Her last final and five hours of driving behind her, Meaghan signaled her intentions to turn off the freeway at the next ramp. She needed a chance to stretch her legs as well as some caffeine if she was going to continue this trip. In the back of her Rodeo were her suitcases and a few boxes of items necessary for a summer in Silver Falls. Her studio apartment she had already leased to another student for the summer, hoping that her things would last. She pulled the Rodeo into the parking lot of a gas station and up to one of the pumps. Handing the attendant a credit card, she asked him to fill the tank. She glanced down at her cell phone, surprised—and yet not—she hadn’t heard from her father. The attendant handed her the card back. “Thanks,” she managed to get out before he moved off to another car. She waited until he returned, topped her tank, and handed her the receipt. Meaghan turned the ignition, shifted into drive, and easily maneuvered the silver car around to a parking space.

Ten minutes later, after a bathroom break, a Dr. Pepper, and some chips to snack on—who was she to argue with the need for junk food on a road trip?—she was ready to head out again. Shuffling through her CDs, she found one with a good beat that she could sing along to, inserted it into the radio, and cranked the volume up. She eased her Rodeo on to the freeway again with little trouble just as her cell phone began its merry tune. Turning down the radio with a quick flick of her wrist, she grabbed the phone, glancing down at the caller ID before she answered: her father. Perfect timing.

She sighed as she hit the accept button, shifting the phone to her left ear so she could lean her arm against the car door as she was sure this would be a lengthy conversation. “Hi, Daddy.”

“Meaghan, what do you mean, you’re going to visit your grandmother for the summer? You decided to spend the summer with me, did you not?”

No, I didn’t. You did. The voice in her head was quiet, but it seemed to be the only part of her that was willing to contradict James Edward McAllister. “I know I said I would,” Meaghan skirted his question. “I just...I received a letter from Grams yesterday, and I realized that I hadn’t seen her in forever. Please don’t be upset with me.” The silence that filled the line was so complete that Meaghan wondered if her phone had dropped the call or she had lost cell reception. “Daddy?”

“Well, I’d hoped to introduce you around. You haven’t been out to the house for a long while.” His voice held a tone of reproach. And so the game began. Meagan could feel the acid in her stomach begin to churn.”

“I know, but with my beginning veterinary school this fall…”

“That’s another thing, Meaghan, that we need to discuss. I don’t know that my daughter should…”

Seeing an exit ahead, Meaghan decided that finding a place to pull over to have this conversation might be a good idea. “But you agreed that I should finish my degree. After all, what will a Bachelor’s Degree in Pre-Vet do for me if I don’t go on? And that means four years wasted.” Her father was a stickler for managing time wisely, and to acknowledge that his daughter had wasted four years was something he wouldn’t be able to stomach. Honestly, Meaghan didn’t know how her mother had dealt with him for so many years. “Even if I don’t go into practice once I finish, at least I will have the degree, right?” The battle to start her own practice would come later, once she had finished her degree.

“Hmmm.” The sound carried strong disapproval. She could almost see his brow arching in censure as he undoubtedly sat in his oversized leather desk chair, the chair that should have been welcoming but instead was imposing, threatening.

Why is he fighting me on this? Meaghan wondered, trying to marshal her thoughts into a suitable reply. If she said the semester was too stressful and she needed time away, she’s be adding coal to his fire of not continuing with school in the fall. If she said she hadn’t agreed to come home, she’d be the ungrateful daughter. There seemed to be only one way to settle him. I’m sorry about this, Grams. “I called Grams yesterday, planning to tell her that I couldn’t make it.” A lie, she knew, but in the long run, what could it hurt? “But she sounded so… Oh, I don’t know… frail, I guess. I couldn’t live with myself, Daddy, if something happened and I hadn’t visited her in so long, especially not after Mom…” She allowed her voice to trail off, thinking, There, that should settle him down. Before her father could get in another word, she added, “And weren’t you telling me the other day that you had to take that trip to Europe? Something about the factory in Italy, wasn’t it?” Actually, it had been Marla who had let that piece of information slip.

She could tell from the pause before her father answered that he was upset. “Meaghan, you can’t just drop all of your plans to hare off on an adventure simply because you want to. You have responsibilities to this family, commitments to keep. That is all part of being a responsible adult.”

“And as Grams is a part of this family, I feel it my duty to see how she’s fairing. I know it seems sudden to you, but really, I’ve come home every Christmas to you in the past four years, but you’ve been present for only one of those Christmases.” She shook her head. Now was not the time. “I’m sorry, Daddy, but I need to see Grams this summer. I’m sorry that you don’t approve, but that’s all I can say. I feel that I’m needed there.”

“Then I suppose it’s your decision.” In the background on her father’s end, Meaghan could hear someone had come in. “I have to go now, Meaghan; I’ve a meeting I must attend.” And without even waiting for her good-bye, Meaghan heard the sound of her father’s receiver being set back into its cradle.

“Some things never change,” she whispered to herself.