When Silvia’s car breaks down, the traveling siblings are forced to find an auto body shop. Fortunately, this happens near Bakersfield, California, a freeway-filled city with no shortage of automobile services. Located about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, Bakersfield is a sprawling city of more than 450,000 residents, defined by its grids of nearly identical houses and strip malls. As Cosmo observes, “Bakersfield…was like a perfect grid with houses that all looked like each other and strip malls.”
While waiting for his shrimp fried rice at a Chinese restaurant tucked into one such strip mall, Cosmo contemplates the possibility of returning to his job and life in Philadelphia. Part of him doesn’t want to go back, and another part doesn’t want to move forward. The space in between—free of commitments, responsibilities, and the daily grind—holds a powerful appeal. “He’d stay in between too,” he thinks, “but reality kept crashing in like some drunken intruder with its bills and rents and jobs.”
Silvia recognizes his longing because she has felt it herself. She tells Cosmo about a time when she was relocating and hesitated to arrive, afraid that the reality of her destination would fall short of her imagined version. Once again, Cosmo cautions her about the dangers of rushing. “Maybe all that rushing is part of the problem,” he says.
As Silvia reflects on this, she decides to call her friend in Santa Cruz, California, and stop there for a visit. She views the decision as a way of slowing down, but Cosmo understands it differently—as a way of stretching the journey. Either way, he is content. Another stop along the road means an extension of the trip, and with it, more time in that fragile, fleeting space in between—where life has not yet demanded its answers.
This post is from the blog series on the places visited in the road trip story, “Discovery of an Eagle.”Grace Mattioli is the author of the Greco Family Trilogy books, including Olive Branches Don’t Grow on Trees, Discovery of an Eagle, and The Bird that Sang in Color. These books are available from all major online book sellers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books.
