Hang On - Part Four
All in a day's work.
Happy Holidays!
Route 24 is your civic education stop for stories driving public trust.
SCENIC ROUTE parks in your inbox on Sundays to merge the lanes of realistic fiction and politics and help you find a better view.
In this issue: Hang On is the first story I’ve written based off of an audience poll. A few weeks ago, I asked my audience what they were in the mood to read. Something funny? Something reflective? A bit of both? 67% answered both. This story is a holiday read inspired by Notre Dame’s restoration about the bumps in the road and the destinations they lead to. Hang On - Part Four is the last stop in this story series — and hopefully — leads you to explore infinite possibilities. Enjoy the ride!
In case you missed them, stop by Hang On - Part One - Part Three first:
Hang On (Continued)
Scan Ahead
Cam was done waiting. She scanned the road ahead, switched off traction control and released the emergency brake. The tires on her Honda Civic rolled forward. Her eyelids felt heavy with the weight that came with being awake for 26 hours. She’d been so focused on pitching she’d forgotten to eat again. Dinner tonight would be the Biscoff cookie she still had on her from her flight. As a thick sheet of snow began to cover her windshield, a deep cold seeped through to her bones. The kind of cold that no amount of car heat could fix. The only thing that stood between Cam and a hot shower was that toll barrier. Not today Satan. Cam hit the gas, the Honda Civic lurched toward the toll barrier, and at the last second, the barrier lifted.
Gotta love technology. Cam’s parking pass wasn’t working. She tried the key card slot. ERROR. She used the other side of the pass and tried it again. ERROR. She tried entering the parking code on the pass. ERROR. The parking attendant and Cam made eye contact and she knew. No amount of struggle would get that guy to exit his heated parking booth in this snow storm. Fair enough. Was she too tired to think? She was never too tired to think. She was possibly, very likely too tired to think. Cam tried scanning her parking pass. ACCESS GRANTED. Hallelujah! She found an empty parking space and powered down.
She’d unpack in the morning. Cam turned the dial to the bathtub faucet and ran her fingers under the water. Mountain cold. Slowly, she turned the dial towards hot. Still cold. It took her a minute to realize the obvious. No hot water. She glanced at the clock. Almost midnight. This was quickly becoming a tomorrow problem. She layered up with the clothes in her suitcase until she looked like a snowman, dove under the covers, and hit the lights. All in a day’s work.
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Former President Jimmy Carter represented the best of us. Ever the poet with her use of prose,
honors the spirit of his memory with one sentence that fully encapsulates a perspective we could all stand to benefit from as we approach the new year:“Every now and then we must take a walk among words.”
From Elif Shafak. As published in “A Winter Walk Among Words”, the latest post from her Substack, Unmapped Storylands with Elif Shafak.
May 2025 be yet another opportunity to listen, learn, and let stories be our guide.
Stay the course,
Sam
Note: The last issue of Rest Stop for 2024 has been updated to include Pacific Coast Highway safety considerations and Malibu’s Annual Woodie Parade. Read it here.
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