The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Happiness
I met her while hitching through the western states.
She said she was ‘drifting’, if I heard her straight.
She gave me a lift into Reno, where we stopped.
We shared a room to save on the cost.
We decided to travel together. We needed jobs.
We found them in a casino. We beat the odds.
I worked security and she was a dealer.
We lasted about a year till long hours defeated her.
We pulled up stakes and traveled on.
Ended up in San Jose. I got work before dawn.
She painted and sold them on the street.
Also at flea markets and at artist meets.
We liked where we were. It was quiet.
Till we got caught up in a Trump riot.
We decided to look for greener pastures.
I remembered a little place from last year.
We ended up in Pahrump. Not a lot here.
Desert like country. Hot . I needed a cold beer.
Little work to be found. Fast food or car wash.
In two months we left, at any cost.
We headed for an ocean side town.
Much cooler for us all around.
Fishing and work with seafood was good.
We had a good time doing what we should.
We came to depend on one another.
Before she knew, I was more than a brother.
She became the most important thing to me.
We stayed six months, before we got itchy feet.
We went east and ended up down south.
The Alabama food was watering to our mouth.
We ended up in New Orleans during Marti Gras.
Things were kicked back. There was no boss.
We liked it and wanted to stay for awhile.
We found good jobs and were living in style.
I started thinking of maybe settling down.
She looked at me with a funny frown.
She really didn’t have much more to say.
Then, came that wonderful, fateful day.
She told me she was in a ‘family’ way.
She was pregnant, she meant to say.
So, we decided to marry and settle down.
This would be our final town.
I am not sorry for the way it turned out.
You will never see me sit and pout.
I had all I wanted the day I met her.
It was the end of her ‘drifting’, that’s for sure.
We now have two boys, who are doing fine.
I sit back with a glass of wine.
I said, “Let’s make a toast to their future.”
“If they ‘drift’, let them be true to her.”
“For they will find the girl of their dreams.”
“Let them enjoy the road and all it brings.”
—————————R. W. Johnson—–(2016)