His tires crunched noisily along the circular gravel drive to the rear of the walled estate. There, he pulled into a one-car garage that had been designed for a much smaller vehicle. The interior of the garage was so tight; he could barely swing his door open far enough to squeeze out. After side-shuffling his way to the overhead door, Aedan pulled it down and fastened a heavy-duty padlock on the hasp. In the morning, he would replace the Idaho license plates with the car’s original North Dakota ones. He would also destroy the stolen plates with that week’s garbage in the old oil drum they used as a burning barrel. Aedan knew he was being overly cautious, but it only took one slip to bring down their fragile house of cards. For all its boasting about freedom, America was not a country that embraced difference. In his experience, the great melting pot was actually a sausage maker that ripped, chopped, and ground you down until you became part of the same quivering mass.
