"All rides today are free," Lucy announced. "Free?" said the guy in the back seat. She had picked him for the free ride because he was wearing a baseball cap that said Fightin' Quakers, with a logo of a man in Puritan costume in the 3-point stance of a down lineman. First, because it was clearly a team that one of his teenage kids played on, and Lucy liked good dads. Second, because the whole idea of Fightin' Quakers was pretty funny. "It's my last day," Lucy said. "I'm celebrating." "Are you going to be doing something else?" The guy was from Raleigh-Durham, here because his company had bought another little company that did some sort of specialized work with machine coolants. "I got a real job," Lucy said. "I got my law degree at the end of August. I wanted to do work in non-profit." "That's great," the guy said. "What are you going to do?" "It's a little place that represents migrants. Mostly negligence suits against Agri-business. I clerked for them when I was in school. This case where some pickers were sprayed by pesticides. You know, crop-dusting?" "Wow," the guy said. They eased onto the I-405. Traffic was a little slow, but nothing major. "I got a job offer in Boston," Lucy said. "But I wanted to stay close to my family. My brother and his wife just had a baby. You want the windows up and the air on?" "No, it feels good," the guy said. "I can see why you wouldn't leave here to go to Boston." "In a way it would be great," Lucy said. "Seasons, you know. Snow. But I guess it's pretty warm in North Carolina." "It's humid," the guy said. "Not like this. Sometimes we get hurricanes. You guys don't get hurricanes. If I were you, I'd never want to leave here." "We have our share of bad things. Earthquakes. Fires." "Let's not think about that," the guy said. "You're starting a new life!" "Yeah," said Lucy. "It'll be great."
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