The Planets Part Two

(iv) We were half-way to Iowa and lethargy was not far behind us. He had a late start but we all know lethargy is a health freak and would never drink 64 oz frozen soda-pops which means he doesn’t have to stop and pee so often. I was getting nervous because it seemed everytime you blinked it would take longer and longer for you to open your eyes again. So you told me about Mercury, the winged Messenger and how he was so swift and lithe and angelic. You were seriously regretting cashing in that favor with the war Bringer because you thought that maybe you could have asked him to get Mercury to pick us up and fly right over I-35 traffic all the way through Missouri’s unengaging landscape. If only that clerk had said you’re welcome. (v) As we finally crossed into Osceola, you introduced your favorite planet Neptune. You said he was a mystic and for half a dollar he could tell me how I would die and I said that I’d rather save the half a dollar to buy a gumball and watch the pink or blue or yellow orb roll down the runway until it hit the metal door of the dispenser with a clink. I remember you laughed at that. I remember that your stories would shrink the miles and the hours down into manageable parts until the eighteen hour road trip ended in Des Moines and you said, exhausted, (vi) Saturn was the bringer of Old Age but that you hypothesized if we stayed in the car and just kept driving that Saturn would just get tired and leave us alone so we packed up and took the nearest exit for the Yukon Territory. You looked beautiful then, basking in Saturn’s rage and you still haven’t aged a damn day.