All Roads Eventually Lead To Home

All Roads Eventually Lead To Home

“I can’t wait to get out of here!”

Bev stared at Cal when he said that.

“I agree high school is so lame. I can’t wait to go to university!”

“I’m not going to college or university,” Cal told her.

“Why? I know your grades are really good!”

“My folks can’t afford to send me out of state to school.”

“Did you try for scholarships?”

“My folks wouldn’t let me. They see them as charity.”

“What are you going to do then?” Bev wanted to know.

“I just want out of this poky town that has no opportunities and even less new people.”

“Where will you go?”

“I don’t much care as long as it’s as far away from here as I can get!”

“Well, good luck with that,” Bev said sincerely.

It wasn’t long until she heard what happened to Cal. He’d suddenly hitched out of town.

“Where did he go?” she asked the hometown friend who told her.

“No idea. One day he was there, the next he was gone.”

Off and on, through her college years, Bev would wonder about Cal. When she graduated with a Master of Education, she began looking for work. Finally, when she couldn’t find anything elsewhere, she decided to go back home and teach at the community college.

While she was setting up the lecture hall, she noticed a shabbily dressed man come in. There was something familiar about him. She stared so long at him, he finally looked up from the seat in the front row where he had taken a seat.

“Cal?” she said incredulously.

“Bev?” he came back with.

“I never thought I’d see you back here!”

“I quickly found out that all roads lead to home in the end,” he said shyly.