Imbued

From the story, Road Trip

As in:

Inasmuch as there was really only one way to go, that was the way they went. It was north on Highway 163, still caroming their way through the Navajo Nation, just west of the epicenter of the Four Corners.

“Some days I think I want my life back,” Patrick said.

He let his statement hang in the air, as if it were a question, as if he was going to answer it.

“I don’t,” Amanda interjected, with a tone of defiance.

“Me too,” Elsie said, as she continued to drive.

Rick, whose exhaustion from the day’s excitement had caused him to begin to drift off to sleep, suddenly perked up.

“I’m sorry,” he said, glancing over at Elsie, “are you agreeing with Patrick or with Amanda?”

“Mandy,” she replied.

“Oh,” Rick said, tilting the word upward and drawing it out a bit, so as to convey that he was receiving her answer as an important bit of new information. “No regrets?”

Elsie licked her lips.

“No. None. We all needed to change.”

“Well,” Patrick injected, “we all needed a job.”

“No,” Elsie said. “We needed to get our heads out our ass and see the country.”

Because it was unlike Elsie to use vulgarity to make a point, the conviction with which she spoke it caused Jake to start laughing.

“So you’re committed to change?” Rick asked.

“I am imbued with change,” Elsie said, adjusting her sunglasses.

“But have you changed your position on the Beach Boys?” Rick asked.

Jake laughed out loud again, knowing what was about to happen.

Elsie looked over at Rick and just shrugged.

Rick plugged his iPod into the console and, within seconds, the car filled with the stunningly out-of-this-world tones of The Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble of Leningrad singing “California Girls.”

As the song was blaring, the Vue with the motto “Hope is the Thing with the Feathers” passed into Utah, headed for a civilized dinner at a first-rate diner beneath the twin pillars in the “Valley of the Gods.”

And they were all singing along joyously, even Elsie.

When the song was over, she let out a whoop.

“Change is good my friends,” she exclaimed. “Change is good.”