“ What are you thinking about?” Beck asked as he pulled to the end of the long line trying to exit. There must have been a hundred cars in front of us and the rain wasn’t helping expedite the process.
“ Oh, nothing. Did I see a CD in that bag of yours?” I asked quickly, fumbling for a safe topic.
“ John Denver. Want to put it in?” he asked, motioning to the bag sitting in the cup holder.
“ I’ve never listened to him,” I answered, grabbing the bag and starting to peel off the plastic encasing.
“ What?” Beck exclaimed. “He’s the iconic road trip musician. I’m surprised we’ve made it this far without him guiding us.”
“ That sounds really serious.”
“ Everything about John Denver is serious.”
“ Oh, is it?” I said, spinning the CD around my finger and pretending to drop it.
Beck nodded with a smug grin. “That’s fine, Abby. Disrespect the road trip gods; watch what ends up happening to us.”
What ended up happening to us was the longest exit line that has ever existed. We sat there long enough for John Denver’s CD to repeat twice. I didn’t care about “country roads” or “jet planes”, I needed to pee. Stat.
“ Holy buhjesus,” I complained, smashing my face to the window for the fiftieth time. I suppose I thought that if I pressed my face into the glass hard enough, I’d finally be able to see what was going on up ahead.
Beck laughed and shook his head. “I don’t want to blame the traffic jam on you, but I think it’s fair to assume that it’s one hundred percent your fault,” he declared with a hint of amusement.
“ What?!” I snapped, peeling my gaze away from the rainy line of cars.
“ John Denver is demanding penance for your sins,” he explained with a silly grin.
I laughed indignantly, “Ah. I’m sorry . I didn’t realize he was God.”
Before Beck could respond to my sarcasm, a police officer dressed in a long, bright-yellow raincoat tapped on Beck’s window with the tip of his index finger. Rain fell in sheets around him so that his face was shadowed under his hood. Beck rolled down his window and the officer leaned in through the threshold.
“ Sorry for the hold-up. There was a wreck up ahead because of the slick roads. We’ll be redirecting traffic back through the town and I’d suggest not traveling much farther than that. The traffic is heavy and they’ve issued a flood warning for all of our surrounding counties.” His instructions were direct and authoritative.
“ Do you know how long the warning is supposed to last?” Beck asked respectfully.
The officer’s mouth formed a thin line. “Through the night. Rain should lighten up in the morning.”
It was a good thing we had no real destination in mind because Mother Nature was deciding our fate for us. We’d stay somewhere in this tiny-ass town for the night and start driving again tomorrow.
“ Alright, thanks officer.”
The officer tipped his head and then offered us a final “stay safe out there” warning.
“ John Denver is not a merciful God,” I declared once the window was rolled up.
Beck chuckled, “I guess you really pissed him off.”
The line of cars finally started moving and soon we were pulling out onto a road that was barely visible beneath the sheets of rain.
“ So,” I started, “I’m drenched and it’s almost nighttime. What if we just pulled in somewhere and called it a night?”