The Night Road

Quinn Baggott

My family and I were in Spain a couple of years ago so we could visit some music gigs one of my siblings, Jessica had. We went to so many different cool places for my sibling's music, we went to the beach, a campsite, and many more. One day we took a cab to a place called Plaça Marcer for one of the gigs. The music was great. My friend Ben and I went to explore and look at some of the markets there. I remembered looking at this old man in a coffee shop eating, it made me so hungry. We visited a store, and I was immediately surprised when I found a flavor of Pringles which at the time was my favorite flavor, BBQ. I wasn’t able to find this flavor ever since I arrived in Spain, which is why I was so happy. I bought it and we went back to the place that the music was playing at and enjoyed the rest of the gig. 

After the gig, we all took cabs to some castle ruins called Castell de Ribes so we could walk around and look at the vast and plentiful grape fields in the distance. Once we got there we walked up the hill to the ruins, and we all stopped at the highest point to talk, draw, and explore. I remember walking along these large stone bricks with my cousins. It was really windy that day, and I remember the wind making my eyes water. My sister drew one of the walls, and although I don't remember her drawing it, it looked extremely similar to what it was based on. After talking and enjoying the view, we walked down while enjoying more of the ruins and eventually we got back to the town in time to catch our bus back to where we were staying. When we arrived at the bus stop we waited for almost 30 minutes only to find out that it was not coming.

Once we realized it wasn't coming, we split into two groups; the smaller group decided to hitchhike home, but the larger group (the one I was in) decided to just walk back. It was only a couple miles away after all, but oh how foolish we were. We started walking, and the beginning was actually quite pleasant, but when it started getting dark, all hell broke loose. 

As we continued to traverse we realized that the road was actually really dangerous. There were no sidewalks, it was really dark so not only could we not really see but neither could the cars, and we were right next to a cliff. 

“Get back and stay in a line!” my uncle shouted.

I remembered looking around and seeing everyone’s gloomy faces while we swerved in and out of cars as they came every couple of minutes. We were trying not to get hit because it was extremely dark. Eventually, we got to a weird fork in the road.

“I'm going to go ahead and see what's up there,” my uncle said.

And we waited…

1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, then he finally returned.

“Alright, we will want to go straight and go down the road for a while,” Uncle Tucker said.

“Alright, we should keep moving,” my dad said. 

I remembered gazing at the vineyards we passed as I walked down that long road, and how the moonlight shimmered off the leaves. Eventually, we stopped to take a rest.

“I'm so hungry,” my cousin grumbled.

“Let me buy those off you,” my cousin demanded as he pointed at the chips I had.

“NO! Why would I give you these chips? It took me so long to get these!” I yelled.

“5 dollars.”

“NO!”

“10 dollars.”

“NO!”

“15 dollars!”

“NO!”

“20 dollars!”

“I'm not giving you these!” I proclaimed. 

Now that I think back, I find it really funny how attached to these chips I was. I mean it was 20 dollars.

“Alright I texted your mom and she's sending some taxis over to pick us up,” my dad said as all of our faces brightened. 

“Thank God,” my cousin said.

Luckily the spot we were waiting for the cars at was on the road, so we didn't have to avoid cars anymore. We then all sat next to the vineyard until we saw 2 cars pull up.

“Are you guys the people I'm supposed to pick up?” the taxi driver asked.

“Yes, and thank you for going out of your way to pick us up,” my dad told them.

It was only on the way home I only started to realize how bad of a situation we were in. I mean we were one step away from being hit by a car. But now I can look back at it and laugh, especially about that Pringles thing. Besides that though, the rest of the trip was amazing and I had some of the best food and memories of my life there.