Dane wrinkles his nose. “I was thinking Yoda to your Luke Skywalker. ’Cause Yoda put Luke up in his swamp crib, and as it happens, I actually do have a place we can crash.”
“I wasn’t planning to stay overnight.”
“While I’m stoked that you’re thinking ahead, chief, what if you don’t find JMB right away? Or if you do and you need to,I don’t know—convincehim? That could take time. And I’m not on the schedule until tomorrow afternoon, though honestly, Brenna and Riley should be fine without me if we get back late. Sure, Riley’ll be mad that I’m not there to be her buffer—but she and Brenna are gonna have to work it out at some point.”
Miguel is clutching his forehead the way he sometimes does when he hasn’t had enough coffee, and also after he’s had too much. “You have a bachelor pad in Chicago you haven’t told me about?”
“Nope, but I have a good buddy there, and his place is always open to me. He’s in Thailand right now. Or maybe it’s Santa Monica. Doesn’t matter for our purposes.”
“I can stay in a motel if I need to. Or just sleep in my car,” says Miguel.
“Danger, Will Robinson,” says Dane in a robotic voice. “Carjacking in three, two—”
“Okay, okay—I won’t sleep in the car. But why on earth would I take you with me?”
“Because you need me,” Dane says, like this is the dumbest question he’s ever heard. “And I need to get out of this town for a hot second before I lose my mind.”
“What about the dog?” asks Miguel, turning his attention to me. “He’s been kind of weird for a while, and he nearly killed a squirrel today. I’m not sure traveling’s a good idea.”
Nearly! As ashamed as I am, he could at least give credit where it’s due.
“That’s because he’s bored, too.” Dane leans toward me and scratches my head. “Look at the old boy—he needs another romp or three before he calls it a day. My buddy loves dogsand won’t care if he stays with us. What do you think, Harold? Wanna head to the Windy City?”
I grin up at Dane, because while Miguel may not love him, I sure do right now.
Let’s go, let’s go, let’sgo!
Nine
Some years ago, when I was neither young nor old, Miguel, Amelia, and I drove all the way to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I held it together as long as I could but ended up throwing up in a rest stop parking lot. Amelia was so worried that she sat beside me in the back for the next couple of hours, petting my head until I finally passed out. When I woke again, we’d just pulled up in front of a lake. Like the one we live near, this lake was great, too, and stretched the length of the horizon. Even so, the beach was especially light, and there were rocks upon rocks just beneath the water’s surface. “I warned you!” Amelia laughed when Miguel stuck his foot into a wave and immediately squealed like a piglet. “Superior’s an ice bath!”
Then he laughed and picked her up and pretended like he was going to toss her into the water while I ran circles around them.
Barfing aside, that was a great trip.
This time, I don’t get carsick. That’s probably because I was so excited that I could barely eat my lunch before we left. Miguel’s excited, too. I can tell because he’s humming again,and he’s wearing a shirt with buttons and pants that don’t smell like weeks of living. Dane sits beside him up front; as usual, I’m in the back. I start off in the place where feet go, but it’s hard for me to contain myself and I immediately hop up onto the seat. Miguel must really be in a decent mood because he doesn’t bark at me to get down like he normally would. “If he starts sliding around or looks like he’s going to vomit, make him get back on the floor,” he tells Dane, who salutes him in agreement.
Dane does most of the talking. He tells Miguel about how he was supposed to be a lawyer like his dad and grandfather and most of the other men in their family, but how he left law school after the first semester and traveled the world, eventually landing in West Haven and working for Lakeside.
“Good for you for doing what you wanted to,” Miguel tells him.
Dane’s face lights up. “Thanks, chief. Life’s too short to live for other people. Now I just gotta find someone to spend mine with.”
“Do you? It’s better being alone,” Miguel mutters.
“I heard that, and I disagree. After all, you’d be having a way worse time if I wasn’t here.”
“If this is the upgraded experience, I think I’d prefer economy,” Miguel says, but Dane just laughs and puts his feet on the dashboard.
The drive’s not too long, and before I know it, I see a bunch of buildings touching the sky. My ears lift. This must be the place!
Miguel scowls. “I hate driving in cities.”
“Chicago’s easy,” Dane assures him. “I lived here for a whileafter college. Everything’s a grid and the people are chill—or they are when they’re not behind the wheel.”
That may be, but we have to do an awful lot of stopping and starting to get to Dane’s friend’s house. My gut’s just begun churning when Dane announces that we’re almost there.
“This was a terrible idea,” says Miguel as we inch down the block.
