Rank River Rd.

I smiled at the warm feeling this particular part of the memory gave me.

"She asked me if I wanted to play spin the bottle. She laid her soda bottle on the floor and spun it, and just as it was getting ready to go past me, she reached out and stopped it. She got up on her hands and knees and crawled over to me. She kissed me on the mouth. I thought I had died and gone to heaven." I looked over at Kayla; she had a sweet smile on her face.

"Tina and I kissed a lot that night. I even got to 'second base'. It was wild. I put my hand under her nightie and tried to find her little titties, and damned if I could find'em." I laughed.

"Well anyway to make a long story short, Tina and I were in love. Tina made me promise to not tell anyone. But I did tell someone. I told my parents. They were so great! My dad said he wasn't surprised that I loved Tina because she was so beautiful. My moms told me that no matter who I loved that her and dad would always love me. She said that they just wanted me to be happy."

"Tina and I were together for the next two years. She was so sweet to me! And her and my parents were crazy about each other!" I looked at Kayla and her beautiful blue eyes were looking into me.

"On my fourteenth birthday, my parents took me and Tina to Cedar Point, the huge amusement park in Sandusky? We had such a great day! We spent the night in the hotel there and the next day went to the water-park. We left about 3 o'clock in the afternoon to head back home. Right about the time we got to the Michigan line we ran into a huge traffic back up so my dad got off at the first exit he found." I felt myself tearing up.

"When we got off of the highway, my dad pulled off to the side of the road to look at the map to try to figure out where we were and how to get back to the highway farther up the road. I don't think any of us saw it coming. A gravel truck came out of no where. He said he had taken his eyes off of the road for just a second because he dropped his cigarette. He hit our car. Dad and Tina died instantly. My mom died three days later, she was in a coma and never came out of it."

By now I was crying. Tears were flowing out of my 'good' eye. I wished we had never started this conversation. "I came out of the accident with a broken wrist and a black eye. I had been knocked out for about three minutes. I heard people trying to get into the car. The driver's side had been crushed and that's why Dad and Tina died so quickly. She was sitting behind him. I was behind my mom."

I was now crying so hard that I was having a difficult time seeing the road. An exit loomed in the distance and I drew a bead on it. Kayla reached over and had taken my hand in hers and was kissing the back of it. She had tears running down her cheeks. I wanted to bury my face in her lap and cry all the tears I had held back for the last 20 something years.

We left the highway and I drove to the top of the exit. There was a fast food place to the right and I pulled into the parking lot. I put the Lincoln in park and buried my face in my hands and sobbed. Kayla scooted over to me and wrapped her arms around me the best she could. She murmured that everything was gonna be ok. She held me until I cried myself out.

"Want me to drive awhile baby?" She whispered.

"Yeah, if you don't mind. I'd kinda like to take another pain pill." My face and my head were pounding with pain. I was totally embarrassed by my behavior. I couldn't look Kayla in the eye. I popped the trunk and got out of the car. I went around to the back and got into my overnight bag, found my pain pills and dry swallowed two of them.

When I got back to the front of the car, Kayla was already behind the wheel. I leaned in and asked if she wanted to get something to eat. She said she'd rather wait about an hour because we'd be almost out of Kentucky and she knew a great little restaurant that served the worlds best breakfast and wanted to know if I could wait.

"Worlds BEST?" I asked, trying to lighten my mood a bit. "Oh Ms. Kayla, I think you've got that wrong. The world's BEST breakfast is made in my kitchen. Did I tell you I'm a great cook?"

Kayla looked at me very seriously. Her eyes were the color of an aquamarine. "Dana, I don't want you to ever feel bad about your feelin's. I want you to tell me everything there is to know about you baby. I don't want you to ever hold back anything from me. Do you hear me?"

"Yes. I want to tell you everything there is to know too." I was starting to feel a little better. Then again, it could have been the pain pills.

Kayla put the car in gear and we left. We got on the highway and the next thing I knew, Kayla was calling my name and telling me we were at the restaurant. It felt like I was coming up from a pool of muddy water. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings. I looked over at Kayla and she was looking at me with a look of concern.

"Baby, are you ok?" She asked me.

"I'm fine. I fell asleep." I mumbled. "I took two pain pills, musta knocked me out huh?"

We got out of the car and headed inside. I was so hungry I felt like I could eat the ass end out of a raw skunk. I ordered a large coffee; a fresh squeezed orange juice and the breakfast buffet. Kayla ordered the same and surprised me by out eating me by a plate and a half.

We had sat across from each other in a corner booth. I couldn't stop looking at her. She was the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on. I wanted to reach across the table and touch her face to make sure she was real. It almost felt like, she was so beautiful and so perfect that she couldn't possibly be real. Like she was an angel.

Suddenly I got scared. What if she is an angel and is only here for a short time? What if she was going to be taken from me like Tina and my parents? What if I lost her? Oh my God! I couldn't possibly live through that again! In my mind's eye, I saw Kayla's cold, lifeless body laying on a table in a hospital and me standing over her. I felt as though my heart was going to slam out of my chest and my breath was being strangled out of me.

"Dana! Baby what's wrong? Is your eye hurtin'?" Kayla's voice snapped me back into reality and I was sitting across from her in the corner booth again. I could feel tears forming in my eyes while they tried to re-focus on her. I shook my head and found her eyes. I focused on them. I pulled myself together as quickly as I could. "Dana? I want you to tell me what's wrong. You're scarin' me". Kayla's voice was full of concern. I thought about lying to her. I thought about saying "Nothing is wrong baby" but I just couldn't.

"Kayla, I just had a horrible picture in my mind of being alone without you. I know it's only been one day but, I already know that I couldn't live without you!" I felt my eyes filling up with tears again. "Oh sweetie!" she whispered. "I am not gonna to leave you! I swear to God I'm not!"

I looked into her eyes and it was obvious that she had misunderstood my emotional outburst. She thought I meant that she would break up with me. I was glad that this was the way she took it.

"Promise"? I asked with a smile. "I promise baby"! She said with conviction.

I paid the bill and as we headed for the car Kayla put her arm around my waist. The touch of this woman did things to me that I didn't know was possible. She set me on fire. I have never felt this way with anyone, ever.

As we approached the Town Car I noticed that coming across the parking lot was a couple "Jim Bob's". They looked Kayla up and down and then glanced at me, did a double take, and then looked back at Kayla. They started to laugh and just then the wind caught the odor of alcohol that was wafting off of them and directed it up my nose. "Oh SHIT! " I thought to myself. "This has got "ugly" written all over it".

As we got closer to them the guy on the right yelled "Hey buddy what happened? She catch you cheatin' and whup your ass for ya?"

I looked at Kayla and as I tried to figure out how I was gonna pull this off. Kayla sweetly replied "Why no sir! I have never had to whup him for cheatin', I have had to whup him for stayin' out too late, playin' cards and drinkin' with his buddies though."

The two Jethro's began to guffaw. It sounded like they were bleating out "HEE-HAW"! One of them raised his huge 'paw' for a "high five" as they passed us. I gave it to him and then put my arm around my woman and pulled her close to me and kissed her on the cheek. And with that we were safely past those two. I never had to say one word. I never had to get my ass kicked by these two. I breathed a sigh of relief.