#central il

-The yeasty factory smell has permeated your car and sticks to your clothes like pollen, making your nose tickle with a sneeze that just won’t come. The back of your throat tastes sharp and smoky and your tongue feels numb like you’ve been sipping whiskey all afternoon. 

-The flat cornfields give way to abandoned factories on your right and the stinking grey river on your left. You can’t keep up with the grid-like layout of downtown and keep getting lost. Potholes threaten to total your car at every turn.

-You think you start to know the way but you’re actually just driving on autopilot, eyes glazing over as the road changes from asphalt to cobblestone and the streetlamps come far and few between. You play chicken with a rusty seafoam green pickup truck going the wrong direction down a one-way.

-There’s been a constant ache in your bones like it’s about to rain despite the fact that there isn’t a single cloud in the sky. The frigid air acts like it’s trying to turn warm, similar to a faucet running with a faulty water heater.