he gave her this locket…a heart with a small picture of him inside…back when he was handsome and had hair that was jet black…thick…she used to like to run her hands through it as they’d lay there in bed on Sunday mornin’s with a homemade quilt wrapped ’round ’em…one pillow beneath both their heads…

and she was a ginger girl…had firey emerald eyes and the ability to laugh at whatever came their way…behind on bills…truck wouldn’t start…hardly any money…she’d just laugh…used to say…,Could be worse…could be dead…,then she’d twist her long auburn hair in a knot and smile…

but…there was always somethin’ ’bout him in question…didn’t have that good of a track record…lost a lot of jobs…he’d quit after only havin’ a couple of weeks under his belt…enough to get a paycheck…or…he’d get fired…then he’d take off for days at a time…not tellin’ her…or anyone else where he was headin’ to…sometimes it was north up to Nashville while other trips were taken south down to New Orleans…he lived on the wild side…

so…he gave her this locket…she’d open it when he was gone…look at his picture and remember when they’d lay in bed on Sunday mornin’s…she always knew he’d be back sooner or later…that is…she figured he’d be…

there was a while there when he didn’t come back…headed out west this time…out to New Mexico…Arizona…went as far as California…Indigo…Bakersfield….small towns and some cities like San Jose…he drove as far as that old truck would take him…until it wouldn’t run no more…died…

it had been months since she’d heard from him…but…he called one day…tellin’ her he was sorry this time…sayin’ it wouldn’t happen again…she laughed like she always did…combed the knots out of her hair…

she waited for him…and waited…she’s still waitin’ for him…guess she always will be…

he gave her this locket…a heart with a small picture of him inside…