There ain't too much to look at out West

Well that's not very helpful, Ally thought to herself as she looked out into the barren landscape.  As she got lost in her gaze again, she realized why her mom had said that; there wasn't a landmark or anything to really give them a point of reference.  As it turns out, most of their drive would be that way, at least until they made it to Fort Worth, and even then they would still have another day of driving.

Most of the trip went by in a blur as Ally passed most of it between dreams and other unconscious meanderings.  The little time she did spend awake Ally felt something ominous, as if a dark force were waiting slowly crawling toward her from outside the car windows.  Texas sure has a lot of cemeteries.  She recalled her younger years when at five or six she would look out the window and mistake graveyards back home for soccer fields.  All the tributes of daisies, roses, and family mementos filled the otherwise empty fields with so much vibrant color.  Here it was different though, or had she just changed?  In Texas one can't escape a small town (and there are many) without passing at least one cemetery that seems to hold more than twice the place's population underground, and most of the flowers are noticeably absent.

If it wasn't eerie cemeteries out Ally's window, it an unusually large flock of dark crows or ravens.  What's the difference anyway?  They're both greasy birds that look like they just left an oil spill.  Though many towns back in colorful Colorado were probably just as small as the ones here in the persistently dull state of Texas, something about them just made them seem quaint.  Perhaps it was that they boasted of the number of feet they had climbed above sea level, while the tiny Texas towns stood tall like a fist grader who just triumphed over his classmates in a spelling bee only to have his gaze drawn quickly to his upcoming competition from grades two through five.  The signs outside these towns with names like Hollis, Cut and Shoot, and Dime Box do their best to stand tall, but it's hard to do so when your claim to fame is little more than reaching a couple hundred on the population chart.

"I wonder who gets to do that?" Ally's brother asked half sarcastically as they drove through yet another small town.

"What's that Trevor?"

"Who changes the number everyday?"

"What number?" Ally's mother asked.

"The number on the sign.  WELCOME TO DING DONG.  POP-EW-LATE...SHHHON 4 hundred and fifty." Trevor replied, trying his best not to laugh while sounding out the words.

"Ding Dong!  That sure is a funny name!"  the whole family (minus Ally who was lost in thought) laughed.  "I don't know Buddy, but that's a good question.  I bet whatever 'ding dong' has to do it is a pretty popular guy." their dad retorted.

Trevor laughed again, "yeah, that's a lot of persons."

"Indeed it is son."

The Start of Something New..?

The sun rose over the disappearing mountains in the rearview mirror.  As she gazed into the painted sky Ally wished it was as easy as that.  If only I could just paint myself into something picturesque.  Despite a longing to change her surroundings on a dime, Ally knew her life wasn't half bad.  Heck, not many people are so fortunate as to not have to worry about how they're going to pay for college. And what about those who earnestly desire to just leave their home, if only for a day, to escape the pain and enter into a new reality?  Yeah, she knew that, all things considered, her life was pretty great.  Still, she couldn't seem to shake the feeling that what she was leaving was her destiny only to slowly slip a few steps closer to her death.

Hours passed in an instant as Ally chose to sleep her prodding inhibitions away.  When she awoke the mountains were gone and in their place lay a boring landscape of dust and tumbleweeds.  Sleeping seemed to have had an opposite effect; now she felt worse.  I miss the mountains and the wondrous feeling they give me just by towering over me in the distance.  Her new life would hold mountains of a different flavor, the emotional barriers that would have to be climbed to just survive.

A crow cawed just outside her window.  Ally's heart skipped a beat as she trembled inside.

"Oh, you're awake," her mom said from the driver's seat.  "Good.  We're about to stop.  Trevor has to use the bathroom and your father and I need to stretch our legs."

"Where are we?" Ally's voice cracked as it was still waking up.

"Well, we drove through Amarillo while you were asleep and that was probably about thirty minutes ago.  So," Ally's mom paused, thinking to herself, "that would put us about 30 miles west of Amarillo."