_best_ — Night Trips 1989

She nodded like that made perfect sense. Then she leaned her head on his shoulder. He could feel her heartbeat through the denim. It was steady. Real.

Leo watched her walk across the parking lot until the gray light swallowed her. Then he got back in the Buick. He rewound the Smiths tape to the beginning. He didn’t go home. Not yet. night trips 1989

Tonight, the road was empty except for a semi-truck that looked like a silver whale. He passed a billboard advertising “LaserDiscs: The Future is Here.” He passed a shut-down drive-in where the skeleton of the screen stood against the stars. She nodded like that made perfect sense

She got in. Her name was Sam. She smelled like cigarettes and honeysuckle. She was running from a boyfriend in Richmond who thought jealousy was romantic. She was nineteen, two years older than Leo, and she laughed when he told her he’d never been past the state line. It was steady

She leaned into the passenger window. “Going east?” Her voice was husky, like she’d been shouting over wind.

“Trade you,” she said.

Then he saw her.