Day 12 - 2023 Words

I took a few deep breaths and then called Cassie.

“Hey, slugger,” she said as she picked up. “Hope you’re life has been improving.”

“Actually not,” I told her.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“So Elaine just called me,” I began.

“Right, I read about that on the boards. What did she want to talk about?”

“She’s getting married.”

“To that... that guy, from Europe?”

“Yeah.”

“The one who isn’t really from Europe?”

“That’s the one.”

“The guy from Michigan or Montana or whatever?”

“Yes, Cassie. You have figured it out. What do you want, a prize?”

“I’m... I’m sorry, I’m just surprised.”

“You’re surprised? Think how I feel.”

“Oh, Miles... I’m sorry.”

“She asked me to go to her wedding.”

“What did you say?”

“I said yes.”

“When is it?”

“July, around the same time as the con.”

“Oh my god. So you can’t go to the con now?”

“No, the wedding is in Seattle, so I could.”

“So now you have to come!” Cassie sounded a bit too gleeful.

“You understand how much my life sucks?”

“I know, I’m sorry. I just really want you to come to the con.”

“I appreciate it. But I might cancel on her.”

“I understand.” I could hear her sigh.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know what to do.”

“I don’t think I’m the right person to ask for advice on this.” That was the first time Cassie had ever suggested she didn’t know exactly what to do. If she didn’t know what to do, how was I supposed to know what to do?

“Maybe I’ll ask the guys.”

“Yeah, they might have ideas.”

“I think I’ll go do that now.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.”

“Miles?”

“Yeah, Cassie?”

“Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you. I know I’m far away, I don’t have a lot to offer. Items in game or something, whatever, let me know. I’ll do it.”

“Thank you, Cassie. It means a lot.”

“No problem whatsoever.”

“Alright, bye.”

“Bye.”

I got online and posted at the boards. I summed up my situation: my ex was getting married, she had invited me to her wedding, it was in Seattle around the same time as the con. What should I do?

Again, there were a variety of responses, but only one in particular really held my interest. A forum member going by the username Rigas posted this:

“Why don’t you make it a road trip? There are tons of guys between Tallahassee and Seattle planning to go to the con. Meet up with them and we’ll all come with you up to Seattle for the con, and then we can go kick your ex’s fiance’s ass.”

I told myself this was ridiculous. I’d never met anyone from online before, and a road trip was absolute madness. Plus, I didn’t actually want to go to Elaine’s wedding.

That night I lay awake in bed thinking. What was it that upset me so much about Elaine getting married to this guy? Aside from the obvious, which was just that she was my ex and it was weird. I spent a lot of the night thinking about how life had been with Elaine. Even in the worst of times it was better than all the time I had spent without her. When I was with Elaine, I suddenly became calmer. I wasn’t so socially awkward. I could speak in complete sentences, entirely without stuttering. With Elaine, I was the man I wanted to be. How else could I get that back except by being with her again?

And that was what upset me about her getting married. Until this point, I had convinced myself that she was going through a phase. She would get over this Europe thing, realize her mistake, and come back to me. We were meant to be. We were the perfect couple; all our friends had said so.

If Elaine got married, that was it. I could not in good conscience try to split up a marriage. On top of that, marriage was serious business. Hoping she would realize the error of her ways and come back to me was not something I could reasonably do after she had the ring on and the paper in hand. No, if I was going to get Elaine back, it had to be before she took that vow.

So I made my decision. Not only would I go to Seattle, but I would get there two weeks before Elaine’s wedding. The con was one week before her wedding. I would track her down. I would find her, and I would see this Alexis guy for myself. I would prove to her that he was not the man for her. If necessary, I would indeed bring my posse and have them help me kick his ass. Epic battle very well might ensue. Whatever it took, I had to get Elaine back. It was the only way for me to be who I was meant to be.

I made this realization at about four in the morning. Naturally, I got online right away and made a post. I replied to Rigas’s suggestion:

“Alright, guys (and what few girls there are here – hi DarkProphetess!). I have made my decision: I have to stop this wedding. I can’t just sit idly by as the woman of my dreams marries another man. I will get her back, by force if necessary. So, let’s start organizing this thing. I’m planning a road trip from Tallahasse, FL to Seattle, WA. Who’s with me?”

After that I finally fell asleep.

When I woke up late the next morning, I had ten responses. Rigas had suggested that we have one meetup location in each state through which the road trip was passing. Each state could have a coordinator. He had done the research and made a list of the states. He then asked for volunteers to coordinate each state’s meetup. The coordinator could pick where was the best place in the state to meet and then those of us who had already started would meet there.
The next eight responses were people volunteering to be state coordinators. Six of them were men and two were women. The last response was from a volunteer who not only suggested that we have meetups, but that each meetup should be at a tourist location. This way, he said, everyone could get not just a trip to the con but could see a bit of local culture and have something like a vacation in addition to con attendance, as well.

After some more discussion and organization, we had arranged a trip with ten stops between Tallahassee and Seattle. These were:

Montgomery, Alabama
Nashville, Tennessee
Gilbertsville, Kentucky
St. Louis, Missouri
Omaha, Nebraska
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Buffalo, Wyoming
Billings, Montana
and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Each location had a leader, and the caravan would stop in each location for one full day. It turned out that Rigas, whose real name was Adrian, was in Jacksonville, Florida, so he would help me organize the start of the expedition. The Florida contingent would meet at the Old Capitol building in Tallahassee on the third of July. We would then travel for ten days, arriving in Seattle on the fourteenth. Elaine’s wedding was scheduled for the thirtieth. That would give us just over two weeks to attend the con, which started on the fifteenth, and also stop Elaine’s wedding.

Cassie had volunteered to show the whole crew, which would amount to about a hundred people, all around Seattle and the surrounding area. For some reason, she was not inclined to participate in the “Stop Elaine’s wedding” part of the plan. I thought that was weird, but just chalked it up to her not being interested in kicking the ass of some guy she had never met. It seemed like the guys in the guild were empathized much more in this circumstance. Even so, I was excited to get to meet Cassie and the others, but Cassie most especially. It seemed odd to have been best friends with someone for four years without ever having met her.

I was excited to start this adventure. I had never done something quite this wild before, my trip to Europe notwithstanding. I felt good about it. I was going to meet a lot of friends I’d never really met before. I was going to travel through thirteen states not including my own. If nothing else, by the end of the experience I would have quite a story to tell. With luck, though, I would also have Elaine back in my arms and an army of new friends.

On the second of July, I had everything prepared. I went through my supplies for any last minute changes. I had all the clothes I would ever need, including my “Joss Whedon Is My Master Now” shirt. I had a toothbrush, a large supply of CDs with video game remixes on them, and a few books in case I could finagle someone else into driving for a while. I also had my laptop and my Gameboy.

On the morning of the third of July, I left my apartment, in which many of Elaine’s possessions remained, and drove to the Old Capitol building. Everyone on the road trip had purchased buttons that said “Carpe DM” so we would all be able to find each other. Yes, we were probably the largest crowd of dorks ever to arrange a cross country road trip.

I met up with Adrian/Rigas a bit before everyone else was supposed to get there. He was a little taller and brawnier than I was, and a little older. He could have been my brother. We even looked a little alike. I liked him from the start.

“Adrian?” I asked. I think it might have been the first time in my life I approached anyone and introduced myself without them speaking to me first.

“That’s me,” he said. “You must be Miles.”

“I am indeed. How was your trip?”

“Not bad. A bit of traffic on I-10. You know – the usual holiday traffic.”

“Yeah.” I actually didn’t know. I’d never travelled between Jacksonville and Tallahassee.

“So, are you excited about the trip?” he asked.

“I really am.”

“We’re gonna get your girl back, man!” He punched me on the shoulder. I think he intended to punch me lightly, but he was just bigger enough than I was that it jarred me a little.

“That’s the plan,” I agreed.

“We’ll do it. You’ll see.”

“I hope you’re right.” Around eleven in the morning the other guys started showing up. We toured the museum, had lunch at a nearby sub shop, and set off around one. There were fifteen of us. Three cars full. If we had this kind of turnout everywhere we went, this was going to be an incredible road trip.

We drove for about five hours before we arrived in Montgomery. The leader of the Alabama contingent, a guy named Donnelly who went by the username DieMe, had selected the Hank Williams Museum as our meeting place. I thought it an odd choice, but then, I wasn’t in charge of every item on the road trip agenda. Donnelly had actually called ahead and made reservations for us to have a group tour of the museum. The tour was a little morbid, as it heavily featured the 1952 Cadillac in which Hank Williams rode the day he died. We also spent some time in the Oakwood Cemetery where he was buried and admiring a statue of him in downtown Montgomery.

Donnelly had fortunately planned a somewhat more traditional tourist experience for us as well, involving the Montgomery Zoo, but as it closed at five o’clock in the afternoon we had to wait until the fourth to experience it. In Montgomery we had picked up another two cars’ worth of people. Donnelly was a crazy enough man to invite twenty five strangers over to his house. It was very generous of him, but I couldn’t help but think he was one truly weird guy.