Niland Corner

There's only one place in our Universe where America's first east-west transcontinental highway crossed its first north-south road. The Lincoln and Jefferson Highways met in Iowa and like indifferent travelers, parted ways at an intersection of reality and romance called, Niland Corner. A roadside café and two gas pumps marked this cosmic way stop on the prairie, where countless lives converged and separated in the days before Interstates smothered the beauteous majesty of travel with illusions that reaching a destination mattered. Of real concern are two fate-stunned travelers who seek what they cannot perceive. Carla, old enough to know better, and Matthew, even older, are oblivious lovers suspended in Time and Iowa...plus bits of Michigan. It's complicated. Matthew is a flight instructor who quit learning from the sky after his wife died. He seeks nothingness. Carla loved the corporate life until being "let go" and now tracks a journey parallel to Matthew's. This question might appear on your midterm: Can parallels ever meet at an intersection? This is the fifth novel by Paul Berge. Niland Corner is a quantum companion to his previous novel, Muzzy, and continues his exploration of the insanely amusing possibilities of unsupervised Time.