Past Itineraries

Past Itineraries (Anonymized)

We do not publish client details. The following are representative itineraries drawn from our experience, with identifying information changed. Each one is a trip that was taken.

Itinerary #IR-2033-0041

"The College Roommate"

"I said something at graduation that ended our friendship. It has been twelve years. I have his address."

Destination: Portland, OR · Duration: 2 nights

Day 1 — Friday

4:15 PMArrive PDX. Ground transportation to hotel.

5:30 PMCheck in. Hotel is a 12-minute walk from the address provided. This distance was selected to be close enough for convenience and far enough to allow the walk to serve as preparation.

7:00 PMDinner reservation for one. A restaurant we selected for its low lighting, generous spacing between tables, and bartender who does not initiate conversation.

9:00 PMReview the script. We recommend reading it once, then setting it aside. You will not use it verbatim. It is a map, not a speech.

Day 2 — Saturday

8:30 AMBreakfast at the hotel. Do not skip this. You will need the energy.

10:00 AMWalk to the address. Arrival window: 10:15 to 10:30 AM. Saturday morning is optimal for unannounced visits; the other party is likely home, likely awake, and the day has not yet accumulated the weight that makes evenings difficult.

10:15 AMThe conversation. Our suggested duration: 20 to 45 minutes. If it goes longer than an hour, you are explaining rather than apologizing. These are different activities.

11:30 AMAftermath walk. Route provided: a 2.3-mile loop through a neighborhood you have no connection to. The absence of personal history is the point. You need somewhere neutral.

1:00 PMLunch. A different restaurant. Window seat if available.

AfternoonUnscheduled. Some clients visit a museum. Some return to the hotel. Some call the companion we coordinated. Some sit in the park. All of these are correct.

7:00 PMDinner. If the conversation went well, we have a restaurant for two on hold. If it did not, the reservation for one from last night can be repeated.

Day 3 — Sunday

10:00 AMCheckout.

11:30 AMDepart PDX.

Outcome: Not our department. The logistics were executed as planned.

Itinerary #IR-2034-0118

"The Hometown"

"I left when I was 22. I am 41. My mother is buried there. I have not been back."

Destination: [Small city], Ohio · Duration: 3 nights

Day 1 — Thursday

Arrive. Check in. Drive past the house. Do not stop. You are not ready today and the purpose of today is arrival, not confrontation. Dinner at a chain restaurant near the hotel because you do not want to run into anyone tonight.

Day 2 — Friday

Morning: the cemetery. We have confirmed the location of the plot and the visiting hours. Bring what you want to bring. We do not advise on what to say to a headstone. We have found that clients generally know.

Afternoon: the town. Drive the streets you drove at seventeen. Some things will be the same. Most will not. The diner is closed. The high school looks smaller. The feeling you expected to feel may not be the feeling you actually feel. This is normal.

Evening: unscheduled.

Day 3 — Saturday

This is the day for the conversations with the living, if applicable. We have identified two addresses from the client's list. The first visit is scheduled for 10:00 AM; the second for 2:30 PM. Four and a half hours between them. You will need every minute.

Evening: dinner at the restaurant the client's family used to go to. It is still open. We confirmed the menu has not changed significantly. The client requested a booth by the window. We have arranged it.

Day 4 — Sunday

Checkout. One final drive. Then the highway, and then home; which is somewhere else now, and has been for nineteen years.

Outcome: Not our department.

Itinerary #IR-2035-0007

"The Restaurant"

"There is a specific restaurant in Chicago where I ruined a friendship by saying something I cannot take back. I need to go back there. I don't know why."

Destination: Chicago, IL · Duration: 1 night

Day 1

Arrive. Check in. Walk to the restaurant. It is still open. We confirmed. The table you described is still there; it is a four-top near the back. We have reserved it for 7:00 PM.

You will sit at the table. You will eat a meal. The other person will not be there. You know this. You want to be in the room where it happened, not because it will fix anything, but because you have been carrying the room in your head for eight years and the real room may be smaller than the one you have been living in.

We have a bar selected for afterward. It is two blocks away. They close at midnight.

Day 2

Checkout. Depart.

Outcome: The client reported that the restaurant was smaller than remembered. The table was just a table. The meal was fine. The client described the experience as "a relief that didn't fix anything but made the thing it didn't fix feel lighter." We have filed this outcome. It is consistent with our data.