“You left before I could.”

I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me.

“I was already gone,” I said. “Leaving was a formality.”

She was silent for longer than I could stand. My words echoed off the silence hovering between us across the ether.

“Where are you now?” she finally said.

“Not sure,” I said. It was true. I knew I was on the side of the road somewhere between Tacoma and Portland, though there were plenty of places in between where I could be. From my perspective I was at the end of the road.

“Put Ed back on the phone,” she said.

I looked up from the gravel, straining my eyes and neck to signal him. Ed shifted his foot from my between my shoulder blades.

“She wants you.”