Regards to Shawn
The minivan packed with suitcases, garment bags, and cosmetic cases, sped in the dark down the lonely predawn interstate toward Huntsville International Airport. It was only a fifteen minute jaunt and Carla spent every second of it hoping that she hadn't forgotten anything important.
Once at the airport, they rushed their luggage to the bag check and hurried up to the green concourse. There they checked in and sat down to watch out the window where their plane would soon await them. Boarding would take place any minute and they'd soon be on their way.
The airplane seemed to point straight up. Carla's ears popped twice before it finally leveled and the seat belt sign went off. She gazed out her window. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, a new day, a new start. They needed this, a trip alone in hopes of bringing back the electricity and lust that their marriage once blossomed with.
Carla relaxed and looked around at the people on the flight. It was the first week of June and vacation season had arrived. Families spotted the plane. Children were bopping up and down in their seats, mothers commanding them to settle down. Overly serious businessmen hiding behind their finance magazines and laptop computers clearly perturbed at the lack of discipline aboard. It was a circus. She dropped her seat back and turned toward her husband.
There was nobody sitting in the seat on the isle so Dave decided to scoot over and put the arm rests up for more room. Just like him, she would rather be scrunched up next to him, but he needed his space. He lay back and slept. Carla watched him, wondering what he would do if she suddenly laid her hand on his crotch. Nobody would notice, not with their kids out of control or their noses buried in their work. She scooted over in the middle seat, grinned to herself, and eased her palm over Dave's zipper.
"What are you doin'?" Dave growled under his breath. Carla withdrew her hand and turned to the window. This trip was probably a waste of time. She had such hopes for them this week. They were headed to Sierra Vista, Arizona. The brochures made it sound like such an attractive place to visit. "Seventy miles southeast of Tucson, surrounded by the breathtaking natural beauty of majestic mountain ranges and the San Pedro River, Sierra Vista boasts a temperate year-round climate, abundant sunshine, and clean, fresh air."
"It sounded so damn romantic, and clean fresh air, that's what we needed, air," Carla contemplated.
A couple of weeks ago Carla's mother had told her that her brother Mark was going to Germany for a job interview and he and his wife would be gone for a week. Carla called him up and made arrangements for her and Dave to stay in their house while they were gone. "Sort of house sit," she convinced her brother. So it was set.
The clouds outside the window looked thick enough to walk across, step from one to another as stones in a creek. She closed her eyes and recalled the days some thirteen years ago when Dave would have hustled her back to the tiny little cubicle for a bathroom, undressed her from the hips down and made sweet love to her with his fingers. He would be chewing her nipples through her blouse creating little wet spots, all the while she would be fighting him telling him this was not the place and time and how embarrassing to have to walk out with wet spots on her shirt, everyone would be staring, they would know what the two of them were doing in here, and begging him to stop. Now, she was not above shedding her panties right here in her seat sliding her skirt up, and positioning herself on his lap demanding that he . . .
She didn't mean to laugh out loud, but she did. Dave turned toward her but she didn't look back at him. When had things changed? When did he grow so old and cold? "That's it," she avowed. "This trip was going to restore their relationship, and she was going to do it." Carla fell asleep.
