It took us about two hours to reach the border, and when we did, Arrow sighed heavily and said, “Ugh, finally, we’re almost there. I’m so sick of this car. No offense, Kathy,” she said, and petted the dashboard with her free hand. With her other hand, she held a sloppily buttered piece of banana nut bread. She had a line of butter running down the side of her wrist. I had to tell her we were actually, like, four hours away from Austin. (We were, to be perfectly honest, more like six hours away from Austin, but I didn’t know how she’d react to that number.) “What,” she said. “Four hours.” “Nothing in Maryland is four hours away from something else in Maryland. Unless you drive in circles and keep missing your exit.” “Texas is big. Texas is really big.” “Is Texas the biggest state?” “I think Alaska is the biggest state.” “Is Texas the second-biggest state?” “I guess, probably.” “Four hours,” she said, slumping against the window. “This is torturous.”
