We were up at six and left the apartment by six-forty-two. Ashton was a good hour drive away, we were supposed to be there by nine, and we wanted to leave time for a breakfast that wasn't McDonald's. I emailed all my new drawings to Max and David, and told them I'd be unavailable all day. Jonah burned CDs for the road trip, forgot his coat, and didn't realize it until he got on the second floor.
He wondered if it was really worth it to go all the way back up two flights of stairs.
"You'll freeze to death," I said.
So that added another four minutes. But we were in the car by six fifty-three, headed for the interstate. We shivered as he lit a cigarette and I put in one of his CDs, waiting for the heat to fully kick in.
We debated our choice of restaurants - here, off the interstate, in Ashton. We decided to wait until we were starving or something struck our fancy, whichever came first. But we stopped for coffee at 7-Eleven before we got on the interstate.
It wasn't until we were ripping down the highway at seventy miles an hour that I realized I didn't know where we were going. So I asked.
"You know, Ashton," Jonah said.
"Yes, but where?"
"Well, I --" he sighed. "Please don't be mad that I didn't tell you sooner."
"I almost never get mad at you."
"I know, but still."
"Where are we going, Hiller?" I said.
"First Christian Center of Ashton," he blurted.
I was not expecting that. "Really?" I said, intrigued. "Why?"
"To fix their servers, install some new stuff," he said, cringing. "You're not mad?"
I thought about it. "No," I said. "I am surprised though. Why did you think I would be mad?"
"I don't know. Because you used to go there, because your mom still does?"
I shook my head. "Actually, I had a lot of friends there. If my mom wasn't there, maybe I'd still be there."
"I didn't know you were such a Christian," he said.
"I wasn't," I said.
Labels: january brings few faces
