On Thursday, the fifth of May, Carmen picked up the van and brought it to the house. They had been packed for two days and everyone but Alex was excited. By the time Alex came home from work, the van was loaded and ready for their departure in the morning.
The next morning at breakfast, Alex's cell phone rang. It was the clinic. They needed him for some last-minute instructions and he said he would only be gone about thirty minutes. Actually, it was two hours, but he did return and Carmen got everyone into the van.
She kept the van at the maximum speed limit until they were out of Arkansas. It was a tense two hours and they were already behind schedule. She reminded herself that they were supposed to relax. They had two weeks, so what difference could a few hours make?
Unfortunately, the tense morning set a mood for the day. When they got to Oklahoma City, the traffic made her so nervous that she missed the exit on I40 West. It had seemed like a shortcut to go to Tulsa and take the turnpike down to Oklahoma City. It probably would have been better to go down to Fort Smith and over. Alex probably knew that, but he was carefully leaving everything to her - including the driving.
To be fair, Alex did tell her that the exit was coming up. What he didn't say was how soon or which way. She was in the wrong lane and couldn't get over fast enough. He looked at her as if she had done it deliberately.
"I told you that you needed to be in the right turn lane."
"No, you said the turn was coming up."
He gave her a wry smile. "I figured you knew you had to be in the right lane."
She took a deep breath and let it out. "Now what?"
"Take the next exit…to the right." He picked up the map and studied it. "I thought you had all this figured out before we left."
"I'm sorry. I wasn't prepared for this kind of traffic. I'm not used to so many lanes."
He nodded. "I understand, but if you want me to navigate, you'll have to pay attention."
At the moment, what she would like to do most was whack him over the head, but that probably wouldn't improve her driving skill much. Maybe playing navigator would keep his mind off work - assuming he didn't navigate them back to Arkansas.
He navigated her successfully back to I40 going west and they were only on the interstate about thirty minutes before he indicated an exit. "Let's stop up here and get something to eat."