Road Trips

My fingers glide over last names and colored bindings enticing me with splendid images, the words begin to float off the shelves and wrap around my dress. I pick a few thick books underneath a bright yellow book fair sign. Sliding them across the check-out counter, a withered Liberian sends a questioning look at the older books in front of a small brunette child. I smile impatiently my toes tapping against the dirty worn-out carpeted floor, my mother passes through the double doors kicking on the overhead ac to rattle like chains dragging against a concrete floor. My mother rolls her eyes scolding me, “Viv, I can’t buy you any more books these have to last the rest of the vacation!” She slips out a wadded ball of cash, giddy I twirl around snatching the pillar of Stephen King books, rushing out the double doors. I’m met with the heat rising off the gooey Arizona asphalt causing sweat to drip down my back. Making a dash for our packed van, my worn-out sandals slap against the road shaking loose grains of sand that trail behind me- like tiny breadcrumbs.

I see your chubby red grin from the tinted window, letting out your infectious giggle from the inside you stick out your tongue pushing a podgy tiny finger against the black pop-up lock.

I rap my foot against the door leaning my back against the hot metal bindings of the car behind me. I give you a look that plays all too familiar across my features since the start of our adventure to Santa Monica. Tumbleweeds graze past a stranded rusty automobile just a few yards away, sweat drips off my brow. My begging voice echoes off the desolate town in between nowhere and somewhere. “LET ME IN!” With a hesitated smirk and a knowing of payback in the near future, you lean forward unlocking and swinging open the door. Jumping straight in I place the books in piles around our “cabin” for the next few days. Leaning into a small vent my brunette curls bounce behind my ears in the wisp of the cool air. After a few minutes of pure bliss, my fingers fiddle impatiently in my lap scrunching up my floral pink summer dress. Peering out the window I watch the two familiar figures walk back to our car sharing a brief kiss before parting to get on either side. My mother shifts in her seat pulling out her navy-blue neck pillow, covering her features, I watch her thin fingers comb through the console searching for the half-empty bottle of colorful Tums. The turning keys bring forth the infuriating beeps of seatbelt warnings before settling down letting the slight hum of the engine find a rhythm with the radio. You turn your attention knowing it won’t be long till my head is lodged into another book and you become an only child again. “Sissy please can we play for the rest of today and tomorrow, I pinky promise I will leave you alone and play on my PS4 quietly until lunch dinner time.”

Wrapped sweaters hang from the back windows blocking out the falling sun letting our imagination take fold. Stuffed animals come to life between our youthful wide eyes, forgetting the world around us we leap to adventures filled with fire breathing dragons, superheroes vs supervillains, pirates lost on an unforgivingly harsh sea. We play endlessly until we pull into a brightly light Marriott hotel for the night. You look up with droopy eyes as we interlace pinkies promising to pick up again tomorrow.