“Each time a line knots, or breaks, or tangles, the Cosmos moves a little nearer utter Chaos. When the lines are straight and smooth, when logic and reason rule the Spinner’s actions, civilization advances everywhere. Chaos is pushed back, its dominion reduced. One day in the unbelievably far future it may be eliminated altogether. Then peace and understanding may pass between the lines, and all organized intelligence everywhere may come to know one another.
“Chaos is a poor pursuer. Relentless, but by its very nature disorganized. That is its weakness and our strength. Unfortunately, it has an ally. What you would call Evil. In all its forms it serves as an ally and friend to Chaos, for where Chaos reigns, Evil prospers. So Chaos seeks, by means we are not certain of, to enlist Evil in all its forms to aid it. That is one reason why singers such as myself do not travel in groups where we would be conspicuous. Individuals can slip and slide and hide themselves among various lines of existence, escaping the notice of Evil.”
“That attendant!” Wendy said with a start.
Mouse nodded. “He was certainly searching for me, but my smell was submerged among your own.” She looked down at Frank. “Even so he would have found me out if not for your quick thinking.”
“How come I don’t feel better?”
Mouse put a fine hand on his shoulder and then he did feel better. Warm and admired. He thought about shrugging it away but did not. “It is a great thing you are doing, Frank Sonderberg. Greater than you know.”
“Don’t get melodramatic. I’m just trying to get my family and myself to Las Vegas. For a vacation.” He snorted in frustration. “At the rate we’re going we’re gonna need a vacation from the vacation. ‘Lines of existence.’ ‘Spinners.’ ‘Chaos and Evil versus reason and civilization.’ Gimme a break. I’m just a successful businessman. My idea of a major crusade is buying season tickets to the Dodgers.”
“I am sorry, Frank. You have committed yourself.”
“To getting to Vegas,” he muttered.
Wendy rose, tugging at the waistband of her jeans. “What would’ve happened if that old man at the station had figured out you were in here with us?”
“He would have raised a great alarm. Others would have responded. Minions of Evil, far more dangerous than he, infinitely more vicious than the rat-things that assailed us. I think they attacked because they saw in you easy prey, not because of me. At least, I am hoping that is why they attacked.
“As to my fate if I had been discovered, I have no doubt I would have been slain on the spot. Then Chaos would have rejoiced. The Cosmos would have grown a little darker, the stars a touch more ominous at night.”
“What about us?” Alicia swallowed hard. “What would have happened to us?”
“I can imagine for you. Are you sure you want me to?”
Alicia turned away from those bottomless orbs. “No, never mind. I guess that’s not necessary.”
“I know what is necessary.” Frank was grim. “Next stop, whether it’s Baker or Needles or wherever, you’re getting out. I’m sorry if you’ve got a problem, but it’s none of our business.”
“Of course it is your business. Your line of existence is as much in danger as my own or anyone else’s. As I said, you are already committed.”
He frowned uneasily. “I heard what you said. What’s that mean, we’re ‘already committed’?”
“By helping me you have entwined yourselves with my line. We are bound together now, by circumstance if not choice. If I were to leave you now, the servants of Evil would still seek you out. You are involved, Frank. You are all involved. I did not plan it this way. Remember, it was you who stopped to assist me.”
“Just to give you a ride, fer chrissake.”
She nodded. “Without me to guide and protect you I fear you will never reach your destination. Any destination.”
“Does it have a name?” Steven asked.
Mouse turned in surprise. “You’re a precocious little fellow, aren’t you? I suspected as much. Does what have a name?”
“This Chaos thing that’s after us.” To Steven it was all a game, albeit a serious one.
“We call the antisoul the Anarchis. Think of it that way if it pleases you.” She turned back to Steven’s parents. “The great danger is that it realizes it need only prevent me from reaching the Spinner. If it can do that by placing obstacles in our path, then the fabric of existence will continue to unravel by itself. It need but rest and wait as the Cosmos comes apart around it.”
“Like melting Jell-O,” said Wendy thoughtfully.
“And you’re the number-one Anarchis-fighter, huh?” Frank no longer made any attempt to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
“Not Anarchis-fighter. Through thought every sentient being does battle with it every moment. It is not a question of defeating the Anarchis but of soothing, of modulating, of reregulating the Spinner.”
“You can sing. I’ll grant you that. Otherwise you don’t look so hot to me.”
“Not all is exactly as it appears to be, Frank Sonderberg. You too are more than you think you are.”
“Never mind what I am,” he said, embarrassed. “What matters is that, according to you, even if we drop you off somewhere we’re still stuck with fighting this whatever-it-is because we’re somehow sensitized to this battle from picking you up.”
Mouse was genuinely contrite. “I am sorry for that, but if you had not helped me, the fabric of existence would continue its unraveling. I promise that would soon affect you and your entire world. But help me you have. Now I am on my way again to the Vanishing Point. Hope is born anew. All we must do is get there.”
Frank was shaking his head. “You’re real big on this ‘we’ business, aren’t you?”
“Drive me to the Vanishing Point and I will take care of everything. Once there, you need no longer be involved, nor will you be an object of interest to the forces of Evil any longer.”
“That’s all we’ve got to do, huh? Where is this Vanishing Point, anyway? I take it, somewhere close to Vegas?”
“It moves around. At the moment, it is indeed in the vicinity of the place you call Las Vegas. Its motions are complex and difficult to predict.”
“I’ll bet. And this Spinner, it’s at this Vanishing Point?”
“Yes.” Mouse looked relieved. “Now you understand!”
“No, I do not understand. I don’t understand a damn thing. But I didn’t understand those rat-creatures that tried to get at us, either, and they were real enough.” He glanced back. “You’re real enough. So even though I don’t understand, I guess at least part of what you’re talking about must be real, too.
“How do I know we can trust you? How do we know you’re not lying about all of this? It’d be easy just to kick you out, right here, and forget about you.”
“Easy enough, until your whole world accelerated its descent into madness and destruction.”
“Look, why should I have to take that kind of responsibility? I didn’t ask for it. I don’t want it!”
“Frank,” said Alicia calmingly, “we’re going to Las Vegas anyway. Aren’t we?”
He slumped in the padded seat. “I used to think so.”
It was still unnaturally dark outside. Nothing else materialized to assault the motor home. After a while the peculiar thin storm clouds began to break up and fade away.
“What happened to Baker?” he asked.
Mouse blinked. “What?”
“Baker,” he repeated patiently. “We were supposed to have passed a little town called Baker.”
“Then we probably did, only we are no longer on its line of existence. Your reality has already begun to fray.”
He shook his head dubiously. “I can’t get used to this idea of reality coming to pieces like an old suit. What about Las Vegas? Are you saying it doesn’t exist for us any longer, either?”
