Road Trip

Chapter 4

"Boston's Logan Airport has been temporarily closed due to the snow, and forecasts have another 6 to 8 inches falling before tomorrow night." The weatherman announced, droning on with more closures in the New England area.

Picking up my phone, I dialed Georgia's number. She answered after a few rings.

"Hello there, big brother, I assume you're aware of the lovely weather up here?"

"It looks delightful. Any chance you're going to be able to get here?" I asked.

"They've cancelled all the flights for today and tomorrow, and I've tried changing to a flight on Monday but they're all full. Everyone is doing the same thing. I'm sorry," she apologized.

"Nothing to be sorry about, you'll just have to come down this summer instead. You'll love it, we can do a lot of hiking," I suggested.

The area around the cabin was gorgeous, and every year there were thousands of tourists hiking in the mountains. I'd spent at least half of the previous summer out there hiking up and down the trails around the cabin myself, and I was looking forward to more.

"We'll see, I might have another internship," she reminded me. Georgia was studying to be a doctor, more accurately a psychologist, and tried to get internships every summer to give herself practical experience and job connections. I always told her that I was already her first patient, which was only partially a joke.

"All right, then we'll just have to find a long weekend to get together," I promised.

"That we can do!" she agreed. "But go do something fun this week even if I'm not there."

"I just might."

I considered my options. Work was quiet, none of the clients I had contracts with had any issues with the application and I'd already let them know that I was going to be on vacation during spring break since I had planned to spend it with Georgia anyway. There was really nothing stopping me from just taking off for the week.

I picked up the phone and called Doctor Merritt, since she had told me to call any time.

"Hello Ethan," she answered, obviously having my name on the display.

"Doctor Merritt, hi. Do you have a moment?"

"Of course, what can I do for you?"

"My sister got snowed in up in Boston, so she can't make it down for spring break."

"Go."

"Excuse me?"

"You're calling to ask if you should go on the road trip, correct?" she inquired. "The answer is yes, you should."

"Oh. That simple?"

"Oh, I'm not saying the trip will be simple, but I think once you start the process then getting going will be. After that, the choice is up to you."

"Well then I'll have to cancel my next appointment, since I'll have no idea where I'm going to be," I said lightly.

"It's already cancelled. Drive safely Mr. Sheridan."

I hung up shaking my head. I'd only been to three sessions, but she already had a damn good read on me. That explained the cost of the copay.

I finished packing up the car and closed the trunk. I was packing light, just a mid-sized roller bag, my laptop bag in case a client had an emergency, and a small toiletry bag because I didn't want to constantly be packing and unpacking wherever I was. Not that I knew where the road was going to take me yet, but I knew it would be multiple days. I grabbed a soft sided cooler filled with cold water bottles and ice packs and slipped it onto the floor behind the driver's seat, and a bag of snacks on the passenger seat. I put the slip of paper with the prescription in the cup holder, just to remind me of what I was doing this for.

I was as ready as I was going to be.

I headed south a bit until I picked up I-40 west, knowing it was only a few hours to Knoxville, and I could pick a direction at that point. I had no set destination in mind, but from Knoxville I could go about anywhere with all the different highways converging there and I could just pick a direction and go. The weather was still chilly, but the sun was shining, and it was great driving weather. I felt guilty for enjoying this nice weather while Georgia was stuck with her snowstorm, but that was just Mother Nature for you.

The traffic wasn't too bad, everyone seemed to be headed south towards warm weather and beaches for spring break, and I was doing the reverse. So, I put on the cruise control and cranked up the music. I wasn't in any kind of a hurry, and just enjoyed the drive and the scenery of the Smoky Mountains. That was hard to beat.

Knoxville was only about 15 minutes away when I pulled off to get some food and make some decisions. I still didn't know which way I was going to go once I hit the city and wanted to have an idea for a direction before I got there. I pulled into a Cracker Barrel, it seemed like the safest food option since I didn't search for anything local, and got out. Luckily, they weren't too busy, so I was able to get a table quickly and spread a map out on the table so I could look it over.

I was a bit distracted while tracing my finger along the highway options and was startled by the waitress approaching. "Hey, welcome to Cracker Barrel, I'm Lucy. Can I start you off with anything?"

"Oh, hi Lucy. I'll be easy today, just water for me."

"Water, you got it. Do you know what you want, or do you need a few minutes?"

"Umm... Just a couple of eggs over easy, hash browns and bacon please."

"You got it hon!" Lucy spun on her heel and headed to enter the order.

I continued to look over the map. The options would start out with heading north into Kentucky, south towards Chattanooga, or west to get deeper into Tennessee. I didn't have a real preference, all of them were just a steppingstone towards something I really couldn't define yet. Heading north didn't seem smart. I didn't trust the weather and didn't want to get stuck somewhere like Georgia was.

So, south or west? I took a sip of the water that I didn't even notice Lucy bring by and thought about making a list of pros and cons. Nah, that was too regimented, the doc would hate that, this needed to be spontaneous.

"Get back here you bitch!" yelled a voice from the door. Turning my head, I saw a redheaded young woman in an orange sweatshirt ducking into the restrooms as a man chased her. "I said get back here!" He called out. His gaze fell on all of us customers staring at him and he didn't see much sympathy. "Fine, I'm out of here! You can walk!" he shouted towards the bathrooms and then stormed out.

"Here's your food, sir," Lucy said. Unfortunately, she was looking at the door to make sure the young man was gone, and pushed the plate right through the water glass, upending it onto the map and my lap. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"

I sat there in the water and sighed while Lucy ran to get some towels. This was just the start I didn't need on the road trip. Getting up from the table I headed towards the men's room, hoping it was stocked with enough paper towels to dry myself off a bit. If not, I could always get a change from the trunk, but that seemed like too much of a hassle. The door to the women's room opened just before I got to the men's room, and I quickly sidestepped the young redhead to avoid bumping into her. I met her brown eyes for a moment, "Excuse me." I said quickly and continued walking. She'd had a bad enough day already I assumed from the puffy red eyes that she had been dabbing at.

Luckily, the men's room had both paper towels and an air blower, and I just stood in front of the blower while using the towels to do a decent job of getting dry. It was only a pair of jeans, so I wasn't worried at all about them getting ruined, but wet jeans are no fun to drive in. After a few minutes, they were as dry as they were going to be, and I headed back to the table. As I approached, I was surprised to see the redhead sitting at the table, nervously tapping her toes on the floor.

Sliding into the now dry seat, thankfully Lucy had taken care of that while I was in the men's room, I looked at the young lady sitting across from me. While her eyes had been sad and puffy before, now they seemed bright and happy, and she was grinning ear to ear. Was I missing something? She was gazing at me expectedly.

"Hi." I said, smiling and trying to figure out the joke.

"Hi to you too Ethan!" she said happily.