She Started to Cry

America is a beautiful thing…

Ashley and Desiree are sisters on a road trip from Oklahoma City to St. Louis. They were packing their minivan in the parking lot of the Edelweiss this morning as I was strapping down my gear. Ashley walked over to say that she liked the color of the Revival, that her stepdad had a Harley but that it was all black and she didn’t like it. She asked if she could take a picture.

Ashley

We were chatting as fellow travelers do, knowing that we will never meet again. I asked her if she’d heard the news this morning (regarding SCOTUS reversal of Roe). And she started to cry. Ashley was raped when she was fifteen by someone she knew and that having the baby had been a choice, her god damned choice. Her daughter is now 13 and wants to be a lawyer.