The Deliciously Juicy Details, Part the First

Yesterday, October 13th 2010, was N's 18th birthday. Yesterday morning C and I took my beloved truck Manny to the small town in North Carolina where N's mother lives. We arrived at 6:30, before sunrise. We drove to the back of the cemetery that's down the street from N's mother's house and waited for N. His mom took him to school (he's a senior in high school), and he left school to meet us in the cemetery, which also happens to be behind the church behind the school. It wasn't a far walk. N met us at 7-ish. We waited for a few minutes, then drove back down the street to the house. No one was at home, as we expected. C and N took boxes inside and packed up the stuff that N wanted to bring, then hauled the boxes to the truck. We got everything loaded in less than an hour.

I took the license plate off the truck when we were in the cemetery just in case. After we packed up I drove five miles down the road and stopped at a convenience store to replace the license plate. Then we toodled on home to South Carolina. Both of the guys were quite calm, amazingly. When I talked to N the night before he was anxious. C has been a basket case for days, both excited and worried. They both worry a lot. By the time N met up with us he was calm and ready to do this. The whole thing went amazingly well. Manny performed excellently, what with his age and his decrepit condition.

We got home, the guys unpacked the truck, and I took a nap. Later in the afternoon I went to school to work on my pottery. (Pictures soon, really.) Some time after 8:00 Superman called me to say that the police had visited us. Hmmmm. My heart skipped a beat. He said all was cool, that N's step father had called them, asked them to check on N's welfare. N and C were out on a walk at the time, so the officer asked Superman to have N call his home or to call them and they'd relay the message that he was fine.

I got home from school around 10:00, and they guys hadn't called anyone. I joined them in the back yard to help them finish off a bottle of wine. We laughed, talked, drank, and generally had a wonderful time and didn't call anybody. We all went to bed and slept well.

C got up first. When I heard him puttering around I got up too. I tell you, he looks so happy! So happy, relaxed, at ease, etc. You know, the look you get when it's been a long time and you finally have really good sex with the one person you want to have sex with. The attitude you have the first time you get to wake up next to the person you love.

The peace was dashed when the doorbell rang at 9:00 this morning.

Road Trip Log: Day 1

Miles driven so far: 199

We made it as far as Charlotte today. No, that's not very far.

We started out going the wrong way, sort of. We went to Columbia to see Diva. It was a short visit, relatively painless. She wants to come home on a weekend pass. I don't think I'm ready for that, and I'm pretty sure Sproing isn't ready either. You know she threatened to kill us, right? I'm not over that, mainly because I believe that even now she still wants us dead. Sproing says he hates her and never wants to see her again. Light hasn't admitted, at least to me, that she hates her sister, but she has told me that she doesn't want to ever see the girl again. Somehow that doesn't seem like a good atmosphere in which to bring the child.

From Columbia we came up the highway to Charlotte, and dropped by Twitch's place to drop of a big bulky piece of equipment he got from his grandma in Florida. He and Light didn't have room to bring it back with them, because they both needed lots of leg room in the front seat. This thing (a mat cutter for mounting artwork) is long, and only fit into the back of the car with the back seats folded down and the front passenger seat slid all the way forward. Sproing was able to fit in the seat fine, but C had an uncomfortable trip until we got to Twitch's place. The monstrosity is out of the car now, and C rearranged/repacked the car while I said hello/goodbye to Twitch.

C's boyfriend lives near Charlotte, so we're here now to meet up with him. The boys will spend a little while visiting until the boyfriend has to go back home. His mother likes to keep the poor kid on a short leash. We're down to less than three months until the young'un can leave home! I need to come up with a good name for the boyfriend. His name begins with the same letter as C's ex, and since I used that to refer to the ex, I don't want to use it now. Hell, that would confuse me.

We're staying the night in Charlotte, and will hit the road tomorrow aiming for Maryland. According to Google Maps, we will have approximately 7 hours of driving time tomorrow. It's not too much, really. Very reasonable. We're taking our time, having fun.

The drive from Columbia to Charlotte was very pretty. The sun is bright today, and there were perfect puffy clouds in the sky. Grass and trees are green, the sky is blue, all is right with the world. Traffic was light and fast until we got close to Charlotte, and even then it wasn't bad. We got here after the lunch rush and before the afternoon mess. If we get a good early start tomorrow we should have it pretty easy most of the drive to Maryland.

Update: As it turns out, the boyfriend was not able to get away to meet with us. C'est la vie. Somebody was very disappointed.