Breakfast (1)

It's nearing 6 am. The winter dawn's still about an hour away but they drive with the headlights off. Kate's somewhere between groggy and dreaming. She's swearing every other word of the few she does speak. Even so, her temper'll melt off like fog once she's truly awake. 

"When's the fucking heater gonna start goddamn working?" She asks. She's laid herself out over the seat using Evie's lap as a pillow. She's got the quilt from her bed wrapped over her wool coat and tucked under her feet. The snow boots she's borrowed from their mom stand empty on the floor.

"You better be awake when we get there." Evie warns. She's a morning person from way back. 

"I'll be awake. I'm just getting a little more fucking rest."

Evie shivers when Kate's head shifts and the heat collecting under it escapes. She can see her breath. It colonizes the windshield in camps of ice crystals even with the defrost on high. "We'll be there before the car actually warms up," Evie says.

Outside individual tree branches are plush, furred with frost. Taken as a whole, the landscape is a hazy blue blurring past the windows. It'll be stunningly white once the sun comes up. An endless expanse of clean, enameled plains, enough to confuse the senses. 

Where the speed limit signs change from 45 to 75 Evie slows, pulls off the highway onto the access road. The diner and gas station's here, just on the edge of town.