Road Trip (2018 Wattys Long List)

Chapter One

Harvey Feldman stared out the side window of the van, his face sullen and dark. His arms were crossed, one over the other and wrapped tightly around his sunken chest as if to shield him from the world around him. He watched the countryside whiz by, taking little interest in anything passing through his field of vision. He could see just fine, thank you. There was still nothing wrong with HIS eyes. No-siree. Just as good as they ever were and to hell with all the bullshit he had to put up with from the kids. They thought they knew everything but they sure as hell didn't. He wished he had smacked them a little more often when they were kids, maybe they would have some respect now. Hah! Who the hell did they think they were, telling HIM what to do all the time? Who was it that had changed their shitty pants and wiped their asses all those years ago? Who put food on the table and gave them a roof over their heads, paid for their education and their weddings? Him and Martha, that's who. Damned right it was. They should just remember that when they were ordering him around.

Martha. Oh, God, how he missed Martha. If she were still alive, they wouldn't be telling him what to do and how to do it. No way, not a chance. Martha and he had been a team. They had been through good times and tough times and no one ever came between them or shoved them around. They were the Feldmans and they could take care of themselves, thank you very much.

It's been nine years now, he thought. Nine years since Martha passed on and he was left on his own, for the first time in many years. Where the hell did the time go? Time is a funny thing though. On one hand, time can drag on endlessly, and in the early days, it had done just that. Then, it had happened. His world had been altered forever. Suddenly, his Martha was gone. He had been lost without her to look after him, mothering him as she always had loved to do. He hadn't realized how much that had meant to him until she wasn't there to fuss over him anymore. He had taken her for granted and now it was too late to make it up to her. He would always regret that.

On the other hand, he mused, time flies by, faster all the time. How the hell can time drag on and yet fly at the same time? It was the damnedest thing. When he was a young man, it had seemed that he had all the time in the world and things would always be the same, only maybe get better. Now though, a year went by in the blink of an eye, and the time that he might have remaining to him seemed to be slipping away like a summer breeze. And of course, all of a sudden, your good health started to fall apart on you, too. The time to get things done was gone now. Old age. That was bullshit.

"How are you feeling, Dad? Is everything OK? You haven't said a word since we left the hospital." Sarah asked, peering into the rearview mirror to catch a glimpse of his face.

"I would feel a hell of a lot better if you would just take me home." He replied, still staring out of the window.

"You know I can't do that, Dad. We have been over this a hundred times. You need someone to look after you now. That spell you had scared us half to death. What if no one had found you? You could have died laying there on the kitchen floor!" Sarah admonished him.

"Maybe that would have been for the best....I would just as soon be dead as to go live with a bunch of old, dried up, demented strangers who have nothing better to do than to make my life miserable!"

"Come on, Dad. Don't talk like that. You have been so lonely since Mom died, living in that big house all by yourself. You and Mom used to have lots of friends and you loved to get out and do things with other people. How can you just sit alone day after day with no one to talk to and nothing to do? At Glenwood, you will have lots of other people your own age to chat with, and there will be caregivers available whenever you need them. What is wrong with that?" Sarah replied in exasperation.