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[i]"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high."

Her smile radiated the corners of her lips, pulling soft jowls and laugh lines across the wrinkles of her face. She had a pan in front of her, with a little boy standing on a wooden stool at her side. Across a layer of sheet, blots of cookie dough with little white chocolates and macadamia nuts formed perfect rows. He watched her neatly budge the edges until they formed perfect little circles and added in a touch of what she liked to call love.

"There's a land that I heard of," she turned to him, bringing grey eyes down to and a finger to boop his tiny nose with dot of cookie dough, "once in a lullaby."[/i]

As per usual, Benny had drifted off when the other arrived, staring at the phone in his hands with a far off look. He blinked at Wesley thumbing something under her shirt while both Carmen and Jesse started talking. A frown broke his lips and his cheeks scrunched in a pained expression. This panicking wouldn't help anyone and the anxiety either if it got the best of them. His mother always told him, 'A little paranoia does wonders; too much and you'll be a shut in schizo like your father,' her thick Boston accent still heavy in his mind.

"[color=9977bb]H-hey, maybe we should calm down a little[/color]," Benny started, looking from Carmen to Jesse and then settling on Wesley, "[color=9977bb]Maybe now's not a good time to start planning our... uh... whatever it is, but it's a good time to chill, right? Why don't we skip today and head over to one of our places, right? I don't have an idea, but maybe I have a suggestion.[/color]"

Nerves settled in at that moment, Benny's head lurching to the side to check down the brick walls. Not a peep aside from the occasional woosh from a car. All of these ideas in his head, things like running away, finding a promised land, all that biblical mumbo-jumbo seemed ridiculous when he put the words to it. His grandmother, however, made it always sound compelling; it was an adventure just waiting to happen. And every time she'd talk about their little safe haven, she'd look like him half the time in class: glazed over and dopey, scribbling in his notebook while he imagined a wild hunt, a spire of indescribable things, magic beyond this world. If he knew half of it, that's exactly what she was dreaming of, but they way she said it, it sounded real. The way she told him, it sounded absolutely life like.

"[color=9977bb]I may have... found something my grandma hid in her cook book before school began,[/color]" Benny started. Regardless of their relative solitude, Benny didn't take any chances and kept his voice barely above a whisper, "[color=9977bb]She liked her riddles and puzzles and I haven't deciphered even a tenth of what she gave me, but I did find something. Maybe a piece of a map leading somewhere. I dunno. She always talked about finding her haven and the way it sounded, she might of have thought it was real? It's the only lead we got. You guys wanna take it? I'm desperate here; I don't know what to do or where to go and my Nana's never steered me wrong.[/color]"

He added, hushed, under his breath, "[color=9977bb]at least, I don't think so.[/color]"