Many Moons

The Quality Inn in Weeki Wachee

It probably wasn't the best time to be taking a leisure drive but we had never been in an apocalypse before so we really had no frame of reference. Not much was different except for the pace. Old people still drove too slowly only now the non-geriatrics, normally content to lay on their horns or glare as they passed, were slaloming in and out of traffic with alarming frequency, causing more than a few spectacular accidents. Mona and I stopped to help where we could, skipped where we couldn't.

One car had been forced off the road and the driver, a teenage girl, was standing helplessly by trying to use her cell phone, which was a waste of time. Cell phones didn't work anymore. Where service was technically still available the bandwidth was swamped with people calling loved ones, anyone, trying to keep a connection until their batteries died, like priests floating over the water.

"Need a ride?" I asked, as Mona pulled the Jeep over.

The girl looked skeptically at the stuffed lacrosse bag in the back seat.

"We'll make room." Mona added.

I love riding in the back of the Jeep, but if it's just Mona and I it looks a bit suspect, so I don't get to do it as often as I would like. I jumped at the chance and offered the girl, her name was Leanne, the front seat.

We were supposed to be hoarding but with the donuts in such close proximity I couldn't stop myself from eating one. I passed a few up to the driver and new passenger so I didn't feel too bad about it.

Along the way we took in the sights, palm trees, a few herons, strip malls, and lots of looting. In spite of the mayhem around us it was actually turning into a beautiful day. Mona's hair trailed behind her in the breeze and I combed it gently with my fingers. I then switched to the non-donut-holding hand, removed some of the crumbs, and continued.

Mona and I had absolutely nothing in common except for an interest in each other. We didn't have the same taste in music or books. I loved almost all food so I didn't really care what we ate. And we clearly had different educational and career goals. But I was happy when she was around and sad when she was gone and spent all of the time in between wishing she was around again. I think that, folks, is the definition of love. Anything else you stack on top of it is your own hang-up and a potential failure point.

It took us about an hour to make the twenty minute drive to Weeki Wachee, where Leanne lived.

She and Mona were talking animatedly and it was hard to hear in the back so I put in my iPod and listened to the first song that shuffled into my ears. If it had been "It's the End of the World as we Know It" by REM I could have been talked into believing that the whole "soon and moon" thing was the work of a higher power. Instead, a version of "Waltzing Mathilda" sung by Tom Waits came on... and I knew it was.

As the song ended Leanne turned around and said something so I pulled out the ear buds.

"What's that?"

"Mona tells me that you own 'Mad in China'."

"Yeah."

"I'm a customer!"

"Really? Which one?"

"I had you make a custom Monopoly board but instead of Park Place and Illinois Ave and all that I had you use the name of all the Army bases my dad had been stationed at over his career."

"Oh yeah!" I said, remembering.

That was a pretty simple design and print job, but it came out looking really good. The thing that put it over the top, though, was that I had also printed up new money for the bank using all of the foreign currencies from the countries where he had been stationed. And I had redesigned the yellow Community Chest and orange Chance cards as well. In fact, instead of the usual "Go Directly to Jail", in this version if you landed on Chance and got a "Go to Guantanamo" card you could not get out and the game was over.