The Departure 3: You call? U-haul.

Rose: "So, I didn’t think Merry really intended to leave permanently, did she? I thought they were just going to work on their marriage."

Paula: "Well, Merry thought so, too."

Rose: "So, why is it that everything just ended."

Paula: "Well, Rose….as with most things, it's a story."

Paula: "I mean, Merry really left very quickly. The marriage just blew up!"

Paula: "It wasn’t really that bad, just some inappropriate fighting habits that I won’t get into. But, it just wasn’t worth 'War of the Roses' if you know what I’m alluding to."

Rose: "Yes, understood. But Synopsis…."

Paula: "You know what they say, 'Folks with few vices, have few virtues.' Well, they both had some vices and when indulging in ego and personality, the two did not interact well.”

Rose: "Okay, specifically what happened? I mean just before the Departure."

Rose: "Well, as previously mentioned, this all happened after the trip to Santa Fe and their rendezvous (The Rancher, Merry, and the musician) with the drummer…And, Merry’s carrot, of course, 'looking at houses in Santa Fe.'”

Paula: “Whaddaya mean, Carrot???”

Rose: “Well, wasn’t that always Merry’s concern? That she didn’t have a community…and, being 6-7 hours from Kansas City, Denver, Dallas and Santa Fe, which do you think Merry would choose?”

Paula: “That’s not so clear, she loved Kansas City.”

Rose: “But, the driving…come now, 54 highway or Springer, New Mexico, what’s more the style and ease for living on a ranch. It just made sense, it was the closest vacation spot.”

Rose: "And, wasn't it a carrot? Something to dangle in front of Merry to make her 'stay in the game' but something that never would happen...for her to have a 'place' of her own where it wasn't part of a syndicate, [for want of a better word]."

Paula: “OK, back to the story. She got home, begged that they both wouldn’t indulge in their vices and it was not pretty. Merry did announce that she would not be going to Denver to the Cattleman’s Convention, but that she needed to tend to her mailing that was necessary to launch her website. SHE, at least, felt that this was a priority. And, given the role of wives at a Cattleman's Association Meeting, or at least in this family, no one would really notice including the rancher minus the airplane ride."

And, the daughter, let’s call her Lee, was going along for the trip, so it really didn’t matter. The Rancher likely was more pleased with going alone or at least with their daughter.”

Rose: “So, he didn’t suspect?”

Paula: "No, of course not. This gathering of 'cattlefolks' is a bastion of manlihood. He was gearing up...I'm sounding nasty, but you know what I mean. All that testosterone banging it around in Denver."

Paula: “Oh, Rose, you call me out on everything and cut to the punch line. Yes, Merry was plotting to leave. But only in the last 24 hours.”

Rose: “How did she actually do it?”

Paula: “She enlisted two friends. One was an antiques re-seller in Meade. And there are other co-tanget stories with both of these people that I simply do not have time to go into. The other was a country club Manager who had actually served at the Carriage Club in Kansas City and in Garden City, Kansas. He even knew Merry’s Grandmother!”

Paula: “I won’t say more to protect their privacy but they did help both physically move things into a u-haul and best, to edit out the good stuff that actually was all from pre-marriage and Merry’s family. She left anything acquired jointly and even those pieces of furniture acquired when she was working.”

Rose: “And…”

Paula: “Well, what else do you need to say? She loaded stuff up in a u-haul (with all of the ranch hands watching) and prepared to leave.”

Paula: “But, a funny thing happened that was foretelling…”

Rose: “Yes?”

Paula: “She was frantically trying to make her deadline. It had snowed so the Rancher had to leave a day late, Thursday. So, she had onlyThursday, Friday and Saturday to quickly move her life (temporarily so she thought) to another place.

Rose: “And?”

Paula: “She was moving the Rancher’s father’s furniture from the guest house to the main house, the headquarters where they lived. This was so she could take her Grandmother’s furniture without it looking barren in the home. And, she mis-placed the keys to the u-haul. It was cold, she was in a hurry!”

Rose: “So what on earth did she do?”

Paula: “Well, not to be deterred, her friend drove into the u-haul dealership to get another key to the truck. And, there’s more drama….just as this friend was pulling up to the house with the new set of keys so Merry could speed off, who walks in but The Rancher. He had a look on his face that Merry had never seen before….

Rose: “Describe it….”

Paula: “Well, kind of a head turning slowly, eyes narrowing, lips pursed kind of look. I think Merry thought it was some kinda’ fury/amusement but at the time, he almost seemed impressed. He even said, ‘you’ve been planning this, haven’t you?'”

Paula: “Well of course, in Merry’s mind, she really had stayed to work on getting out the website mailers….they were very cute, Valentine’s Day cards actually, and said, “you are always on my mind…Willie Nelson.” So, of course she hadn't been planning this any more than any wife plans it (if you know what I mean)."

"She was in one of her manic modes likely, full of anger and just deciding after a long three months (if you read the Thanksgiving Departure 1 & 2 previous to this) that “fleeing” the scene was always prettier than anything that would have happened if she stayed in place. Yet, walking away was a new game for her. It was met with great rage."

At this dramatic moment of the meeting of parties + friend, Merry’s friend said, “Hey Rancher, Merry just said that Lacy needed some of this furniture up in Wichita.”

"It's anti-climactic at this point. We were all loaded up and ready, so we just headed out. Not much else was said.”

Paula: “Well, soon after, the Rancher told Merry that he had found her a lawyer (and one for himself, of course) and that they would work on their ‘post-nuptial agreement” before they worked on their marriage. And, she received a package in the mail.”

Rose: “Uh huh…”

Paula: “Inside of this package was a key.”

Rose: “And…?

Paula: "It was the key from the u-haul that Merry had lost, but really had inadvertently put into a down vest of the Rancher’s when running back and forth from the guest house to move furniture. It was February...it was freezing...the down vest was ready to thrown on, waiting on the coat hook, I mean she was running back and forth between the guest house and headquarters to both rob and furnish this house!"

Rose: “Too complicated for me to follow…”

Paula: “Yes, of course. But,THAT is when she knew it was over. When the Rancher mailed her the missing key to the truck that had been in his down vest."

When Prairie Pug asked her (Merry),

"What about after we do it? ... What do we do then?"

"Then you live with it."

[This is actually a line from High Plains Drifter, not to take credit]

It was truly a one-way truck.