Nowhere, New Mexico

Scotty had never felt so alone in his life. He stood in the middle of the road in front of a lonely gas station about five miles outside of a small town in New Mexico, watching the taillights of his parents’ car disappear down the road.

Dad was home on leave from his latest deployment on a Navy destroyer stationed in the Pacific. He and Mom were already shouting at each other as they drove cross-country from San Diego to Chicago where Mom and the boys lived when Dad was away. The other boys were all away at school except Scotty, the youngest. Scotty wasn’t used to being alone and, not knowing what to do with himself, had been a bit of a brat during the trip, earning a couple of warning smacks from Mom and ever more frequent glares from his father. It wasn’t turning out to be a fun trip for any of them.

After a couple of hours in the backseat of the hot car, Scotty tapped Mom on the shoulder and asked quietly if they could stop for a bathroom break. She shushed him and told him to sit back and enjoy the ride. She searched around in her big purse and pulled out a book for him to read. As she passed it over the seat, she shook her head and he understood that he wasn’t to say anything else that might further upset his father. Time passed and Scotty was feeling more and more urgency about that bathroom stop. He tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned around. This time she knew they had to stop soon or there would be an even bigger blow-up from her husband.

Grumbling under his breath about women and kids and their small bladders, Dad pulled over at the next gas station, Jack Rabbit’s Truck Stop. The store was getting ready to close and the two-booth restaurant had already shut down for the night. Dad went inside to pay for the gas and Mom sent Scotty to the bathroom, telling him to hurry up, then get back in the car right away.

While Scotty was inside the dirty, smelly bathroom, trying to take care of business as quickly as he could, he heard shouting coming from inside the store. The ancient wooden walls were thin, so it didn’t take a detective to figure out that it was Mom and Dad, arguing over whether Mom should buy a candy bar to get Scotty through until supper. The front door slammed so hard the rusted spring twanged and the rickety structure vibrated. When Dad got mad, he didn’t care what damage he did.

Scotty ran around the building in time to see the car pull out of the parking lot and speed down the road. Through the back window, he could see Mom gesturing at Dad, no doubt telling him to slow down before he got a speeding ticket they couldn’t afford. She thought Scotty was in the back seat, laying down, trying to stay out of harm’s way. Scotty doubted that Dad cared, one way or the other.

Scotty stood on the road outside of the now-dark store. No other cars passed going in either direction. Silence settled over the desert as the moon rose, casting shadows that held secrets Scotty didn’t want to know. He had never felt so alone.