Take it somewhere wonderful.

I looked at the open road ahead.

At last, I was doing exactly that.

PART 28

We reached the mountains shortly before dusk.

The cabin Lena had rented smelled of pine and fresh laundry, and its windows framed a ridge brushed with early spring green.

I opened the suitcase on the bed and found the letter exactly where I’d left it.

For a moment I imagined telling my grandmother everything: the loss of the condo, the first cold night at the motel, the investigators’ questions, the uneasy settlement, the students at the library.