I was driving in the dark.

I was driving in the dark. You know how it goes. Nothing, nothing, something, and sometimes you’re going too fast for something and it’s gone. Here, the something was a gas station.

You want details. I was driving back to the audio storytelling retreat I was helping to facilitate Down East after going on a supply run at the Walmart Business Center in Calais. I had six blaze orange hats, a box of earplugs, a couple of mini SD cards, a toothbrush, and a bag of chips, but very little gas or network coverage to help me locate the nearest gas station. My phone kept suggesting I was in Canada.

A gas station sprang up from the darkness.1 The gas pumps were not well-lit, nor was the parking lot, which is why I drove over the invisible curb when I pulled in and then froze with my foot on the brakes, momentarily stunned. A guy—the guy—sitting on the porch gave me a big, smirking grin.