An old road in the middle of no where.
It used to be a country road, but all signs of agriculture had ended a century ago, now it was simply a road through a wild forgotten place.
Even all the old fences and barns had long ago turned to dust, the under growth had become old growth.
Wilderness.
A car bumped down the road.
In the passenger side you can see a road map unfolded filling up one side of the window, the many folds of the map weren’t so much being held as they were being wrestled by a woman trying to hold off a paper flood, trying to find where they were.
She gave up, crumpled the map, and threw it into the back seat.
She looked over at her husband who was driving and said, “Well its official we are lost. I have no idea where we are. I don’t even know what State we are in! You should have stopped to ask directions!”
The husband didn’t say anything, she was right, but he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of conceding the point.
So they just kept on driving in an increasingly uneasy silence.
When the car ran out of gas the silence became deafening.
The man said, “So this would be why people have GPS in their cars.”
The woman said, “The cell phone doesn’t even have one bar of coverage.” She tried dialing anyway, marveling at the newfound worthlessness of the beloved machine.
So they waited for someone to pass by.
They waited all night.
Come morning they had to make a decision.
The woman said, “Well I suppose we could just settle down, build a log cabin with your pocket knife and start a family, like Robinson Crusoe or Swiss Family Robinson.”
The husband smiled, “Maybe a local pack of wolves will adopt us and we can go back to the wild.”
They stood there all rumpled looking in the early morning light, quiet again.
Then man said, “Do you remember that story by Flannery O’Connor about the family getting lost and wrecking their car and then along comes this mass murderer?”
She gave him the look.
She then said, “Start walking.”
“Which way?”
“We’ve already been back that way, lets see what’s up ahead.”
There was plenty of water from creeks and streams. They had snacks that could stretch out a day or two.
So. What eventually happened to our pair of accidental adventurers?
Building a log cabin with a pocket knife seems kind of far fetched.
So does being adopted by the local chapter of the wolf pack.
You’ll be relieved to know that there were not any mass murders on the loose that week.
No, what happened was this.
Late that afternoon they were holding hands, limping down the road and a shaggy old man stopped a wrinkled, rusty pick up truck and took them to town. The cell phone worked there. The car was towed. They made it home. They never could find that old wilderness road again.
While they were waiting in town at a smoky little diner, the husband said, “You know I kind of like being lost with you.”
The wife said, “Honey, I was just thinking how nice it was being found with you.”
And they sat there drinking their coffee.
And that shaggy old man?
He’s still out there driving. You’d be surprised how many people need help getting out of that lonely wilderness and getting back home. Except…home is never the same afterward.
The wilderness does tend to change those who wander off the path.
So its best to keep our eyes peeled, and to drive slow, don’t want people to wander for too long.