[07B] - Little Prince

We took one last look at that house that has been our home for the past few days. I would never have inhabited such a place had it not been for the current situation in the world. I must admit that being forgotten on earth had its advantages.

We got in the car with little fuel. We stopped to stock a few gallons of water and fuel at the bottom. I didn't know how to drive in the desert, but Hayden said it was guaranteed. I was responsible for keeping us going and not losing in the middle of the desert.

While there was a road, everything was fine, but when the dunes started to approach we felt a chill in the belly. Hayden kept an eye out and I still questioned how my mind could drive a car without my hands. I had no idea how he saw the world. Was he a mere projection of my feelings, or would I have given him a different awareness than mine so that I could interact with him?

My mind each time seemed to forget that he was a part of me. The more real I saw it, the more the line of the real and the imaginary merged. I had entered a gray area where everything looked the same.

- I think we should go to Russia when it's over - he said without taking his eyes off the path (from that sea of ​​sand where everything was the same, there was no turning back).

I looked at him trying to understand where that thought came from. Russia? It was not the first place that came to mind.

I took the M & M's package and put some in my mouth ignoring the comment. I heard the sound of chocolate breaking between my teeth. The silence was there, but no more loneliness. I offered him the chocolate. Our hands touched briefly as he searched for the colors at the bottom of the package.

I already loved him, in a silly, almost childlike way. He was my friend, my only companion. Hayden was the only person I had and it was everything to me. But what did that mean? Did I love myself? What was I loving? An idea? An ideal of a person I imagined?

The sun touched the horizon, we came to the conclusion that it would be easier for us to guide with the stars and not a sun frying our heads. Hayden held my hand tightly, there were excitement and hesitation. Perhaps we would share the feeling of insecurity that took over me.

/ - \

I couldn't help falling asleep and plunging into that peculiar and empty world. I came across the mirror again and Hayden was there as if he had been waiting for me for some time. He looked angry, maybe furious.

- You made it difficult. I told you to forget me, but you didn't hear me. There's no turning back now. Just cont–

I woke up to the sound of Hayden panicking and the car skidding across a dune. My first instinct was to hold my seat belt and close my eyes. The car lost control completely and started to turn. We rolled down the dune, letting out a synchronized cry like a roller coaster. When we finally stopped turning the car it was upside down and I was still afraid to open my eyes.

- Are you okay? - I asked, narrowing my eyes even more.

- Ahem - he murmured, I heard the sound of the door opening.

I watched Hayden loosen his belt and fall on the ceiling.

"Support yourself," he said before letting go.

It falls on the roof and we crawl out of the car.

We moved away from the car seeing our best form of transportation destroyed.

"The backpacks," he said, looking at the backpacks lying on the sand above the dune. We went up to retrieve our supplies and sat down.

- What did you do? I asked, unable to hide my irritation.

- I was just driving and the car lost control on the way down.

- You said you knew what you were doing. That I could drive on the san

- I know, in theory.

- And only now do you emphasize that part?

- I only know what you know. And you only know in theory, if you hadn't slept, maybe it wouldn't have happened.

- Why not? Do you disappear when I sleep?

- No, of course not, but I get tired too. You could have driven for a while!

I bowed my head laughing. I was having an argument with myself, I had reached the height of ridicule.

- My mother used to read the little prince to me on my birthday before bed. People say that over time you have different interpretations, but I always thought the prince was real, not a pilot's hallucination. Hayden, I don't want to be a crazy driver - in my mind, Hayden's words from my dream "you made it hard ..." sounded.

He gave me a hug. The cold of the night desert was beginning to bother.

"We're going to have to walk." I pulled the map out of my backpack and opened it for Hayden to show me where we were more or less.

It was about 100km away, we had covered a lot of ground while I slept (which was impressive because it meant I had slept for hours).

Without stops, we would need something around a day of walking, but we could not walk much during the hottest hours and needed to sleep a minimum.

- We start now that it is still night and stop when the sun gets too much - he suggested - we open one of the sun covers in the hottest hours and then we walk again.

I nodded my head. None of us got up. We lay there looking up without reaction. I took one of the water bottles from Hayden's backpack, took a sip, and passed the bottle. Did Hayden need to eat or drink? The thought took me. How involved was my mind in that delusion? Would my imagination starve him, or would she create imaginary food for him? Why did I sound crazier and crazier?

"Thank you," Hayden returned the bottle, squeezing my shoulder in thanks.

The darkness did not allow him to see my face clearly, but if he could he would see the dazzle in my eyes. I wouldn't know how to explain it, he was still the voice in my mind, only not in my head anymore. In that instant, from the day before, he sounded like a person beyond me, more real than people used to.

- I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger, I imagine you know - said changing the subject without actually leaving him.

Hayden lit his own face with the small flashlight in his pocket, his forehead wrinkled in confusion.

- I used to pack around Barbie suitcase I had, sit on my mom's swivel chair and prepare for takeoff - I looked at the GPS hoping it would connect and more accurately indicate our position - I ordered my crew to imagine turning on the engines and count down. Through the office window, I could see the earth move away to the point of becoming that beautiful blue ball. This was the moment when I was completely happy, even if it wasn't real. Something about being distant, off the land, I liked, caused a certain serenity. Hayden ...

- Yes...

- I love you, even if you're not real.

"I love you, too, regardless of whether I'm part of you." He smiled and took my hand.

"My Hayden", I couldn't help but have that possessive thought. He was mine, part of me, someone I would never need to share. Was that what love was all about? Or was the gray zone expanding more and more?

We looked at each other thoughtfully, I had no idea what he thought.

- And now...? - He asked sitting on the sand not yet ready to walk.

- Now the sacrifice.

Hayden and I stood up, startled by the new voice that was manifesting behind us.