The mail comes spilling out of her arms and onto the gravel of the drive. She is thinking shit and other explicatives. Carrying all the mail for three people, her bag and a water bottle is giving her fits. She picks it up quickly while trying to balance all the other. The card slides out of the envelope. Only half way but on the card is a beautiful scene – clouds, rays of suns and an obvious West Texas Landscape. “Wow”, she says aloud and then everything tumbles out of her grasp at once. So she picks up the card and its envelope. It is addressed to her lover.
She wonders who sent it and does a seemingly innocent thing when she pulls it out for a better look. “Beautiful”, and she wishes silently that she was there right now, in person, looking at the very scene. Automatically and without thinking she opens the card.
“Dear Pepper, I just wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed our time together. I see everything differently now, the clouds, the rays of sun. My heart is so full of love. You have awakened my soul. Love always Sandy.”
Her heart beats wildly. All the air is sucked from her body. She sits down involuntarily, chokes back a gag reflex. What is this? What the fuck is this? These are the only things she can think. “Oh my god.” She grabs everything in a big bunch and heads for the house. She has to call someone. She does not know anything except that she can not handle the wild thoughts. She is on auto pilot. On her first call she has to leave a message. Her second she connects with a friendly ear – a voice of reason. She reads the card and begs for any other reason that the card is not what she thinks it means. “Well, maybe its one-sided, or maybe because pepper is who she is that the woman is only being friendly the voice of reason offers. The phone clicks a return call from the erratic message she left moments ago.
“Let’s three-way and hear other opions”, adds the voice of reason.
“Ok”, she says in a shaking voice.
She retells the story, reads the card again and adds that pepper is with the woman right now. Both her voices utter “Oh”, at the same time. She begins to ramble all the situations that are now adding up to a card that means what she thinks it means.
Is it bad timing, good timing. Is this a sign? “Maybe it’s time” says the second voice of reason. “Maybe it is.” adds the first voice of reason.
What will she do now?
Dixie's Road Trip 