Going places

by Katie L. Fuller

Following a green, or a red, tractor down a gravel road was never pleasant, particularly because of the dust that always managed to seep in through open windows or vents and lightly coat her throat. She was used to it really—but today she was in a hurry and a delay of any kind infuriated her.

Annie drummed her fingers around the steering wheel getting madder and madder. The orange slow-moving vehicle triangle hooked on the back of the tractor seemed to be taunting her. When she pulled off the gravel road in her white Ford Ranger and on to the paved highway, she glanced at the clock on the dash and sighed. Late again, she thought.

Sighing, she accelerated, pushed in the clutch and shifted into gear. When she had finally reached a speed at which she reasoned she probably would not get pulled over by the Highway Patrol, she turned up the radio, rolled down her windows part way and began to relax a little.

Admittedly, she was a little nervous about seeing her brother Nicholas again for the first time in six months. His study abroad trip to England had ended and he was flying in to the airport today. She had excitedly volunteered to pick him up, even though driving alone in a big city somewhat terrified her.

Six lanes of traffic filled with semis, taxis, SUVs, vans, and all types of vehicles with impatient drivers, blaring on their horns, all in a desperate frenzy to get where they were going, made Annie nervous. This was not typical Iowa traffic. However, she was determined to make it there, on time. If Nicholas ended up sitting in the airport on one of those hard chairs all alone waiting for her, even for just a few minutes, Annie was never going to forgive herself.

Annie’s summer vacation began just three days earlier and she was already bored of hanging around her house. She could not wait for Nicholas to come home and have time to go tubing on the lake with her and her friends. He was the only one her parents would allow to drive the boat when they were not around, so she was particularly excited to be able to go out on the lake without them. Sometimes, when Nicholas was in a good mood, he would let her drive the boat after he had gotten them out of the boat slip, away from the docks, and away from the other boats. 

All of a sudden, a whooshing sound, a distinctive animal smell and the pull of a semi truck and trailer filled with cows swept Annie out of her reverie and she was determined to pay more attention to the road in front of her. She was never going to get where she was going if she didn’t keep her focus on driving and her destination.

Annie decided to double-check the map for directions and to remind herself which exit she was supposed to take. She judged that she had about an hour or maybe a little longer before she reached her exit, but she liked to be ready and so she began to dig in the bottom of her purse for change to pay the toll.

She smiled to herself as she thought about her grandpa. He hated paying tolls and always tried to find the back roads to take to get around them. She remembered one summer trip she took with her grandparents to see a parade up in Wisconsin. At the time, she had almost gone crazy in the backseat because the trip seemed to be taking forever. Grandma Alice had a phobia of bridges and so her grandparents always took the route that avoided them, even if it meant going miles out of the way. Between avoiding tolls and detouring around bridges, it was definitely a trip to remember—a long one. Grandma and Grandpa’s destinations took a little longer, but they always got there.

A maroon SUV sped by and two elementary school aged children sitting in the backseat caused Annie to think of another journey she had once taken—a family trip to the Iowa State Fair. Annie’s aunt gave her cousin and her a bag full of nickels for the trip, but each time one of them had asked if they were almost there, they had to forfeit a nickel. Sure enough, Annie and her cousin had only three nickels left by the time they reached the campground. The trip seemed to take forever, but the family made it.

Trips seem longer to children because they are often so excited to reach their destination. Annie wished she could bottle that childlike wonder and carelessness. She wished she could at least be excited to go anywhere most of the time—or at least not care where she was going, as long as she had her bag of nickels.

Now it seemed that with any journey she made, someone expected her to have a destination in mind. Take college, for example—she should have decided months ago, but she was waiting for a sign. She wasn’t expecting something definitive, but perhaps something steering her in the right direction like “proceed with caution” or “dangerous curves ahead.”

Nicholas had known right away what he wanted to do and where he wanted to study, but had changed his mind after two years. He had packed up his belongings and got on the train in Illinois. The train had taken him to Washington, D.C. where he had finished his degree and then decided to study in Europe. He just hopped on a jet and went, moving to a new country where he did not know anyone. She admired his fearlessness. 

When she asked him about his decision, he would only say: In the end, somehow you always get to wherever you are meant to go. She thought it was just him trying to be mysterious or philosophical (he had become a little weird in college), but now his advice actually seemed to make sense.

Annie began steering her truck right as she made her way to the off-ramp. She slowed down and moved in to the “exact change only” line. She waited in line and threw her change into the collection bin, waiting for the arm to raise and the light to change from red to green, signaling she was okay to pass.

She began her journey again, still lost in thought about where she should attend college. The traffic was getting busier so she had to pay much closer attention to the other drivers; she always wondered where each driver was going. She wondered if the driver was going to work, or to a friend’s house, or to the grocery store and she always hoped the driver would make it to their destination safely since there was hardly a nightly newscast that did not have a story about some devastating car crash.

She was nearing the suburbs of Chicago, so traffic began to move a lot slower. Annie began to get more anxious about the time, realizing there was no way she was going to beat her brother’s airplane to the airport. As she sat at a stoplight, thoughts of college, her brother, and being late, began to cloud her mind—so much so, that she hardly noticed a bicycle rider begin to cross the street.

She looked up and slammed on her brakes just in time, forgetting to push in the clutch and killing her truck right in the middle of one of Chicago’s busy intersections. Horns were blaring; people were yelling and were beginning to get really upset about Annie’s inability to get her truck going and out of their way.

She couldn’t decide if she should keep trying to get moving or just sit there and cry. She sat there, frozen, for what seemed like an hour. Finally, she took a deep breath, got her truck started and continued her journey. She took several deep breaths and no longer thought about anything other than the road in front of her. Her recklessness could have really hurt the man riding his bike; her error had almost cost someone else, besides herself, his destination. She slowly continued on her way, no longer as worried about being a few minutes late. Annie just wanted to make it safely to her destination.

As she pulled up to the American Airlines gate, she could see Nicholas standing outside the door waiting for her. She had been late after all and perhaps didn’t always make the most careful decisions, but she had gotten herself back on the right track. She smiled and waved back, but she did have one final thought.

Forms of transportation can take us here and there, near or far, even to and fro. Cars and buses can take us home or abroad, trains and boats can take us somewhere exciting and unfortunately sometimes planes and bicycles, or any of these vehicles, can take us somewhere we were never meant to go. People might deter us. Sometimes they will drive faster than us on the road, making quick decisions and being sure of their destinations. Sometimes people will not need directions or a map.

Other people will drive or will encourage us to drive more slowly, to make cautious decisions, and to look at the scenery on the side of the road. Still other people, even people we consider friends, might try to convince us to take a shortcut or go the wrong way, even if it’s not in our best interest. Sometimes we will convince ourselves to travel off the road, but it’s up to us to get back up and keep driving.

Annie’s brother looked a little confused about why she sat in the car for so long, but decided to let it go as she ran to hug him. Finally, Annie realized that to really go somewhere you have to have a destination in mind and a map to help you in case you get lost. The destination may change and so may the route, but there are almost always different ways to get to the same place.

Still, maybe Nicholas was right. In the end, somehow you always get to wherever you are meant to go and Annie knew she would.

THE END