Somewhere in the Desert

Sixteen hours into the drive and the radio cut out and I wasn't going to stop for another hundred miles and the desert just goes and goes and I started thinking about everything I'd done wrong in my life, every person I'd let down, my brother especially, and then I don't know exactly when it shifted but the shame just — lifted, all at once, like a pressure change, like when your ears pop, and I felt something that I can only describe as being forgiven, though I hadn't asked anyone for anything, and I drove the rest of the way crying and singing and I called my brother when I got to Reno.