Northbound Without a Map

The road sign said North, which was enough for Kit. They had spent the morning deciding between two difficult futures and wanted, for once, an uncomplicated direction.

At the first village they bought bread. At the second they helped a cyclist mend a tire. By the third, the landscape had changed from flat fields to low green hills.

A woman at the petrol station asked where they were going.

‘I haven’t decided,’ Kit said.

She pointed to a path behind the building. ‘Start there.’

It led to a hill overlooking the road. From above, every bend made sense. The villages were connected by a line that had seemed uncertain only while Kit was traveling along it.

They sat until the bread was gone. Then they called home, said they would be back that evening, and chose the future that made them want to keep moving.