“You and your friends want to go on a road trip, huh?” Kate asked her son Jared, who beamed that teenage, excited, naive grin.
“Yeah, you know, after graduation. To celebrate! Stu has a car, so he’ll be driving.”
Kate looked at Damon, her husband, who looked steadily back. They could guess at each other’s thoughts. As one, they turned back to Jared. “Just how many friends? And which ones?” Kate asked.
“Just Nolan and Stu. You know them—they’re good guys.” Jared glanced back and forth between his parents’ faces.
Damon lifted a finger. “Didn’t Stu get in an accident last year?”
“He was rear-ended. It wasn’t his fault at all. It doesn’t count.”
“Fair enough.”
Jared spread his hands and said, “We all have our licenses, and we have good records. We’ll be fine.”
“Where are you going to drive to?” Kate asked next.
“We want to go down to Old Junction and explore for a couple days, then over to the reservoir for some swimming, and then up to Fun Frenzy for a day.” Jared’s face lit up as he outlined their plans. “Then we’ll come home. Please? We’ve been saving our money. It will be so much fun!”
After asking more questions, Kate and Damon agreed.
As the time for the trip came near, Damon asked Jared one day, “So I’m coming with you and your friends on your trip, right?”
“What? Dad, are you serious right now?”
Damon laughed aloud. “No, no. You should see the look on your face!” Still smiling, he asked, “Have you figured out the routes you’re going to take?”
He could tell the answer by the way Jared glanced to the side. “All right, son. I’ll tell you exactly how to get to each of your destinations.” Damon started to describe the route to Old Junction, but Jared cut in.
“I don’t need you to tell me, Dad,” he said, coming close to rolling his eyes. “I can figure it out.”
“I’ve personally driven to all of these places. I know exactly how to get there. Since I’m not going to be with you personally, let me give you instructions.”
“No thanks, Dad.”
Damon frowned and replied, “Look, I work for the state department of transportation. I’ve supervised projects on these highways—I was in charge of the project where Highway 684 was built connecting the reservoir to the amusement park! I practically built that road!”
“That’s great, Dad. But we’ll be fine.”
“You’re going to at least take a map, right?” Damon asked, spreading his arms, almost pleading. “I’ll even print it out and mark it for you.”
“We’ll be fine. We’re grown up now, Dad, and we can figure things out on our own. We don’t need to be told what to do.” Jared clearly was getting tired of this conversation, so Damon stopped insisting.
But when the day came for Jared and his friends to leave, he left a set of printouts on Jared’s duffel with the pertinent routes traced with a highlighter. Stu and Nolan arrived, and the boys yelled at each other in their excitement. Kate and Damon hugged them all and stood on the porch watching as they drove away.
When they went back in the house, they found the maps sitting on the kitchen counter.
Damon clapped a hand to his face, and Kate rubbed his upper arm. “That kid,” Damon groaned.
Sure enough, late the next day, Kate’s phone was ringing, and Jared’s name and picture were on the screen. “Hi, honey,” Kate said when she picked up. “How are you? Is everything okay?”
“Um, hi Mom. Yeah, we’re fine. Don’t tell Dad this, but … um … we got lost.”
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere west of Old Junction. Or maybe south. We’re not sure how we missed the turn-off. Or how far we have to go to get there. Um … what should we do?”
Kate shook her head. Those kids. “I’m glad you’re safe. What we should do is have you tell Dad you’re sorry for not listening to him. But,” she went on when Jared started to protest, “that can happen later. For now … you have reception, so pull up the maps app on your phone and ask it for directions. If all else fails, find someone to ask.”
Jared laughed in what sounded like a self-mocking way. “Duh, we shoulda thought of that. We got kinda worried and started arguing, so that didn’t even cross our minds. Thanks, Mom!”
“I love you,” Kate said as the call ended. Well, at least it would be a memorable trip. And maybe there would be a memorable lesson to go along with it.
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