The word "Cincinnati" shook her away from her studying and drove her full attention to the images and words shattering her world in her cozy, safe cottage. "Before a concert at Riverfront Coliseum there was a crowd surge of more than fifteen thousand fans.
When the doors opened the resulting stampede caused the deaths of eleven young people, ages 17-31." Live footage showed shattered glass, winter coats strewn on concrete, and emergency paramedics tending to dozens of people stretched out on gurneys.
"Oh my God," Linda said, tears welling in her eyes. "Oh my God!"
A voice spoke to her, from outside of her head. It was a calm, reassuring voice, one like the mysterious gentleman in her dreams of lavish waltzes. He said "Go there." When she thought about all the reasons to stay, such as her upcoming finals and clinics, the voice calmly persisted: "Go there."
Without thinking about it, Linda packed two sets of clothes and some toiletries in her overnight bag. She dressed comfortably and headed out to Myrtle, starting up her car on the cold night. There was thirty dollars in her purse, since she'd just been to the bank that day, more than enough for the trip there and back. When she stopped for gasoline at a station on the edge of town, a guy no more than twenty accepted her money, with a concerned expression on his face. "Are you okay?"
She noticed her face in the reflection of the store window, with puffy eyes and tousled hair. "No," she said, shaking her head.
When she turned and walked toward the doorway, the cashier called out to her.
"Take care now!"
Linda had filled up her tank. Absently, she climbed behind Myrtle's wheel, flipped her lights back on, and headed east. She tried not to think of the six hour's worth of driving ahead of her or how late it would be when she finally arrived.
The highway through Illinois became a blur for her, of flat country and white lines. She turned up the heat, which only worked at the dashboard level or at the floor near her feet, but not both at once. For a few miles she would receive warmth on her chest, but her feet became numb in the cold. When she switched the selector to aim the heat down at her feet, she shivered.
A few miles into Indiana the highway climbed up and down rolling hills. There'd been rain that day, which had frozen at the sides of the road as fine, tiny snowflakes danced along before her.