Just Like Before
(July 1986)
“We better stop” Tom said once again, but then he kept on driving. Finally after a long while, he pulled over to the side of the road. Ennis kept looking out of the window.
Tom looked at his hands, then he looked over at Ennis. “This was supposed to be fun, you know? Just don’t know what has gotten into you, again” Tom said. “Man, you haven’t been like this in ages, I thought everything was okay…..I thought you were okay….”
Ennis turned to him. “I’m fine” he said softly.
“Yeah, sure you are” Tom said, with an ironic laugh. “Like hell you are, man, you haven’t been like this since……since ….I don’t even know when. Maybe this all was a big mistake.”
Ennis wrapped his arms tighter around the duffel bag, and looked down. “Maybe it was.”
Tom look at Ennis. “For God sakes, will ya get hold of yourself, once and for all” Tom said, with a tone of exasperation in his voice. Ennis put his head down against the duffel bag. Tom glared at him.
“Fine, maybe I will just turn around” he said, and looked ahead at the dark road. They sat like that in silence. There wasn’t a sound, except for the crickets and Ennis’s deep breaths, muffled against the duffel bag.
Tom turned to him again. “Listen, man, I wanted this to be fun. You….you can’t stay there in that town, in that trailer, forever, you can’t.”
“Let’s just go on.” Tom said in a softer voice. “Hey, I got an idea, how ‘bout us goin’ to Vegas instead, we’ll see the desert and the palm trees. Hey, maybe we can win a little money on one of them slot machines. I been there once, long time ago, did I ever tell ya about that time?”
Ennis finally looked up, and laughed. “Yeah, about five thousand times.”
Tom laughed too. “Let’s just go on” he said as he reached over and squeezed Ennis’s hand. Then Tom pulled the truck back on the highway, and drove again on the dark open road.