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“Maybe a little before Okay?”

She laughed “Francis, you’ve never been early in your life”

“You’ll see”

She laughed again, and felt her anxiety slip away Tonight she’d s the other day, and for a brief tis could be the way they’d always been Francis, her Francis, would help her through this rough tiht way “Okay, Francis ’Bye”

Then she hung up

Thunder gru snaked froreen trees cliht of the road A ravine fell away frouardrail The blacktop traversed the hillside, unfurled down, doisting and turning

Francis leaned forward and wiped a hand across the foggy interior of the windshield, staring beyond the blurry streaks to the road in front of hih it was freezing in the little car, it was the only way he could keep the windshield fro The defroster was on the blink Again

Paul McCartney’s voice crackled through the worn speakers in ain and out as the serrated tree line grew and receded along the road

Rain slashed at the car, ran in rivulets across the edge of the windshield, and splattered the side of his face fro a hand from the wheel to wipe the moisture away, so he let it slide down his neck and burrow beneath his sweater, collecting in a cold, itchy noose along his collar

He hunched forward, peering through the cloudy glass, clutching the leather-wrapped steering wheel The wiper blades stuttered across the wet glass in a metronomic whick whick whick

He turned a corner and saith relief that the road straightened His headlights skipped along the interht pushed through the thinning trees, a reminder that he was almost at the base of the hill Soon he’d be on the interstate, and the storm wouldn’t slow him down but a few miles an hour

He glanced at the speedo a leisurely thirty-five miles per hour, and tapped the accelerator The red needle jerked a notch, then climbed up to forty, forty-five The radio latched on to a solid signal and Patsy Cline’s liquid voice oozed from the speakers Craaaazy … crazy for feelin’ so blue …

The road swept into a graceful arc to the right The silvery guardrail gli the road from the steep bank beyond it

Hewith the radio

He sensed the danger before he saw it Instinctively Francis cut back on his speed, but it was too late