Day off in Ohio

I drove south on I-71 from Columbus to Cincinnati content. Snarling Nine Inch Nails loud with the radio, it could have been 1992. The familiarity, even the HELL IS REAL billboard, made me smile. I picked up Neill and he held onto my right hand as I drove with my left. We drove to our parents house and I slept in the bedroom I grew up in. The books on the shelves reminded me of college and the years just after: women's studies, writing. A thunderstorm. The ceiling fan clicking over my head. The white curtains we hung in seventh grade. I woke up early and drove back north to work.