Grace looked at her car’s dashboard clock as she put the key in the ignition: 6:15 pm. She was going to be just a little late, but she didn’t care about the opening acts. All she wanted was to see Maggie take the stage with Deana Timmons.
By a sheer miracle, Ronnie Parker, whose maternity leave was supposed to start that day, had managed to recruit a number of Art Education majors from the university to come to the center and supervise the children in exchange for academic credit. That allowed Grace a chance to leave early to join her family. “My gift to you, sweetie,” Ronnie told her.
Grace lost no time in getting home and cleaning up. Joe and the kids had no idea she was going to be able to meet them for most of the show, and she couldn’t wait to call and tell them that she was on the way. She’d not felt this exhilarated in quite some time.
Joe was pulling into a space in the parking garage when his cell phone began to ring.
“Hey Buddy,” Grace exclaimed.
“Hey Angelfish,” he said. “We just got to the arena. We’ll keep a look out for you.”
“Well, you won’t have to be on watch too long; I’m about 15 minutes behind you.”
“You’re kidding!” Joe put his hand over the phone to speak to the children. “Hey guys, this is your mom…”
“We know,” said Matty, dejected. “She’s gonna be late.”
“Shows you what you know, mister, she’s gonna meet us here in about 15 minutes.” The kids squealed with excitement. “Did you hear that?” Joe asked.
“Sure did,” Grace said as she pulled up to a stop light. She figured that a Friday night on the Interstate would slow her down with the combination of concert attendees and downtown night life traffic that was in abundance during this time of year. She opted for the consistent flow of Franklin Road instead. “I heard ‘em loud and clear.”
“Alright now, get off of the phone. You know I hate it when you try to talk and drive.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said teasingly as the green light gave her permission to move ahead.
There was little time to even see the ragged, weathered Camaro speeding from Harding Place at Grace’s left into the intersection. There was little time for the drunken teen behind the wheel to react to the fact that there was a red light for him, and an SUV taking her right of way through the space.