I empty my pack out onto the kitchen table. I’ll have to travel light—only the essential things I’ll need—and I sort through the contents. I rewind the rope so it will unfurl with a single throw and place it back in the pack. Karden’s knife could be useful and I put it back in too. I look over the note window the clerk gave me, skimming over the countries and four-digit codes again. I look at them again and again, trying to memorize them in case I come across any similar numbers, and then set it in the pile with the other things that will be staying behind. I shuffle through the other contents and pick up the eye of Liberty. Let’s find the other eye of Liberty together.… I squeeze the green sea glass in my fist. So much can change in just a few days. She wants nothing to do with me now but I throw it into my pack anyway. I slide the note window that Carver gave me to the no-go pile but then stop to look at it. I already looked at it several times today when I was showing it to the clerk, but something about it stops me this time.
