Black and White

Sightseeing

Throughout their car ride Ellenore kept taking looks up towards the sky. In turn her father would glance back at her in the rearview mirror with a nervous look on his face. Finally his interest caught on and he spoke loudly enough to cause her to startle.

"What are you doing?" He asked curiously then added jokingly but with no trace of a smile. "Are you afraid that the sun is going to go out? You don't have to worry about that for another billion years." "I'm looking out for UFOs. I'm worried that we're going to be a billion of miles away from here and leave it behind." "Well stop it, everyones feeding off of that vibe you're putting out there. We're actively taking preventative steps against your worst fears being realized." "I might not meet them until it's too late to get out." "Vibe, Ellanore, watch the vibe." Robert warned.

"Where exactly are we going?" Vance asked and Robert smacked his forehead with his palm.

It was too late, Vance had already caught the itis from Ellanore. She was like the twenty-first century plague. He would have to give her a talking to at the first chance to get out back. "We're going to the country, opposite to the city." "Well I know that but if everyone's going there, won't it just turn into another city?" I mean whatever but there's not even an escort to make sure we all get to the same place. If everyone's going to be there why not stay here, the herds are going to scatter when the pack attacks." "You don't know that's going to happen. Nobody does."

Ellenore went back to looking out the window. "There's probably going to be a deterrent for us to follow or a toll booth so that they can check out the vehicle and passports to make sure we're citizens and not aliens. Ellenore back to Earth. I wanna make sure you learn by example. I'm selling out to you here." "You're a sell out, Robert." Ellenore said without taking her eyes away from alien surveillance. "Don't tempt me into giving you to the evil alien king. Listen here squirt, you call me Dad unless you can't get my attention and need my supervision. I will turn this car around, so help me God. I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it. Ellenore, did you remember to bring the coffee? It seems that my caffeine levels have fallen below what I'm comfortable with."

"I wanted a dog so that your mother could keep her figure. Well she said stretch marks are natural. If you want to domesticate a squirrel to throw at the aliens then you can. I hate being the bad guy. I can't wait until they get here so I'm not the only one who wants to kill all humans." "Are we there yet?" "Trust me you don't want to be there. It's the journey not the destination." Robert said.

"You hear that? I'm not sure, I think maybe you enjoy talking too much, listen to the words sometime or just enjoy being quiet with me." Robert said. Shots fired damage assessment underway. "So I can't ask if we are there yet because you don't know where we are." Vance said. "What do you want a gold star that says you are here on the road map? No, because then you're going to sound like Siri who is not even in iphone updates. Is that the kind of person you want to be, we can't even talk about you after being excommunicated. You don't like gossip but we keep getting called into parent teacher conferences."

Siri turns on hearing her name. "Do you want to keep the same problem you have now or should I give you another one?" "Lets flip a coin, heads I get my way, tails you self destruct by blowing up that lithium battery." "Factory resetting you will lose all apps and files." "This is not a game, not even one of chance, it's called the quiet game not the talking game. How about eye spy, our destination can anybody find that? The map has a venn diagram of boundaries which are not being respected in the middle." "It's the opposite day until the weekend and we are on vacation, we could've waited until retirement and gone without the kids." "How is the coffee coming? You didn't reheat it for extra flavor, can't you even make a cup of joe right. Hurry up and help me finish it or there will be none left."

"I love it when you talk to me like that, play with me until I break." "Trust me if the kids weren't there that would be the case." "Hey I'm old enough to know." "You're old enough to be several grades up and now and the teacher hates to get stuck with you. You don't understand now but will when you're older."

A massive gray cloud in the distance that would make anyone frown, full of lightning it was lucky they weren't traveling by plane. It was a sign they were close though it wasn't a landmark, it spells doom exactly the type of place they were headed. Robert took a look in the rearview mirror and slammed on the brakes. They all began to scream both the cloud and out of control father. They stopped in the middle of the rural interstate highway. Robert got unbuckled and got out of the car and waited with his mouth open like he wanted to say something, probably "Buckle up, we need to keep going." He wouldn't be wrong for saying that. Instead he stood there long enough with his mouth open that everyone got out with him and did the opposite of what he was thinking. "Holy smokes." Ellenore said mimicking her father which is what she thought he wanted to do based on what she knew about him would think it was all over. "I love you Dad." "Oh really then honor thy father by getting a college education."

Robert really wasn't that funny. The boo! Bird came out in depth of unfathomable levels, he had gone to clown college associating that with worldly knowledge but didn't prepare him with all the studying when it wasn't what but who he knew. Ellenore had seen something but couldn't describe it for others to look at, they really didn't want to know, finally she caved in. "Well they're big and have this way of looking at you where they're kind of seeing everything in the room. They look sort of like a mud golem and have got these super sharp claws that drip with poison that doesn't hurt them and sometimes they curl into a ball and they pretty much make you want to do the same. I can't tell if it smells bad or if they're visibly projecting an aura of stink." She couldn't describe more without making a powerpoint. Robert nodded "Sounds like a pretty accurate description of King Smorgasbooger. If they make us breed for scientific reasons it wouldn't surprise me. I know this is the end and it should have already happened by now but I have the highest of hopes that come hell or high water it will be for the better."

"I'd have to look at the akashic records to see if they're a known species." Robert began to vomit over to the side of the road. It wasn't from motion sickness of the car and would need windshield wipers inside were that the case. Everyone was having a good time and had to take a bathroom break. The rain cloud was a series of drones and while players were usually in story based games they were interacting with each other and fire bombing the city, maybe that was too far it could just be smoke, either way the place was toast. "I think I just lost my lunch." Robert said.

"We don't have much food to spare. We need more cooks. Definitely want to do so with a grenade. What's the matter, big spoon, somebody shit the bed. Guess we're all slaves now and just have to deal with it. Kids get in the car while your father and I talk this out. I don't want them to hear the worst of it. Think this is one big happy having a good old fashioned family brawl. At any minute someone will enter the road rage conflict honking to get away from the road divider. Sneeze to blow out the candles. Let's make the safety word fire and shout loud enough for everyone to hear. Both got in the car and went on to find a new place to live.