Julia pulled the key fob from her purse and opened the driver's side door.
"I'm going to see if it will get out of the mud this time." She said.
Lara walked to the passenger side door. Julia reached over and unlocked the door for her. Lara opened the door and crawled on to the seat on her knees, bending over to grab the bag of cookies she got from the Starbucks store the previous day. Lara pulled herself out of the car, and walked off a bit.
Julia started the engine, put the car in gear, and hit the accelerator. The front wheels spun, but the car went nowhere. She tried it in reverse and got the same result. Meanwhile, Lara had sat down on the ground about twenty feet away and enjoyed another cookie.
She couldn't help but realize that while Julia was stranded, Lara was not. Lara didn't have anything, and didn't have anywhere to go. Theoretically, sitting on the ground in the middle of a forest by a dirt road was just as much home to her as anywhere else. On the other hand, a car stuck in the mud is what kept Julia trapped, and anxious.
"You want a cookie?" She yelled out to Julia.
Julia slammed her hands on the steering wheel.
"Uhh!" She exclaimed in frustration.
Lara rolled up the bag of cookies, which still contained several more cookies, and sat it next to her. Then she leaned back, supporting her body with her hands, and enjoyed a few beams of sunshine that broke through the tree canopy.
Julia looked out the passenger side window at Lara.
She saw that same free-spirited Lara that she described just minutes earlier. A breeze had picked up a couple locks of Lara's hair as she looked down the road rather peacefully. Speckles of sunshine danced on her naked body. Julia recollected paintings of wood nymphs playing in forests. This was one of them it seemed.
Julia opened the car door and carefully stepped out, trying to avoid as much mud as she could.
"You want to keep walking down the road and find that Anderson place?" She asked.
Lara turned to look at Julia, and then picked herself up and brushed the leaves and dirt from her butt. She bent over to pick up the bag of cookies, and walked over to Julia.
"OK, let's go."
After twenty minutes, the two girls must have walked a full mile, yet no sign of a residence, building, or anything.
"So what kind of cookies you have in there?" Julia asked.
"Oh you want one?" Lara answered, while handing the bag to Julia.
"There's some chocolate chip in there, and some sugar cookies."
Julia pulled out a chocolate chip cookie, and handed the bag back to Lara.
"Thanks" she replied.
