Carmen and Elliot Get Stranded

The wind whipped through the open windows of the little Honda Civic, bringing relief from the summer sun beating down through the windshield of the car.

"How much farther you think?" asked Carmen from the passenger seat, tucking her auburn hair behind her ear as the wind promptly blew it right back where it started.

"I dunno. I've never been out this way before but I'm guessing it's at least another three hours." said Elliot.

"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Carmen. "We've been driving for eight hours already!" They both burst out laughing at her profane use of the Lord's name. The pair were headed to Bible Camp to work as camp counsellors.

Elliot and Carmen had been friends since the fifth grade, attending the same Christian school for almost as long as either of them had any meaningful memories. Carmen had been there since Kindergarten and the Christian world was the only thing she had ever known. The elementary school was part of a larger campus that was run by a church ominously named The Tabernacle. Every aspect of her life was encompassed in religion.

When Elliot came to the school in the fifth grade, he had moved to her small prairie town from Toronto and to Carmen he seemed so worldly and fascinating. A boy from the outside! His clothes were new and trendy, unlike the thrift store hand-me-downs most kids at the school wore. He used words like "shit" and "fuck" that at first triggered her rightous indignation. Eventually though, her curiosity had drawn her to him like a six year old kid seeing their first dead squirrel. Morbid curiosity? She often found herself watching him and the strange way he carried himself, which was always a little disdainful of small town religious life.

When Elliot first moved to her town he'd hated it. The other kids seemed sheltered and naive, mostly came from poor families and had horrible taste in music. They seemed to know nothing about the world outside their weird little town. He hadn't wanted to move there but his parents had recently become "born again" and decided to move to this small podunk bible town where his father had gotten a job as Head of Maintenance at the Christian school. Despite the small town, the school was large and it's campus housed hundreds of students ranging from Kindergarten to Graduate School, all with the sole purpose of developing missionaries to spread the "good news."

"Fuck it's good to be out of that town" said Elliot, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter and clenching his jaw. Aside from Carmen, nothing in the religious school had ever held any interest for him, and he had hated being forced to memorize Bible verses and attend chapels and Bible Study groups. Heading to a Christian summer camp might not have been his first choice for things to do after grad, but at least he would be away from the suffocating presence of those conservative teachers who were always on his case about everything.

He and Carmen had formed a friendship over what now seemed like the silliest thing. He had brought his nintendo DS to his grade five class and was playing pokemon with the volume off, keeping it out of the teachers foreboding line of sight. Carmen had never seen a DS and had stared intently from the desk beside him, watching the screen with fascination. "Quit staring" he hissed, "you're gonna get me in trouble!" At the end of class she worked up the nerve to ask if she could try it, and Elliot acquiesced, more out of pity for her sheltered life than anything. It almost made him feel like a time-traveler from the future, as everyone in this town seemed a couple of decades behind.

The two of them began playing pokemon every day at recess and after school. Carmen was nothing short of obsessed with the game. Eventually Elliot's pity had given way to amusement of their time together, seeing as most of the kids regarded him as a bit of an outsider anyway. Her fascination with him was flattering and he found himself thinking of new things to introduce her to just to see her reaction.

By the sixth grade Carmen had saved her allowance money and bought her own DS unbeknownst to her conservative parents who most certainly would not have approved. Elliot secretly enjoyed "corrupting" Carmen and introduced her to non-Christian music, R-rated movies and had even convinced her to try drinking some coolers he got from Marty, a high school kid who could grow a beard. Carmen was fascinated with this new world, the new sounds, visuals and tastes that were strictly forbidden by her parents.

Over the next few years together, the two formed a friendship that felt like something from a movie. Elliot found Carmen reasonably attractive but her innocent and naive nature kept him from ever seeing her as being someone he would date. Instead the two of them spent hours walking on the train tracks, watching bad sci-fi, going for bike rides or just hanging out at the only coffee shop in town. He was grateful for her, as she was the one person who he could stand being around in this dull town. His influence had managed to slightly lessen her staunch religious way of being, at least when she wasn't around her parents or the other students. She even swore occasionally if no one else was around to hear.

When the opportunity to work at the summer bible camp had presented itself in the middle of their senior year, Carmen immediately applied. The camp was in a remote forested area on the coast of BC and the pictures looked like paradise on earth. Mountains, lakes, trees, the ocean and a host of wildlife seemed beyond exciting after a sheltered life on the prairies.

Not knowing what to do after high school, Elliot applied as well, thinking at least it was a good way to get out of town and still be able to hang out with Carmen.

Despite the misgivings of their parents, the two teens managed to convince them that they should drive out together since Carmen didn't have a car. Elliot had always played the part of a good christian kid around Carmen's folks and they trusted that he would take good care of her.

The pair left at sunrise on what seemed like the most beautiful day of the year. The Civic was almost 15 years old and the air conditioning didn't work, but driving with the windows down still seemed like a luxury after the long harsh Canadian winter.

So far the trip had been smooth, with just a couple of stops for food and fuel. They were able to stay on the Trans-Canada highway through the soaring rockies and out into the smaller mountain ranges of Central BC for most of the trip thus far. To get to the camp they took an exit off of highway 1 and began a meandering journey down a narrow winding road lined with trees close in on either side. It was breathtakingly beautiful and the fresh scent of greenery and rotting forest floors blew through the open windows. It was exhilarating.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this!" exclaimed Carmen after a long pause in their conversation. The suddeness of her exclamation jerked Elliot out of a trance and brought him back to the present.

"I know right? This feels amazing!"

"The longest I've been away from home was the camping trip in grade twelve" said Carmen. "This is crazy."

"It's gonna be good"

"Yeah"

"We are legit in the middle of nowhere. When's the last time you even saw a car? I kinda spaced out for a while back there." yawned Elliot, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I don't know. It's been like... a while" said Carmen, placing emphasis on the word 'while' the same way she'd heard the cool kids talk in the movies.

There was always something just a little bit 'home school' about the way Carmen tried to emulate a more worldly way of being. Elliot found it endearing. She was trying, at least.

An hour passed as they rounded corner after corner weaving through the rocky forests, when suddenly the car lurched and then slowed down. Carmen looked at Elliot with surprise on her face, "what the fuck was that?!"

Elliot sat upright "I don't know, but we're slowing down!" He frantically looked at the gauges on the dashboard. The car was indeed slowing down, and as the wind noise faded they both realized the engine was no longer running.

Elliot coasted the stalled vehicle to the side of the road, the gravel crunching under the tires where it came to a pathetic stop angled halfway onto the shoulder.

"Fuck."

In shock, Carmen looked at Elliot who was still staring in disbelief at the gauges. Finally he turned his head, the stunned expression on his face matching hers.

"Uh... what do we do?" asked Carmen.

"I don't know. I know fuck all about cars!"

He turned the key and the engine spun over a few times to no avail. "What the fuck!"

Elliot's repeated attempts to start the car met the same fate until finally it refused to even turn over. Now the engine and the battery were both dead. Elliot angrily opened his door, got out and slammed it hard. Leaning his back against the drivers door he rubbed his face.

"Fuck Fuck Fuck!" He lifted his foot and kicked the door behind him. Carmen sat inside, her mind a flurry of thoughts, her face still holding the stunned expression, staring blankly out the front window.

After hours of highway driving the silence suddenly seemed overwhelmingly loud. The wind in the trees, the odd bird sound and the constant chirring of invisible grass insects became deafening. If they weren't stranded, the nature sounds might have been calming and peaceful, but in their new predicament, it only served to emphasize how completely fucked they were.

Carmen carefully detached her seat belt, opened the door and stepped out, closing it lightly, then giving it a hip check to latch it shut. Her brain started to work again. "Oh! I have my phone! We can call for help!"

Reaching through the open window she grabbed her cell phone from the console and tapped the screen.

Her excitedness vanished immediatly. "No signal."

"What?"

"No signal. Nothing. I have zero bars."

Elliot reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Maybe he would have better luck on a different network.

"Nope. No bars for me either. We are well and truly fucked." He kicked the door again, spinning around and putting his hands on the roof of the car, glaring at Carmen.

"Well... maybe someone will come along and we can flag them down." said Carmen forcing herself to sound a little bit cheerful. She wasn't used to seeing Elliot angry like this. Or maybe he was just frustrated. She couldn't tell.

Elliot closed his eyes, took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "We better get the car off the road. We're on a corner and if anyone DOES come they're gonna run right into us."

Looking down the road he noticed a small clearing in the trees on the right side about fifty meters away. "Let's push the car over there." He climbed into the drivers seat and put the stick shift in neutral. With both side doors open they began to push, slowly at first but then picking up momentum. Elliot was glad he hadn't bought a big SUV, although maybe another vehicle wouldn't have left them stranded in the middle of god-knows-where.

They reached the clearing in a few minutes sweaty and breathless. The sun was still high and there was no wind with all the trees surrounding them. Elliot steered the dead car well into the grassy clearing and popped the hood.

"What are you looking for" asked Carmen.

"I don't know. Just, anything I guess."

They both stared at the engine with all of it's hoses and cables and various reservoirs, listening as it ticked itself cool. Neither of them had any idea what they were looking at.

Carmen broke the silence. "I need to pee."

Elliot looked sideways at her with a look of disbelief. A moment passed, then a smirk broke onto his face then simultaneously they both laughed. A little at first but then big belly laughs. The whole thing was so ridiculous! Here they were stranded in the hot sun with dead car and no phone in the middle of a forest hundreds of kilometers from civilization.

And Carmen had to pee.

"Well, the world is your bathroom" announced Elliot making a sweeping gesture toward the trees.

"Alright" said Carmen. "Here I go..." Gingerly she headed towards the trees, the tall dry grass brushing against her bare legs, reaching right up to the bottom of her denim shorts. "God I hope there's no bears out here."

"Just don't go too far!" yelled Elliot.

"Alright" she called back. She made her way to the edge of the trees where the grass ended in an abrupt line giving way to the pine-needle forest floor. She surveyed the interior of the forest and settled on a spot, barely out of sight of the car, squatted down and slid her shorts and panties down to her ankles. She had only peed outside once before on the high school camping trip. Feeling the fresh outside air on her bare bottom felt strangely exhilarating. As she began to pee her mind wandered to a bizarre hypothetical future where her and Elliot were like Swiss Family Robinson, building tree houses and surviving in the wild. Ridiculous, she thought. Don't be so dramatic.

From where Elliot stood in front of the car he watched Carmen walk towards the trees. When she stopped he could still see her figure only half hidden behind a tall spruce tree. He watched her squat down with her back towards him, the top half of her body still visible above the grass line. He could tell from her movement that she had pulled down her shorts and something stirred in his body, imagining her bare ass exposed to the great outdoors.

Just because he didn't think of her romantically didn't mean that he hadn't imagined her naked before. Of course he had. That's what boys do. Truth be told, he had once caught a glimpse of her in her bedroom through the window when he was out for a late night walk with his headphones on. She had just taken a shower and was only wearing a white towel. What would she think if she had known he'd slipped into her yard for a better look? As luck would have it, when she dropped her towel she simultaneously opened the closet door and blocked his view, but not before he caught the tiniest glimpse of sideboob. The memory was burned into his mind and was the source of many subsequent fantasies when he needed to get his rocks off. But that was a secret he would take to the grave.

********

At least an hour had passed and not a single car had driven by. They passed the time by rotating between staring helplessly at the engine, trying the ignition and checking their phones for any service. Elliot pulled out a pack of cigarettes he had stashed in his bag. "Wanna smoke?"

"When did you start smoking?!"

"Right now" laughed Elliot. "I was saving it for Summer Camp, but I figured, what the hell."

Carmen was about to refuse out of reflex more than anything but then realized that she was far away from home, her Christian school and strict parents. Why not?

"Alright. Let's do it."

Elliot produced a lighter from his pack and the two took turns lighting their cigarettes, just like Carmen had seen so many people do in the movies.

"You gotta actually breath it into your lungs, Carm. Like this." Elliot showed her how to draw it into his mouth first and then take a deep breath. She followed suit, stifling a cough. "Look at you! You're a natural!" he laughed.

"Not sure that's a compliment, but I'll take it. I guess?"

The two climbed onto the trunk of the car and smoked the rest of each cigarette, glancing at each other from time to time which invariably resulted in laughter. If only my friends knew what was happening right now, thought Carmen.

"Whoa, I feel a little light-headed" said Elliot slipping off the trunk of the car and landing lightly on his feet. Carmen slid herself off the back of the car but when her feet hit the ground the world spun out around her and she toppled haplessly right into Elliot. As he caught her they both went down, Elliot on his back and Carmen face down on top, their faces almost touching. They held that position in for an awkward moment. This was easily the most body contact they had ever shared and it didn't go unnoticed by either.

In a swift movement, Carmen rolled off onto her back and they burst out laughing again. "Wow. I had no idea cigarettes make you dizzy like that!" She rolled her head to face Elliot. "We're fucked, aren't we?"

"Someone's gonna come. It's a road to somewhere. We can't be the only people using it."

And as if god himself heard them they both recognized the whooshing sound of a car in the distance. Springing up they both ran to the road. The vehicle had just appeared around the corner as they arrived waving frantically at the edge of the road. It was a blue minivan and from the looks of a loaded bike rack on the back it had an entire family in it. They didn't even slow down.

"What the fuuuuuck!" Elliot yelled at the back of the receding minivan, now out of sight around the next corner, the whooshing sound quickly trailing off into nothing.

"They saw us! They didn't even slow down!"

The disappointent made Carmen's stomach feel as if she'd just eaten an entire loaf of bread. "How could they just..? What do we need to do to make them stop?! The hood of the fucking car is still open!"

"I don't know," Elliot retorted. "Next time take your shirt off or something!"

"Really, Elliot? Why don't you just show them your ass on the way by!" Her eyeroll was practicaly audible. "Don't put this on me." Carmen stomped towards the car.

"Sorry. I didn't mean that. I just said it I guess. I mean, it would work, but... nevermind. I'm just stressed now. And I need to pee."

Neither laughed this time.

Elliot strode off through the grass towards the trees. It was bad enough being stuck out here, but now he'd said something stupid and managed to piss off the only other member of his species for miles around. He found a tree that looked like it needed urinating on and unzipped his pants without bothering to find cover like Carmen had.

Carmen thought it was a little strange to see Elliot taking a pee from behind, knowing that he had his dick out in the open air. She'd never seen a penis in the flesh but pushed the thought from her mind given the context of said penis being currently used to urinate. It's not how she wanted to see her first real penis anyhow. Why am I thinking about penises anyway? Fuck.

She fumbled around the back seat of the car for a water bottle. They'd had the sense to pick up a twelve pack of water for the trip before they left and there was still 6 bottles left. Someone would come before they drank them all, right?

Elliot wandered back feeling more relaxed than when he had left. Carmen held up a second bottle. "Need to rehydrate?"

"Yeah, thanks." She tossed it to him and they both leaned against the car again as they drank.

"Sorry, again, Carm. I shouldn't have said that."

"It's fine, Elliot. I get it. And you're right. It would probably work. It's just... weird. And I don't know if I'm that desperate. At least not yet"

Her statement caused Elliot to picture poor conservative Carmen topless, waving at passing cars. He gave his head a shake, as if he could erase the thought like an Etch-A-Sketch. "Yeah. Who knows when another car is gonna come though. Fuckin' sucks. Jerks."

"There's gotta be more."

"Yeah."

But there wasn't. Two more hours went by and the only sounds were the insects and birds. The sun began to touch the tops of the trees. They pulled out a sleeping bag from the trunk and spread it out on the grass to have a place to sit or lie down a little more comfortably.

"You know, if there's any chance we are stuck here for the night, we should probably make a fire, Carm. I got the lighter. We just need some dry wood."

"The night." she scoffed. "I was trying not to think about that."

"I know. I don't wanna think about it either, but if we wait any longer it's only gonna get harder to find wood."