Helen dug through the bag at her feet. “Two sandwiches I made at the last rest stop, a couple of granola bars and some trail mix. I think your dad has dibs on at least one of the sandwiches. How about a granola bar and some juice? We’ll stop soon.” She added “I hope” in her mind, as she glanced at her husband. The clench of his jaw reinforced his determination to put a few more miles behind them this day.

This was Helen’s first experience with Texas. Traveling on Interstate 10 from Florida, they had entered the state to an assault on the senses. The heavy, bitter, petrochemical smell of the oil refineries added to the bleak skeletal outline of the solitary oil pump visible despite the fog and made her wonder about the legendary Texan sense of grandeur. Delusions of grandeur, she scoffed. After the nightmare of the traffic around Houston, the open road had seemed a blessing at first and her opinion of the state began to soften as the vast open spaces seemed to suck her in. But a day and a half later, following an early sunset with the Solstice fast approaching, her opinion vacillated once again. All she saw now was mile after mile of endless black ribbon of highway before them. She no longer trusted her sense of distance; landmarks appeared to keep receding rather than getting closer. Or so it seemed. Even the tumbleweed looked lonely, an isolated clump in the vast landscape.

As the night grew closer, Cliff seemed ever more anxious to push on. Only the collie whimpering in his ear for a chance to stretch his legs seemed to register. The kids and the cat had given up and gone to sleep.

It would take them two more days no matter how hard they pushed tonight. Helen longed to be out of the car, soaking in a hot bath, easing the tightness in her muscles. But Cliff was driven to cut the hours and miles between himself and his dying mother. Her breast cancer had recurred and no one knew how much time she had left.

Helen poured them each another cup of coffee from the thermos at her feet. She placed Cliff’s in the cup rack between them to his murmured “thanks” and continued to gaze out her window. It was a comfort when a trucker they were passing flashed his lights to signal that it was safe to return to the right hand land like a stranger’s smile in a doctor’s waiting room. They really weren’t out here alone; it just felt that way.

Helen sighed and as she focused on the sky full of stars above a shooting star cut across the sky from south to north.

“Hey! Did you see that?” Cliff asked. “Seems like we have our very own star to guide us home.”

Now Helen knew they would get there in time. She could only hope Cliff knew it, too.