In Unit 2, Blithe shat out the sushi from the week before, which didn’t feel chronologically possible, and opened all the bottles on the rolling cart in front of him. Smelled lavender, eucalyptus, even essence of Joshua Tree. He was grateful the mirror had been covered with a cheap red scarf because he didn’t want to look at himself in her silk floral robe. He shut off the too-bright bathroom light and stepped into the tiny efficiency kitchen. The other part of the unit was divided by a white curtain stapled to the ceiling, and he could see Rita moving around behind it.

Blithe was beyond the point of concern. She beckoned him through her bedroom, just a motel bed with a large tiger blanket spread over it instead of a scratchy comforter and some lit candles, and out to the balcony.

She poured him a glass of Sprite without ice, and they sat at a folding card table. Her movements, purpose, dwelling were all efficient and without flourish.

“You are hardly the first person I have taken from the desert to the sea,” she said, as if the Salton Sea were a privileged destination and not an accident of flooding ruined by pesticides and neglect. The sea was a gray line in the distance, shoving waves of hydrogen sulfide toward him, reminding him of his own nastiness.

She handed him a water-damaged Welcome Packet in a plastic sleeve. Some letters had blurred, and this comforted him. He was those letters that had lost their form.

Guidelines for Rita’s Resting Place

If you are trying to obliterate yourself . . .

By cutting: let me in the room with you.

By drugs: let me provide herbal balms.

I only take responsibility for moving you from desert to sea.

P-yment is donation based.

Maximum s-ay, two weeks.

Please respect the paying guests of Rita’s Motel by the Sea in Units 13 and 14

-rocery run every Wednesday at 3:30pm.

You are welcome to use the kitchen in Unit 3.

Meet daily by the picnic benches for the following:

6am Morning sea stro-l

7am Simple breakfast

1pm Cathartic yell

5pm Bird-w-tching

9pm Hot chocolat-

10pm Optional tuck-in

You can find the resident mediator, Hector, in Unit 6.

I am in Unit 2

That was it, and somehow she had covered everything.

“You’ll be in Unit 7. We can arrange to get your car brought over here. Also, please notify loved ones about what’s going on without giving them the address.”

He waited to see if she’d say anything about what she saw up on the trail. She didn’t.

“What about—?” He gestured at his groin. There was sand between his teeth. His jaw was heavy.

She zipped her lips and then watched without worry as he spent a whole hour just trying to get the letters in order to send a curt text to parents, boyfriend, and work about “unplugging for a while.” They were used to his whims. He was glad that he could summon enough of his functioning self to stave off their concern. The last thing he wanted was Saul trying to comfort him with a blow job or a meditation app, and he’d tortured his parents enough.