The Destination

She flew to Iceland to say goodbye to her best friend.

One carry-on. Diana's ashes. A trip they were supposed to take together that Sadia Winter is now taking alone, because that is what she does, handles everything, needs no one, keeps moving.

Then she sits down next to him on the plane.

Kelvar Vik is Icelandic, built like something that grew out of the landscape, and the most present man she has ever encountered. He listens the way most people don't. He says things and means them and leaves them where they land without needing to build anything on top of them. By the time the plane touches down in Reykjavík, she has told him more about Diana than she has told anyone since October.

She tells herself it's just the altitude.