Mackenzie Road Tripping - Day 2

"So...A good deal?" I asked.

"Hells yeah," Mackenzie said.

"And, a lot of that stuff was marked wrong," Jennifer said.

"Marked wrong?" I asked. I didn't like the sound of that. It sounded like stealing.

"Wrong sizes, wrong color. Some said it was a large, but you could tell it was a small."

"Oh, I get it," I said, nodding. As long as we weren't cheating them, I was fine with our purchase. "The most expensive thing was the undies," I said.

"Undies?" Mackenzie said with a snort.

"My dad calls them undies," Jennifer said and the two of them laughed at my vocabulary.

"Panties," I said, my face turning red. "You know, fourteen dollars for that red pair? Shoot. I got some red fishing line. I could make you a pair for a lot less than fourteen dollars."

Both Jennifer and Mackenzie laughed again, and then Mackenzie asked if we could get something to eat on the way home.

"We don't eat out," Jennifer said in a slightly disappointed tone of voice.

"I do," Mackenzie said, and then she gave Jennifer a weird little smile. "I love eating out, you know that."

Jennifer didn't say anything. In fact, she didn't move. She kept her head straight forward, like a statue. I wondered if she'd stopped breathing and turned to glance at the two of them for just a moment, but I was much too preoccupied with keeping the truck on the road to pay attention to much else.

"I, we...haven't eaten out in a long time," I said, mulling the idea over out loud. "What do you think?" I asked, directing my question at Jennifer. "Should we give it another try?"

"Yeah Jennifer," Mackenzie said then. "Please eat out again." Jennifer turned to Mackenzie and elbowed her lightly. "You know...like it..." Mackenzie said too quietly for me to hear every word she was saying.

"Sure. Sounds fun," Jennifer said. "We can eat out."

"You know you like it," Mackenzie said. "Mickey D's? Bada dop ba-da, you're lovin' it!"

"Donalds. Got it," I said.

"Mac Donalds," Mackenzie laughed. "There's a Mac in there. Mac Daddys."

"Oooh, what about tacos?" Jennifer said, turning to Mackenzie. "I could really go for a taco right now."

"I bet," Mackenzie said. "You like...taco...don't you."

"Stop it," Jennifer said and then lowered her voice to a hiss and said something else I didn't quite catch.

"Okay, which one? Burgers or tacos?" I asked. We were almost up to the only exit between the mall and our house that had fast food, other than the mall itself.

"Burgers," Jennifer said, and at the same time, Mackenzie said, "tacos."

"Come to a conclusion," I said, and immediately both of them reversed their selections.

"Okay, you choose," Jennifer said.

"Yeah," Mackenzie agreed, and then she leaned in and whispered something into Jennifer's ear.

"Alright," I said, nodding. "Tacos it is."

"I told you," Mackenzie said, laughing and Jennifer chuckled at their private joke.

Getting fast food turned out to be an oxymoron. There was nothing fast about it. We sat in the drive-thru line for almost forty-five minutes, waiting for three taco meals, and then, when we pulled away, we found they'd gotten out order wrong. Another fifteen minutes were wasted as I climbed out of the truck to go inside and get the order straightened out. When I came back to the truck, the windows were fogged up and as I climbed back into the cab, I realized both Jennifer and Mackenzie had exasperated expressions, as if they'd both just finished running the quarter mile. Their faces were flush, but then both looked extremely happy.

"Everything okay?" I asked quizzically.

"Yeah," Jennifer said, reaching over and rolling down the window an inch.

"Oh god that feels good," Mackenzie said, running a hand through her hair and putting her head against the glass.

That was when I realized it was extremely hot, and humid, in the cab. "Oh, shit," I said, reaching over and turning down the heat. "You know you could have turned off the heat if you wanted," I said, rolling down my window and rolling it back up to get the moisture off of it.

"It's too cold for that," Mackenzie said.

"Yeah. We didn't want to turn the heat off," Jennifer added. "We're fine."

"Alright. Here's the food," I said, handing the bag off to Jennifer, who then handed it off to Mackenzie.

"Ready to head home?"

"Yup," Jennifer and Mackenzie both said in unison.

As I drove, it seemed like I'd missed something, and neither Jennifer or Mackenzie were willing to clue me in on it. But they both seemed absolutely okay in making smart little comments, that didn't make sense at all. Things like, "I can't wait to eat that taco," and "I prefer extra sour cream."

"We have sour cream at the house," I said, thinking this was the thing to say, but my comment made both of then burst out laughing and it didn't die down until we were pulling into the driveway.

The moment we were in the house, Jennifer and Mackenzie started kicking off their shoes and pulling off their jackets. That was when I realized, they were wearing each other's jackets. They'd swapped them in the truck, while I was in the taco place, as if I wouldn't realize the switcheroo.

"You know, I know what you two did in the truck, while I was inside the restaurant," I said as I hung my jacket and then sat down to untie my boots.

"I...I'm so sorry Daddy," Jennifer said.

"How?" Mackenzie asked.

"How? I could see you switched."

"Jesus Christ," Jennifer said, and I looked up to see a mortified expression on her face. "I told you he was going to see us!"

"It's not like everyone isn't doing it. It's completely normal," Mackenzie said. "So what. Now he knows."

I shook my head, pulling my right boot off and tossing it over by the door. "It's not normal, and no, everyone isn't doing it," I said, loosening the laces of my other boot. "But look. If the two of you wanna do it, that's up to you. I...personally, I don't care."

"You don't?" Jennifer said and the tone of her voice made it sound as if she was absolutely relieved at the information.

"See," Mackenzie said with a smile.

"Jackets are fine. I wouldn't recommend switching shoes because, that...I just wouldn't. You're not supposed to wear other people's hats either. But jackets, shirts, stuff like that. Who cares." I looked up and then looked from one shocked face to the other. "I just wanted the both of you to know...I noticed. I've very observant. Like a hawk."

Jennifer picked her jaw up and closed her mouth, and then looked at Mackenzie. "Yeah. Totally. We didn't think you'd notice."

"Well, I did," I said, tossing my other boot by the door. "Alright, I'm going to take a shower," I said, and I stood up and turned toward my bedroom. "If either of you need to do your business, hurry up because I like to take long showers."

"He uses all the hot water in the house," Jennifer said to Mackenzie informatively. "Like, every drop."

"Sounds like my kind of shower," Mackenzie said and I raised my hand and gave her a high five before walking away.

"He was talking about our jackets!" I heard Mackenzie hiss at Jennifer, right before I closed my bedroom door, and as I rummaged through my drawer, I wondered what else the two of them had switched. Were they wearing each other's mittens? Had they actually swapped shoes? I couldn't remember, and I guessed it really didn't matter that much.