Stopping for gas on their way out of town, Edna went to the rest room while Tim took care of the car. Washing her hands and fixing her hair and makeup, Edna was startled to hear a familiar noise outside the window.  It was the unmistakable sound of Dennis' pickup truck.  Her hands, which had been fixing her hair, stopped in mid-air.   What if he was waiting for her outside the door?   She put her hand over her mouth, hardly wanting to breathe.  What if Dennis asked her to stay, begged her to stay?

    Quietly, she put her comb, lipstick and compact into her purse and opened the door.  There was no sign of Dennis or his truck.  As she closed the door to the rest room, she heard voices, and they sounded like they were arguing.  It was Tim and Dennis, she felt sure.  She didn't dare peek around the corner of the building, so she waited, not wanting to go on to the car and not wanting to go back inside.

Looking around, she saw a log lying on the ground in the sunshine.  There had been several days of unseasonably warm sunshine, and it almost looked like spring was around the corner.

No, she thought, Tim and Dennis were around the corner.  She didn't want to think about that.  She wanted to think about the log with the little bit of green blades coming up over its side. She always liked springtime.  She looked forward to the daisies and the goldenrod, and she wondered if she'd miss spring this year.

While she was wondering, Tim appeared around the corner.

"Let's get going," he said, "No time to waste."

She got into the car. There was no sign of Dennis or of his pickup.  It seemed mysterious, but she didn't want to ask Tim about it, and he didn't seem the least disturbed about anything, just eager to get started on their trip.  He smiled at her.

"What were you thinking about back there?"

"Spring," she answered, "How the grass and flowers come up and cover everything, even that old log.  All that new growth just -- well, it adorns the earth."

"That's nice," Tim said.  He'd always liked it when Edna talked like that.  He started the engine.

Edna looked out the window and, still not seeing any sign of Dennis or his truck, she determined to think about spring and flowers and that log lying in the sunshine.  She would just try to picture the goldenrod growing over the log.

They drove off, with Edna thinking about a
_  _  _  _  _  _  _  _  _  -  _  _  _  _  _  _  _    _  _ _.

 (9 letters, hyphen, 7 letters, 3 letters)

 Copyright 1998 J.J. Schnebel
All rights reserved

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