A teal van rambles down the desert highway, bumping and rocking with the pavement, kicking up a cloud of dust as it passes. An older, more vintage machine, looking like a smudge of the sky in the hot bleak desert.
Rocking with each bump and crack, the video equipment and camping supplies shift in the back of the gutted van, the clang of metal on metal as strap-clips rattle with the vibration of wheels on pavement.
“Were it not your father himself…”
“Bugs hush, we haven’t had a good lead in weeks and the blog was getting boring, it’ll be nice to have something to spice it up for a while.
“You surely don’t plan on publishing your exploits?”
“Maybe, right now I’m just on a vacation in Vegas.”
A small white rabbit in the passenger’s seat of the van turns to the driver, ears perked up and obviously agitated. “Yet again you forsake your safety for adventure, have I taught you nothing these past years?”
A young woman shifts her gaze to the rabbit momentarily, grinning. Her eyes a misty gray-green, hair turning premature silver-gray, betraying her age. Wearing a black sleeveless top and shorts, hair tied back with an elastic. Her face and shoulders slightly red from the heat she is unaccustomed to, even though it does not discourage her enthusiasm.
She looks back to the road and says “There is a fine line between insanity and genius, isn’t there?”
“Don’t flatter yourself” replies the rabbit flatly.
“Still, this sounds really fun, Dad usually doesn’t sound so concerned when he talks to me, usually it’s all about politics, or how his sister still hates him, but now? He sounded worried.”
“Which is exactly why I am worried.” the rabbit sounds annoyed, speaking slowly and in a measured tone “Anything bothersome enough to worry your father, or any of the collective divinities would likely make quick work of a scion.”
“You mean like that yeti?”
“Just an oversized ape.”
“How about the thunderbirds?”
“Slow and Stupid.”
“The phantom dogs? Cultists who were mutilating animals? That psychopath in the forest bunker? The Devil’s Swamp?”
The rabbit is clearly agitated now “Your silly childish journeys around your hometown are like dust in a concert hall. The magnitude and significance of these events and mortal creatures is paltry compared to the troubles of the divine realm. Forget you not that you are still a child even compared to my short immortality and are more likely to be killed than-”
The van screeches to a halt, the cloud of dust slowly dissipating as the van rests in the breakdown lane, the woman sitting still and looking ahead, serious.
“Roger”
“what.”
“Who else is there?”
“…”
“Exactly.”
The van picks up again, music being turned up and windows down as it resumes the voyage down the long highway. Both passengers quiet as the sun sets and the sliver moon rises above the horizon to light their path.
All The Worlds, A Stage 