Into the Wild Blue Yonder
by Doug Bond
I'd been counting the time between mile markers when he grabbed it from her. Ma had been folding and refolding the map, trying to answer his question about the Skyway and the Dan Ryan. The car swerved, just a bit, not much, not the way she reacted. I knew he was really a good driver. He'd flown jets in Vietnam, back for good now, just as things getting bigger there too.
Then it got quiet again, the kind of quiet that fills a car even with the radio on and the highway ticking away and the corn flying past regimented and silk tasseled.
I remember Ma telling me they just needed some time to get used to each other again.
News came on the radio. Dad fiddled the dial then turned it up, "Third boxcar midnight train, destination Bangor, Maine." I relaxed, looked out at the clouds rising in columns way to the south. He caught my eye in the mirror, smiled, "Thunder coming Billy. Big rollers."
I stretched out sideways and tilted my head back so all I could see was blue sky and clouds, my chin sticking straight up. I tried not to blink. The clouds became mountains and long curvy beards and canoes skiffing through icebergs.
When we stopped for gas somewhere outside Portage, Dad went in to talk to the attendant. Ma handed me the bottle of soap bubbles from the glove compartment. I kept dipping and dipping and waved my arm into the warm air.
I like the way this tale is put out there for you to see all at once. Bang! And the reader is left with a knot in his stomach and...tiny bubbles.
Fav.
Well done, Doug. Wonderful images in this. Love the ending with the bubbles.
Cool. I thought about a word to come up with to describe this, and that's what I came up with. I know it doesn't really go anywhere, but I like the way it moves. Cool.
This is the telling movement: "I remember Ma telling me they just needed some time to get used to each other again."
People who've been down that road know that, sometimes, time is not enough, and there is where it all begins ... for me at least.
Cool.
A lovely scene from childhood, Doug,with a darker frame. I was along with you on every word! Loved this esp:"Then it got quiet again, the kind of quiet that fills a car even with the radio on and the highway ticking away and the corn flying past regimented and silk tasseled."
fav
Thunder coming Billy. Big rollers.
and then, bubbles --
really effective, Doug.
I appreciate the reads
Thank You!
Sara, Myra, James, Christian, Jack.
Really good! The storm is coming but the storm will pass. Love that feeling.
Great detail, the tasseled corn.
this is like a painting of a moment that will never happen again, a moment in childhood that is felt so strongly here. Top work.
This is great, Doug. I read it once and then went back again and saw this family open up. Wonderful.
The line about Dan Ryan is so subtle and brilliant.
Fave!
Got me in the gut, this one. Loved the sentence ending with corn flying by regimented and silk-tasseled. Lush, lush, lush prose. Fav. Peace...
A wonderfully realized small scene from a childhood - touched with a foreboding of dread, but I like that it didn't spill over into that...
Enjoyed the read. Nice work.
appreciate your comments...everyone, thank you for reading...Carol, Marcelle, Linda, Cherise and Matthew!
excellent -- compressed yet it contains volumes. *
elegantly captures the fraught world inside the car.
Nice journey piece, Doug. Good approach here. Enjoyed.
thank you Julie, Sam and LA for reading!
Very poignant. I can almost smell the inside of that car and I can definitely see that silk-tassled landscape, the way it looks from inside the car.
There's a silence in the spaces of this story that's beautiful, Doug.
Ajay and Jane...thank you both for your comments!
I like "not the way she reacted," and "just as things getting bigger there, too"
Lovely piece. Love all the Chicago and Indiana references. Deft and a propros allusion to "King of the Road"