It’s about an hour and fifteen minutes from Lake Geneva to O’Hare at that hour of the morning.
Brittany drove her white Lexus. My suitcase was in the trunk.
I sat in the passenger seat with my purse in my lap and my phone face down on top of it.
Neither one of us said much.
The sky was still dark. The highway was nearly empty.
Every time we stopped at a red light, Brittany picked up her phone and texted somebody. Fast. Her thumbs flying. Then she’d put it face down on her thigh.
“You seem nervous, Margaret,” she said around Gurnee.
“Just thinking.”
“About what?”
I looked out the window at the dark fields going by.
“Trust,” I said.
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. I saw her knuckles go white.
“That’s an odd thing to think about at five-thirty in the morning.”
“Is it?” I said. “I thought about it every morning for twenty-eight years.”
She didn’t say anything after that.
At exactly 6:00, my phone buzzed in my lap. A text from Daniel.
Airport PD confirms an anonymous call just came in to the TSA tip line. Female voice. Says Margaret Wilson, flight 1147 to Denver, has illegal narcotics in her carry-on. Officers are waiting at 1E. You’re doing great.
I turned my phone back over.
Brittany didn’t notice. She was texting again at a red light on Mannheim Road.
At 6:20, we pulled up to the curb at Terminal 1. United Airlines departures.
Brittany put the car in park and popped the trunk. She got out and lifted my suitcase onto the curb herself.
“Here you go,” she said. She was smiling. Wide. “Have a wonderful trip, Margaret.”
“Thank you, Brittany.”
And then two uniformed Chicago police officers walked up to us from door 1E.
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
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