The drive down to Maryland College took just over ninety minutes, though it felt longer in the way emotionally charged journeys always do. Time stretched strangely when the mind refused to be still. The city thinned out as we crossed into a quieter part of town, where the buildings stood lower and the streets carried less urgency. Traffic lights were fewer. Billboards disappeared altogether, replaced by old signposts and handwritten notices taped to lampposts. The air itself felt different, ...