“I had a dream last night,” Sol said.

“Which exit is it?” Des asked.

“One forty-six.”

Des switched lanes.

“It was at that TJ Maxx,” Sol said. “The one on Wisconsin.”

“East side or west side?”

“What’s the difference?”

“I don’t know.”

They passed exit one forty-four.

“You were there,” Sol said.

“What was I doing?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Fuck. One forty-six A or one forty-six B?”

“B.”

Des relaxed a notch. He flipped the turn signal.

“It was in high school.”

They’d redone the ramp. It was one of those fucking diverging diamonds now. Des squinted through the salt crust on the windshield.

“So it was before the migration. I didn’t dream that they came back.”

“Yeah, I figured.” All the arrows on the FOOD sign at the end of the ramp pointed to the left. “It’s a left up here, right?”

“Yeah. Then straight for three and a half miles.”

“Damn. Really?”

“It’s on the other side of town.”

“Still seems too far.”

It was in the sixties and the speed limit was about to drop to thirty-five. Des rolled down the windows. Wind popped in his ears, then went quiet.

“But they renovated it. Instead of red they made it green. They had Christmas ornaments up for camouflage. You know the little holes? In the metal shelves in stores?”

Des thought. “Yeah.”

“They had Christmas ornaments in all of those. They were all mirror balls because all the lights were off. And instead of TJ Maxx music they were playing radio static.”

“Huh. Were they trying to stop it from migrating?”

“I don’t know. I forgot about the migration in the dream.”

They were coming up on a roundabout. “Straight through, right?”

“Yeah.” Sol checked his phone. “There’s going to be five more. Go straight through all of them. But they renovated it, so all the changing rooms were empty.”

The second roundabout had two lanes. Des didn’t do anything wrong, but someone still honked at him. He flipped off the sky and hoped they saw it.

“The point of a changing room is to be empty, if you think about it,” Sol said.

Des did. “Huh.”

“But they took out the minifridges.”

“Did TJ Maxx changing rooms have minifridges?”

“No. But they did in the dream.”

“I never went to TJ Maxx.”

“Really?”

“Why would I?”

“Homecoming.”

“I got all my suits at Target.”

“What about the girls you went with?”

“No clue.”

“Nobi went to TJ Maxx to get a dress. Both times we went.”

“How do you know?”

“She took me with her.”

“Why?”

“To see what I thought. You never went with Laxmi or Viola? Or…”

“D’Arcy.”

“I remember.”

“You met her like three times.”

“I thought it was twice.”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” Des switched lanes and floored it past a semi. “I think Viola asked me to go shopping with her, actually, but I didn’t go. I just told her to get whatever she wanted.”

“But they took out all the minifridges.”

The light was yellow, but Des could still make it.

“And there were holes instead of the floors, too, but nothing was going to come out of them. But I was still really thirsty, so I had to go to the walk-in freezer to see if they had anything to drink.”

“Where was the walk-in freezer?”

“Housewares. So you could see how shit would look in the freezer if you bought it.”

The next light was already yellow. Des took his foot off the gas. A white Ford brick blew past them blasting “Walk of Life.”

“They wouldn’t let me in, though.”

The car waiting next to them was also playing Dire Straits. “Why?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Anyways, there were a bunch of people who—you remember that chemical contamination thing, at those apartments downtown?”

“The ones by the park?”

“No, the other one.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah. A bunch of people were there because they needed to replace all their shit.”

“That happened when we were in elementary school, though. Remember? Because they fucked up Willow’s test results and we all thought she was gonna die for like a week.”

“She’s still fine, right?”

“Yeah. I have her on LinkedIn.”

“What does she do?”

“She’s a teacher. Somewhere in the U.P., I think.”

“In the dream, it was the one with that apartment block, but we were in high school. But even if they let me in to get a drink, it wouldn’t unfreeze by the time we had to get back to school.”

“Why were we at TJ Maxx in the middle of the school day?”

“I don’t know. I was thirsty. Turn right on W.”

“Is it this one?”

“Yeah.”

The light was red, but there was a parking lot on their right that he could use to cut the corner. Des swung up the ramp and skated around a cart rack. They were on W before the light changed, and the car that had probably honked at Des was at the back of the line. He smiled.

“Two more miles,” Sol said.

“Goddamn.”

“It’s actually in the next town.”

They passed the sign. Population eleven hundred and forty-six. “This one?”

“Yeah. I just said it was in Corsica because it’s bigger.”

He’d said it again. “I thought it was ‘core-sick-a’.”

“It’s ‘core-syke-a’. ‘Core-sick-a’ is the island.”

“Yeah. That’s what I mean.”

“If they were both ‘core-sick-a” you’d get them mixed up.”

Des snorted.

“But then I woke up and I was still thirsty.”

Des sighed. “Fuck. Now I want a drink.”

“There’s a gas station in three-quarters of a mile.”

“What kind?”

“Shell.”

Des sighed again.

“There’s a Kwik Trip, but it’s behind us.”

Des shook his head. He was really thirsty. “Shell’s fine.”

“It’s the kind with a grocery store.”

“Hm.” They might have the good kind of Monster.

“It’s gonna be on the left. After the state park.”

Someone else passed them. Foreigner this time.

“Your playlist is over,” Sol said.

“It’s been over for like twenty minutes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You can have the aux.”

Sol picked up Des’s phone. He tapped in his passcode right on the first try.