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“I haven’t even pulled out of the driveway, and you two are going at it,” Morgan said.

“It’s her fault,” Charlie and Abby said in unison.

Morgan turned around and looked at Abby.“When we’re halfway there, I’ll pull over, and you guys can switch seats.”

“Works for me,” Abby said, putting on her seatbelt.

“Okay, but don’t wake me up if I fall asleep.”Charlie smiled to herself.

Abby tapped her fingers on Charlie’s head.“No worries, I won’t let that happen.”

Charlie realized that somehow, since their mother’s death, she and her sisters had reverted to patterns that they had as children.

As Morgan began backing out of Carla’s driveway, she suddenly slammed on her brakes so hard the car made a screeching noise, and Charlie jerked forward against her seatbelt.

“Geez,” Charlie said.“What happened?”Charlie and Abby turned their heads to see what had made Morgan stop.A woman pushing a baby in a stroller was walking alongside a man carrying a toddler girl and holding another young girl’s hand.After they walked past Morgan’s car, Morgan backed out and headed down the street.

“Do you ever think about what it would’ve been like if our father had lived with us?”Morgan asked.

Charlie sat back stiffly, they usually avoided talking about him.

“I used to pretend my friends’ dads were mine,” Abby said.

Charlie relaxed her facial muscles.“When I was little, I’d go into Mom’s closet, sit on the floor, and talk to him.I’d tell him about my day, who I had a crush on, and who was mean to me.Dad always took my side.”A sad smile crept across Charlie’s face.

“I wish he would’ve taken me to the father/daughter tea in elementary school,” Morgan said, honking a little too aggressively at the car in front of her.

“I hated that day of the year.I used to tell Mom I had a stomachache and couldn’t go to school,” Abby said.“It wasn’t a total lie.”

“I played sick, too,” Charlie said.“Mom knew, but she never said anything.”

Charlie pulled a picture from her wallet that she had placed behind her driver’s license.She turned to the back seat to show it to Abby.“This was one of the few pictures Mom had of me with my dad.”It was a picture of their father holding Charlie when she was around two.“Mom didn’t know I took it from her album.”

“At least you and Morgan have memories of him,” Abby said.“I was so young when he died.”

Charlie put the picture back in her wallet.As much as she had fun teasing her younger sister, it hurt to see Abby upset.

“I wish Mom told us more about our father,” Morgan said.“Whenever I’d ask, she’d get this faraway look and start crying, so I had to stop asking.”

“Things are getting gloomy in here,” Charlie said.She turned the radio on to a nineties station to liven things up.Then, she sang loudly to Elton John’s ‘Candle in the Wind.’“…pain was the price you paid even when you died…”

“Much better,” Abby asked.

Charlie switched the station, and the song fromFriends,“I’ll Be There for You,” by The Rembrandts, came on.The women sang at the top of their lungs.When they did the hand clap, Morgan let go of the wheel for a second, and the car lurched toward the next lane.Charlie grabbed the steering wheel and righted it.

“It might be safer to stick with ballads,” Charlie said.

“Is there such a thing as an upbeat ballad?”Abby asked.

They sang almost every song that came on, and the two-and-a-half hours flew by.

“We’re halfway there,” Abby called out.“Time to switch seats, Charlie.”

“Is anyone hungry, because I’m starving,” Charlie ignored her.

“Why don’t we stop for lunch, and then you kids can switch seats afterward,” Morgan said.

Morgan got off the I-15 highway in Barstow while Abby found a Mexican restaurant nearby.The girls had always loved Mexican food.When they were kids, Carla would take them to El Torito Restaurant on their birthdays and let them order anything they wanted, including virgin banana daiquiris.