Letters to the Star Whisperer

-66-

         
They were on the road by five. Abby had made them a nice breakfast. Jerry got up too, still in his robes, his sleepy eyes trying to focus. When they were done, Aspen gave both of them a very long unusual hug. She told them each how much she loved them and had tears in her eyes.

              Her parents even gave Ethan a hug, and he told them how much fun he had and that it was nice to meet them. Aspen and Ethan threw their bags in, and started to drive with her parents waving from the porch. "I hate leaving," Aspen mumbled as she pulled out of the driveway.

              They didn't really talk that morning. Ethan was still sleepy, dozing in and out of sleep. Aspen stopped and got coffee, keeping her up. Ethan had slept when they entered Oklahoma. Aspen cursed all the way through Tulsa. The skies were pretty and blue as they made it to Kansas. There still wasn't a single cloud in the sky when they hit the turnpike in Salina.

              When they stopped for gas, it was a quick in and out and on the road again. Ethan was so bored looking out to the plains. When they drove pass the area where the tornado had hit the first time they drove, it looked so peaceful. "Heard it was just an EF-1," Aspen told him. He didn't know what that meant, but by her tone it sounded very weak.

               They hit the Colorado border around six, making their time go back to five. They drove through the small towns, and Ethan had wondered what people's lives were like there and what people were doing at that moment. Aspen didn't stop. She hit Denver around eight, use the toll road and hit Boulder around nine. They were home by 9:30 with Jane on the couch, sleeping and all three dogs on her.

              Nothing had changed.