Adventures in Solitude - 9/11/2001

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

He picked up the song where she left off. It was an excellent song, sung by the great Ray Charles. Wash liked Ray Charles. A beautiful voice, that man had.

"When I'm in trouble and I have no friends,
I know she'll go with me until the end.
Ev'rybody asks me how know.
I smile at them and say she told me so.
That's why I know, yes, I know,
Hallelujah, I just love her so."

He stopped there, allowing the song to continue unaided. "I didn't know you were knowledgeable in the works of Ray Charles." He learned new things every day.

[Jennifer Moon]

She hummed along when he joined in, not wanting to mix up the pronouns in the song too badly. "I'm not," she said sheepishly, once he had stopped singing, turning her head to look at him. "Ella Fitzgerald does a version of it." And Jen was a big fan of Ella.

They continued on for a little while, until they passed an exit sign that Jen couldn't help but be confused by. "Dartmouth College, next exit? Wait a minute." She bent over to study the map, lifting her hair out of her face before laughing. "I had no idea it was going to take us this way." She had never actually driven up here, only apparated, and she was glad that it was not a terribly far drive from home.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"I like her voice." She was very good, even if he preferred Ray's voice. "I'm sure Ella and Ray used different pronouns, though." Just as he and Jen had. He wondered what the original writer had said, he or she. He wondered if the people at radio station knew that they were playing the right song.

"Cool."He hadn't realized that they would be passing by his old school. "You know , I can just drop you off, if you want. Give you some time to get ready." He stuck his tongue out at her. He had driven up to school just once, so as not to perplex everyone when he suddenly appeared with all his stuff without being see unloading a car. He ate another chip and watched the scenery fly by.

[Jennifer Moon]

"Ha ha," she said dryly, rolling her eyes with a smile. "Can't get rid of me that easily. I know you want all the maple syrup to yourself." She giggled and reached over to poke him in the side.

Although the buzz from the alcohol had (mostly) worn off by this point, she began bouncing again when she saw the 'Welcome to Vermont' sign on the side of the road. She turned to him and grinned widely, throwing her hands up in the air, barely able to keep herself from squealing with excitement.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"All that maple syrup... Mmmmm." He had never tried it straight, but it probably wouldn't take much to convince him."I don't want to get rid of you." They hadn't spent nearly enough time together recently for him to want to get rid of her. "I just want you to excel in school."

They had reached Vermont. He was very happy, although Jen seemed to be even happier. "Where to now? Have you selected our final destination?" Because they had just said Vermont, and he could not think of any cities in the state except the capital, Pellegrino or something.

[Jennifer Moon]

She poked him again. "I was kidding, silly. I know you don't wanna get rid of me." She stuck her tongue out at him and laughed. "Besides, I don't even think my dorm is ready yet. I would just have to apparate back home." Great thing, apparition. Even if Jen did hate it most of the time.

She had been in the middle of eating her chips when he'd asked where they were going, and she quickly replaced the bag for the map. She had a vague idea of where they were in relation to the map, but she had no clue where to go to get maple syrup. So, the most obvious thing to do was to close her eyes and point to a random spot on the map. Luckily for them, it landed on a city not too far from their current location. "Rutland. You'll want to get off at the next exit, I think, and then it's all back roads from there."

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

He watched her choose a city. "You've never even heard of Rutland, have you?" He certainly hadn't, and he had heard of lots of places. He'd never heard of most places in Vermont, to be fair (as evidenced by his earlier reference to Montpelier as Pellegrino). "Do you even know if they have syrup?" He had driven all this way, there had better been some pancakes and syrup.

Given their speed and various other factors, he figured that they would be at the exit very soon, and signaled before changing lanes over to the right. "What if we just, I don't know, kept driving?" She wasn't starting just yet, and he could probably persuade his senator to postpone the interview if it was necessary.

[Jennifer Moon]

"Nope!" she said cheerfully. "I've never been to Vermont. It was one of the states I skipped." She'd had to skip a lot of the middle states, too, but there was always time to go back for a second trip across the country. "I'm pretty positive they'll have syrup." They were in the right state for it, and she assumed anywhere they went would have the stuff.

Now there was an interesting idea. Why couldn't they just keep driving? She had awhile until school began again, and who knew how much he would really be able to come visit once he started working? "I'm okay with that," she said, smiling. "We wanted to do something big, right? I think that qualifies."

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"I've never been, either." To the state or the city. "What states did you visit, anyway?" He had never received a definitive list. It was time to exit, so he did. "Which way am I going?" No more highways, a strange area of the nation, he needed his navigator.

"Big sounds about right." He thought for a moment. "We could go north, to Canada. They might have closed the borders." He knew he would've, if he were in charge. "Niagara Falls can't be too far, can it?" He'd heard it was pretty. "We could go east, see what might be out there." He knew what the states were called, just not what they had in them.

[Jennifer Moon]

"Well," she began, trying to think of where all exactly she had been. "Almost all of them, really. I did a loop around the country. I took I-95 all down the east coast 'til I got to Georgia, and then I went west until I got to California. Take a left here." She pointed at the road they were approaching as they left the freeway. "And then I drove the Pacific Coast Highway up to Seattle and headed back east."

"I don't have my passport on me," she said, a bit sadly. If they wanted maple syrup, the best place for it was definitely Canada, not Vermont. Niagara Falls sounded nice, though. She reached up to flip her hair over her shoulder as she looked at the map again. "We'd have to drive all the way across New York, we wouldn't get there 'til morning. But we can go there, if you want. I'm all for it." She looked up at him and grinned.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"That sounds like an excellent road trip." He turned left. "I wish I could've gone." He'd been busy, but he also regretted missing it. "What's the upper part of our great nation like?" He had never been to some places. Montana, the Dakotas outside of the area surrounding Mount Rushmore, Wisconsin outside of Milwaukee, et cetera.

"Yeah, neither do I." He probably should've thought of that. "I'd call it, I don't know, nine hours." He was basing that on absolutely nothing, a random guess. In the distant future he would have a little device that could tell him it would be about six hours, perhaps a little more. "If we do, you'll have to do at least a little driving." He reached over and poked her. "But I'm up for it."

[Jennifer Moon]

"I wish you could have gone, too. It would have been a lot more fun with you there." She smiled. It was in the past now, though, and they were on a new road trip of their own. "It's absolutely gorgeous," she said, sinking into the seat a little with a sigh. "Wide open spaces, mountains, no big city lights... it was really nice, but I was missing home pretty bad after awhile. I'd love to go back and visit again, though."

She giggled when he poked her, doubling over so he couldn't reach her belly. "I think I'd be okay to drive now, honestly. It's been awhile since we were at the bar." She felt fairly clear-headed. The crisp air whipping around her face helped to sober her up a lot, too. "The next place we stop, I'll call my dad and let him know we're not coming back home tonight."

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"Sounds beautiful. Which way are we going up there?" There was an intersection up ahead, and he needed to know which way to go. "I'd love to do more driving." He was busy enough, and he would be even busier once he started at the State House. "You'll have to take me sometime." They hit the intersection and he stopped.

"I'm sure you are. It has been a long time." He drummed a little on the steering wheel. "Are we going to stop for the night? Or keep on trucking." He didn't care either way, but she had mentioned stopping, which reminded him that it was a good question to ask. "Or is that something to be decided after waffles and syrups in..." He checked the map."Rutland."

[Jennifer Moon]

She looked down at the map, then back up at the intersection, then back down at the map again. "Go straight. This road should take us all the way into town." If he was fine with driving for a little while longer, Jen certainly wasn't going to complain. She was having a grand old time, feet up on the dashboard and snacking in the passenger seat, listening to good music as they rolled along.

"Hmm," she said, wrinkling her nose in thought. Other than this bag of chips, she hadn't eaten much of anything that day, too worried about Wash and what was going on in New York. "Food first, definitely. Then let's see how we feel about stopping." She wasn't tired at the moment, but she had been known to take a nap after eating breakfast foods.

[Washington Kennedy Rockefeller]

"Sounds good to me. Straight as an arrow." He had trouble with rights and lefts sometimes. He'd been doing fine so far, but he was still worried. Just a little. But the worry was there. "All the way to town?" They took off.

"Food first, ask questions later. That seems like a truly excellent plan." He was a fan of being fed. "How far is it to town?" He wasn't looking at the clock, but he figured- he'd gone to Boston early afternoon, then some crying, then some drinking, then, he'd call it two hours, maybe three, of driving. That, plus the stars above them, told him it was getting late.