Rachael

Rachael’s boyfriend brought her to Sturgis, then rode off with another girl on the back of his bike, leaving Rachael with almost no cash and nowhere to go. Now Rachel walks the long road south under the punishing summer sun, worn sandals kicking up dust as the wide-open prairie stretches in every direction. Heat shimmers off the asphalt, the wind tastes like dust, and the next town is farther than she cares to guess. She doesn’t tell strangers her full name. Just Rachel, like a hurricane building off the Gulf, quiet until it breaks. Every mile between here and wherever she lands is a test of who she is without anyone else to define her.