117. Exchange (Jude's POV)

I have never felt so free in my life, never so happy, never so ecstatic; this is all new for me. 

Had I known that it would feel like this, I would have burned that house down ages ago. But I doubt that it was only that. Without the right bird to wait in the temporary, moving nest, waiting for me to break my last promise, it would probably not be like this.

There was also another first. It was the first time I could care for someone, the first time being needed.

The weight increased, and I felt comfortable under it, like a weighted blanket that could sooth away all the anxiety.

I gripped the wheel in exhilaration, the corners of my mouth not going down at all. When looking in the review mirror, I didn't recognize the face grinning back at me.

The only phone we had with us was Lesly's; the navigation system was unusable, so I just drove in the approximate direction I remembered from a card I had looked at.