The sound of Taryn’s sigh cut through the near silence of her house. Her parents had gone to the store to pick up some groceries and left her to babysit her younger brother. However, instead of plopping herself down on the couch to spend the time watching Bugs Bunny with Aaron, she decided on productivity and sat down at her desk to plan their upcoming family road trip. This year they were planning on going to Chicago with her aunt, uncle, and their two children Asher and Lacey. Their trips were always lots of fun and incredibly memorable, but planning them was a pain and after sitting at her desk for the last hour and a half, Taryn was beginning to regret volunteering to help.

As her favorite song came on the radio she began the sing-along a subconsciously tap her pencil to the beat. She began to wonder what the Walker family road trips would be like in 20 years…


She is sitting shotgun nodding her head to the music on the radio that was clearly not chosen by her. In the driver’s seat is her husband, who is at that moment glancing at the backseat to make sure everyone is okay. In the back, her brother is in between her niece and nephew trying to keep peace in their strident fight about something unknown to the rest of the car. She smiles at him in the rearview mirror and he shakes his head, venting his annoyance at his children’s shenanigans. Taryn reaches up and starts fiddling with the radio, further exasperating the kids in the backseat, finally settling on an ‘Oldies’ station. She ignores the numerous groans coming from their vicinity and begins loudly singing along to the song that just began playing. Aaron joins in within a few seconds, when he recognizes the song, but her husband remains silent. She see the impish grin on his face and knows that he is laughing inside, but she can’t tell whether it is because their duet sounds ridiculous or because he cannot believe that this song – which was extremely popular when played at their prom not more than 19 years ago – is considered ‘Oldies’. She instantly shrugs it off and instead turns her attention to the backseat where both kids have fallen silent, seemingly mesmerized with the abundance of lyrics their dad and aunt have memorized. As the song ends, the realization that the adults in their life were once cool is apparent on the faces of both children and Taryn can’t help but let out a laugh when the younger child, a little girl, exclaims “Whoa!”

The moment is broken by the sound of the car, filled with the rest of the motley Walker crew, honking behind them and Taryn’s husband exclaiming to everyone in their car “We’re here!” As the cars park, everyone hurriedly gets out excited for the adventures to come.


Taryn snapped out of her daydream after hearing her mom, who was standing in the doorway, asking if everything went all right. She nodded her head and got back to work, reminding herself that their road trip in 20 years is a lot farther away than the one this summer, but smiling because she can’t wait for either.