Another fork in the road

First blog post I ever created - almost 3 years ago. Rehashing it here to get a feel for this blog site...

I remember that day like it was yesterday - and its already been over a year.

We had pulled over for the night, to rest and refuel. Querida had been riding with me since '89 and we had picked up Shortstuff in 98.

Always together, always a team, we rode the highway daily. Laughing, crying, arguing, playing - we kept driving on - Querida taking the wheel every once in a while.

We had awakened that morning in silence, it was becoming the norm, and everybody seemed to be wrapped up in their own thoughts.

She said that it was time - time for her to drive on her own. Shortstuff and she were going to go on, to take their own road. From somewhere inside, I had expected this, you always really do, just wished that it never would happen.

Funny how we were adult about it, deciding to ride in tandem most of the way. Guiding each other and making sure that Shortstuff would always get to where he needed to go. He was sad, but resigned to go on as we decided. There were words better off not spoken, some gnashing of teeth, but in the end, we headed out that day to go our own ways.

I pulled back out on the road again, trying to pick up speed. Acted like nothing had changed. I drove on, like any other day, and then looked over to the seat next to me. It was then that it struck me, there was no one there. I turned around for a second, Shortstuff wasn't there.

I felt like I had just woken up when I saw them in the side view mirror. They were exiting on to a marginal road, I could see them riding parallel, when Shortstuff smiled and waved, and I started to cry.