Pushing the Car Uphill with Marcus

Pushing the Car Uphill with Marcus

I was on a road trip across the country with Marcus from high school, even though we haven't spoken in ten years. We were supposed to be driving to his sister's wedding, but the highway kept turning into the steep coastal backroads near my grandparents' old town. My car's GPS was just an old road atlas where the ink kept smudging whenever I tried to read the exit numbers. We ran out of gas near a diner that looked like our old school cafeteria, and we had to push the car uphill together. Instead of being stressed, it felt like this huge, exciting mission we were determined to finish. We made it to the top right at sunset, looking out over an ocean that definitely doesn't exist in Pennsylvania, and I remember feeling this intense rush of relief and camaraderie, like our whole youth had just been leading up to making it to that hill.