We Knew Why

Chapter 1: shallow valley

By the time we admitted we were lost, the sun had already begun leaning toward the hills.

Not setting—not yet—but lowering with the quiet purpose of something that knew exactly where it was going.

We had no such confidence.

The road curled through miles of empty countryside, passing fields that looked abandoned rather than harvested. Brown stalks bent beneath the wind. Fence posts stood at uneven angles, their wire swallowed by weeds. We had not seen another car in nearly an hour.

My phone had lost its signal first. A few minutes later, the blue route line on the navigation screen froze. The little arrow marking our position remained trapped at the center of a blank gray square.

“Turn it off and back on,” my companion said.

“I’ve done that twice.”

“Then do it with more confidence.”

I gave the phone a dramatic shake. “There. Fixed.”

The screen remained blank.