Warmer Shores
IOWA CITY, IOWA: 3:30PM – Rochester was way in the rearview mirror at this point. After Carrie-Bri’s final test at the clinic, she was given clearance to head home. Follow-up via phone call somewhere in the middle of frozen Minnesota farmland about an hour and a half later.
And now we were sitting in the Pie’s driveway, waiting for Mom to emerge with Linnea-Irish. Carrie and I rearranged the stuffed back seat of Dad’s Civic to accommodate another passenger and luggage.
Scott Pie walked over for a brief chat across from his Cubs-labeled license plated car. He immediately saw both of our t-shirts. “Aw, come on, girls. Cardinals? Sitting in my own driveway? You know, I have to hold a little animosity towards your family for converting Cherry.”
“Well, you know, it helps to have a team that wins,” Carrie dug back.
“Hey, haven’t you ever heard of the perseverance of the saints?”
“Well, I guess your Cubs can just skip purgatory and go right to Heaven then,” Carrie offered.
“I think I would have to agree with you.”
When Linnea began dragging out her bags a few minutes later, we laughed at the sheer mass.
“Linnea, really? Three bags for two days?”
“Hey! I had a lot of stuff to bring. Cherry and I were doing tribal make-up, so I had to bring all my make-up.”
NOWHERE, IOWA: 5:00PM
“Look at that pink haze,” Carrie pointed to a ribbon of light in the west. “Follow the light! It’s guiding us back to St. Louis!”
Indeed. Farmland for hundreds of miles in all directions. One fat bald eagle perched in a dead tree as we shot past down the endless straight stretch of highway. The pink sky expanded – disc of red sun – eventually gave way to stars.
PALMYRA, MISSOURI: 6:00PM – Fuel-up and Wendy’s. One small chocolate frosty, “thick and rich”, as Dad likes to remind us. Hot fries.
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: 8:00PM – Home to my boys. I thought Puck was asleep. Then I heard the stampede. Bursting out of his room like a bull. Plastered into me so hard, I almost fell over backwards. It’s nice to be missed.
You can take a St. Louis girl out of St. Louis, but you can’t keep her out for long.