THE ROAD BACK TO HIM
We flew.
I'd never been on a plane before.
I want to say that plainly because it mattered — not as a dramatic fact but as a specific truth about the life I'd lived and the distances I'd traveled before this. Every journey of significance in my life has been on the ground. The black car from Millhaven to Louisville. The bus from Grover's Creek to Portland. The Portland years on foot, by bus, and in Jasmine's second-hand car.
The plane was different.
We drove to Portland International, and Jasmine handled the check-in with the competence of someone who had flown regularly for work and knew the specific choreography of it. Liam watched everything with his characteristic focused attention — the security conveyor belt, the gate area, the plane visible through the termi
