[Originally Written 9/21/1993 – 10:42 pm]
The graduate motored down the dusty prairie road, in awe of the splendor about him, and yet curiously aware of the things he was missing, not only from the limited view through his helmet, but the emptiness that followed leaving and still yearning to stay. He wanted to break away, but there were still too many strings keeping his memories from coming along.
As he followed the narrow two-lane west, a dark line across the southern horizon troubled him, much as he had received her last words. The not-quite a man wrinkled his eyebrows as he strained to see in the direction of his choice, struggling to keep on course for his destination. The gloom approached, touching the ground as it consumed the farmhouse in the distance.
He braced himself for its arrival, and yet it still overwhelmed him. How the woman of his dreams, his future, had dared to break his destiny and yet would do so again as if it were a victory to be savored. The darkness had reached him, and it came piercing through his skin, the drops so large the looked like tiny glass bulbs, shattering around him. The painful memories that they made in the afternoon.
Fearing the future, he pressed no longer, leaving the behind for the safety of a makeshift shelter, that, for the time being, would protect him from getting further injured. It is here that the new journey began. His physical travels delayed, his emotional travels just starting. He wistfully stared at the storm’s worst offering, and mused.
“Bitch.” He smiled and lit a cigarette.