Read Online The Lost Girls by Jennifer Baggett - Free Book Online

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    â€œI really want to go to India!” I said to Jen excitedly.
    â€œHave you ever been before?” she asked.
    â€œYeah, once in college during this study-abroad program called Semester at Sea. But I’ve only seen the southern part and really want to go to yoga school near the Himalayas.”
    And so the endless possibilities of the open road began weaving their way down almost every pathway in my mind as we continued walking through the labyrinth of exhibits. I listened to Jen tell me how she and Amanda had met in their freshman dorm and hit it off instantly, but it wasn’t until departing on a postgrad backpacking trip through Europe that they had truly bonded. And after an incredible six-country tour in four weeks, they’d vowed to be travel partners for life.
    Jen rattled off all the misadventures they’d shared—getting hopelessly lost on the outskirts of Venice, attacked by killer gnats on a bike ride in Bruges, stranded at a station in Antwerp after boarding the wrong Eurorail train, and caught pilfering hotel rolls and jam after breakfast hours by an irate Frenchman.
    â€œI always said that we could never go to Thailand together or we’d likely get thrown in jail accidentally, like Claire Danes’s and Kate Beckinsale’s characters in Brokedown Palace —and even our friendship isn’t worth that,” Jen joked, dramatically flipping her hair.
    I’d imagined what it would have been like if I’d met them back then on my own postcollege backpacking tour of Europe. Then my mind fast-forwarded to the three of us taking on the world, seeing wildebeest while hiking in the Serengeti or sitting next to monks in a Buddhist temple in Tibet.
    As we walked, Jen and I collected brochures to plan our dream itinerary and took turns asking the country reps questions, such as what time of year was best to visit and whether the country required a visa for entry. Every booth we passed represented another new adventure we might actually get to experience on the road. My imagination started circling the globe at warp speed—Peru, the Seychelles, China! I wanted to see them all. As I was plotting how we might take a ship from South America to Antarctica, Jen placed a hand decorated with a dainty pink ring on my shoulder, and for the first time in our brief acquaintance she struck me as maternal. “Um, how ’bout we narrow it down just a bit. Is there anywhere you don’t want to go?”
    I smiled sheepishly. Okay, we were back into first-date territory, but I sensed we were in it for the long haul. When Jen and Amanda had first thrown out the idea to go on a yearlong trek around the globe, I knew they’d somehow change the way I saw the world, even if I didn’t fully believe we’d all be crazy enough to actually circle it together. Even after telling Elan about thetrip, I’d still feel torn about leaving a life of comfort and security for the great unknown. But as Jen and I roamed the expo hall vibrating with exotic music, food, and flags, I began to believe the journey could actually happen. It ignited the wanderlust that often simmered underneath my skin. There’s a Buddhist saying that goes “Leap, and the net will appear.” I didn’t understand what the restlessness was that was driving me, but I was compelled to take the leap. I could only have faith that there would be a net to catch me if I fell.
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    N ow, seeing the worry in Amanda’s eyes as the March wind whipped around us outside EJ’s, I convinced myself in a matter of seconds that the trip wasn’t going to happen and that it had all seemed way too good to be true. Then Amanda gazed past me, and I spun around to see Jen approaching, her eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses.
    â€œYou’re backing out of the trip, aren’t you?” Amanda wailed as soon as Jen got within earshot. Suddenly I was just as concerned about Amanda as I was about