The Yellow Brick Road
Friday July 16th @ 6:10 AM - The King House
"Grams, we have enough food." An exasperated Shelley
says. Her
grandmother pays her no mind, "I made a dozen rhubarb muffins this
morning. I'm keeping one for your mother, and one for myself. The other
ten you can take with you. You know that's only two apiece." "But we've
got tons of food." "Shelley, what would your mother and I do with a
dozen muffins? Just take them with you, if you want to share them with
the campers around you."
Zack, Bart, and Will are all on the front porch waiting for
Shelley
and Todd to get the last of their stuff stored in the van. Todd stows
the last bag in the van. When Shelley comes out with the muffins and a
grocery bag, she looks at Zack, smiles and nods her head, giving him a
conspiratorial wink. "That's it! Let's go." But her mom and grandmother,
have to say good bye to them all one more time. Zack, again hears the
driving lecture from both of them. After kisses and hugs for everyone,
they finally get in the van. Zack starts up the engine. He turns to
Bart, "Well, do you got it?" Bart pulls a cassette tape from his pocket
and hands it to Zack, "Go for it!"
Zack shoves the tape in, and cranks up the volume, as he
starts
heading down the driveway. Suddenly, blasting out of the speakers,
"Follow the Yellow Brick Road, ... Follow the Yellow Brick Road, ...
Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road." at which
point Zack and Bart start singing along, as loud as they can, , "Oh
You're off to see the Wizard, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, ..." The two
of them are quickly joined by Will, Shelley and Todd, as they leave Algo
Hermoso for their own Emerald City.
=============================================
@ 8:15 AM
That was the last song on this side of the tape and before the
tape
player starts on the other side, Zack ejects the tape. They are now
traveling east on I-70 with a long way to go. Shelley, who's riding
shotgun, turns to him , "Zack, are you done with the music for now?"
While he keeps watching the road, he glances into the rear view mirror
at Will. "Don't worry, there something I've got to ask Will about. ...",
Raising his voice a little to cut thru the talking in the back seat he
starts, "Will! ... WILL! ... yeah you. I want to know exactly what your
ma knows and doesn't know"
Everyone looks at Will, as he looks up, "Let's see.
Well, she told
me to tell all of you ... she'd like to thank you for working so hard to
get me to KC for Ted's birthday." "What!" "She knows?" "What
did you
tell her?" "Shit." came from all sides of him. Will trying to continue,
"Just shut up and I'll tell ya. Tuesday, she calls me in the house for
something. She's at the kitchen table looking all quiet and serious,
when she tells me we didn't fool her about the trip. God I thought we
were busted. Then she tells me that she wants me to take a card from her
to Ted with a present. ... She started crying, ... I never saw her cry
before. ... She figured that all of you were in on it, and she thought
it was great." Zack, lets out a long whistle , while Bart asks, "Did she
say anything else?" Will now turned toward Bart and said, "She didn't
come right out and say it, but I knew she knew about us, Bart. She was
practically begging me to tell her." "Jeezus!"
Will continues, "Then Jenny comes up to my room yesterday
afternoon, and tell's me that mom had told her that we were going to see
Ted. She thought Jenny might want to send along a card or present. Then
she asked Jenny if she thought I was gay. ... Jenny says she didn't know
what to say so didn't say anything. My mom told her that one day while
Bart and I were in the barn, she was watching from her bedroom window,
and I guess, I grabbed Bart and gave him this big kiss. She told Jenny
not to say anything to my dad, but that it shouldn't make any difference
to Jenny even if I was gay. Is that a mindfucker or what?" Everyone
starts talking at once.
Zack yells out, "Quiet! QUIET!" and the conversations
subside.
"Will and Bart, how did you ever fucking make it this far!?! ... You two
fucking idiots have got to be way more careful! ... What if Will's dad
had caught you, instead of his mom? You'd both be dead meat." Bart
argues back, "Easy for you to say dipshit, you can kiss Shelley in the
middle of town, and all they'll say 'isn't that cute'." Zack more
quietly says, "Bart - I know it's not fair. But that won't change
anything. I just want you two to be careful, okay?" Bart and Will look
at each other, and silently nod their heads.
After a few minutes, Zack says, "Come on! Let's Party! ...
Bart,
what's on the next tape?" Bart looks at the tapes he brought along in
his backpack, and pulls one out. Handing it to Zack, he says, "This is
for me and TK." Zack puts the tape in, and out of the speakers comes,
'These Blues Is Killing Me'. Bart adds, "This one's by A. C. Reed with
Stevie Ray Vaughan".
=============================================
@ 10:20 AM
Zack pulls the car into a wayside. "I've got to piss so bad
my hair
feels like seaweed. Every body out! ... This is going to be the last
stop till we get to the campground. Stretch out. Shelley is there
something we can eat?" When she responds, "We got enough food for
months. I don't know what ..." she stops talking because when she looked
to find Zack, she saw him walking into the men's can. Bart and Will walk
up to her. Bart starts, "Shelley, we were wonderin what you're gonna do
with the money you got for our tickets, cause we got an idea. ... We
were thinking of buying your mom and grandma a souvenir or somethin."
Shelley turns to them and says, "Too late. Last night after you left I
ran down to the Wal-Mart in Cheyenne, and bought a present from all of
us for Ted." "Really?" "What did you get him?"
She looks at them and says, "You'll find out later. But I'm
pretty
sure Ted will like it. ... I was thinking about what were going to do
with all this extra food. Since you two won't be staying with us we have
way too much. So I was thinking why don't we take it the party. That way
it won't go to waste." Will smiles and says, "That sounds really great.
Can never have too much food at a party! ... Come on tell us what you
got Ted, pleeeeeeease." "It's a movie tape." She answered. "And that's
all I'm gonna tell you for now, except that Zack and I had to order it
last week. We figure it can be from all of us this way." "What's the
name, ... pleeeeeeease?" She turns to Will, and says, "Did anyone ever
tell you, you can be a real pain in the ass, Will?" Bart jumps in with,
"I tell him that all the time." TK breaks up laughing.
Zack comes back grabs a sandwich from one of the bags Shelley has
opened and coke. As he's eating, "EVRYBDY IN TH VN." stops to swallow,
"Every body in the van. We should be there in an hour and a half. Bart
what tapes next?" Bart gives him the next tape, and commenting like a
radio DJ as Zack starts the tape, "This one is a special dedication for
Shelley and Will! from the brothers Matthews."
'Once I believed that when love came to me, It would come with rockets,
bells and poetry. But with me and you, It just started quietly and grew.
And believe it or not, now, there's something groovy and good about
whatever we got. And it's getting better, growing stronger, warm and
wilder, getting better everyday, better every day. ..."*
=============================================
* Words taken from the song "It's Getting Better' performed by Mama Cass
(Mann/Weil) from the Soundtrack of Beautiful Thing.
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