Tom's Story- part 1

Here's an installment of a story I may write. If you want to know what happens to this guy let me know. I'm curious too.

One way is just a different shade of grey than the other. The rain is just starting and it hits the windshield in big drops. Head west and he drives right into the storm. Head east and the storm will catch him anyway. Continue south and he will be home in about thirty minutes. There was a time when he would have headed west, right in to the storm. He puts his wipers on low and turns the radio up. Townes is singing “Waiting around to die”. Waiting around to die, sometimes that is the way he feels. Not everyday, but today in particular. It seems like just yesterday he was twenty four years old driving to his next twenty dollar gig and maybe a motel six. Thirty years later he has a warm comfortable bed and three smiling faces to greet him most nights. Yet sometimes he still misses the motel six. Tonight there will be cake and presents. Rebecca will make his favorite meal. It’s not all bad being fifty five.
The exit for the Massachusetts Turnpike is coming up. He could take this exit and be in New York in a few hours. He remembers the time he drove it to Café Lena to play backup for that girl. He can’t remember her name. She was pretty good though. He drove from Café Lena straight through to Detroit. The Motel Six outside of Detroit was not bad. At least he didn’t stick to the rug. He made one hundred bucks at that coffee house and another hundred bucks busking. It almost paid for the trip. A hundred bucks was a lot to him in 1977.
Rebecca was waiting for him when he got back from that trip. She wanted the picket fence and Labrador retriever she had always dreamed of. He made the choice to put away his Martin and become a real estate salesman, then a car salesman, then a convenience store manager. Now he works in a cubicle. If he stands on his desk he can see the outside weather through the window.
Here’s his exit. He slows down and signals. People don’t signal in this state but he does. The radio plays “On the Road Again” and he chuckles to himself. He’s thinking about that cake and how his youngest daughter is older than he was when he chose this road.

(c) 2007 J Ferullo

Greetings

Not the same "greetings" some of you may have gotten from Uncle Sam. This is my new blog. I am new at this so bear with me. I will occasionally post some of my observations and opinions. Some of the stories will be fiction, some true. Some may have started as true but become fiction before they get here. I also write songs. All songs are fiction (Bob Franke said that). Even the ones that are in the first person. Even if they were true when it happened, they happened to a different guy. Sometimes people will come to me after I play a song and say something like "I didn't know that you delivered pizza" (http://www.twocatfolk.com/music-21.html) . Truth is I never did. The guy in the song delivers pizza but it isn't really about that.
So, I hope you enjoy these things. Your feedback is always welcome.