Chapter 3
Sherry
The flight was late and it took almost twenty minutes to even find a taxi. There was a line of them, but no one willing to drive all the way to Hartford. I had to pay extra to get the two hour ride covered. It seemed like they would be happy for the higher ride, but not so. It was the drive back with no running clock that was hard to stomach. There certainly wasn’t going to be anyone in Hartford looking for a cab ride.
Finally I got a nice guy like Steve to make the trip for me. He was tall and older, but handsome. He had a dimple in his chin when he smiled and he made me feel better about finally getting home. Steve was my savior for the time being.
“Thanks, you don’t know how many people I had to ask before I got to you. No one was willing to take the drive.”
“I saw you walking down the line. I was curious when you got to me what your game was going to be. It was not at all what I had expected.”
“No game. I just need to get home and I didn’t want to drive all the way down. I don’t know why I thought getting a cab to make the trip was going to be so hard.”
“At this time of night, it is slim pickings that will go out of the city. You couldn’t have someone pick you up?”
“Not this late at night. I missed my flight, so I didn’t want to keep anyone up. You know how people are from small towns. They go to bed at eight.”
He chuckled and I saw his dark brown eyes looking at me through the rearview mirror. I wasn’t unused to that sort of attention, but we were going to be stuck in this car together for a while and I didn’t want to appear like I was trying to come on to him. My openness got me in quite a bit of trouble and I was trying to be good.
“Yes, I was raised in a small town in Ohio.”
Steve pulled into traffic and I was able to relax a little bit because his attention was no longer on me, it was on the traffic around us. The city was bustling and even if I had the time to drive down, I never did get the knack of driving in bumper to bumper traffic. It was chaotic and I preferred something a little slower. Steve was used to it though, so I was able to calm down a little bit and enjoy the ride. It wasn’t long before Chicago was behind us and we were on our way across the state lines to Michigan.
The scene outside of my window never seemed to be something that I could get tired of. It was just so pretty and I tried hard to think of it as anything else but magical. I missed home and the reasons why were right outside the glass in front of me.
Seasons changed and instead of the wet, rainy weather I left behind in Seattle, the air here was dry and crisp. Leaves of all colors were on the trees and underneath them, scattered all over to create a collage of color. It was days like this that I missed my home more than anything else. I didn’t come home much because I would get so homesick every time. I would get to missing my family, as well as just the area around me. I missed the fall here the most. It was the prettiest time of year.
“So how long has it been since you have been home? You look like it has been a while.”
“It has been almost a year. I come back in the summertime when I am off of classes last year.”
“What are you studying for?”
“Biology.”
He crinkled his nose up, like a scientist?”
I nodded my head and smiled at his response. It was hard not to get the same reaction all of the time. It was like girls weren’t supposed to be scientists. That or they were picturing me in one of those white vests. It didn’t seem to be hard to stump most people.
“Huh, you must be one of those smart broads.”
“I guess so.”
He looked far less interested and that wasn’t something that I was unfamiliar with either. It was the way of things. I was hot until a guy realized that I wasn’t the cheerleader type. Dating had been interesting since I changed my major from communications. It seemed like the more down my path I was the harder it was to find a guy that I wanted to share it with. Not that Steve was an option, but the way he reacted reminded me that it wasn’t smooth sailing from here.
He rode for a while in silence. It was peaceful and I was able to see the lights going down for the day and the beautiful colors that the sun gave off. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that the leaves and the sun were competing against each other. I couldn’t say which one was winning.
“We’re here?”
“Huh?”
My head was leaned against the door and I realized that I must have dozed off in those few moments with no sound but the hum of the engine.
“We are here Sherry. Your directions were perfect.”
I looked up at my childhood home and smiled to myself. It was good to be home and all I wanted to do was get inside and get some rest. It had been many hours of traveling and I was ready to stay still for a time. It was hard to do that when I was always on the go, but now school was over and I had time to decide what was next. I had just finished up my bachelors and I was taking some time off before I tried to conquer a master’s degree. This was the long overdue break that I needed. Not sure where it was going to take me yet, but all I could think about now was drinking some tea on the front porch and watching the leaves fall. It would be a long time, years even that I had been able to do that. Every time I was here, it was either summer or a short stint in the winter for the holidays.
Now I was here for the perfect part of the year. But it was late and everything was dark. Most of the lights were off in the house. It didn’t seem like it was that late to me, but like I had told Steve, things ran a little slower here in Hartford. I made my way up the stairs to the door and let myself in. I wasn’t even going to bother with getting something for dinner. I just wanted to take a shower and then get some sleep. I was still groggy from my nap in the cab and it made me realize how badly I needed to actually get some rest. College life was hectic and I was ready for the slow movement of Hartford, if only for a little while until I discovered what my next adventure was going to be.