The highway stretched for miles, a dark, never-ending road. Not a single other car was out here. Nothing lay on either side but dead flat land and distant hills. My foot pressed on the pedal. I wasn't thinking about where to go, and that was the beauty of it. No twists, no turns, no decisions.  
Eventually, I eased my foot off the pedal. A rest stop was ahead. After an hour of driving, I was tired and needed a break. I took the exit and pulled into the lot. Upon closer look, this wasn't an ordinary rest stop. Little old, generic stores lined together, like a small shopping outlet. What a strange location for it, in the middle of nowhere. The stores were closed, obviously. The parking lot was empty save for me.  
I stopped the car and sat for a minute, numb. What was I doing? Why was I even here? I didn't even know where I was going. I had packed a single duffle bag, with no set destination in mind. It hadn't mattered when I was running out, but now it dawned on me that I had nowhere to go. Nowhere and...no one.  
I stumbled out of the car, hyperventilating. It was pitch black out here. There were no lampposts. The highway led to a vast abyss both ways. I let out a short scream. Grief and fear seized me, and I almost crumbled to the ground when an electric buzzing shocked me into silence. I turned to see a teal and orange neon sign flicker to life on one of the old shops.  
The Video Vault.  
So weird. I couldn't imagine another soul around these parts at this late hour, yet somebody had clearly lit that sign. The lights inside had also turned on, and the front glass door read: OPEN.  
Panic had been replaced with curiosity, urging me to walk up to that door. After a moment's hesitation, I grabbed the handle and pushed my way inside.  
I hadn't set foot in a video store since I was a kid. It was exactly as I remembered, but smaller. Shelves were stacked with movies, divided by genre. The whole floor was blue carpet; the walls were orange. One side of the store was merchandise, and on the other were packaged snacks, like candy, microwave popcorn, and chips. The checkout desk was empty, and the registers were outdated. How was a place like this even in business at all?  
Dazed, I began to browse. A pang of nostalgia settled in. There had been no such thing as a chain called The Video Vault when I was younger, but this place was certainly similar to the ones I used to visit with my family, right down to the smells of plastic, popcorn, and carpet cleaner. I wandered to the kids' section, expecting to see older cartoons. Nothing of today could possibly be put to videotape. How was anyone going to see these movies, with the near-extinction of VHS players? Everything was streamed nowadays, including the old stuff.  
I picked up a movie, instantly recognizing the picture on the clamshell case cover. It was a cartoon I used to watch dozens of times growing up. The entire shelf displayed movies and TV shows I saw as a kid, including obscure ones I had totally forgotten about. Fascinating! My anxiety melted away as I eagerly went to the next shelf. I picked up a random film, then my breath stopped. What...was this? 
I looked around. The store was still eerily empty. I looked back down at the cover of the movie I was holding.  
It was me. Six-year-old me, standing in front of my school, purple backpack on, smiling next to a familiar blonde girl in a denim jumpsuit. The title on top read: Tara's First Friend. 
My eyes hastily scanned the rest of the shelf, then the next one, until I spotted another anomaly: Tara's First Crush. The back summarized my pitiful and useless attempts at impressing a boy I liked in the seventh grade. I barely gave that era a thought now at age thirty, but seeing the cover of the boy and me posing in front of our middle school lockers took me right back to when I was twelve and insecure.  
I raced around the store, examining every shelf. Peppered between the legitimate movies were random videos about my life, organized by genre. Action: Tara Fights a Bully. Horror: Tara's Haunting Nightmares. Comedy: Tara Goes Nuts! Romance: Tara Finds Love.  
I stopped there. The cover sleeve showed my husband and I gazing at each other, beaming. The background was the grad school campus where we met five years ago. 
I marched toward the back of the store. "Hello?! Is anybody here? Can someone explain what's going on?" 
I shoved open the back office door to see a square TV with a built-in VCR. The TV was on, casting a blue light in the dim room. No one was here. I didn't want to leave without getting answers about why snippets of my life were on display in this random corner of the world. I went back to grab some tapes. Maybe this was some elaborate hidden-camera prank and the tapes were blank. That didn't explain how the cover photos were created. Artificial intelligence? That made the most sense, but I couldn't get myself to believe that either.  
With a racing heart, I put in the first tape, Tara's First Friend. I gasped as the video came to life. It was shot just like a movie, with credits and everything. The scene panned to six-year-old me getting off the school bus and walking across the blacktop, my black ponytail flipping side to side. The girl in the denim jumpsuit hurried over and invited me to play hopscotch because I was the only kid who hardly played. This girl, Mia, would become my lifelong friend. Unfortunately, I'd been so caught up in my own mess lately that I'd neglected our friendship for a year. Now I was watching where it all began. 
The movie was an hour long, a perfect summary of how Mia and I strengthened our bond. My hand shook as I ejected this tape and put in another. Nothing about this was a prank or computer-generated. This was something greater than I could explain. 
My life flashed before my eyes. I watched myself grow, choose friends, lose friends, chase boys, pick fights, become estranged from family, and fall in love. I witnessed my joy, sorrow, anger, insecurities, love, passion, desperation, and motivations. The person on screen became someone I both despised and rooted for. I hated her stubbornness and inability to make important decisions, but I loved seeing the developing strength of her mind and heart.  
The final tape, Tara Finds Love, showed my wedding day, what came after it, and what ultimately led me...here. I was friendless, jobless, and hopeless, holding onto a marriage that had long since broken. I was scared to be alone, but each day I woke up alone, ate alone, and went to bed alone, I realized just how lonely I really was. He bombarded me with love, then stopped when life didn't go his way. I had poured in energy and received little in return, but still, I couldn't let go. Was I wrong for trying? Was I wrong for also wanting more? 
The final scene was my husband slamming the guest room door shut, and me, overwhelmed, packing a bag and driving off. I ejected the tape. Here I was, my story unfinished. I walked out of the office, squinting under the harsh lights. On the wall appeared a poster: Coming Soon: Tara Finds Her Way. In that poster was me, standing by my car, my hair billowing in the wind. Flowers bloomed along the roadside, and the sun rose over distant hills. 
I left the store, my mind strangely clearer. I stood beside my car, watching the sun rise, taking in the day's first breath. In the morning light, I noticed the assortment of wildflowers on either side of the highway. They were beautiful.  
The sun beamed high above the horizon by the time I got back in the car, my heart at ease. I drove out of the lot as The Video Vault flickered off behind me. Two paths lay ahead: the road back and the road beyond. Whichever path I chose, I'd still have to forge my own road soon. With a deep breath, I placed my foot on the pedal and made my turn.