Melissa Good: Tropical Convergence

Dar watched the Lexus' powerful headlights carve up the road ahead of them for a long moment, and then she turned her head toward Kerry. "How old were you?"

"High school," Kerry replied. "Why?"

"Hm." Dar tapped her thumb against the steering wheel. "Ever think maybe she was interested in you?"

Kerry's brow creased. "Well, yeah--I mean, I said she was, Dar," she replied, then paused when she watched Dar's eyebrow hike up expressively. Realization hit, and she inhaled in slight surprise. "Oh. You mean...that kind of interested? Like...romantically?"

"Uh huh." Dar returned her attention to the road, flicking her eyes to the passing sign and noting its contents. "Wouldn't surprise me. You were cute in high school," she drawled, with a slight smile. "I've seen pictures."

Kerry remained absolutely silent for a few minutes, sucking absently on the neck of the YooHoo bottle as she watched the shadowed trees flash by. Finally, she snorted a little, half surprised and half disgusted. "Never would have crossed my mind," she admitted. "I think I...Brian and I had just started going out. I wouldn't even call it dating. It wasn't that serious. I probably would have freaked out if she'd..."

"Tried to seduce you?" Dar stretched out her free arm and laid it over Kerry's shoulders. "She'd have been an idiot, given your folks, but..." She scratched Kerry's neck with her fingertips. "You were really an adorable kid."

Kerry blushed slightly. "You know, I really never even thought anything like that. By that time, I'd learned just how far people would go to get in with my father, I just..." She exhaled. "Assumed she was more of the same."

"Well, maybe she was." Dar sensed her partner's discomfort. "I was only presenting another point of view." She tugged on Kerry's earlobe. "Want a pit stop?" She pointed to a sign indicating a rest stop ahead. "It's all commercial now, but I can show you where they used to sell the tackiest Florida souvenirs this side of Key Largo."

Kerry relaxed, and finished off the chocolate soda. "Sure," she agreed. "We've got plenty of time."

Dar signaled and pulled to the left, preparing to leave the highway.

After a second, she glanced at Kerry, not surprised to find herself being studied by those sea green eyes. She winked at her partner and was rewarded by a grin, which she returned.

The ride was turning out to be a darn sight more interesting than she'd remembered it.

PEOPLE WERE SO funny. Kerry leaned against the wall and watched some of their fellow travelers walk by. They were pretty much oblivious to everything on their way to get food, or drinks, or relieve themselves, and yet virtually every other one of them paused to look at the figure studying the turnpike map on the wall.

Of course, Kerry was doing the same thing, but she felt she had an innate right to, since the sleek body wrapped in faded denim and cotton tank top belonged to her partner. Dar's jeans were the old, ripped ones Kerry had found way back when for their biker school reunion. She had her tank top tucked in them and boy, she looked good.

She'd recently gotten her second summer haircut, and it left most of her shoulders bare. The last few months of their life had been a lot of work, true, but almost every weekend spent down at the cabin and their new gym classes had given Dar a deeper tan and added a little more muscle to her tall frame.

Mm.

The rest stop was an interesting combination of retail outlet and tourist hard pitch. Kerry wandered around in the main lobby, examining the racks of leaflets as she sucked on a cone full of frozen strawberry yogurt. Florida was definitely both tourist driven, and eclectic, and she riffled through advertisements for things as varied as a mystery house where things ran uphill, to Monkey Jungle, to Weeki Watchee. "Paladar?"

"Yes?" Dar's voice erupted from right behind her, even after all this time making Kerry jump. "You rang?"

"What the heck is a Weeki Watchee?" Kerry selected the lurid pamphlet from the rack and held it up. "It looks like a mermaid farm."

"Sorta," Dar agreed. "It's a place where mermaids give shows, and sell trinkets."

"Mermaids?" Her partner eyed her. "Not manatees?"

"Mermaids," Dar assured her, pointing at the colorful page. "Women in fish tail costumes with big breasts."

Kerry stared at the advertisement. "And people go there? Really?"

"Well." Her partner examined the ad. "They have nice gardens, too, and I think a snack bar."

Kerry giggled, and wandered off, shaking her head. The rest stop was a relatively small place, with a central lobby that had restaurants off either side, and a set of surprisingly clean restrooms. There was also a gift shop, where you could, if for some reason you had forgotten to purchase candy oranges or bright pink flamingo Christmas lights somewhere else, obtain those last minute gifts to bring back home with you.

Hm. "Snow globes." Kerry selected one and shook it, amused by the white plastic flakes drifting down on the palm trees and beach. A flash of motion caught her eye and she glanced to one side, spotting her own reflection in the mirrored back of the display case.

The neatly pressed, carefully ironed and tucked prep she'd once been now was gone. Kerry felt her eyebrows lifting as she reviewed her cutoff, ragged shorts and long, faded T-shirt.

Correction, long faded T-shirt that didn't even belong to her. She'd also let her hair grow out longer than usual, not really out of control, but giving it a touch of shagginess she hadn't had since she'd been small. The overall effect, given her tan and the sun bleaching of her already pale locks, was that of a beach rat caught out shopping.

"So, rat...get shopping," Kerry cheerfully directed herself, toasting her reflection with her yogurt.

She spotted a stuffed alligator and picked it up, finding herself smiling at its toothy cotton visage. She tucked the toy under her arm and continued browsing. To her booty, she added a package of chocolate covered orange slices and a T-shirt before she dropped it all down on the counter and removed her wallet from the back pocket of her shorts. "Hi."

"Hi," the cashier replied. "Yawannalotta?"

Kerry blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Yawannalotta? Big this week."

At a total loss, Kerry instinctively looked around for her native guide, who plunked down a twenty dollar bill on the counter. "She'll take three," Dar pronounced, "and take the rest of this Floridiana out of that."

"Three of what?" Kerry whispered.

"Sure." The cashier took the money and rang up Kerry's purchases. She gave Dar back some change, then punched in some numbers in a black machine nearby and handed over the resulting pink and white tickets. "There ya go. Ya'll have a great old day."

"Thanks." Dar took the tickets, the change, the bag, and a totally befuddled Midwesterner and hauled them all out of the gift shop and out into the lobby. "Here. Put your Lotto tickets away. If you win on 'em, I get ten percent."

"My what?" Kerry took the tickets and examined them. "Oh!" She nibbled her cone. "Jesus, you know in all this time down here I never bothered to buy one of these things?" She followed Dar outside, trading the stinging chill of the air conditioning for the warm soup of the night air. "Thank you for buying my junk, sweetheart. You didn't have to do that. I've got my wallet."

Next to them, a minivan with Dade County plates had just parked, and the side door slid open allowing a gaggle of children to emerge. They bolted for the doors to the building, with a harried looking woman chasing after them. In the back of the van Mickey Mouse droppings were squeezed into every square inch.

A man got out of the driver's side and shut the door with an air of martyred exhaustion. He glanced at Kerry and Dar and gave them a civil nod before he trudged after his family.