The Heart of Dixie

Today was me and my mama's night to spend together. We went to Wal-Mart to get a birthday present for my cousin. I like riding in the car because I get to talk to my mama all I want, and she has to listen.

"Mama?" I asked her.

"Yes, Stephen?"

"How far away is Kansas?"

"I don't know, Stephen." Mama says "I don't know" a lot. Usually when she says that, I tell her to think, but sometimes she still doesn't know even after she thinks.

"Are you going to go to Kansas?" Mama asked me.

"Yes, when I am a man."

"When will you be a man?"

"When I am 22 years old I will be a man. When you are a man you are old enough to drive a car."

"What type of car will you drive?"

"I don't know. You pick," I told her. Sometimes making decisions is hard, so I have my mama do it for me.

"How about a pink car?"

"There aren't pink cars."

"You could paint it pink."

"I want a red turbo 4x4 truck. Red is my first favorite color and blue is my second. Bapa has a black turbo 4x4 truck. I will drive one like his."

"Okay."

"Mama?"

"Yes, Stephen?"

"When I am a man, I will live in Montgomery, Alabama."

"Why do you want to live in Montgomery?" Mama asked me.

"Because it is the Heart of Dixie. That is the state nickname. And it is on the first page of the United States Road Atlas." Sometimes mamas ask silly questions.

"Will Buckler live with you?"

"No, Buckler will live in York, Alabama. It is the only city in the state that starts with a Y. But he can fly over to Montgomery whenever he wants to visit me. When he flies, he will fly over the limited access highways, so he will know how to get there."

"Okay. That's good."

"But Sally will live with me." I say, Sally is one of my friends.

"Why will Sally live with you?"

"Because we will be married."

"Does she know this?" Mama asked me.

"No, Sally doesn't know yet." And my sister, Kathryn doesn't either. She thinks she's going to marry me because she says I'm her prince, but I'm not.

I think Mama was getting tired of talking about Alabama, so she changed the subject. "Stephen, what treat do you want to get from Wal-Mart?"

"What type of treats do they have at Wal-Mart?"

"You could get some candy, or a drink, or an Icee."

"I want to get rootbeer, Sam and Ethan like rootbeer. When we were driving to Baha Camp, we stopped at a COFFEE shop, but I didn't get coffee. I got chicken nuggets and sprite. Sam and Ethan got rootbeer."

"Okay, you can get some rootbeer."

"The coffee shop also had beer," I said in a whispered tone. I wasn't sure if Mama had ever been somewhere that had beer. Beer is not good to drink. "I didn't drink the beer though, it isn't good for you."

"I'm glad you didn't drink the beer. It is not good to drink beer."

"The coffee shop was in Filmore. Did you know that Filmore used to be the capitol of Utah? It isn't anymore though. Now it is Salt Lake City. Filmore is more in the middle of Utah but Salt Lake Ciy is a lot bigger. " I want to make sure Mama know as much about geography as I do.

"Yes, it is."

"When we were driving to Zion's National Park for Baha Camp we mainly drove on principle highways. We drove on Veteran's Memorial Highway. That is another name for Interstate I-15. How close are we to Springville?"

"We are there now." Mama says right after we exit off the Veteran's Memorial Highway.

"We won't be in Springville until we turn right."

We turned right.

"Okay," I said, "We turned right, now we are in Springville." After we turned right we were at Wal-Mart. I bet Mama was really happy that we got to talk on the way to Wal-Mart. And we got to talk the whole time we were in the store and on the way back too.