Carol got on the bus, sat down, and quietly wept.

The front left wheel of Jack’s shopping cart spun in circles, making it hard to push up the incline and over the rough asphalt. He leaned his hip into the left side of the handle, and it went more or less straight. It was time to find a new cart.

We eat scrambled eggs around the scratched wood kitchen table, wiping the sleep from our eyes and kneading it from our necks. We slather sunscreen on the babies’ puckered faces, we haul the pink-and-

Herman by Marijke Hillmann is part of our series Africa in Short. Each month we have a new story from Hillmann about the time she spent in Africa.

He knew before he entered that the sound was leaking. Fork clanging plate, glass clinking glass, laughter. It travelled under and through the door, into the hallway. It seeped

Log onto www.mapquest.com or fire up your GPS:

Start in Michigan.

Rush through route Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona to avoid possible Rocky Mountain winter storms while parents follow in moving van.

End in California

That was the best I?d felt since we?d been together, waiting for the crash. Snow whipped past us as we started to reach 50 mph. I turned on a song I knew he hated. I took my hand out from under his and opened my window to feel the flurries slap my face. He asked me what the hell I was doing, and that?s when we heard it.