We had been in the car for years. It was amazingly strange that all four of us decided that we needed to leave home at the exact same moment in time.
"Anybody need to stop?" Maris asked as they neared another rest stop.
"No."
"No."
"No." All of us replied, in our proper order. The passenger answered first, then those of us who had been in the back seat for the past three days.
We were headed east. That was all we knew. Leaving California was probably the best thing we could have done. We never really fit in there. We weren't into our looks or our bodies. We just cared about our souls. There was no real need for us to stay where we weren't wanted. Not that we knew exactly where we were going or anything, we just knew it was time to move on.
None of us talked about why we left. It seemed to be an unspoken rule when we stepped into the beat up Toyota and headed east that we wouldn't talk about our various reasons for wanting to move on in a different direction. We all had our specific justifications, all different, all important. But we just didn't want to talk about it. Maybe once we all settled down and realized the consequences of just walking out one day, never to return, that we would be ready to talk about things. But not in the car...too much temptation to turn around.
I certainly knew why I left. I was fed up with the married life. It just wasn't what I wanted it to be. I'm not sure exactly what I had expected, but whatever it was, marriage didn't fulfill it's requirement. Sure, he was a good husband. And maybe I even loved him. But I wasn't happy with the whole situation. I'm not surprised that I was so easily able to walk out on him. It was easy, since he was at work. I just packed a suitcase, left a memo on the answering machine that I would be gone for a while, and asked him to call my work. I didn't tell him what to say to my boss, but I knew he would come up with something good. I've always had a feeling that he's a good liar. I'll never accuse him of lying, or anything, but I know he has it in him. I heard him telling all kinds of little lies to people at the wedding. Perhaps he was relaying his own high hopes, but I thought they were lies. Regardless, I knew my boss would be happy to hear from him, regardless of what he told her. I never missed work. My work ethic was way too high. But for the first time in my life, I walked out on a job. No matter what he told her, I wasn't coming back to my job or to him. Funny, but I feel more guilt for leaving my job than for leaving my husband.
I settled down and took a little nap.
"Does anybody need to stop?" Maris asked as we neared another rest stop. I was so used to this phrase that it woke me up long enough to take account of my bodily needs and would answer accordingly.
"Yeah! I'm hungry" came from the front seat.
I responded in agreement as did my back seat mate. We pulled into the rest stop. I looked around and saw some tall buildings far away in some city. Judging by how long we had been traveling, I assumed it was Chicago. Maris confirmed this when she asked if we wanted to spend the night there.
We had been taking our time traveling. There weren't a whole lot of places we hadn't seen and really wanted to go. But we stopped in Yellowstone, saw the Grand Canyon and spent nights in strange hotels here and there along the way.
This all probably sounds a lot like some strange "Thelma and Louise" story, but it was far from that, considering that one of our companions was a strong husky male. Greg was probably having the time of his life with the three of us. Sure, we were tough to handle sometimes, but for the most part, he was surrounded by three lovely, young and vibrant women who had just discovered freedom.
As we walked into the rest stop, the three females headed for the ladies room and Greg headed for the men's room. He was waiting for us outside when he finished, but we took quite a while. We were inside, away from anybody of the opposite sex, pow-wowing about how Greg had been the night before. It had been Beth's turn with him, and Maris had her way with him the night before. The first night we were on the road, I was the one to start the trend. We were certain that Greg was enjoying the polygamous lifestyle without the hassles of actual marriage. Since he was newly single, he was living it up as we were. We finished talking about how he had been keeping up with all of us and to avoid him suspecting something, we toddled back out to grab something to eat before we got back on the road.
Back in the car, to avoid the potential for conversation, we popped in a cd and started singing. Music was what we all had grown up with. Television had already become a complete wasteland, and music was our mainstay. Living in Northern California, close to both LA and Seattle was great for all of us and continually fostered our love for music.
But that was all in the past. We were off to start a new life. Who knew where we would end up, and who knew what we would do.
Suddenly a song came on that reminded me of my husband. It was a song that I vaguely remember being played at our wedding. We danced all night with all of our family and friends. I was so much in love with him then. I startd wondering what catalyst caused us to become distant and remote from one another. Neither of us had committed adultery, as far as I knew. We still talked as much as we had. Our topics of conversation had changed greatly, however. We were capablee of sitting att dinner talking but never hearing what the other was saying. He would talk about work, and I would talk about work, but we never talked to each other. We just talked at each other.
Our relationship began on a long-distance basis. I was in college while he had his first job. He was living in my home town and I came home often to see him. He visited often, and we communicated through email and on the phone. Our committment to each other grew as most of our time was spent getting to know one another. Since the hassles of going out and being with friends didn't interrupt that period, we grew very close very quickly. I certainly fell in love with his charming voice on the phone, his ability to listen to me, and his wonderful sense of humor. When we nearly broke up for a while, I was drawn back to him by his sense of understanding. It was difficult to be in colelge with him seven hours away. I wanted mo4re freedom, and he couldn't figure out why. It was difficult for while.
As soon as I graduated, we moved in together. Our relationship endured through my parents objections to our cohabitation and his stubborn ways. We survived the fights we had when we discovered that living together after barely seeing one other was nearly impossible. After a year and three months of living in a tiny cramped apartment, he proposed. Our wedding was six months later and we were the perfect couplefor exactly eighteen months, three weeks and two days. On May fourth I left. Today was the eigth.
"Does anybody need to stop?" Maris asked for what I hoped would be the last time before we crashed for the night.
"No!"
"No!"
"No!" We all respondecd as we passed yet another rest stop. Maris made it difficult to repond more than two seconds befor the exit ramps for the rest stops.
Maris was an interesting character. I think that she and her lover had a fight and she felt forced to leave like the rest of us. Greg and his wife fought constantly. She gained most of her pleasure from cheating on him. Beth and I had been friends since childhood. She still lived at home with her parents and was quite unemployed. I'm not sure what prompted her to leave with us.
One adventure was ending and another was about to begin.