A Song for the Season

On the Road

Once they’re back on the highway, Zane pops in a bluegrass CD, and Franklin fades into the distance behind them. Inspiration hits Tenney. She’ll write something fun for the holiday jam. With her guitar packed away, she takes out her songwriting journal and scribbles some words down to try to spark inspiration: holly, Santa Claus, mistletoe, sleigh bells. But between Dad and Zane chatting up front and Logan’s knee bouncing beside her, concentrating is difficult.

Tenney glances over at Logan, hunched over his phone, and asks what he’s doing. Texting, he mutters, impatient. Hoping to shake him out of his mood, she suggests a road trip game her family always plays, I Spy, and he only grunts, which she takes as a yes. When a billboard for Auntie Em’s Pies flashes past, she calls out that she spies something delicious, but Logan mutters that he’s busy. She gives him a friendly nudge, and he glances up just long enough to say yes, tersely, before refocusing on his phone. Annoyance flickers through her, but she lets it go. She dozes off, worn out from the drive, and Dad wakes her when they arrive.

Their hotel sits on a landscaped hill above the highway on the edge of Knoxville, and the sight of it excites Tenney, reminding her of a family trip to Florida, the last time she stayed anywhere like it. Logan keeps glancing around, too, as if worried he’ll miss something. He points out the vending machines and snack bar before asking hopefully about a pool. Zane jokes there isn’t one, though the hotel does have a business center, which gets a laugh out of everyone but Logan. They check in and head up to their rooms, where Dad and Tenney take one room while Zane and Logan settle into another down the hall.

Chocolate chip cookies wait on the pillows of Tenney and Dad’s room, and the two beds remind Tenney of a pillow fight with Aubrey back in Florida. She asks Dad if he wants to call home, and soon they’re video-chatting with the family.

Mason asks how the tour is going, but before Tenney can answer, Aubrey cuts in, exclaiming that it must be incredible. Tenney downplays the trouble from the Franklin show, then steers the conversation toward home. Aubrey reports on rehearsing for the family’s Howl-iday Ramble, a new reindeer antler headband for Waylon, a run-through of “The Holly and the Ivy,” and a last-minute decision to have Mom play Autoharp instead of mandolin.

Listening to Mom and Aubrey tease each other, Tenney feels a twinge of homesickness. She tries to remind herself that touring beats a family jam session.

Partway through the call, Logan knocks on the door, but catching Tenney mid-conversation, he turns shy and backs off, promising to catch up tomorrow. Once the call wraps up, Dad heads out to stretch his legs before dinner, inviting Tenney along. She stays behind with her notebook, scribbles down a lyric, then pulls out her guitar and works out a chord progression, a pretty, yearning melody more like a ballad than a Christmas song. By the time Dad returns, the sky outside has turned coral and pumpkin. Tenney realizes she has the beginnings of a real structure, one that leaves her feeling like the rest of the tour might be just as bright.