Checkmate

SYIC: Part 1: Survival — Chapter 37

Friday, December 30, 2005

Twelve hours. Hundreds of miles. A million memories. It all came together at once. For Jack, this journey marked the first tangible step away from his four-year self-imposed exile in upstate New York. But would this trip to Charlotte, and his long-awaited meeting with Shannon, be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Or would it only remind him of everything he had lost on that fateful September day?

Those thoughts swirled like a maelstrom in Jack’s mind as he drove the last leg toward Charlotte. The sun cast an eerie orange glow across his face as he descended from the Appalachians into the Carolina Piedmont, I-77 stretching ahead like an unspooling ribbon.

A light snow drifted through the fading light as his wipers moved rhythmically from left to right. That simple motion steadied him as his restless mind tried to make sense of his present and everything that had led him here.

“I’ve got, what, less than a hundred miles to go and not a peep since her text this morning,” Jack said, peering at his old Nokia in the cup holder. “How much longer do I hold out until I call her?”

Jack looked at the center console clock. It read 4:15 p.m.