4338.210 · July 29, 2018 AD
Smaller Than a Town
Hermidale is barely a town — a pub, a man smoking in the dark, and a motel that looks like it stopped trying years ago. Room 4 smells of damp and neglect. Rose watches her mother set down the bags, sit on the edge of the bed, and simply stop. The food is almost gone. The bathroom door closes and doesn't open again. Mack says what Rose already knows but hasn't been able to name.
Rose takes in Hermidale as the family arrives at dusk — a place defined more by what it lacks than what it offers. The motel behind the pub is the only option, and their room carries the same exhaustion they do. She watches her mother's energy drain away completely, registering the shift from tiredness to something deeper and more troubling. When her mother retreats and falls silent, Rose is left to reckon with what the journey is doing to the person supposedly leading it.
