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park although she was stunned that thought had crossed her mind.
    Within an hour, they were driving away, down the open roads through the rolling green and tan fields. The country roads were full of pot holes that rattled the car as it went along. Some roads were practically down to dirt with a few chunks of asphalt still embedded here and there. Chris slalomed around them, Jess laughing and bracing herself each time she thought he’d hit one. As he tossed them back and forth, she shrieked with laughter, her hair flying in cascades around her face.
    The sun stretched her rays across the sky, bathing the clouds in a wash of heavenly light. The cornfields and cabbage patches were picture perfect. The corn was about chest height in most fields and the most perfect shade of green imaginable. They had crossed over the parkway, avoiding it all together, heading straight south into the nearby town.
    Pulling over at a roadside stand, they stocked up on firewood from a stand selling corn, tomatoes, and cords of logs wrapped together with twine. They dropped the money into the little metal box zip-tied to a PVC pipe with one end embedded into the ground. It cost almost a quarter of what the supermarket was charging when it came down to price per log and the amount of wood was nearly double what most store bundles offered.
    The comfortable quiet continued as they drove into the next township almost 15 minutes further south. The college kids were out of the area during the off season. This meant that most of the activities in the area were for all ages instead of attempting to attract the hungry, drunk, and hungover part-time residents.
    It was like Main Street USA, as they crossed the bridge to properly enter the downtown area. The buildings were two- or three-story brick structures with quaint little cloth overhangs above the first floor. The upper floors were all rented apartments, likely empty during July. The lower floors were all small local entrepreneurial businesses. Many of them were swanky, progressive art galleries and studios. Pottery was out on the sidewalk on tables. Canvases were lined up along street corners.
    Jess felt deeply relaxed as they moved through the stop-and-go traffic caused by the pedestrians randomly meandering into the street. It would have been presumably faster to get out and walk.
    After passing all the beautiful little stores with the busy customers hustling around with armfuls of artisan foods and handcrafted jewelry, they reached the Wal-Mart, parked in one of the only open spaces in the far back, and headed inside.
    Over an hour later, they emerged with ice and the ingredients to make s’mores. The parking lot was as full as ever.
    “If you hadn’t stopped to look at those t-shirts, we could have been out of there probably twenty minutes sooner.” Jess ripped open the top of the ice bag viciously and poured out its contents onto the food in the cooler.
    “Then why did you say ‘Oh, sure, honey, go right ahead’ when I asked if you minded?”
    “I didn’t think you’d take all day to do it!” Jess dumped the ice that wouldn’t fit out onto the ground.
    “Now what are you doing?”
    “I’m getting rid of what doesn’t fit. What do you think I’m doing?”
    Chris moved around the car to have a look at the discarded ice. “I could have fit that. You shouldn’t have gotten rid of it.”
    “It’s practically crushed. I doubt there’s any room left in the cooler anyway.”
    They stood glaring at each other for a minute then Chris silently walked around the driver’s side door and got in. He needed to stop and think. He needed to slow down. He had to escape the situation, but he couldn’t leave her standing in the sun in a parking lot, so he knew that if he went back to pretending to fume she’d probably let him.
    Jess threw herself into the passenger’s side. Jess brooded. So much for a relaxed little day trip to get away from the insanity they’d been experiencing. Her anger was