Chasing the roaches out of the washing machine I waited for David to call so I could get out of my 2 year/no Florida holding pattern and head out to the Smokies. 30 minutes to Rockford and I still have a magnet in my head for Roddy Branch Road. I knocked at the back door. I knocked at the front door. No answer. I sat on the front porch and read the New Yorker article about Tavis Smiley. Jim's notes read "Chad and others called." I am "others." No signs of life. No signs of life. I knocked on the front door and stuck my head in. "Hello." No signs of life. My mind rolls trough a week of church shootings and bus decapitations and family stabbings through a Southern Gothic, front porch filter. "Jesus, Jim killed the family." Might have crossed my mind.
After a bit, David and Jayden pulled up. They had mistook their flights for Tuesday instead of Monday and missed them both. Jayden had to get back to Mexico and David to Mexico via New Orleans with visa time line restrictions. The options are to fly business class or to leave several days later. After several frustrating hours on hold David finds out that no one-way rental cars are available in Knoxville for New Orleans. To Chattanooga!!
To Chattanooga. Two hours closer to a home I haven't seen in more than two years in a borrowed car. Renting cars with a debit card. The desk next door. Credit checks and insurance. Uninteresting Indian food in a strip mall with an overheating borrowed car. Only to turn around and come back as Jayden and David push on to stay in Tuscaloosa without even going to campus.
Mission thoroughly accomplished.
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