The lights of a metropolitan area never seemed to be out there, no matter how far and how long we traveled. I looked at the time and realized we had been driving for well over an hour. If anything, the road looked darker, the sight of lighted house windows few and far between. I leaned forward to see if I could catch a road sign, but for miles and miles, I saw nothing.
"Are you sure this is the route to San Francisco?" I asked. A good twenty minutes had gone by without him saying a word. He had been either lost in his thoughts or so into the music that he seemed to have forgotten I was with him.
"It's a shortcut," he said. After a moment, he added, "Look, I have to drop off this case of wine at my friend's house. It's a little off the beaten path, but I promise, it will take only ten minutes."
