard at first. She looked so delicate that it was difficult to imagine her risking her body for sport. "You skateboard?"

     Violet looked even more delighted by his surprise. "Yeah, Ellis. I skateboard."

     He stared at her until he could envision it. In his mind he could see Violet fearlessly standing at the top of a ramp, wearing torn jeans, a pair of Chucks, a half-cut pink shirt and a baseball cap. Her hair probably flowed like purple streams of paper in the wind when she'd sail on her board.

     Ellis bit his lower lip and couldn't hold back his thoughts on that. "I think that's really hot . . ."

     She wasn't offended or disturbed; she just smiled harder. "Yeah?"

     "Yeah," he reaffirmed.

     They locked gazes.The more he looked at her, the less plain she began to look to him.She had an interesting way of playing with her hair, or rolling her strawberry candy around her tongue between orange-sherbet-painted lips.

     In no way on this earth is someone like her my type.

     But just for a second—and not a moment over—he was attracted to Violet.

     Ellis broke their long stare and turned on the engine. "Where's the next Joey Long stop?"

     Violet connected her phone to the stereo and flipped through it to play some Joey Long songs. "A motel before you reach Pensacola."

     "Wait. A motel? I don't have the money for that. I was planning on sleeping in the car at rest stops." Ellis did have money, but he intended to spend it in California, not waste it on the road trip.

     She stuck out her tongue with disgust at the thought of sleeping in the car. "That's really unsafe. I have money for a motel. Besides, it's not like you're attracted to me or anything. I think it'll be okay if we spend the night together in a motel room."

     "Right. . ." Ellis bumped the back of his head against his headrest a few times.

     It would be fine. It wasn't like he'd never been in a room with a girl before.

     After all, what could possibly go wrong?