Note: The following story is fictional. We have not moved. My wife is not angry. (Not right now).
"Okay, then. Prove it. Show me the way home."
My wife had reached her breaking point. After about twenty minutes of driving around in circles, she was fit to be tied. She didn't like to drive a whole lot, much less with lots of traffic, and since we were still unfamiliar with our new town, all had combined against her.
"I'll try," I said. We waited until we were sitting at a stoplight to make the swap. It gave me a brief moment to think about the caducity of life—how things we know and the comfort that brings can be uprooted in an instant.
Fortunately, I wasn't the one to blame for moving to the city. I was perfectly fine living in the country. There, all you had to worry about was avoiding getting behind combines or other slow moving farm equipment. In this sea of cars, concrete and steel, it seemed like the dangers were all around us.
While she was fuming, looking as if she wanted to rip someone, anyone, a new one, I was ready for a nap. Stress had a way of tiring me out, and so getting home and climbing onto the couch for a snooze couldn't come soon enough. Unfortunately, when we did get home, there was still lots of unpacking to do.
About five minutes later, we reached an intersection that was somewhat familiar. As we approached, I realized that the small zoo was to our right, which meant I needed to make a left to get home. My wife was staring out the window towards the animal park, and saw something emerge along a wall. "Look! A hippo!"
I didn't have time to see it as I followed the cars in front of me and made the turn.
A minute later, we pulled into the driveway of our new home. Without saying a word, my wife got out of the car, but she did seem to be in better spirits. She just wasn't about to acknowledge the fact that I figured out how to get us there.
After a lot of unpacking and moving around some stuff, I finally got a chance to sit down with my laptop and write this up.
And now, I just posted it.
Image source—Pixabay
