If everything went right tonight, Park would be driving home tomorrow morning by himself. He'd probably be allowed to drive now whenever he wanted, but there was nowhere he wanted to go without Eleanor.

Good, he tried to tell himself. She's exhausted.

"Stay down," he said.

"Okay?"

He climbed up behind the wheel and took a few rough breaths, then he slammed the sandwich onto the dash. How could she be asleep?

They got off the Interstate again somewhere in Iowa to get gas and a map. Park went in. He bought Eleanor a Coke and a sandwich, and when he got back to the truck she was slumped against the passenger door, asleep.

Park wasn't used to driving the truck, and it died a few times at red lights. Then he got on the Interstate heading west instead of east, and it took twenty minutes to turn around again.

# Park #

The first couple hours were a blur.

Eleanor didn't say anything. Just stared ahead and held onto her seat belt with both hands. He put his hand on her leg, and it was like she didn't notice it was there.

She nodded and climbed in.

Her hair was down and wild, wine-red even in this light, and her mouth was slightly open. Strawberry girl. He tried again to remember what he'd thought the first time he saw her. He tried to remember how this happened -- how she went from someone he'd never met to the only one who mattered.

How could she sleep through their last hours together?

And he wondered… What would happen if he didn't take her to her uncle's house? What would happen if he kept driving?

How could she sleep sitting up like that…

Why couldn't this have waited?

If Eleanor's life had caved in next year, or the year after, she could have run to him. Not from, not away.

Jesus. Why couldn't she just wake up?

He unbuckled his seat belt, unbuckled Eleanor's, then pulled her into him, laying his head on hers. She still smelled like last night. Like sweat and sweetness and the Impala. He cried into her hair until he fell asleep.

Park stayed awake for another hour or so, fueled by Coke and hurt feelings. Then the wreck of the night caught up with him. There wasn't a rest stop around, so he pulled off on a county road, onto the gravel that passed as a shoulder.

She would've thought it was a dream, but her dreams were always terrifying. (With Nazis and babies crying and teeth rotting out of her mouth.) Eleanor had never dreamed anything as nice as this, as nice as Park, sleepy-soft and warm… Warm through. Someday, she thought, somebody's going to wake up to this every morning.

# Eleanor #

She woke up in Park's arms. It caught her by surprise.

Park's face, asleep, was a brand new kind of beautiful. Sunshine-trapped-in-amber skin. Full, flat mouth. Strong, arched cheekbones. (Eleanor didn't even have cheekbones.)

His eyelids fluttered. (Only eyelids do that. And butterflies.) And his arms came to life around her. "Eleanor…" he sighed.

Maybe it didn't.

He caught her by surprise, and before she could help herself, her heart was breaking for him. Like it didn't have anything better to break over…

The sun was just below the horizon, and the inside of the truck was bluey pink. Eleanor kissed Park's new face -- just under his eye, not quite on his nose. He stirred, and she felt every part of him shift against her. She ran the end of her nose along his brow and kissed his lashes.

She wouldn't be on the bus with him.

He loved how much they loved each other. It was the thing he thought about when he woke up scared in the middle of the night. Not that they loved him -- they were his parents, they had to love him. That they loved each other. They didn't have to do that.

# Eleanor #

She wouldn't pick a fight with him just because she was bored.

She wouldn't cry in his bedroom about the things he couldn't fix for her.

# Park #

His parents never talked about how they met, but when Park was younger, he used to try to imagine it.

There's only one of him.

None of his friend's parents were still together, and in every case that seemed like the number one thing that had gone wrong with his friends" lives.

He knows I'll like a song before I've heard it. He laughs before I even get to the punchline. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes me want to let him open doors for me.

There's only one of him, she thought, and he's right here.

The whole sky was the color of her skin.

# Park #

She wouldn't roll her eyes at him in English.

She held his beautiful face and kissed him like it was the end of the world.

# Park #

He needed to remember it when he woke up scared in the middle of the night.

What are the chances you'd ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away?

This kiss had to last Park forever.

The math seemed impossible. How did his parents get so lucky?

The first time he'd held her hand, it felt so good that it crowded out all the bad things. It felt better than anything had ever hurt.

But Park's parents loved each other. They kissed each other on the mouth, no matter who was watching.

It had to get him home.

They couldn't have felt lucky at the time. His dad's brother had just died in Vietnam; that's why they sent his dad to Korea. And when his parents got married, his mom had to leave everything and everyone she loved behind.

Park wondered if his dad saw his mom in the street or from the road or working in a restaurant. He wondered how they both knew…

# Eleanor #

"No. Don't stop, Park."

"No…"

"It doesn't matter."

"We can't do this…"

"I care. Eleanor…"

The first time he'd touched her hand, he'd known.

Eleanor's hair caught fire at dawn. Her eyes were dark and shining, and his arms were sure of her.

# Park #

"I don't even know how to… I don't have anything."

"I don't care."

"Eleanor, no, we have to stop."

There's no shame with Park. Nothing is dirty. Because Park is the sun, and that's best way she could think to explain it.

"But I don't want you to get…"

# Eleanor #

"It's our last chance."

"No. No, I can't… I, no, I need to believe that it isn't our last chance… Eleanor? Can you hear me? I need you to believe it, too."