DESTINATION

He took a flight to Kansas City.  He could have driven.  No hurry; she would be there and this time she would not turn him away.  No arguments.  No accusations.  No controversy.  Yes, there would come a parting, but not like the other times. 

What had started so well, so long ago had gone bad.  Not all bad.  When they were good it was more than hoped and the times they both lived for; but this was territory they had never explored; never considered.

The airport was busy; he was patient and waited his turn in the rental car line.  It was not the car he had arranged but that mattered little as he drove the highways and the streets of the city.   Leaves of brown, gold, and red scattered in front of the car as he made his way down Crescent Street; now her street. It was once their street, their place. Empty now, she would not be there.  He slowed passing the house. 

He drove on and it wasn’t far.  The man at the office told him where to go, and said the gates would close within the hour.  He found her, approaching slowly, for no reason other than it felt right to do, he stopped and sat at her feet.

Wilted flower arrangements were dumped on the newly mounded earth.  It was quiet.  The headstone would not be placed for some time, and he sat until the maintenance man in the truck drove by and gave him a wave; polite sign that it was time to go. 

At the airport and caught the next flight home.