The Last Bus To Crawford Texas

The Last Bus to Crawford Texas

by Rod Jones Artist-Writer

“What a stupid song! I wish it would just leave my head! Over and over, ‘Welcome to the Hotel California.’ I heard that song once and it keeps repeating itself. Why do I keep singing it and saying the stupid words? I’ve never even been in California, let alone knowing if there really is a Hotel California.” This was the irritating conversation that Kaitlin was having with herself as she sat on the bus seat heading to Crawford Texas.

Kaitlin was married to a man named Delbert Johnson, who most people he knew, called him just Dell. Depending on her level of irritability on any given day Kaitlin referred to him disrespectfully as Delbutt! Although Delbert and Kaitlin had been married for nearly 40 years they never really lived together with the exception of the first year they were together. It was one of those love-hate relationships that advice columnists often referred to in women’s magazines, particularly when they were doling out mostly questionable marital advice. For whatever the reason, they stayed married. Never had any children, rarely talked on the phone. As a married couple they were autonomously self-sufficient. But God only knows why they never divorced, never remarried, in fact they never even dated anyone else.