Cecilia's Purse

Cecilia and I were newly weds
Driving across the United States
From California to Florida
Towing a trailer loaded
With all our worldly possessions.
One Mississippi morning
On the way there,
Cecilia left her purse
In a gas station restroom.
It wasn’t until late that night
That we discovered the loss
By which time
We had already crossed into Florida.
Cecilia prided herself
On remembering things,
But this memory ended out
Being one that she wished
She could forget.
We deduced which station it was
From our gas receipts,
Called and, sure enough,
It had been found.
Being in a rush to get to Florida
And needing the contents of her purse,
Especially the credit cards
And the cash that were in it,
And not knowing where
To have them send it to
Down in Miami,
We decided to drive back
That night and retrieve the purse.
It didn’t matter
That we were already bone tired,
We were determined
Not to upset our schedule.
We dropped the trailer
And headed back.
Making a lot better time
Without the extra load.
When we finally got there,
We found the credit cards
But the cash was gone.
Road weary and dejected,
We stopped at a dumpy old motel
Somewhere on the way back
To try to get some rest.
By then we had been driving
For over 24 hours,
And as fatigued and grumpy
As we were,
Sleep was impossible.
We were a high class delicacy
For the local bed bugs
Which were out
In a show of force.
We stayed as long
As we could stand it,
Maybe a couple hours
And finally decided
That if we couldn’t sleep,
We might as well continue driving.
We both knew
If we could survive that ordeal,
Then there was a pretty good chance
Of us making it as a couple!