The dashboard clock read 12.09AM when the torrential sheet of rain fell upon the lone Aurora Oldsmobile descending from the modest mountain range. Sydney had been driving into the sweet August wind. The windows rolled down to take in the wild desert night air. When the downpour started she hurried to close them to protect her backpack and suitcase. The wind had blown a spray of raindrops over her face before she did this and she smiled, a kiss of rain, “maybe it’s good luck” she chuckled slightly delirious from driving for hours and 4 cups of coffee. She needed luck because she didn’t have a real plan. She had accepted an entry level position in a town she had never heard of during the midst of an economic collapse. At 19 and with only a handful of community college credits she left her hometown of Fort Wayne Michigan, and her minimum wage job at the print shop. Summer had left Michigan already and she couldn’t face another freezing dark semester in her badly insulated dorm. Winter in the South would be far more tolerable. After a dozen applications from Louisiana to New Mexico, Opal Public Radio offered her a clerical assistant job.She had called about apartments the same afternoon and had put down a deposit for a modest three room on the edge of town. She would sleep in her car tonight; her plane had been late and she was 5 hours behind schedule. She would arrive in at 3am and decided it wasn’t worth the motel fee