matteo buonomo
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I can’t say exactly how I realized they were special. Maybe the way she looked at her kid when I showed my face inside the car. Maybe the way her son immediately moved between her mom and me as a way to protect her. In a matter of seconds I felt something special in that car. I met Kristal two weeks after her last overdose. We met by accident. I was hitch-hiking across the US with no destination set. I was looking for humanity. I was looking for dust. She was driving along highway 412 in Arkansas. She was driving with Skyler, her son. She was headed home. It was midday. All the shadows fell harshly to the ground. My thumb was up on the side of the road. Kristal drove her white shabby jeep closer and stopped few meter ahead from me. She gave me a ride. Kristal looked at me through the rear mirror. She was suspicious. I felt Kristal and Skyler had a special relationship. I saw a bold relationship between a mother and a son. A relationship that I never had. I felt that everything I was looking for was in that car. I was headed nowhere. I stayed with them. What follows is the chronicle of the time we spent together. Doing things and doing nothing. Being happy and being sad.