The blazing hot sun smothered the truck with an unbearable, suffocating heat.  Another long bead of sweat trickled down from his brow and into his mouth.  The all too salty taste brought a sour look over the young man’s face.  “Hell,” he mumbled as he blew his horn once more.

     “That boy’s just no good, Darlene,” Mama said as she turned away from the window blind.  “I just don’t know what you see in him.”

     Darlene sighed as she stepped away from the door.  The frustration of always being told to do by her parents was clearly visible, though she tried to hide it with her pretty, freckle-faced smile.  “I love him, Mama.  Isn’t that enough for you?”

     Mama shook her head and hugged her young one.  “Then I guess there’s nothing I can do to stop you.  Just don’t forget your curfew.”

     “I know, Mama.  Ten o’clock just like you and Daddy told me.  May I go now?”

     Mama released her daughter and rubbed her overwrought eyes.  “Go ahead,” she answered, “but please be careful.”

     Darlene cocked her head, smiled, and tried to comfort her mother.  “Mama, I’m sixteen.  Nothing’s going to happen to me.”  She then realized this was not good enough; Mama just stood there, waiting for a better reply.  “All right, already,” she impatiently chuckled, “I’ll be careful.  I promise.”

     The horn blared once more, for a full ten seconds.

     “He’s waiting, Mama,” she said, and kissed her mother good-bye.

     He scratched the thick stubble on his face as he stared out his window at her house.  The mass of trees made it difficult to see through any windows to see if she was on her way, or if her mother was stopping her.  He rubbed the Coke can across his sweaty forehead and drank the last swallow.  After crushing it in his hand, he dropped it out the window, onto the red-rock street below.