Sunrise off the interstate syncopates our Montana sojourn waking up in Billings to the music of regrets merging into a melody of love’s momentous consolation in the family of things, in shared memories and plans, in the motel breakfast buffet, in the foibles of friendship and the knowing what not to say when politics and friendship collide. At the Wyoming state line meadowlarks begin to sing in earnest with cricket chorus, and the smell of wild flowers — despite horrific history — triggers a beatific vision of yin and yang united like the rolling hills and sky carrying us past Sheridan through a landscape rife with ghosts to get the car washed in Gillette on the way to the Devils Tower.

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