Lines Drawn in Starlight

I want things to be different. I start thinking about how things could be different, and then I remember the morning I drove up to Seattle. After Steve got on his airplane back to LAX, I had a few hours before going back to the Sacramento airport to meet Beth’s flight. My parents, my mother particularly, were not comfortable with me driving from Southern California to Seattle alone, so the first part of the trip was with my ex in the passenger seat, the second half with my school-days friend who lived in Portland, Oregon.

During the time between flights, I went to a local diner and had breakfast. It was going to be breakfast alone, a rare thing for me to do. I couldn’t remember ever having had a restaurant breakfast by myself. I can’t remember if I did or didn’t, the time I ran away; I might have made good with coffee and pastry. I can’t remember much about the time I ran away. Just the part about buying that black bodysuit and plaid skirt, and the driving.

( In a Sacramento diner, February 1998 )

Rabbit Hole Day 2009