There was no escaping it, the car was out of gas. Dotty West eased the car
off onto the side of the road and when it stopped she laid her head on the
steering wheel.
A drowsy Jamie lifted his head from the back of the car. "Grandma, are we
there yet?"
Dotty looked back to see Phillip raising his head from the back of the
station wagon as well. "This doesn't look like the campground."
Dotty banged her head gently on the steering wheel. Now she knew what she
had forgotten to do that had been nagging at the back of her mind all
afternoon. Fill the gas tank. Such an important thing and she had
forgotten.
"Boys, it seems as if we are going to have to go get help. We've run out of
gas."
Phillip hopped over the seat next to his brother. "How far will we have to
go?"
"I'm not sure. Let's lock up the car and start walking." She eased out of
the car and grabbed her purse from the seat. "We could have a long trip
ahead of us to find a gas station."
Dotty and the boys started walking along the rural road. She was familiar
with many parts of Virginia, but she had made the mistake of trying a
shortcut. She had no idea what was on this road other than what she could
see on her map.
She tucked the map into her purse when she saw that they were coming up on a
road sign. The boys hurried along the side of the road and stopped in front
of the sign to wait for her.
"Grandma, it says Greenville five miles." Phillip said. "I bet if we ran
we could get there really fast."
"I bet I can beat you," Jamie replied. "Come'on Grandma we can't let him
win." With that Phillip and Jamie took off.
"Five miles? You want me to run five miles?" Dotty shouted incredulously.
But the boys couldn't hear her, they were already too far ahead.
She tucked her purse tightly under her arm and muttered, "I am getting too
old for this nonsense."
"Boys! Boys!" She shouted as she started running behind them.
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