the end

I curled myself into the tightest ball I could possibly contort my body into. I knew that I would be too big to fit under there much longer.
“Dad, turn up the heat, please!”
I sighed in contentment as the warm air flowed over me. My belly was full from the fried zucchini and chicken fried steak we had just consumed at The Red Barn. We had about half an hour longer before we would arrive back home.
I glanced at Mom in the backseat of the van, she smiled at me. I returned to my spot on the floor, under the dashboard on the passenger side. Dad was singing along with ‘The Happy Goodman Family.’ “I wouldn’t take nothin’ for my journey, now. Gonna make it to Heaven somehow. Oh, I wouldn’t take nothin’ for my journey now. . .”
My eyelids grew heavy as the heat intensified. It made my skin tingle. As I began to drift off to sleep, I thought about one day when I was grown and getting married to someone. What would be like to kiss somebody? To have them hold me? I uttered a little prayer that I would one day have a little brother, even though I didn’t dare believe that it would come true. I decided on which ‘My Little Pony’ I was going to purchase when Mom and Dad took me to the toy store the next day. I fell asleep, snuggled up by the heater at the foot of the passenger chair, my red hair falling onto the dirty foot-mat, my skin turning red from the heat, my heart full of dreams and hopes. I fell asleep, there on the floor of our van, completely and utterly safe.