Our family was invited to the wedding of Husband’s sister, who was set to remarry a lovely guy in another state. Son was unavailable for the festivities, but Daughter pounced on the idea of a family gathering on her holiday break from teaching. My avoidance of air travel at all costs had me scrutinizing the map in the weeks before, campaigning to drive to Virginia instead of fly. Husband acquiesced after insisting I agree to a very early departure. Which is how I found myself on a road trip at 5 a.m. on the morning after Christmas.
I am RARELY dressed and moving purposefully at that hour in any direction that doesn’t involve a bathroom, and I certainly do not slug down caffeine and put on earrings before sunrise. Daughter had slept over so we could all rise in unison at 4:30 and load the car in our own zombie version of Little House on the Prairie.
Well before we reached the Verrazano Bridge, the caffeine I’d ingested kicked in, and I transferred the endless narrative that always rattles around inside my head into words that filled the car.
OSV: You know what was on the other day? My favorite West Wing. The one where Josh Lyman has post traumatic stress from taking a bullet for the President only he doesn’t know he’s having a breakdown, and it’s the one where Adam Arkin plays the psychiatrist and I totally think the Arkins are the unsung heroes of acting, like his father Alan who was so amazing in Catch-22 and Little Miss Sunshine, do you remember how hard we laughed at that movie? Little Miss Sunshine, not Catch-22. And Yo-Yo Ma is due to play at the White House for Christmas and Donna REALLY wants to go and I always thought Josh should have ended up with Donna instead of that snotty lobbyist, that Amy Somebody, and wasn’t it you who told me in real life Donna’s an identical twin?
I turned around to the back seat for Daughter’s response and found her sitting bolt upright with her eyes wide open like Petey, the perpetually surprised dog on the Little Rascals.
DAUGHTER: Wow. Mom. That’s a lot of words you just threw out there.
HUSBAND: (patting my hand) It’s dark out, babe. No one can really listen to that much in the dark.
There was a soft poofy noise from the back seat as Daughter fell over sideways onto the jackets piled next to her and passed out. I lifted the thermos and sucked down the rest of my coffee and turned eagerly to Husband, who braced himself by gripping the steering wheel.
OSV: You’re always after me to get up early and go for drives with you and watch the sun come up and I never feel like that could be any fun at all and here I am doing just what you always wanted and having a great time and you’re absolutely right that we should do way more things like this together.
HUSBAND: Proving once again that we should be careful what we wish for.
OSV: Do you want to play a word game?
Daughter’s Featured Fotos practice using Few Words
expression
art
spare
strike