“Really.” Frank kept his voice even. “A kid, huh?”
“Yeah. It looked like it was running. That’s what was so neat. I mean, lots of these plants have branches that look like arms and hands, right? But this one musta had two trunks. They looked just like legs, like they were running. Too bad you missed it.”
“Too bad.” How deeply did he want to involve his son in this nightmare? Did he have any choice, or were they all already deeply involved? If his son was seeing similar apparitions, then there was nothing personal about the nightmare. If it was a nightmare.
It had to be. Had to. “Remember the gas station where we just stopped?”
“Sure, Dad.” The boy looked simultaneously small and overweight in the oversized, velour-upholstered chair. “What about it?”
Frank struggled with the words. “Did you notice anything, well, funny there? Besides the bones you found?”
Steven thought a moment before shaking his head. “Naw.” His expression brightened. “Well, maybe one thing. You know the old weirdo who ran the place?”
“The elderly gentleman, yes.”
“When we first got there and I was over lookin’ around at that pen or whatever it was, I saw him trying to peek inside the motor home. He was standin’ on his tiptoes trying to see in one of the back windows. I didn’t think about it ‘cause I thought he was helping you, Dad. He had his face right up against it, real close, like.” Steven demonstrated by putting both hands in front of his face and pressing his nose against them. “He was, like, sniffing or something. I guess that was pretty funny, huh? Is that what you meant?”
Frank nodded slowly. “Funny enough. He was standing up and sniffing? Not looking underneath?”
“Nope. Just sniffing along the side, like a big dog.” The boy laughed at the memory. “That’s pretty silly, isn’t it?”
“Hysterical. Do me a favor and go get your mom.”
Steven looked around the seat. “But she just went and laid down.”
“Just get her. Tell her I need to see her for a minute.”
“Okay.” Steven shrugged, slipped off the chair, and jogged toward the rear bedroom. A few moments later Alicia appeared, blinking and rubbing at one eye.
“That wasn’t much of a rest, dear.” She settled into the chair. “But if you’re ready for me to drive, I’ll take it.”
“It’s not that. There’s something wrong.”
She was suddenly alert and awake. “With the motor home?”
“No. I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s something else. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I’m tired of wondering about it and I think I’ve figured out how to fix it.” He tapped the map clipped to the dash. “In a few minutes we’ll be in Baker. That’s where our hitchhiker is getting off.”
“In Baker? I thought you wanted to take her all the way to Vegas?”
He nodded vigorously. “That’s what I thought at first, yeah. On reflection, I think maybe we’d be better off dropping her sooner. I have this feeling we’re getting ourselves too involved in someone else’s personal business, some kind of business we don’t know anything about and that we’re better off not knowing about. I’ll think of some reason. It’s not like we’re dumping her in the middle of nowhere. She ought to be able to get a ride out of Baker easy if she just hangs around one of the gas stations.”
“You’re not making a whole lot of sense, Frank. That’s not like you.”
“Didn’t you want to get rid of her?” he asked challengingly.
“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way.” She glanced toward the back bedroom. “She looks so frail and innocent when she’s sound asleep. What happened to change your mind?”
“Tell you later. You agree we should put her off, then?”
“I don’t know. I know what I said when we first picked her up, but we’ve agreed to take her all the way to Las Vegas. I don’t feel right about changing my mind.”
“This is our vacation, isn’t it? She oughta be grateful that we brought her this far instead of leaving her standing where we found her.”
“If you think this is the best way, Frank.”
“I do.”
There was silence between them for a while before she spoke up anew.
“Frank?”
“Yeah.”
“Can’t you tell me what’s going on? Please?”
He chewed at his lower lip. “Hon, I’m not sure I know what’s going on. I just know that she’s involved somehow and that I don’t want us to be a part of it. She still sleeping?” Alicia nodded.
“I think what’s going on is she’s in some kind of trouble. She may be a singer like she claims. I mean, we know she can sing, but we don’t know that that’s her profession. Now, you know me. I’m always ready to go the extra mile to help somebody out of a jam. But not if I think it’s going to touch my family.”
“Us?” Alicia was genuinely puzzled. “How could any problems Mouse might be having affect us?”
“Like I’ve been saying, I’m not sure. It’s just that there are a number of things that don’t feel right.”
“Your funny-looking snakes troubling you again?” She half smiled, uncertain whether she expected to be taken seriously.
“Among other things. You remember the old attendant who sold us gas?”
“Not really. I hardly got a look at him. I was talking to Wendy.”
“He asked me if we’d picked up any hitchhikers. He tried to be casual about it, but I could tell he was real interested in my answer.”
She frowned. “Why would he ask a question like that?”
“He said something about having problems with people swiping stuff, but I don’t think that had anything to do with it. I think it’s something else, something a lot more serious. Steven said he saw him trying to sneak a look inside while I was pumping gas. Sniffing around, you might say.”
“You think he was looking for Mouse?”
“I don’t know, but he sure as hell was looking for something, and I don’t want any part of what’s going on. He wouldn’t give me any straight answers, and she”—he jerked his head in the direction of the back bedroom and their sleeping guest—“hasn’t given us any straight answers and I think the best thing under the circumstances is to let people like that work out their problems among themselves. Let her find another ride. I’ve had enough of her and enough of this.”
Then maybe life would return to normal, he thought desperately. Whatever else Mouse might be, she wasn’t normal. Her appearance wasn’t normal and her voice wasn’t normal and her whole aspect was slightly skewed. Once they were rid of her maybe the world would return to normal. Unless he was the only one who’d gone crazy. But Steven had seen the attendant sniffing.
Alicia thought her husband was overreacting, but she kept quiet. She accepted his change of heart gratefully. Not because she didn’t like Mouse. She just didn’t like strangers. Obviously Mouse’s presence was putting a strain on their vacation. That was reason enough to ask her to find another ride.
It had nothing to do with funny-looking snakes and curious gas station attendants.
4
ACCORDING TO THE MAP, Baker was less than ten miles ahead. They drove the ten miles, then fifteen, without sighting the little desert town. Frank hadn’t paid much attention to the odometer since they’d left Los Angeles, but he watched the slowly revolving numbers intently now.
