It was long past midnight when Willie Nelson finally stopped scrolling — and saw Kris Kristofferson’s name glowing back at him. The porch was quiet, cigarette burning low, dawn still hours away. Somewhere in those old messages were the last words they’d ever exchanged — fragments from a lifetime of miles, songs, and roads that never asked permission. Willie thought about the years with Kris: endless highways, coffee gone cold, notebooks filled with truths too heavy to sing all at once. Kris used to say, “The road never really ends, Will — it just changes the view.” And in that still Texas darkness, Willie finally understood. As morning began to lift the sky, Kris was still there in Willie’s memory — hat pulled low, eyes sharp, words held close like scripture. One now sings beneath the sun, the other somewhere beyond it. But the music between them never stopped. Because the road never forgets the ones who gave it a voice.
It was long past midnight when Willie Nelson finally stopped scrolling — and saw Kris...