“Lincoln.” Lincoln was a long way from here. Industrial district by the river. “You walking all the way there?” I asked. He nodded once. “Yeah.” “How far is that?” He glanced down at his shoes, then ahead at the road. “Twenty miles.” That finally landed.
Twenty miles wasn’t a casual walk. It wasn’t something you did on impulse. “You start work soon?” I asked. “Some time in the morning,” he said. That made me look at him again. The sky was still black. Streetlights hummed overhead. Morning was hours away. If that was true, then he was early. Too early. And there was no reason to be out here yet.