It had been a good ten months since Brent and Jodi had gotten together. The time seemed to fly for Brent. Everyday he spent with Jodi only seemed to make him like her more. “Where’s your ticket?” The bus driver said, turning his attention to Brent. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. The driver snatched it from his hand and looked it over. “El Centro, eh?” He asked, handing the ticket back to Brent. “What brings you all the way to El Centro?”
“I’m going to surprise my girlfriend.” Brent replied nervously, taking the ticket and stuffing it into his pocket. “We’ve been together for 10 months.”
“Ivins to El Centro is a long way to go.” the driver replied with a smile and a gesture toward the undercarriage of the bus. “It’ll be 17 hours. I hope you brought something to keep yourself occupied. If you’ll just go ahead and find a place for your suitcase we can get a move on.”
Brent Nodded and picked up his suitcase. He found a place for it between two bags on the upper shelf of the undercarriage and quickly stepped onto the bus. There were plenty of seats, but very little room between them. He found a seat next to an older gentleman that seemed at the time to be half asleep.
Brent sat quietly waiting for the bus to take off. His mind began to wander, imagining every possible scenario that could take place once he got there. He was nervous by all definitions of the word. In his mind he wanted everything to work out. As soon as the bus took off the man sitting next to him stirred. Brent attempted to make conversation with him, but quickly found the subject of politics and economics to sound like technobabble to him. Brent wasn’t the kind of person to just tell someone to stop talking about something, so he listened and nodded for most of the trip.
Several hours passed and Brent watched as the bus slowly emptied. Passengers coming onboard and getting off. Brent took it all in fascination. Finding himself staring at all the different people that came and went. It was something he had never seen before. In that seventeen hours Brent saw people of all kinds of tastes and sexualities. Even with different opinions and perspectives. “We’ll be arriving in El Centro in just a few minutes. Please make sure to grab your luggage and Thank you for riding with us.” The voice of the Bus driver came over the loudspeaker.
Brent rose from his seat and grabbed his carry on. Once he got off the bus he went straight for the undercarriage. He searched carefully, but to his dismay, he couldn’t find his luggage. He went into the bus station and asked the lady at the front desk, but didn’t get anywhere. Brent was baffled. How could they misplace his luggage? The trip was already off to a bad start and he had the worst feeling that this was only just an omen. He had no choice but to give up the search once he’d left his contact information at the front desk. It was the afternoon in the middle of Summer and Brent stood outside waiting for Jodi’s Dad to swing by. That’s how he got this whole thing going in the first place. He’d found Jodi’s dad on an online game that He and Jodi liked to play together.
The sight of her dad’s car brought a smile to his face. To Brent, at least something had gone right. “So you’re Brent, huh? Where are your bags?” He asked, offering his hand for a handshake. “Call me Dane. I’m just going to pick up Jodi’s brother and then I’ll drop you off and go grab Jodi.”
“I wish I knew. They think my luggage got misplaced at one of the stations.” Brent replied, shaking Dane’s hand and rolling his eyes. ”Why do you have to drop me off first?”
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“Jodi told you about her mom, right?” Dane asked, climbing into the driver’s seat of the car. “Her mom doesn’t know you’re dating because of your religion.”
“Yeah she told me that her mom didn’t have any good experiences with Mormons.” Brent said relaxing into the back seat of the car. “That’s why I’ve been waiting till late at night to talk to her.”
“Exactly.” He said as they took off down the street. “Jodi’s mom really doesn’t trust Mormons so we have to break it to her slowly before we introduce you. I’ll drop you off at the store and pick Jodi up and take her to the store.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Brent nodded, relaxing into the backseat and staring out the window. He and Dane talked on and off for most of the car ride. Despite losing his luggage, the trip seemed to be getting just a little bit better. Brent watched as the scenery changed from a small town to small town to what looked to be a red desert and back into a town that seemed like it had come out of nowhere. They pulled up in front of the building after an hour of being on the road. Brent was in awe at the sight of it. “This is the store?” He asked with a confused expression. It looked to Brent like a small wooden shack. It was a dirt brown color, no bigger than a gas station.
“Yep!” Dane said, unlocking the door. “Just wait right here while I go pick up Jodi and talk to her mom.” Brent nodded and opened the door. The evening sun beamed down on his face, causing him to squint and wrinkle his forehead. His curiosity got the best of him and he peered through the doorway of the small shop. Brent gazed off into the distance. He could see the gates that stood tall at the border to the far end of the state in the small town outside of El Centro. He could see the men in uniforms that perched themselves inside the towers that rose above the fences. Brent glanced off in the direction that Dane had driven. He could see the car in the driveway of the house. Brent's mind shifted into overdrive. What Dane told him would only be ten minutes was starting to feel like it was taking hours. He took a deep breath and crouched down over the sidewalk, his gaze focused on the car. He made himself comfortable on the sidewalk trying to divert his mind. His head dropped into the palms of his hands, his eyes closing slowly.
The sun seemed to have fallen into the evening and dusk was settling in. Brent glanced up at the empty parking space in front of the store right as the car pulled into a stop. He could only see a darkened silhouette in the evening sun. He recognized her long brown hair even through the dim light. He could see the lights of her eyes grow bigger after staring back at him for a few minutes. A smile formed across his face, slowly bringing himself to stand up. He walked over to the door of the back seat and opened it. Jodi scrambled from her seat and got up out of the car greeting Brent with an excited hug. Her arms squeezing his torso tightly. Her head falling into his chest. Brent closed his eyes tightly letting himself get lost in the moment. Finally after several months of talking over a computer, he could finally hold her in person.
The rest of the trip didn’t go nearly as well as Brent had hoped it would. “That was awful! I hope you don’t treat people in your own religion nearly as bad as you treated us.” Came the words of Jodi’s mother as He and Jodi sat in the back of the car on the way back to the bus station. Brent was disgusted by her tone. His mind raced with so many things that he wanted to say, but couldn’t. Brent couldn’t get any money out to pay his hosts back since the atm wouldn’t take his debit card. His luggage didn’t arrive for three days, which left Brent at the mercy of Jodi’s Mom and Stepfather. It was a position that Brent beat himself up for the entire trip to the bus station. The car had sat in silence for the rest of the drive. Brent didn’t want to open his mouth at the risk of giving Jodi’s mother more reason to bury him. It was all he could think about for the whole trip home. He didn’t even pay any attention to the border patrol when they pulled over the bus. He just sat there reflecting on everything. Even enjoying the feeling of being in his own clothing after having borrowed Jodi’s Stepfather’s. He Cared about Jodi, but the stress brought on by her parents made things even more difficult. It felt like they were waiting for him to screw up.
