By the time dawn broke Relle was already awake and packed for leaving. She had done her best to organize and clean the farmhouse.
After cleaning, she sat on her front porch as she did every morning, to watch the sun rise. She sipped her coffee and watched as the warm rays of sunlike found their way across the eastern skies.
The rain had passed leaving behind the rich smell of wet soil and grass. Relle had nearly finished her coffee when Arlo stepped out of his RV.
Like her, he held a coffee mug in one hand. He glanced over to her and met her eyes in an instant. Arlo walked to the front porch and nodded to Relle.
"Good morning," she said pleasantly, despite the nervousness of leaving.
"'Morning," Arlo said. "You've got a nice view here."
"Thanks," she said. "I hope I get to see it again."
Arlo nodded, watching the colorful sky. "You're making the right decision."
"I hope so, I suppose I won't know if it's the right decision for a while. I just know we can't stay here. I hope we can find my mom and dad but..." she trailed off. They both knew what her fear was.
"Focus on what's in front of you," Arlo said gruffly. "Nothing you can do about what-ifs."
Relle nodded, but she couldn't stop thinking about the 'what-ifs'. She heard the porch door open behind her. Cedar and Sage stood beside each other, each with a full backpack.
Relle packed as much food as she could, along with a variety of camping equipment. She packed a portable stove, a tent, sleeping bags, and water. After everything was loaded into the little old car, she walked through the house once more.
She claimed she was doing it to make sure they weren't leaving anything behind, but that was not entirely true. Relle walked through the house one last time, hoping to engrave every aspect of the home into her memory.
When she was satisfied, Relle said goodbye to Arlo, who offered to follow her down to Billings to make sure the old car would make it.
She agreed to this and walked to the car. Sage sat in the back, gazing out the window at the farm. Cedar sat in the passenger's seat. He looked perhaps the most excited out of all of them.
Relle put the keys into the ignition and started the car. Or at least, she tried to start the car. However, the old car didn't want to turn over. Not even the lights on the dashboard turned on.
"What does that mean?" Cedar asked.
"I don't know. When was the last time this was driven?" Relle answered.
Cedar shrugged. "Mom and dad never really liked driving it, at least that's what mom said."
Relle tried again, again the car wouldn't start.
"Oh, no," Sage said from the backseat. Even she knew that this wasn't a good sign.
Relle tried to start the engine again. When it didn't turn over again, she heard a knock on her window. Arlo stood outside the car. She opened the door and got out.
"It won't start," she explained, hoping that the panic in her voice wasn't obvious.
Arlo opened the hood and rummaged around in the engine. "I can try and jumpstart your car, but I'm worried that it's something bigger than that," he said, pulling out his own set of keys.
Arlo pulled his RV closer to the little car. He hooked up the batteries and attempted to jump-start the car. After several fruitless attempts to start the car, Arlo glanced over to Relle, Sage, and Cedar.
"It's not going to start, I'm sorry," he crossed his arms. "My offer still stands if you'd like me to drive you."
Relle felt her heart drop. "I...I don't know...maybe we should just stay here..."
"RV! RV! RV!" Shouted Sage as she jumped out of the old car.
"You said we'd go find mom and dad," Cedar said to Relle.
"I know...it's just..." Relle trailed off, glancing at Arlo's RV.
It was their last chance to leave the farmhouse. After Arlo leaves, they might never get another chance to leave. It took her a few minutes to understand clearly that Arlo was their last hope to leave. He was their last opportunity to find their parents.
"It might be your last chance to leave," Arlo said as if reading her mind.
Relle felt Sage come up beside her and grab her hand. "We'll go with you," Relle said after a moment of thought.
Arlo nodded and walked back to his RV. Relle made sure both Cedar and Sage had their belongings before grabbing her own bags. Still holding Sage's little hand, she walked up to Arlo's large RV.
They got into the RV, surprised to see a man asleep on one of the couches near the back of the camper.
"You can go sit up front," Relle said to Ceder, not wanting to leave both her siblings in back without her. Especially with the strange man asleep.
"Who's that?" Cedar pointed to the man.
"My son," Arlo grunted, seeming almost annoyed as he got into the RV and started it. Cedar climbed into the passenger seat beside Arlo while Relle and Sage sat down at a little table.
As they pulled away from the farmhouse, Relle looked at the farm for one last time. She hoped that she was making the right choice. She hoped that this is what her parents would have wanted her to do. The RV drove off down the dirt road, leaving the old farmhouse in the dust.
Relle had never been in an RV. Her family rarely traveled at all and if they went anywhere, they stayed in tents or at a cheap motel.
She had always thought of RVs as a rather luxurious way to travel. This RV, however, was rather run-down. The walls were the color of old parchment and the smelt strongly of stale cigarettes and fresh coffee.
The table Relle sat at with Sage was a booth-style table that sat just behind the driver's chair. On the same wall as the table was a short couch where the stranger, Arlo's son, slept sprawled out.
Behind the passenger chair was the small door they walked in through. Beside the door was a kitchenette with a cook-top that was discolored from cooking. In the far back of the camper was a neatly made bed, it was perhaps the most tidy part of the camper.
As they rolled down the dirt road, the window curtains bounced in place. On occasion something would fall off one of the shelves above the kitchenette.
To Relle's surprise, Sage was soon sound asleep, on the booth across the table from her. The young girl was curled up with her head on her backpack. As she slept Relle continued to hope that she had made the right decision.