Lita

Lita is a former acquaintance of Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen whose unexpected reappearance turns a rafting excursion into a meeting point between their past and present. Once living with Buck in a dilapidated house in Tofino, she had been preparing to move to Vail to guide rafting trips. When Poppy Wright finds her again, Lita does not remember the pair, but she welcomes them onto the river and offers a vivid account of how survival, memory, and chance can leave people connected across different stages of life.

Identity and Earlier Connection

Poppy Wright recalls Lita from a time when she was living in Tofino with Buck. She remembers Lita as someone who was about to leave and move to Vail to work as a rafting guide, a detail that makes Lita a natural person to seek out when the friends need a rafting trip. The reunion begins with Poppy Wright’s sudden recollection of her name during lunch; it is not a planned return to an old friendship so much as an idea that arrives unexpectedly and gives their travel a new direction.

Alex Nilsen remembers a different encounter: he asks whether Lita was the woman who tried to put her hand down his pants while giving him a tour. Poppy Wright is surprised that he never told her about this and clarifies that the Lita she means was the person who spent time with her and Buck. The brief mismatch in their memories gives the reunion a comic complication, while also establishing that their earlier contact was fragmentary: neither friend has a complete account of who Lita was to the other.

Reunion and the River Trip

By that night, Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen have booked a rafting trip with Lita. She does not recognize them, but says on the phone that she is sure they had a great time together. She explains her lack of memory by saying that she was on a lot of drugs then, and that she was often having a great time while remembering almost none of it. Her frankness unsettles Alex Nilsen, whose anxious expression suggests that the forgotten past leaves him with questions, but it also allows the present meeting to proceed without pretending that all three share the same recollections.

The next morning, at the raft rental place, Lita looks almost exactly as Poppy Wright remembers her, though time has added two conspicuous details: a wedding-band tattoo and a small baby bump. She says she is four months pregnant. Alex Nilsen asks whether rafting is safe; the question registers his concern in the moment, while Lita’s presence as the guide makes the trip possible. As they travel down the river, she tells stories that grow increasingly ludicrous. By the time the group hauls the raft onto the riverbank at the end of the route, Poppy Wright’s abs ache from laughing. Lita’s stories make the shared outing lively, but the laughter also leads her to speak about what lies behind the stories: she can laugh because she survived, and she is happy that Buck did too.

Chance, Survival, and Connection

Lita rubs her stomach as she reflects on the pleasure of discovering how small the world can be. People may have occupied the same place at different points in their lives and still remain connected, she suggests, comparing the phenomenon to quantum entanglement. Her thought gives the reunion meaning beyond the novelty of recognizing an old acquaintance. Lita cannot remember the earlier meeting, yet the place and the people from that time remain part of a chain that has brought them together again.

Poppy Wright answers by describing why airports matter to her. As a child, she was a loner and imagined that leaving her hometown would let her find people like herself elsewhere. She did find them, she says, but loneliness still comes; when it does, she buys a plane ticket and goes to the airport. Being among travelers helps her feel less alone because, despite their differences, they are all trying to get somewhere and waiting to reach someone. Lita’s account of unexpected connection thus gives Poppy Wright an opening to explain the emotional purpose travel serves for her. Alex Nilsen gives Poppy Wright an odd look whose meaning she cannot interpret, while Lita says the confession may make her cry, blaming her pregnancy hormones.

Parting and Narrative Role

Before they part, Lita pulls both travelers into a long hug. Poppy Wright invites her to visit New York City; Lita answers with a reciprocal invitation to take a real rafting trip. The exchange leaves their acquaintance open to future contact without claiming that the meeting restores a close friendship. On the drive back to the resort, Alex Nilsen remains silent for several minutes before telling Poppy Wright that he hates thinking of her being lonely. Lita’s conversation has therefore carried beyond the river: her language about connection has helped bring Poppy Wright’s loneliness into the open and drawn out Alex Nilsen’s response to it.

Lita’s narrative importance rests on this double role. She is a link to an earlier summer and to Buck, but also the guide whose stories and reflections shape the present excursion. Her imperfect memory contrasts with the emotional force of the reunion: she cannot recall the pair, yet welcomes them, laughs with them, and embraces them before they leave. Through her, the past is neither perfectly preserved nor simply lost; it resurfaces as a new meeting, and as a reminder that people may remain connected even when their memories and lives have moved on.