by Julianne Smith

Created on: November 19, 2008

The dust had barely settled again, when we drove past and stirred it up. A hazy cloud of dirt swirled fiercely behind and around us, making it difficult to see out the back window, though there was nothing to see in the distance anyway. Something was growing; slowly, out in the fields. What ever it was, it couldn't have been larger then a paper clip. The Historic Route 66 ran parallel to the road we had been driving on for a decent stretch of time.

My mother, who was driving, sang along to a popular country song that was playing on the radio, she didn't know the words, so sounded more like a mumble. My sister had her feet propped up on the dashboard and tuned out my mothers' dreadful singing voice. Her face seemed to reflect her boredom and I was sure mine did too.
A Toyota Frontier and a Pontiac Solstice passed us going in the opposite direction generating more dust to dance through the air. I was fairly jealous of whoever they were because they were going in the direction I desired to go in: Towards home.
I never wanted to leave Minnesota. I never wanted to spend two weeks on the road with my mother and sister, but my mother insisted. Kayleen would be leaving for college soon and mom thought we needed to spend more time together. I never wanted to leave my boyfriend, my cat and above of all, my own bed. I never desired any of those things, but my mother didn't care. The fact that I was not willing to go with them with out intense force never seemed to register in her consciousness. To her, it was non- negotiable, and to me it was inevitable.
I could feel the warmth of the sun on my arms and my face as it beat down through the open window. The sky was clear and beautiful. Yet, somehow, I couldn't register an emotion beyond sadness and misery. I began to think this dirt road led to nowhere.
The dirt road had no signs, no mile markers and no evidence of civilization besides the occasional car. It had no turns or curves but only proceeded endlessly into the distance. I glanced at the clock. For a period of time that seemed like an eternity; only five minutes had passed. I surrendered all hope of seeing something beyond blue skies and obscure little shrubs.
Before we had left home, my mother told me this would be one of the most exciting trips of my life. I had to disagree. Dirt, rocks, shrubs and cows are not exiting?not the slightest. I conceded that this wasn't going to just end. I would have to deal with it. So I laid my head against the sill of my window and stared

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