Chapter 1

The opening scene (that is why it is so short)

CHAPTER 1

The waitress plopped down a bowl of vanilla ice cream with a lone orange and white striped candle onto the plastic table in front of me. Already half melted in the dry, Arizona heat, I watched as the candle slowly sank, lower and lower, until it floated in the pool of melted vanilla bean soup. “Happy birthday,” the waitress said, before turning back around on her heels, her white apron floating for just a second, making her look like a ballerina or an elegant ballroom dancer, twirling as if weightless. But we were far from any ballrooms, and judging by the general weight and demeanor of the other men in the diner, I didn't think any of them were ballerinas.

My brothers, sitting across from me at the multicolored table, twisted in their red, speckled metal chairs. It was as if the diner had not been updated since the 1950s, and the ice cream had likely been in the freezer that long by the way it smelled. brad sighed, looked up at me and half-heartedly said “Happy 23rd birthday, Emma,” knowing that this wasn't exactly how I imagined this day.

Between the three of us, brad, Charlie, and myself, we managed to consume about half of the ice cream before it entirely melted. Part of it was out of the principle: my brothers bought it for me, and I would be damned if I didn't accept a well-intentioned gift. But we only made it halfway through because the small orange and white candle wandered into Charlie's spoon, and he nearly choked on it. We promptly paid and headed back toward the car. Despite the cold desert and the mildly cool air of the diner, we were still sweating from the dry heat. There was no escaping it " every breath warmed your body another half-degree, and the dryness burned your nose. I looked around, letting my sunglasses drop from the top of my head to the bridge of my nose " a trick I had taught myself in the car.

Everything I saw was empty. A cloudless sky, a barren landscape, there was even no sound of wind or nearby 18-wheelers. For the first time in 27 days, I felt directionless.

But when I heard the familiar crinkling of the highway map, I knew brad wanted to keep driving. I turned around, saw my brothers flatten the fold-out map on the ground, comparing Ryan's US highway map to Charlie's Arizona State map, identifying Phoenix. I watched as they pointed, argued, and accidentally bump heads trying to read the other's scales and lines. They looked nothing alike, but they acted like brothers. And they were my brothers, for better or worse. I took last look around, searching for any sign of life, and decided to head back to the car.

“Hey,” I said, as they both lifted their heads just barely enough to meet my eyes. “Thanks for the ice cream. I appreciate it.” I rubbed the back of my neck and opened the passenger back seat, signaling brad and Charlie to put the maps away and drive on. Drive somewhere.

Author's Note

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