Russell wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into a hug.
“It’ll be okay, Ryan.” Russell pulled the beanie away from my ear and kissed it. He put the beanie back in place and patted my cheek. “Come on, my boy. I’ve been dying for my folks to meet you.”
Before I got back into the SUV, I took a deep breath. I unzipped my coat and brushed my hand down my shirt to make sure I didn’t have any crumbs on it. I pulled out my phone and took a quick picture of the pizza restaurant. I’d been taking tons of pictures of our trip.
“Is my shirt okay?” I asked when I got back in the SUV.
“It’s perfect. Just as I said it was this morning when you put it on.”
“I planned out the shirt I was going to meet your parents in. I reminded myself each morning at the hotels to not put this one on until Tuesday. I’m surprised after more than eight hours in the car and through a pizza dinner that I was able to keep the shirt clean.”
Though it was dusk, I could still see the outlying area pretty well. There were a lot of open fields. Tons of open land on either side of the road, and all of it was covered with snow.
“Is that just all empty land out there under the snow, or are there crops and farmland?”
“This is all farmland. As far as the eye can see.”
“Is it all corn? Or wheat?”
I frowned as I realized that I really had no idea what certain crops looked like other than fruit groves.
“Most of this is corn. See that house way out there?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s the Garveys’ place. They’re a corn family and also produce popcorn kernels for some popcorn machines.”
“Like movie theaters?”
“Those, and ones for stadiums and arenas.”
“Wow, that’s cool.”
“In the summer, my friends and I would ride over on our bikes, and they’d give the kids a bag of popcorn. There are some peanut farms around here. Some potato farms. Way out in the distance to the left is a potato chip factory.”
“Sounds like you lived around the good farms. Peanuts, popcorn, and potato chips.”
Russell applied the brake some and then the side mirror lit up with the right turn signal. About a hundred yards off the road sat a huge house. Off to the left there was a detached garage. Russell slowed down, and a white mailbox came into view. The name “Moore” flickered at us with the headlights and the reflective letters.
Oh fuck. We were here.
There seemed to be some lights moving on the porch, which caught Russell’s attention. Christmas lights!
“What in the world,” he murmured.
“It looks like Christmas lights,” I commented.
“Indeed. But they’re in their eighties and shouldn’t be out in the freezing weather.”
Oh yeah. I don’t know why I keep forgetting that they’re in their eighties. Russell slapped my leg.
“Come on, my boy.”
Russell pushed the button to put the SUV in park, and he hopped out. From the front seat, I could see a huge smile on his face as he rounded the hood on the way to greet his parents. They had dropped the string of Christmas lights, eager to reach Russell. I took a deep breath and opened the car door. Stepping out, I saw both of his parents making their way down the porch steps slowly as Russell hurried toward them. Russell’s parents embraced him as soon as he was within reach.
I awkwardly stood beside the car door for a few moments and then quietly walked over to the brick path leading up to the house.
“What are you guys doing outside in the cold?” Russell asked.
