Jan was on the first driving duty shift and planned on reaching the Canadian/American border in around five hours although the day had possibly decided otherwise. She hoped she could swing it because she hated driving in the dark and it would be dark in five hours. Sam also hated driving in the dark so Dean had been elected to drive through the night. It wasn't the journey they were focussed on but the destination. Arizona. Sedona to be precise. The three siblings had wanted to go to Sedona, Arizona ever since their mother died almost fifteen years earlier. She had been born there but was moved by her family to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She never much liked Calgary, that was clear to everyone that knew her for more than ten minutes but she endured it for the sake of her family because, as she'd heard more than a million times; 'It's where the money is'. Their dad had never fully forgiven himself for that because he was the one that always said it and after her passing, money wasn’t much good for anything in his world.

       The day of the beginning of the road trip was the fifteenth anniversary of her death and in honour of her, they wanted to take the small urn full of her remains and release the ashes into the air of which she had taken her first breath. Sedona. They had tried the trip some five years earlier on request of their father but about an hour from Calgary headed south, he started sobbing. They endured it, thinking surely it would stop but once they hit Lethbridge, two hours later, it hadn’t stopped. Jan had been driving then too and without a word to anyone she simply turned around and went home. They hadn’t spoke of it in all those years but they certainly didn’t ask him to try it again. When he learned of their plans, he didn’t ask either.

       Dean sat shot gun with the sealed urn cradled in his lap. They had discussed where ‘she’ was going to sit and all had quickly agreed that she should be front and center the whole way there. Whoever sat shot gun was supposed to hold her.

       "How’re ya doin’?" Jan asked Dean. It startled him a little as he snapped back from the dreamy place he’d been.

       "I’m good, just remembering things. It’s kinda weird sitting here, holding her like this. I can almost feel her touching my shoulder. Weird." He turned toward the back seat and looked at his younger brother sprawled out over a couple of bags. "I hope you don’t have any breakables back there."

       Jan glanced to the back through the rearview mirror and saw an image of Sam, mouth wide open, arms crossed over his chest, sleeping like a baby.

       "We won’t be seeing much of him ‘til we stop for gas," Dean said.

       "I’m just glad he’s not driving night duty, we’d all be dead for sure. Two seconds in a moving vehicle and he’s out, always been that way." She glanced back at him again thinking how much he looked like their mother.

       "Just like mom," Dean said.

       It was dark. Dean had fallen asleep at least two hours ago and Sam hadn’t so much as moved in the back seat. Jan realized she’d been driving too long.

       "Time for a pit stop boys," she said to her sleeping brothers. She pulled into a gas station well beyond the border station were they had planned to stop. The tank still had gas then and she hadn’t needed to pee so she sailed by the original in favour of getting further ahead. By the look of things, Jan thought that this might be the last gas station for a long while. The car needed gas, she needed to pee and it was time for her to rest. She pulled into the service station, turned off the car and nudged Dean. Sam stirred in the back seat. The stopping of the car always woke him up just like the movement of the car put him to sleep.

       Soon, the three of them were walking toward the little grocery attached to the station. Dean still carried their mother in his arms.

       "What’s with that?" Sam asked his big brother as he pointed to the urn.

       "Figured it’s our last road trip, she should get to see everything we do," Dean answered.

       "That’s just stupid."

       "Yea okay. It’s like a teddy bear, it makes me feel good. ya’ happy now?" Dean said, mocking anger.

       "Totally. I love it when you remind me how sappy you are," Sam smiled.

       They entered the store, Jan headed straight for the ladies bathroom, Dean went for the men’s and Sam told the attendant to fill up the car then started to check out the snack isle. A few hours of deep sleep can really make a guy hungry, he thought and laughed to himself. He was concentrating so hard on the assortment of potato chips that he didn’t hear the electronic ‘bing’ as the door opened and two men entered. He didn’t have a clue that the first man that came in was the gas station attendant that was supposed to be filling their car and the man behind him had a hat and bandana hiding his face and a .38 pointed at the attendants head. Sam was totally oblivious to it all as he reached for a bag of stone ground corn chips he thought might hit the spot. Now for the refreshments from the cooler. He almost got there when he heard a loud "Get the fuck down bitch!" and then a yelp from what he knew was his sister.

       "What the . . .?" Sam dropped the bag of corn chips and headed for the front counter where he determined the ruckus to be. As he turned the corner of the isle, he saw his sister laying face down on the ground next to the attendant and by the time he had a chance to look up all he saw was the barrel of a gun not more than two inches from his beautiful brown eyes.

       "You’d do well to plant your face on the floor tile buddy or I’ll blow the fucken thing right off." The gun man said.

       Sam didn’t hesitate and within seconds he was on the ground praying, like his sister and the attendant, that they wouldn’t have to die like this.

       "Just what I needed." Dean said as he dried his face and hands. He figured he’d be on driving duty since Jan had looked ready to get some sleep and Sam wasn’t fit to drive at night. He tucked in his shirt, straightened himself out, then gently picked up his mother’s urn and cradled it in his right arm. On the way to the checkout where he thought he’d meet up with his siblings, he spotted the drink cooler and grabbed an energy drink then proceeded down the isle not looking at the ground but reading the ingredients on the drink label. Both Sam and Jan looked up to witness their brother’s flailing arms as he lost his balance after snagging his foot on Sam’s left shoulder.

       "What the . . .?" Dean cried out. The energy drink flew out of Dean’s hand and hit the counter where the gun man stood. The gun man hadn’t seen Dean and before he could get the gun up to eye level and point it at the man struggling to regain balance, the drink had busted on impact sending a spray of bubbly liquid. This, however, was not what Dean was focussed on. Dean was mortified that he was losing grip on his mom. The urn had popped out of his cradle hold and was sailing away from his protective grasp. He reached out for it but only caught it with the tips of his fingers which sent it into a spiral straight toward the struggling gun man who had caught most of the spraying energy drink right in his semi masked face. Then the yelling began.

       "Dean, get his gun!" Jan called out.

       "What?" Dean hadn’t seen the gun and was still fumbling with his mother’s urn.

       Sam had moved like a hummingbird from the position he had on the ground to standing beside the gun man and if it had been just one second sooner he could’ve popped the guy in the face and grabbed the gun. But he wasn’t and now the barrel of the gun was in Sam’s face. Just as the gun man started to squeeze, a coolness fell over the scene. The flying urn took a strange turn and started moving toward the gun man. Dean had completely lost his balance and all hopes he had of catching the urn where lost but he was able to watch the out of control moment as if it were happening in slow motion.

       The urn, Dean swears to God, had done a ninety degree turn as it flew past the gun man. The truly amazing part came after this strange feat of physical defiance. The top of the urn unscrewed by itself, in mid air and released it’s sacred contents. Dean, Sam and Jan’s mother flew out of the urn and right into the gun man’s face, blinding him for the moment. It was all they needed. Both Jan and Sam made the attack, knocking the man to the ground and relieving him of his weapon. The attendant was already dialling 911 on his cell phone. Within twenty minutes, the State Police had arrived and placed the crazed man in their vehicle.

       "Does anyone know what that substance is all over his face?" The cop had already taken their statements, found that the guy had a record and were congratulating the four for the heroic capture but thought he’d add the question to quell his own curiosity.

       "My mom. She’s the real hero," Dean answered. Sam and Jan nodded.

       "Excuse me?" The cop narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow with confusion. "Your mother? Where is she?"

       "Can’t say for sure where she is now but I certainly know she was here twenty minutes ago. Thanks Mom," Dean said.

       A cool wind started up around the bunch, so cold that even the cop noticed and shivered, his brow furrowed just a little bit more.

       Dean swung his arm around Jan who then swung hers around Sam and together they headed to their car, not really sure which way they were going now that their mother had taken her own route Home.