A Song for the Season

Stranded

Inside the van, everything goes quiet except for the wind driving snow against the glass. There isn’t another car in sight.

After several failed attempts to get a call through, Zane asks Dad what to do. Dad remembers a service station and hotel sign a few miles back. One of them should stay with Tenney and Logan while the other walks for help. Zane offers to go, but since Dad has his winter boots on, he insists on going instead. Fear chills Tenney straight through, but Dad tells her quietly that they don’t have a choice. Zane pulls a flashlight from the van, and Dad zips a reflective jacket over his coat and heads into the storm, promising he’ll be back soon.

Tenney tries to steady her breathing, picturing Dad trudging through the freezing dark. “He’ll be okay,” Logan says firmly, like it’s the only thing in the world he knows for sure. “You don’t know that,” Tenney replies. Then Logan sniffles, tears on his cheeks. Surprised, she asks if he’s okay. “Not really,” he admits. She tries to reassure him about Dad walking through the snow, but Logan explains that isn’t what’s bothering him. The last few days have just been really hard.

Tenney insists she understands; she’s been homesick, too. Logan shakes his head; she doesn’t get it. His little brother, Jude, has been calling nonstop, asking when he’s coming home. Logan remembers doing the same thing years ago, since his own dad toured constantly. Back then, he assumed being gone so often meant life on the road was amazing. Instead, this tour has shown him it means missing out on so much that mattered at home. He wonders why his dad would keep choosing touring over him and Jude if it isn’t glamorous.

Tenney’s heart aches for him. She asks why he never said anything sooner. Logan admits he tried, once in Franklin and again in Knoxville. But each time, he figured she wouldn’t understand since she’d seemed so relentlessly upbeat. Tenney confesses that she was only acting that way to keep her from thinking about everything she was missing at home.

Understanding fills Logan’s eyes. He says he’d blamed their technical problems for everything falling apart, but realizes now the only thing getting in the way was him. Tenney tells him not to say that; they’d both been sad about being away from home, and just reacted differently.

Tenney wishes they had talked sooner. Logan laughs bleakly, asking if she means before the snowstorm. Tenney promises their next tour will be way better. “Maybe,” Logan replies, then admits he isn’t sure he wants to find out. Before she can ask what he means, a loud honk cuts through the silence, and bright lights sweep over them. Zane waves his arms as a hulking tow truck rolls to a stop, and Dad hops out. “Dad!” Tenney exclaims.

Everyone piles into the snow as the adults hitch the van, then crowd into the truck’s warm cab. The engine rumbles to life beneath them. Tenney settles under Dad’s arm, relieved, while he promises they’ll be back on the road with plenty of time for her last show. She peers at Logan, silent at the window, and resolves that this final show has to count, her last chance to prove to him the tour was worth it.