The Drowsy Question
For ninety minutes, Lilly and Aaron talked about their upcoming visit to his parents, their kids, politics, the weather, their church small group, and a variety of other topics neither of them would remember past this trip. After three minutes of silence, Aaron looked over at his wife in the passenger seat and she was out. With her head tilted back and her mouth opened slightly, she emitted a calming wheeze – not a snore, but heavy breathing from exhaustion.
Aaron was fine driving for hours at a time. He had done so on long trips all the time. He didn’t dare turn on the music or talk radio, lest it wake Lilly, but he just enjoyed the country scenery as he drove. It was also a good time for his mind to wander and think.
A couple of times, Lilly half-wakened, mumbled something and dozed off again.
When Aaron tapped the brakes to slow down for the car that cut over in front of him, the change of motion woke Lilly.
“Hmm? How we doing over there? Still awake?”
“Yeah, I’ve decided I’d better stay awake for our kids’ sake. If I fall asleep, we’d end up going over that embankment over there and that’s a sure death. Then the kids would have to travel over three hours to come identify our bodies and we wouldn’t want them to be troubled over having to do that. Of course, then they’d be fighting over their inheritance, which reminds me we need to get with our attorney when we get back to shore that up. We can’t have the government taking any unnecessary money just because we go over an embankment in another State, can we? Can we?”
Aaron looked over at Lilly. He heard the soft sound of snoring, shook his head, and said, “Gone again.”