Taos
When Hannah dropped her friend off at the airport, the traffic they’d been sitting in for an hour at the exit ramp to the terminal meant they had to kiss cheeks in the car, and talk over one another as they said what a wonderful trip it had been and I’ll send pictures and be safe and I love you and talk soon. Then the security guard was blowing his whistle at the line of cars, maybe at Hannah, she couldn’t really tell, and she eased back into the steady stream of solo drivers. Some of them were surely relieved to be relieved of their passengers. Maybe others were crying. Hannah suddenly felt frightened to be alone, while also knowing that this was why she had come out here. The first half of the trip, with her friend, had been meant to gather strength for the second. Hannah didn’t have plans, not any real ones, for this week. Just one word, one destination, one place to get to, by the 11th. Taos.