Page 31 of Yolo

“Come on,” I said as I caught her hand. “We’re going for a drive.”

We did, in fact, go for a long drive.

“How far are we going?” she asked.

“Several hours east,” I answered as we pulled up to Buc-ee’s. “Would you like to use the restroom?”

“Sure,” she said as she got out. “Where’d we stop?”

“A place called Buc-ee’s,” I answered. “Apparently they have awesome bathrooms.”

Since we were so far away, I didn’t bother with covering my face back up, and twisted the ball cap on my head to face backward so that I could keep a better eye on the surroundings.

Not because I was worried I’d been followed, but because I was worried that I wouldn’t see a hazard that might trip her up.

We were halfway there when I said, “I’m not sure that I should’ve brought you here. It’s busy as fuck.”

She had her walking cane in her hand, though not extended, as she held on to my sweatshirt sleeve.

“I’ll manage,” she said, sounding excited. “I’ve always wanted to go to one.”

“Well, you’re in luck,” I said. “Welcome to Buc-ee’s. Home of the brisket sandwiches and seven thousand bathrooms.”

She smiled as we walked through the door, and I pulled her closer to me as people surrounded us.

“That cane gonna open up some walking room if you open it up?” I asked.

She pulled her sunglasses down over her face, which I hadn’t been aware she wasn’t wearing until now, and said, “Sure, let’s try.”

Sure enough, the moment she folded out the stick, people started to move out of her way, opening up a line throughout the middle of the busy store.

“You gonna be okay getting to the bathroom on your own?” I asked curiously as we paused in front of the entrance. The left led to the ladies, and the right the men’s.

“Sure,” she lied.

“I’ll help,” a little girl that looked to be about nine or ten in a soccer uniform said. “I can lead her to the handicap one. It’s closest to the entrance and the sink.”

I offered her a wink and turned to the dad and said, “You got a good kid there, man.”

The man nodded. “I do. But I can thank my wife, Angie, for that. All of our kids were feral as children and only half-feral now as adults. These grandkids are way better behaving than my children were.”

I chuckled.

“I heard that, Bowen Race Tannenbaum,” a woman said as she came up with about eight thousand snacks in her buggy. “Here, go pay for this while I take all these rascals to the bathroom.”

She had a whole hoard of kids with her, all of them dressed in the same red and blue uniform that the original girl had been wearing.

“We’re heading to a tournament with eight girls,” the man, Bowen, said. “I don’t think my eardrums will ever recover.”

I chuckled as I patted him on the back. “I can’t say that I’ve traveled with an entire soccer team before, but I do have a sister that has kids. And those kids have about eight thousand cousins running around at their circus.”

“Circus?” he asked.

“Literal circus,” I confirmed.

He shook his head.

“You should check it out if you’re headed to Dallas. Circus House,” I suggested. “Great place for the kids to run off some energy.”

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