Free Drive Me Sane by Dena Rogers

afternoon. However, the evening had turned cumbersome again.
    After helping clean up, Tyler returned to the porch. Sera had left him to his thoughts that morning. But with the compassion he’d shown the last couple of days, she couldn’t continually ignore that he was stressed out too.
    Standing in the doorway, she looked out into the darkness. Uncle Roy lived down in a little holler, as the folks around there called it. It was a small gully carved in the hills where the sky darkened quicker than in town and the surrounding wilderness overpowered everything around, making the space feel like a box once night fell. Even after living in Cobb City for almost nine years and thinking of it as home, she still couldn’t say the word like everyone else.
Haller
, she pronounced to herself, unable to attain the accent that Eastern Kentucky folks had.
Hollow
, she said again. The word never seemed to run properly off her tongue.
    “Only eight o’clock and it’s dark already,” she said, stepping through the open door.
    • • •
    Tyler turned with Sera’s voice. He didn’t need her to remind him that they had run out of daylight. Soon the darkness would also disappear, announcing another day had arrived, which meant two things. One, he had a call to make, and two, he was one more day closer to leaving. Three weeks had sounded like forever upon his arrival, but it was passing by too quickly. There was too much to do, too much to say, and way too much to make up for in too little of time. “Just think, in a couple of months it’ll be getting dark at like six,” he replied.
    “Guess you’ll be living the high life again by then,” she said, smiling at him.
    God, how he missed that smile. She was beginning to do it often too. Not that he was complaining. He enjoyed seeing the pleasure radiating out of her. “The high life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
    Glad she’d come out, he took a seat in the swing, and then patted the spot next to him for her to sit as well.
    “Really?” she asked.
    Tyler pushed off the porch with his legs setting the swing into motion. “It gets pretty stressful and tiring and lonely.”
    “Doesn’t sound all that appealing.” She laughed.
    Tyler looked over. Her cheeks still rolled from the giggle and her eyes flew wide with curiosity. Most days, life on the road wasn’t appealing, but then—“Actually when I’m up on stage there’s no better feeling. There’s something about looking out into the crowd and focusing on someone who’s singing right along with you. They know every word and you can see in their eyes that it means something to them. Whether it’s just a memory of a good time or a loved one, it lets you know what you’re doing is right.” He paused. “It’s the before and after that wears on you. Not to mention the politics of it all.”
    “I thought the before and after would be the exciting part,” Sera said. “All the places you get to see.”
    He gave another hard push with his feet, propelling the swing backwards, then forwards again. “If I got to see them, yeah, it would be. Usually, I’m too tired to do anything before, and depending on the show, sometimes I don’t get off stage until almost midnight. By the time we’re all packed up and ready to go, it’s well into the middle of the night and hard to fall asleep from the hype of it all. Like I said, it gets stressful and tiring after a while.”
    “You forgot lonely.” Sera gave him a teasing nudge with her elbow.
    Smiling back, Tyler said, “Yeah, it gets pretty lonely too.”
    “You know, there’s medication to help you with stress. Also things that will help you sleep,” she offered facetiously, throwing Tyler’s words back at him.
    “I’m well aware of the meds, but unlike you, I don’t have a problem with taking them.”
    • • •
    Tyler’s confession surprised Sera. She turned to fully face him, to see if he was joking, and knew by the way his lips pulled tight that he