Workin' Them Angels
"Through with the second semester," the wolf exclaimed as he received his grades- all A's, with the exception of a withdrawal from a math course. (Math was unimportant to a History major like the wolf and he was math-illiterate so what did it matter to him?) It was the end of the spring semester for Darryl and what awaited was a much-needed three-month sabbatical, his first summer vacation since he started his college classes the fall of the previous year. As he drove from North Dallas to the bedroom community where his parents lived, his thoughts turned to freedom from an oppressive college schedule to days of lounging around, lazy days around the pool, playing video games, saying hello to the high school friends and other citizens of Allen he had left behind. And that did indeed last for a few weeks but this wolf was a creature seldom sated. After the second week of staying up long after and getting up at noon, Darryl asked his parents about a family tradition that he had grown accustomed to- the July vacation. Past vacations had included trips to Vancouver, B.C. but this one would not even require a passport.
"We're going to visit Grandpa in Washington D.C." his mother, Amy declared. "Tickets being how they are, I'll fly up there and you and your brother Chris will go along with your father on the road." This was not Darryl's first choice of vacation destinations- all the guys at his college would head south to Houston, or even more south into Mexico where the drinking age was lower. Still others were headed to that king of all vacation spots, Miami. But something- and Darryl couldn't exactly say what it was- compelled him to go along with his family to see his relatives.
He shopped for a video game and a music CD before his trip to keep him entertained on the long 700-mile trip, of which he would do some but not all of the driving. He found several "Final Fanatsy" games and Rush's new album "Snakes and Arrows", which contained a song he had grown fond of called "Working Them Angels". The opening lyric "Driving way to the east and into the past..." was an accurate reflection of what he and his father and brother were doing at that exact moment- preparing for a road trip. So the morning of May 24, 2007, the wolf's father Robert, and his brother Chris. The trip started and through miles of monotonous Texas landscape, the trio of wolves rode, with Darryl listening to the music of the new CD and playing the new video games the whole time. They stopped at a small town near the Arkansas-Tennessee border their very first night where the picturesque beauty of the town caused Darryl to remember the past.
He thought about the radio conventions his father would take him to in Mena when he was younger. Mena is a small town of about 3,000 located at the foot of a forested mountain, which on a clear day would offer a view of the valley below, all the way into Oklahoma. If Darryl had not been so obsessed with being the center of attention, the wolf would live there in that sleepy small town- this was a town that seemed to be made for relaxation and enjoyment.His memory about that place seemed to hum as he surveyed the landscape of the small town which located very close to a campus which offered much lower rates for the same college classes he was taking in Texas. That sounded enticing but he needed to be within driving distance of his parents if something ever went wrong.
The next morning came too soon and very quickly, Darryl and the male members of his family started on their way across Arkansas and into Tennessee where they encountered a close call. Near Nashville, a hulking SUV ran straight through a red light and Robert applied the breaks just in time to stop a few feet from being hit and sped through the intersection. When they finally reached their stop in southeast Virginia, they finally could catch their breaths and comprehend what happened- or rather what didn't happen. It stunned Darryl a little as he was the one driving and while he had been told he was a good cautious driver during his shorter journeys, this caused his heart to skip a few beats.
"I guess we were working them angels," the wolf said, quoting the song he had subjected his family to ever since this trip started two days ago in North Texas. It was almost unanimously decided that Robert with over 25 years of driving experience would be the driver, leaving his sons to contemplate the intense beauty of Virginia with its rolling hills, waves of land that sent the rider across the state,a dn in this case to the nation's capitol city. The hills can be so big that the driver and passenegers all felt like they would be flying and secretly, that's what Darryl wanted at this moment- to be free as a bird and not have to worry about next semesters. And able to fly wherever his heart so wished. Through what seemed like an endless and hypnotic mass of pastoral scenery, the wolves continued to drive all the way to D.C., a place which Robert had once referred to as "a wounded city".
By that evening, they would be in the city itself where Darryl's grandma and grandpa lived- their fur might have turned a lighter color years ago but in their day, no one spoke bad of them. Darryl and his immediate family spent some time with his grandparents and uncle Michael's family from Pennsylvania. Nothing seemed to go wrong and it seemed the sun was shining every day on his grandparents' beautiful home. Life was good and people were happy- no matter what else happened, there was peace and contentment in that household. The weeks passed like days and the days like hours whenever they were there- it didn't have computers or complicated video game systems but an engaging conversation about history and life experience was available every hour of the day. And the scenery was amazing as was the Chesapeake Bay crab that Grandma cooked for her guests. Sadly, after reaching that emotional plateau, Darryl and his family of wolves would have to go home to Texas at some point or he would risk missing out on college, which he actually enjoyed.
A year and a half has passed since then and things have changed. The following January after that wonderful road trip, Grandpa passed away after a life well-lived. All those conversations would be the very last things Darryl would ever say to his grandfather- a grim reality which struck him every time he played the games or listened to that CD he had picked up before the trip started or thought back to the trip itself. And the next summer, he received a phone call from his distressed mother that Uncle Michael after a lengthy divorce which saw him lose custody of his cubs and his property, had committed suicide. So that summer vacation would always stick out in his mind as the year he last saw the men who all their lives, were working them angels overtime.
And as he walked along the tightrope between past and future called the present, he would constantly peer over his shoulder at the past to see what memories he had of his grandfather. The songs and stories of these long-ago times carried him away to a better time, where Grandpa first told of him of his time in the Merchant Marines in World War II, supplying the men who fought the Japanese Empire while somehow eluding the navy of the Rising Sun across the vast and mighty Pacific. Even then his grandfather was working them angels.