Coaldale, Nevada cheered him up.

When the moon bathed his soiled skin and stardust fell, the town reminded him things weren’t so bad after all.

Not that he hadn’t been troubled when he first hit town.

But now his nerves were no longer bent.  They weren’t mangled into strange angles no protractor could measure.  Nerves frayed or scraped bare, they were all settled down now.

He took a look out the window at the mountains off to the west.

Now that he’d shaken off the despair it was time to head up into the Inyo National Forest.

Out in Coaldale, Nevada it felt like he’d run straight into redemption, unexpectedly sliding into a emancipating U-turn just before the end of the line.