Flamingo

Brrr!

The sunset on Gotomeer painted the water a luminous shade of orange touched with purple gray shadows. Edward steered the rental car along the road that skirted the lake. "Why every time we go out we end up trapped on this damned one-way road I do not know." His knuckles were white with frustration and his generous lips thinned as he spoke. "It amazes me that on an island this small you manage to get us lost." He cut a glance at his wife, Louise, beside him holding a guidebook and staring out the windshield at the wheeling gulls out over the wake of a passing fishing boat. She didn't look at her husband or offer an argument to his outrageous statement. "Of course," Edward said into the strained silence, "if you would quit giving me the wrong directions this wouldn't happen." Still not speaking, Louise rolled down her window letting in the hot, humid breeze generated by the car's movement, tossed the guidebook out, and rolled the window back up. Edward took his foot off the gas and stomped on the brake, forgetting to depress the clutch, causing the engine to stall. He turned to look at her. "Why the hell did you do that?" Louise turned her expressionless face to meet his reddening one and said, "Well, if I keep getting us lost the map must be faulty. It couldn't be your driving." She calmly faced forward again.

See you tonight unless we all freeze solid before then.
--Barbara