So anyway, today we start home, stopping in downtown Richmond first to try to contact Jonah. The state library is closed due to budget cuts (scary),
but the city library has available computers with net connections. Peoplesearch reveals a few phone numbers, including one for his parents in
Michigan, and a Pennsylvania one. I call his mother, and have an extremely awkward and stilted conversation thanks to the poor performance of the
cell phone that ends prematurely. A follow-up ends again just as she gives me Jonah’s cell phone number, but I get enough digits to realize it’s the
Pennsylvania one I had before. I decide there’s really no point in calling again.

Unfortunately our efforts are for nought, as Jonah says it would be too hard for him to leave the building early and too hard for us to find our way
out of that sick, twisted place called DC. But at least we were able to try, and he promises to come visit in NYC instead. Scott seems relieved, he
is anxious to get home and I can hardly blame him.

The rest of the drive home is fairly uneventful, which is fine by us. We stop at Scott’s house for an hour and a half or so to avoid rush hour
traffic into the city, a strange purgatory for me. But soon enough I am home.