The day before Linda left for Hanna Flat, I asked whether she was excited. She looked at me as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. “Oh, yeah!” she said. “I’ve had no car. I’ve had no money. I’ve been stuck on that couch.” Her $524 monthly Social Security checks would carry her to the first payday of her new job.† Linda was ready to feel her world opening up again after it had shrunk to the size of a sofa. For too long, she’d been without her accustomed freedom, that accelerated rush of newness and possibility that comes with the open road. It was time to go.
