Road Side Meetings
“Hey, you. You can’t take that.”
“Why not?”
“Well, um…well, just you can’t. Someone’s been using it. You see how clean that seat is
even though it’s out here in the middle of the desert?”
“Yeah, I do, but he’s not coming back.”
“He? Wait, what?”
“It was my dad’s.”
“Was your dad’s? Oh, geez, I’m sorry. Uh, I should go.”
“No, no, it’s okay. He’s not dead. He just asked me to get it. He’s moving to Tucson with
me.”
“Good, so he’s okay. So, can I ask? What’s the story? I’ve been wondering twice a day
driving by here, hoping to see someone in that seat.”
“You sure? It’s not really….”
“Please.”
“Okay. About a year ago he took Mom for a sunrise drive. They went different places a
few times a week. It was their thing. Anyway, they stopped, and as soon as the sun was
up, Dad looked over and she was gone. Aneurism. He says he feels her spirit out here, not
in the car, so he brought this seat.”
“So, he came to be with her everyday at sunrise?”
“Yeah, I didn’t know about it until I convinced him to move in with me after he fell and
broke his wrist. He isn’t taking very good care of himself without Mom. He doesn’t want
to move, but an old-folks home would be worse. Anyway, you don’t care about all that.”
“No, I do. It’s a sweet story. Well, I mean, sad, but sweet…oh God, sorry. You get what
I…?”
“I get it. You’re kind, really. I just don’t know why he wants this old thing. He won’t be
able to see this view from my place.”
“No… Wait, what if he could? What if we…you took a picture of the sunrise from that
seat and then blew it up to wall size and put it in his room? He could wake up to her
everyday.”
“Genius. That’d work. So sunrise tomorrow...?”
“Checking…is 6:24.”
“One problem. You got a good camera?”
“Only if you’ve got coffee?”
“6:24. Two coffees. Deal.”
A picture of a chair on the side of the road, taken by Elizabeth Koch's mom, Jody Lindgren, needed a story, so she wrote it. Elizabeth is an English and Special Education teacher in Kansas City, MO. Her work can be seen online at 3Elements Review, The Voices Project, and on her website at http://kochelizabeth.wix.com/author.
