I had a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, and although the appointment didn’t last as long as expected, I went home anyway. Along my route home is a McDonald’s. It’s set a bit back from the road, with the parking lot out front. It’s really a terrible location for pulling in and out of traffic, but they get a lot of walk ups, as it’s located between two dorm complexes. Usually there is so much traffic that I don’t even notice the place as I drive by. But today there were no oncoming cars, so I had an unobstructed view of the store and its parking lot.

The lot was mostly empty, so it was hard not to notice the old man leaning up against his car, eating a hamburger. He was especially noteworthy because he looked like the kind of old man you always expect to see in West Virginia, but never quite do: John Deere cap, old t-shirt under an even older flannel shirt, beat-up work pants, and scuffed boots. The car was one of those old Ford Escorts you see everywhere around here, with the red paint gone dull, and rust coming through in spots. The driver’s side window was open, and through it I could see a woman.

She looked not like the stereotypical old woman, but instead was the woman you always see at Wal Mart. Straight brown hair in a large barrette on the top of her head, and then pulled back into a pony tail. A pink shirt was all I could see of her clothes—that hot pink color that no woman her size should wear. She was sitting in the passenger seat, eating her meal, staring straight through the windshield, while the man leaned against the back door, staring out at traffic.

It was a strange sight, the two of them eating like that.

Was it an argument that drove him out of the car, unwilling to remain one second more than necessary in the car with his daughter? Or were they husband and wife, on a long trip, stopping only to get a quick bite to eat. He had to get out of the car to stretch his legs, even if just for a bit, but she was tired and wanted only to eat and get back on the road?

Then they were gone and I couldn’t have seen them in my rearview mirror even if I’d looked.