In despair? JESUS is your hope
by Elise Arancio

In despair? JESUS is your hope

reads the billboard from the side of the highway.

The billboard has reached its target audience. I am in despair. I am driving to my mother’s house for Easter, which is located thirty minutes south of nowhere. I have to drive six hours to get there, because I live somewhere.

The highway stretches in front of me, gray and impossible, like it’s being theatrically unfurled from a magician’s sleeve. Except there is no magic here. There is only the maroon Buick riding my bumper, and the middle finger its driver gives me when I press on the brakes to piss him off.

I think about close to nothing for a while, let the thick hum of the engine fill the space between my close to nothing thoughts.