Chapter One
“You’re not supposed to pick up hitchhikers,” I said as I got into the car.
The driver smiled, but my words had traced fear across his forehead. “You don’t look dangerous,” he said.
I settled into the seat and closed the door. “You just can’t tell because it’s dark,” I said.
He forced a dry laugh, then turned his eyes back to the road and stepped on the accelerator. Loose stones rattled against the undercarriage as the car built up speed, then fell away as the driver eased the car back onto the pavement. He looked over at me, obviously trying to relax himself. “Where are you headed tonight?” he asked.
I looked through the window at the dark road ahead of us. We were on I-17 headed north, forty miles outside of Phoenix, Arizona. Dark desert enveloped the car around us. “I don’t know,” I said.
He looked over at me, nervous again. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “Flagstaff, points east.” I turned to face the window and the great blackness beyond. “I don’t know.”
* * *
He stopped for fuel at a station on the outskirts of Flagstaff. While he pumped and paid, I walked to the edge of the parking lot and smoked a cigarette. The surrounding terrain was hilly with thick woods, and the whispering trees called to me. I had never been in these woods before, but I had lived nearly all my adult life in this state, and even the strange places felt like home.
It felt like a mistake. I felt the trees calling to me, and in my heart, I could hear an apology.
“Do you know where you’re going yet?” he asked, coming up behind me.
I inhaled deeply, tried not to sigh. “East,” I said.
He nodded, understanding more now. “Is that where you’re from?”
I took a drag off the cigarette. I hadn’t smoked in years, but the new pack in my pocket felt like an old friend, and the taste on my lips made me feel so young I could have cried. “Yes,” I said.
We stood in silence for a few moments.
“Is it a girl?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said, not untruthfully. “It’s a lot of them.”
“Yeah,” he said. “It always is.”
Sale
Sale
