Denver is presented as a destination in Jake’s post-trip travel plans, not as a setting the narrative describes. The city matters through the prospect of departure: Helen is ready to go home, yet the possibility of driving Jake to Denver briefly makes traveling with him feel newly hopeful.

Denver as a Travel Destination

Jake tells Helen that he knows she does not want him to hitchhike to Denver. The exchange establishes the city as the place he needs to reach to catch a flight, which Helen jokingly associates with a whale lagoon. No landmarks, neighborhoods, or scenes in Denver are described; its role is practical and prospective.

The Offered Ride and Its Reversal

Before Jake can finish explaining that he has found a ride, Helen imagines he is about to ask her to take him. She welcomes the prospect so strongly that she says yes before he has asked a question. In her imagined drive, they would share chocolate and music and talk over the other travelers, including Beckett and the Sisters. The city therefore becomes, for a moment, the endpoint of a journey Helen wants because it would let her spend more time with Jake.

Jake clarifies that Windy’s parents have another vacation house in Crested Butte. Windy plans to rent a car in Riverton and drive out the next day, giving Jake a ride without requiring Helen to take him to Denver. Helen responds first to the surprise that Windy’s parents own two vacation homes. The correction removes the journey she had eagerly accepted before she knew it was being offered, while leaving Denver as the flight connection in Jake’s original plan.

A Destination, Not a Setting

Denver’s narrative function rests on the difference between Helen’s expectation and Jake’s actual arrangement. For Helen, the proposed drive briefly turns an ordinary travel plan into an opportunity for closeness; once Windy’s ride is revealed, that imagined opportunity disappears. The evidence identifies Denver as a destination Jake planned to reach, but does not establish that he travels there or depict what happens in the city.