2/21/01: Weekend postscript: New Jersey Turnpike, Sunday, doing 75
“What did you get at the Minit Mart?” I ask Jenny as we pull back out onto the highway.
“Coffee…”
“Very good.”
“…these weird things” – gesturing to JuuJuubs – “so that we’ll be chewing them and chewing them and that will keep us awake…”
“Ewww, but okay.”
“…some Sedigour Pedigatch Kedigids” – gesturing to the Sour Patch Kids and speaking in Gibberish – “which Kedigathedigryedigin won’t know about…”
“Yes, they will really keep us awake.”
Laughing: “Yeah, really. And some, um, beef jerkey.”
I look at the SlimJim and ask the question that all of you Dear Devoted Readers are wondering: “But… why?”
“I don’t know. I just had this strange craving for beef jerkey.”
“Well, okay.”
We drink our coffee for a while. Luckily Kathryn is mostly asleep and doesn’t seem to notice what we’re drinking, or she’d demand some, too. That kid loves coffee. She’s a strange child.
“Ooh,” I say. “I like this song.” It’s Slide by the GooGoo Dolls. “It’s not a very good song, but I still like it. I wanna wake up where you are, I won’t say anything at all…. It’s so sweet. I mean, he doesn’t just say ‘I want to wake up with you,’ he says ‘I want to wake up where you are,’ like, wherever that is, he doesn’t care, he wants to be there.”
“It could also be interpreted, ‘where you are,’ like, metaphorically, where you are in your life.”
“Good call!”
We listen for a bit. It’s such a stupid song. It sounds just like all the other GooGoo Doll songs. Suddenly the smell of beef jerky fills the car. I look over and Jenny has taken a bite of her Slim Jim.
“My craving for beef jerky,” says Jenny, “is over.”
She opens the window and throws the remaining beef jerky out of it.
“Little pieces of the nothing that fall,” I say.
“Are those really the words?” Jenny asks.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I’m not in a cover band. Yet.”