drive thru

I told my mom the only thing I wanted to do when I was home was go get a crunchwrap and breadsticks since I can't really order fast food for one in the city without a car, and when she gets home from work on tuesday she says, "well, should we get it over with?" 

we're already in line at the drive-thru when we realize or remember at some point they changed it from a combination taco bell pizza hut to just a taco bell

she hates making the left turn out of their lot so we take the long way. up franklin all the way to barker road and she makes the right to drive by my grandpa's old house, her childhood home, that they sold last winter and has since been completely renovated and re-sold. the new owners put christmas lights out and it looks sweet, but it's kind of sad too. he always put out the same multi-colored incandescent strings and now it's all white, warm but still not the same

she says something about not wanting to go home yet so I say let's go to the lake, and she makes a spontaneous left turn from the right lane but no one's around to see or care. we drive through downtown's side streets and she asks me if I've ever been to Petti's corner store. I say no, I've only been to that brewery over here after grandpa's funeral last summer and in high school we did a field trip in environmental science to the little put-in at trail creek over by the casino

we get to the lake, and all the lights are up in washington park. they've consolidated it some - after last year when there were a bunch burned out and empty spaces throughout, I guess it's supposed to make more of an impact, but it feels kind of sad, just the inner lawn bright and glowing surrounded by dark in the near distance. we drive straight through the entrance gate behind two other cars that are clearly inexperienced, driving along the middle line of three separate lanes. she parks two rows behind the first line of parking spots closest to the beach and there's a concrete barrier that hides any view of the actual shoreline so really we're just sitting in the dark with the car smelling that toasty and slightly savory smell of taco bell

there are probably five other cars in the lot and a group of people huddled outside a honda and nissan looking at the sky. it's too late in the evening here for the conjunction, jupiter and saturn now hidden behind the power plant stacks, but they're standing in a semi-circle holding a couple phones up to the sky trying to align it with the planets

"why do we always do this, why do we come look at the lake at nighttime"
we both laugh
"I don't know. I've done this my whole life"
"hey I have an idea.... let's go stare at the dark"
"yeah, let's go think about what else is out there besides here"

while we eat, cars continue to drive up and slow, drive along the concrete, drive away.
practically a steady stream