She stood there in the doorway…waitin’ on him to bring the luggage up from the bedroom that she had packed the night before…old leather suitcases…golden brown…with airplane tags on ’em…Dallas…Houston…Little Rock…Joplin…different cities they’d been to over the course of time…vacations…Christmas…relatives…any excuse to get out of town…it didn’t take much…

You got everything…,he asked…,where’s your purse…,she pointed to it over on the couch next to the pillows his mom had stitched for ’em years ago when they first got married…pictures of mountains and animals on ’em…she hated the way they looked…never told him…just acted as though she was grateful…thankful for the thought…it was her first birthday gift from the mother-n-law…his dad kind of snickered when she opened ’em up…he knew…always knew…same way he knew she didn’t care for the home made clock that hung on their living room wall he’d made for ’em…stained a pine color…with big numbers and hands…his other kids liked his clocks…why didn’t she…

He went over and picked up the black purse and gave it to her…told her to place it ’round her shoulder…sure as the world she’d lose it…he told her…just make sure you hang on to it…she smiled…so he placed the suitcases in the back of the station wagon next to the ice chest that was filled with sandwiches…cans of orange and cream sodas…celery sticks and cottage cheese…she was watchin’ her weight…always watchin’ her weight…and bags of chips and snack items next to the cooler in a big sack marked Kroger’s from the grocery store downtown…he reached in and grabbed a handful of Gold Fish…she spanked him on the wrist…

And just like that they were gone…pulled out of the driveway and headed over to 69 South…taken ’em to cities like Fort Wayne… Indianapolis…movin ‘ over to 55 to take ’em through St. Louis on their way to Joplin on old 66…she was talkin’ a mile a minute ’bout old times…’bout the kids that’d grown up…last time they were in Joplin…last time they’d made this trip…how green everything looked…heat waves comin’ off the road…he just drove with his hearing aids turned off…nodded his head every once in awhile…

They pulled over to have dinner at this rest area on the way…stretch their legs…he lit up a cigarette and she shook her head…said…,Those things will be the death of you…,he blew out smoke and took another drag…one of his annoying habits…

For the last hour of the trip she didn’t say a word…she knew what was comin’…a whole week with people she didn’t care for…his people…sisters…brothers…and parents askin’ stupid questions ’bout the clock he’d built and the pillows she’d stitched…but…she would endure it…that’s what you do…she thought…and she’d give everybody a big fake hug and a big fake kiss…tell ’em it was good to see ’em…and wonder…wonder what’d it been like if she never married him…she’d think ’bout that for a little while…only for a little while…only for a little while…