The thick, humid heat of an Atlanta summer hit my skin like a physical blow the moment I stepped out of the Uber. I had spent two weeks in a dusty, forgotten corner of Alabama, down in the sticks, nursing my mother back from the brink of death. The air there smelled of pine needles and old sickness; here, on Peachtree Road, the air smelled of exhaust fumes, asphalt, and old money.
