New Start

Here she was, keys in the ignition, finally leaving Diablo.

Hannah could barely believe her luck. In less than three days, her life had completely changed. A week that had started with a dreary Monday on which her roommate had declared her intention to move in with her boyfriend and drop out of their lease would end with, fingers crossed, Hannah firmly on her way across America.

After posting about her dilemma online, a friend of a friend had mentioned an elderly gentleman, Mr. Burgess, who needed some personal items delivered from Los Angeles to his home in Chicago. When they had spoken on the phone to hash out the details, his soft Southern accent had reminded Hannah of her grandmother’s voice when she would tell Hannah of the few times that she had been sent to the South as a child to visit family. When his hesitancy to send a young woman alone across the country had became clear, she assured him that it was perfectly fine, and that she had a job waiting for her there anyway.

Hannah felt guilty for lying as she sat in the driver’s seat, but she would find something when she arrived. Even though Chicago hadn’t been her first choice, it was a start.