"Have you ever been on a road trip?" I asked Ida Mae.
Swaddled in her baby pink nursery clothes, she looks at me. Her eyes seem young to me, though the rest of her body is bent and shriveled with age. Ida Mae is from a different time, I understand. But I am barely in my twenties - doing some elderly caretaking in Chicago. I've just met Ida Mae and I thought it was a good idea to ask her if she had ever been on a road trip, because recently I've been dreaming about taking one myself.
I have such high hopes for my trip - it will be romantic, fun, easy, and beautiful. I tell Ida Mae all about these dreams of mine before she can even answer my question.
"Oh, Ida Mae. It will be so fun. Can you just imagine getting out on the open road? How romantic it would be? And just how lovely!"
When I leave for the day, she nods at me. She's a nice lady, Ida Mae, but sure is quiet, I think.
As I leave, her neighbor Mrs. Lintey asks me how the day went.
I told her that it was pretty uneventful. "Ida Mae sure is a quiet lady," I said, "She doesn't seem very interested in road trips, evidently".
"Well," Mrs. Lintey said, "I imagine she has had her fill of traveling around this godforsaken country. Don't you know how Ida Mae came to Chicago in the first place? She wasn't born here, of course. She was born in Chickasaw county, way down South. Life was hard then. It was a different time. What you may think of as a fun road trip was not the reality for so many people like Miss Ida Mae."
Swaddled in her baby pink nursery clothes, she looks at me. Her eyes seem young to me, though the rest of her body is bent and shriveled with age. Ida Mae is from a different time, I understand. But I am barely in my twenties - doing some elderly caretaking in Chicago. I've just met Ida Mae and I thought it was a good idea to ask her if she had ever been on a road trip, because recently I've been dreaming about taking one myself.
I have such high hopes for my trip - it will be romantic, fun, easy, and beautiful. I tell Ida Mae all about these dreams of mine before she can even answer my question.
"Oh, Ida Mae. It will be so fun. Can you just imagine getting out on the open road? How romantic it would be? And just how lovely!"
When I leave for the day, she nods at me. She's a nice lady, Ida Mae, but sure is quiet, I think.
As I leave, her neighbor Mrs. Lintey asks me how the day went.
I told her that it was pretty uneventful. "Ida Mae sure is a quiet lady," I said, "She doesn't seem very interested in road trips, evidently".
"Well," Mrs. Lintey said, "I imagine she has had her fill of traveling around this godforsaken country. Don't you know how Ida Mae came to Chicago in the first place? She wasn't born here, of course. She was born in Chickasaw county, way down South. Life was hard then. It was a different time. What you may think of as a fun road trip was not the reality for so many people like Miss Ida Mae."
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