Daren Dean

Mercury in Retrograde 49

Troy

Troy thought about Merle as he was driving down through the Lake of the Ozarks. Traffic was not bad since it wasn’t exactly tourist season yet. The two lane blacktop needed to be widened especially when summer hit. All the roadside attractions of go-carts, ceramic bowls, signs advertising hillbilly motels and breakfast buffets, as he drove down Highway 54 past Osage Beach and then Camdenton. The land was rolling and bucking the further he drove south through the Ozarks. He would hit Highway 65 and take that most of the way from Baton Rouge according to Rand McNally. He chain smoked Marlboros that Merle had given him and listened to a classic rock radio station that was beginning to go fuzzy on him.

A radio address by President Carter faded in and out about the state of the economy, the worst recession since the 1930s or somesuch.

All he could think of was finding Jaelyn and bringing her home. Even if it meant going to jail, it was a chance he was willing to take. He was lost if he stayed by himself and he knew it. He thought about how happy they had been together for awhile. Making love to her in the evenings, after he had gotten cleaned up, and they had gone out to dinner at one of the nicer cafe’s in Fairmont. The way her body moved toward him with real affection like a marvelous wild animal allowing a human to touch it for the first time. He thought about all that as he turned onto Highway 65, trying to get closer to her.

May 6, 2010