Kyle pulled the car into a gas station outside Richfield and climbed out into the frigid cold.  Even though the air was dead still, it bit hard at Kyle’s skin as he moved through it.  He  stood shivering while he held on to the frigid pump.

“Huh,” he said aloud, but to no one in particular, “What day is it?”  He had to think back considering how long he’d been awake after he left.  Thursday was my last day of school.  I left… Friday morning and really last night was still Friday.  It just doesn’t count unless you sleep!  Of course that means today is Saturday, because I did sleep.  But not much, no wonder I’m so sleepy.  He yawned.  ”I’m sleepy and it looks like I’m wandering through a fairy tale with the light all wonky like this.”  He chuckled, “I guess it makes sense.  Once we hit the mountains, it really is all fairy tale business then.  Mountains and forests.  I wonder if it’ll still be all gray and misty in Denver…” He yawned again, “But Saturday.  Definitely Saturday.”

He started humming to himself a different Cure song and sang, “Saturday, Wait.  Sunday always comes to late.  But, Friday never hesitate…”  He laughed there was a part of that song he’d always thought went “Now look at this dog!”  It didn’t say that, but he didn’t care.  His version seemed funnier, “You get can never get enough.  Now look at this dog!  It’s Friday I’m love.”  It made him think of a poor magician, using a random dog as a distraction to pull of a trick.

What do you think about random dogs, duder?

Of course not!  Always respect your audience!  Even bad magicians know that much!  Besides, some of the best tricks are when the audience is in on it.  They can see it coming, but they want to see how it plays out.  They get to enjoy the reactions of everyone else.  Perhaps even, they were appalled with you to start. But now you share a secret, you and they.  So, now you are confidants.  And they want to see where you’re going with it next.

Duder, it’s obvious.  Next, I’m getting back in the car.  The lever popped against Kyle’s fingers, and he pulled the gas pump out and put it back in the holster.

What if there never was a trick?  That’s a good question.  What is a magician who doesn’t perform tricks?  Is he a real wizard with real magic?  Or is he some ordinary guy who in the end is just standing there holding an ordinary, empty hat?

“Probably an hour or so, I think.” he replied.

“Good,” she made a small chuckle, “I’d rather we didn’t wake them up.”

“I know what you mean,” Kyle said nodding.  They both stared out at the passing desert.  Kyle reminisced on the way it felt coming in to Vegas.  Then, he’d been alone struggling to stay awake, keep himself entertained.  Now suddenly here he was with a car packed to capacity.

Christine said, “I never would have expected to be going there like this.”

“What do you mean?”  The dog gave a tremendous yawn for it’s small body and rolled itself into a different sleeping position on Christine’s lap.  It had pretty much taken ownership of her lap for the indefinite future.

“Well,” she said, “I don’t know if you noticed, Kyle, but there are two distinctly smelling bums sleeping against each other in the back of your car.”  She glanced back and Kyle looked in the mirror to see the way their heads were leaning against one another while they slept.  ”And then there’s you, Kyle.”

He grinned self-consciously, “What about me?”

“Wow, really fishing for it, huh?” she slapped him on the thigh and it felt like an electrode through the lower half of his body.  ”I don’t know what it is about you, Kyle.  It’s like a compulsion.”  She flicked the toy on his dashboard, “What is that thing?  It looks like a white, fleshy, tentacled alien.”

“It’s something like that,” he said, “I got it from Cherry’s.  It used to glow in the dark, which was all crazy at night when I’d go driving, but it’s been there for a while, ”  Kyle thought back, “Well most of high school actually.  I got it the first night I started driving with a license.  Ed and I went to celebrate our new found freedom.  For some reason, Ed always liked getting the kid’s meals that had toys.  This was the toy.  He figured it should sit prominently.”

“It’s a good fit,” she said, flicking it again to make it wobble, “Where’s Ed now?”

“He’s back home.”

“Why didn’t he come with you?”

“The thing is,” Kyle said thinking about the phone call with Ed the night he’d left, “I think–”, Kyle was frowning hard down the road trying to understand.  Ed had been suspended.  Kyle had ditched.  Both had been chewed out by their dads.  Both had made contact with the girls of their fascination.  Ed’s had been positive; Kyle’s negative.  Kyle had felt compelled to leave.  Ed had felt compelled to stay.  But, now that Kyle was thinking about it, the day must have been just as significant for Ed as it was for himself.  Everything was different after Thursday, for Ed and for Kyle.  Suddenly, Kyle felt a very strong desire to know what it was Ed was writing in his own half-note.

“I think he just really needed to stay.  And I really needed to go,” Kyle said finally.

“But,” Christine said, leaning in on her elbow, chin in her hand and fingers at her lips.  He could feel her breath warming his shoulder.  ”Didn’t you want to be there for each other?”

Kyle laughed, “No!” he said too easily.  But when he glanced at Christine he felt it necessary to explain, “I mean, sure it would have been nice. And I’m sure while he was being suspended back at home, we could have hung out…” he trailed off.  ”Okay, how about this?” he said, nodding at her satisfied to himself, “We never had any classes together.  In school, I mean.  We were never able to hang out.  Yet, we’d always chat at a locker or hang out in lunch detention, or at home–Anyway, nevermind,” Kyle said waving his hands, “What I mean is, we were already living most of our lives not in the same space,” he said pulling his hands off the wheel to hold them apart, “But we were still friends,” he said putting his hands back together, “in the space between,” he put his hands back on the wheel.  ”We are still friends.  And we will be when we see each other again, in a few days or so when I get back home.”

“Huh,” she said around her fingers, “You think so?  You’ve got it all figured out, then?”

“Well, I hadn’t,” he chuckled, “I hadn’t really thought about it until you asked.”

“Funny how that works,” she smiled at him and then continued to look without saying anything else for a moment.  Kyle was paying too much attention to really notice her staring at him, but he jumped a little when she spoke again and it came from still very close to his ear.  ”Kyle,” she said slowly, “have you been with a woman?”

He lurched and started looking around the car like a caged animal.

“Sorry!” she exclaimed, laughing, “no, that’s fine.  That pretty much answers it.”  Kyle made a small whimper of protest and tried to ignore his embarrassment at her laughing.  ”You do like women?” she asked, wryly.

“Yes,” Kyle said nodding vigorously, “of course!”

“Just checking,” she patted him on the shoulder placatingly.  Despite his embarrassment, he couldn’t help thinking how much he liked the sound of her laugh.  It was throaty and feminine, and she ended it with a small, hoarse gasp.  Hearing it, he felt like an addict.  He really wanted to hear it again.

“What about you?” he asked defensively.

“Me?” she asked dangerously, “Have I ever been with a woman?”

“No, er,” Kyle shook his head violently. “I meant–,” he halted his voice and didn’t start it up again, just chewed his lip and continued to drive.

She laughed again.  There it was, he thought, not much caring that she was still laughing at him, so long as she was laughing near him, where he could enjoy it.  ”Sorry, Kyle.  I may feel comfortable driving around with you, but I’m not going there with you, yet,” she patted his thigh again, “Besides, I’m a bit worried about how you’d take it, honestly.”  She chuckled again.

“Aw, come on!” said Mike from the back.

“I’m not touching you,” Mike roared back at Kevin.  Kyle jerked the wheel in surprise at the yell and caused the car rock violently to one side.  Mike looked at Kyle in the mirror and then back at Kevin, “This seat is tiny and the guy steering this thing can’t keep it steady.  I’m not touching you on purpose!”  Mike’s voice returned to a normal volume and took on a guilt inducing tone, “I just have a big body, okay.”

“Okay,” Kevin said and folded his arms across his chest.

Christine turned to look at Kyle.  ”Really?”  she asked rhetorically.  ”Really, Kyle?”   He shrugged.  She continued,  ”You realize that we still have like…” she checked her watch, “ten hours left?”  She sounded like she couldn’t believe it herself.  ”What is with these two?”  Kyle shrugged again shaking his head.  He wanted to grab his notebook and write some half notes, but he couldn’t get to it where he’d thrown it back early.  Instead, he decided to try to rely on remembering his side of the note while he played it out in his head.  He did it sometimes while he was driving until he had a chance to stop.  This wasn’t really that different.

Right?

Well maybe I would make up a few things if I forgot what I was thinking, but honestly, how would you even know?  Why would you even care?

Okay.  Good point, I didn’t think about the children.  Right now I’m trying not to think about them.  I’m trying to distract myself, so I don’t have to listen.

At that moment, he overheard Mike telling Kevin, “The way you sleep at night, you’re lucky I’m not kicking and punching you right now while I have the chance, okay?”  Kyle used his extensive training with the music at the Fabrics R Us to rapidly tune them out.

That’s true, but what am I supposed to say to her?

Ha, tuck and roll!  I don’t think I’ll go there, but thanks.  I suppose you’re right though, duder.  Regardless of what I say she can’t really escape without diving out.  I’m going to test it out.  Let’s see what happens.

“H–” Kyle tried to say.  His voice was caught behind the phlegm that had gathered in his throat while he hadn’t been talking.  He coughed and cleared it out, “Ahem.  Uh, hey,” he said and then paused awkwardly when he realized he sounded like he was reading lines.  ”Uh–Christine?”

“Yes, Kyle?” she said brightly, a false enthusiasm clouding her smile.  She maintained  the expression at him expectantly while he decided his reply.

“Have you ever seen a snake?”

She blinked.  Involuntarily, she looked down and then closed her eyes and breathed one long outward exhale.  ”I really don’t know how I want to answer that.”

“What are–” Kyle glanced up at the mirror and saw Mike and Kevin had stopped arguing, and both were watching, bemused.  ”Uh, nevermind,” Kyle said, “Sorry.”

“If you say so,” she said, rolling her eyes as she turned away to look out the window.

Not at all, duder.  Not at all!

Kyle had climbed from the vehicle seeing no easy way to back up and out of the alley without Mike and Kevin raising a ruckus.  Christine had leaned in to look at Kyle after he screamed when Mike had bang on the hood with questions in her eyebrows.  Kyle’d returned the look with wry guilt on his lips.

“These guys helped me out last night,” he’d said apologetically.

Christine had sat back.  She looked at first at Mike, then Kevin then around at the alley.  ”You know these guys?”  Kyle nodded.  ”How did you wind up here?”

“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” he’d shrugged.  ”But,” he’d sighed, “I have to do something.”

“What do you mean?” She’d looked at the two bums again, “Why?”

Kyle never liked that question.  Somehow trying to answer it was the most challenging when having to explain his own actions.  Did he really need a reason?   And yet, once asked he couldn’t escape it.  Why, indeed.  Maybe it was just the luck that brought him back here.  If he were to simply throw the car in reverse and drive away, there wasn’t really anything they could do to stop him.  Although he hadn’t looked directly at Mike or Kevin, he could almost picture them saying, “Not cool,” as he departed.  And it burned.  It burned just like Amy-Jennifer’s hand did slapping his desk.  Not that he would have told her there.  Except he was out here.  Out here was bare and honest. He hadn’t been assigned a seat behind Mike or Kevin.  And they hadn’t been assigned to help him in the alley.

“Because what I do matters,” he’d said to Christine as he stepped out of the car.  He’d felt stupid saying it after it was out there, but he couldn’t take it back.  So he’d quickly closed the door without looking at her.  His embarrassment was quickly replaced by fear as Mike had leapt at him yelling, “You destroyed our house!”

“Okay, duder, chill.”  Kyle put his hands up defensively.  Mike halted breathing heavily through his mouth and look hard into Kyle’s face.  Kyle continued, placatingly, “I’m sorry, okay.  Don’t kill me, man.”

Mike closed his mouth and breathed through his nose a few times.  ”I’m not going to kill you, brother.”

“I might,” Kevin said, poking his head over Mike’s shoulder.  And then he turned his head away laughing.  Mike and Kyle watched as he put his hands to his temples and started dancing in that same way Kyle had seen before.

Mike shook his head, “No, he won’t,” and then exhaled loudly, “You really test my patience, Kyle.  You know that?” He adjusted his glasses on his nose and absent-mindedly pushed one of the curls behind his ear.  It immediately fell back into place at the side of his head.  ”But I guess you could have just ran off.”  His eyes narrowed keenly, “Like you did last night.”  Kyle took a breath to speak, but Mike cut into it, “You didn’t.  That’s my point.  You came out and let me yell at you.  We’re square as far as that goes.”

“Okay, duder, thanks,” Kyle said and started rocking back and forth toward the door of his car.  A motion intended to let him try to push past the conversation and get moving again.

Mike smiled, cocking his head, “I’m not quite done, brother.”  Kyle stopped rocking and instead started playing with the fingers of both hands while glancing around the alley.  ”Listen,” Mike asked, “Where are you headed?”

“Colorado,” Christine said.  She was leaning on the roof of the passenger side looking at both of them with amusement glittering in her eyes.

Mike looked at her for a long time without saying a word.  Kyle’s agitation was growing to full body proportions as he felt himself trapped by an inescapable awkwardness.  Christine simply stared back. Finally, he turned and looked back at Kyle.  ”Not bad, brother.  Not bad.”  He guffawed and ended it in that high pitch giggle before continuing.  ”We’d like to join you.”

“Yeah,” said Kevin bobbing his head to the silent music, “Colorado is cool.”

“Definitely,” Mike half glanced over his shoulder at Kevin, and then turning back to Kyle, said, “What do you say?”

Kyle swallowed and glanced at Christine.  She shrugged a bit at him and disappeared down into the car to pet the dog.  ”Yeah, I guess, duder,”  Kyle said, “But you realize that backseat is small, right?”

“We’ve been through worse, brother.  Trust me.”  Mike turned, “So cool, we’ll get packed,” he said and walked away releasing Kyle to hurry to the car door and open it.  Realizing that he was going to need to let them in first, Kyle turned back to wait on Mike and Kevin.  They had both grabbed hold of old looking backpacks from somewhere within the pile of things.

Kyle turned to Christine while they waited, “How far is it to Denver anyway?” he asked.

She pursed her lips and stared up at the sky for a moment thinking.  Kyle’s eyes followed her lips like a dog’s follows a treat.  He licked his lips, and she turned and squinted at him, “I think we’ll make it by 7 or 8 tonight,” she said.  Kyle peeked out of the alley at the still morning sun and turned back in.  ”Okay, so far,” he said. They both turned back to see Mike and Kevin rummaging through their pile, putting various bits of what looked like old garbage into their bags.  Finally, the two started walking back.  Mike crawled in behind Kyle and Kevin behind Christine.  Then Kyle and Christine climbed in.

Kyle reversed out of the alley and on to the road.

As the numbers ticked past on the counters, Kyle stood shivering and nervously watching in every direction at once looking for cop cars.  He bounced on his toes and tried to warm his body which felt unnaturally cold relative to the weather.  His breath came noisily from his nose as he rocked and bounced.  The numbers continued to climb, but it felt like forever.  Finally Christine burst from the door of the place waving at Kyle and yelling, “Go! Go!”  He hadn’t finished filling, but he started to pull the pump from the tank when she hollered, “No, I’ll get it.  Just get in!”  Kyle ran to the driver side door and hopped in.  At Christine’s insistent hand waving he started the engine and sat gripping the wheel.  Inside the station, he saw the clerk moving around frantically inside.  Was he going for help or was he going for a gun himself?  Either way, Kyle knew they didn’t want to be there much longer.  Christine yanked the pump, which was still spraying gas, out of the tank and threw it to the ground.  She leaped into the passenger side seat and yelled at Kyle to “Go!” again.  He slammed on his gas and they fled.  Behind them the clerk ran out of the building after them waving a bat and yelling ineffectually at the retreating rear window of the Bug.

Kyle jumped a curb with reckless abandon as Christine laughed while bouncing in the seat next to him.  It was exhilarating.  Until they heard a siren flare on behind them.  Christine jerked around, and Kyle eyes bolted onto his rear view.  In the distance, he could make out the lights that went along with the siren.

“Oh crap!” Christine said for them both.  Kyle’s grip on the steering wheel become white knuckled as his breathing quickened, and his eyes sought for escape.

“What should I do?” he asked, his voice edging toward a higher octave in desperation to escape his tightening throat.

“Uh,” Christine said looking out both sides of the car as she chewed on her lip.  ”There,” she shouted at once, pointing down an alley.  ”Turn there!”  Kyle swung the car hard into the alley, scraping against the wall, making a horrible crunching noise and a spew of sparks.  He straightened out and barely avoided a dumpster against the opposite wall.  He slammed on his brakes and the car skidded to a halt crushing the first few boxes of cardboard at the lead of a large collection further into the alley.  They both looked at each other a moment, and then Kyle looked up again at the mirror, and Christine turned her body to look out the rear.  They stayed like that waiting in anticipation as the siren grew increasingly louder.  Suddenly the car whipped past the entrance to the alley, sirens pounding against the glass on the rear of the Bug, flashing lights reflecting off every mirrored surface inside.  Both Kyle and Christine screamed a short, “Ah.”  And then listened as the doppler effect decreased the pitch of the siren, and it’s volume slowly diminished into the distance.

Kyle breathed out heavily and then looked at Christine.  He gave himself a few more breaths to catch up to regular and said, “Hmm.”  His brow furrowed and then he said, “I wonder if he was actually chasing us.”

Christine laughed.  Kyle smiled back at her.  ”You might be on to something there, Kyle,” she said.

A sudden pounding on the hood of the vehicle drew another short, “Ah,” scream from the both of them.  They turned forward fearfully expecting to find a swat team.  Instead they found a round buddha like face with long curling locks at either side and another face with hair like Mo from the Three Stooges.  Mike and Kevin.  Christine made a grunting noise somewhere between confusion and revulsion, and Kyle screamed for a third time.

She looks like a girl, duder.  He responded to the other side’s question.  Kyle hadn’t really looked too carefully.  Every time he found his eyes wandering to get a better view of her, she’d glance in his direction and he’d look away.  She wears jeans and a t-shirt.  I can tell you that much.

No, I wouldn’t say the idea of her is more than the actual her.

Yes, I realize that was almost the same problem with Rachel.  That’s why I haven’t bothered looking her in the eye, duder.

“What are you writing?” Christine asked suddenly, peering at Kyle with one eyebrow raised.

“Oh this?” he said pulling the notebook closer so that his arm covered the text.  He had been writing at a stop light waiting for it to turn.  ”This is just notes for my novel I’m going to write.”

“Oh really?” she said, the amusement in her voice obvious, “What’s it about?”

Kyle started driving and pulled the cover closed on the pencil to hold his place.  He set it in the backseat blindly while he continued driving.  ”I’m not really sure, yet.”

“If you say so,” she said continuing to scan the window.   “What made you decide to write a novel?”

Although what he thought about was that is was an excuse to cover up the fact that he was writing notes about her, what he said was, “It’s really been a passion of mine for a long time, you know?”

“Well, no,” she smiled at him showing her top teeth.  They were white in a way that didn’t seem like she was covering a tainted past.  An honest white.  ”I wouldn’t know anything about passions you’ve held for a long time, Kyle.  I barely met you a few hours ago.”  She made a small laugh, and Kyle felt his stomach tighten.  ”It really is strange when you think about it.”  Her voice melted down into a dreamy smooth. “Why were you there?  Why did I decide to get into your car?  There’s something about you, Kyle.”  As she said it, she turned to look at him.  The intensity of her stare made him want to swallow.  Hesitantly he made himself return her gaze.  They stayed like that for a beat.  One moment that held on like gum in the cog of a clock, stretching as the gears tried to grind past it.  He looked away and back to the road.  She gave a small chuckle and turned back to the window.

“You’re a weird, kid,” she said, and his stomach loosened completely letting his heart drop into it.  Kid.  ”I guess there’s just something about you that feels really safe.”  She shrugged to herself.

“What are you looking for, anyway?” Kyle asked in an attempt to steer the conversation away from their age.  Now that he thought about it, now that he looked at her, there was more behind her eyes than anything he saw in those of the people he knew at school.  Perhaps a weariness.  Although Rachel’s had an intensity and a depth, it felt almost empty compared with looking into Christine’s.  Where Rachel looked at him, Christine regarded him.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” she answered with a mirthful mystique.  ”I think you’ll probably do better if it’s a bit of a surprise honestly.”

“Okay,” he said, frowning and trying not to smile.  There was a small part of his brain that kept wanting to tell him that this was almost a perfect stranger who could be leading him into something really dangerous.  That part was almost completely overwhelmed by excitement.  Apparently, Kyle felt the same safe way about Christine as she did about him.  It felt important, that sense of mutual safety.  Important in a way that Kyle couldn’t quite straighten out in the cloudier parts of his mind.  He wondered at it for a moment or two and then let it go.  His external reality was, at this moment, far more interesting than his own mind.

“Why don’t you pull in here,” she said finally, pointing at a gas station.  ”Let’s fill your car up and then we’ll figure out the rest, okay?”

“Cool,” Kyle nodded as it he said it and turned in obediently.  As he pulled in, he saw steps leading up to a homeless shelter building that looked like the one he’d been to the night before.  It sent a small shiver that made its way down his spine to his seat.

Christine set the dog carefully into the backseat and opened the door.  She climbed out and leaned in to look at him, “Get out and get ready to fill up.  I’ll wave at you from the inside, when I’m set with the clerk okay.”  He nodded and she stood up, made a sound and then leaned back down.  ”And Kyle,” she said looking at him with that intense green stare, “Make sure you’re quick about it, okay?”  She grinned wickedly and closed the door on him.

He watched her walk toward the building and found himself fascinated by the way her shirt fell against the top of her jeans, just above the curve of her hips.  His eyes followed that curve down the tightness of the jeans to the way they fell around her calves more loosely than they did her thighs.  He blinked his eyes clear and opened the door.  Catching a glimpse of the stair case at the shelter made his heart stutter in his chest.  Forcing himself to breath calmly, he walked over to the gas pump.  He opened the tank on the vehicle and kept his eye on Christine inside, trying not to look at or think about those steps.

“Kyle, watch out!”  Christine screamed.  Kyle’s lazy mind was too busy enjoying the way she said his name to realize that he should respond in some way, and they popped up onto the curb.  The car bounced wildly and Christine fell hard into Kyle’s shoulder.  Startled to presence, Kyle’s wide eyes guided him back off the curb and onto the street.

“What time is it anyway?” he asked.

“It’s about 3:30,” she replied, “I’m guessing you haven’t slept for a while.”

“Not since I left Sacramento,” he replied.  She let out a hearty guffaw that, given his dreamy state, sunk deep into his subconscious where he spent a long time enjoying the honesty of it.

“You’re insane,” she said with the hint of a laugh in her words.  ”Listen, there’s an hourly place near here.  Let’s get you some rest.”  She directed him to the entry way of the motel and hopped out.  Kyle watched absently as she negotiated the room with the clerk sitting inside a wired cage.  The way she leaned in made him think maybe she was seducing the man.  But he wasn’t thinking clearly enough to separate his imagining from actual vision.  After a moment, the door slammed and Kyle’s eyes snapped open.

“We’re over there,” she said pointing at a parking spot sitting in front of a door.  Kyle pulled in entirely on auto-pilot.  She lead him into the room.  He stumbled after her like a zombie, the Chihuahua following happily behind.  In the barely lucid parts of his mind he thought he should be a bit disgusted by the appearance of the place.  Christine made a harumphing noise nearby as she surveyed the room.  Kyle stumbled toward the bed eyeing the pillows with a hunger only a true zombie could understand.

“Hang on a second, Kyle,” he heard Christine say, but didn’t really register,”There’s only the one–”  Perhaps she stopped talking at the moment Kyle’s head hit the pillow or Kyle fell asleep as he fell to the bed.  In either case, there was a blissful oblivion.

* * * * *

Kyle opened his right eye.  His left eye and most of his face, including his left nostril were smashed into a very hard pillow.  The bed felt like it was made of stone.  His head was throbbing and his back and leg muscles were twanging like someone playing rough with a violin.  He groaned deep in his throat while his right eye surveyed the room.  He could see the yellowing flower wall paper near his head.  He could see the dim gray light coming in through the window behind him.  He could make out the lump of blankets in the bed next to him was capped with a head of blonde hair.

It wasn’t a dream.  I slept with a strange woman, and I don’t remember a single moment of it!

Kyle grimaced and tried to roll over onto his back.  His left arm was under his head and was completely ignoring his brain, making the effort to roll nearly futile.  He managed to hop his body over into a turn.  An arm landed diagonally on his stomach and hit him hard in the thigh, barely missing his crotch.  Kyle jerked a couple times spasmodically until he realized his attacker was his own rebellious arm.  He grunted once and lay back against the hard pillow which did nothing to help his pounding head.

“Quit shaking the bed,” said a pillow-muffled, smoothly feminine voice with that vaguely New England accent.

Kyle almost laughed as he stared up at the ceiling.  He turned his head part of the way over in her direction and whispered, “Sorry,” and continued to stare up at the ceiling.

“It’s fine,” Christine said groggily as she pushed herself up enough to turn her head toward him.  Her hair fell messily across her face and she looked at him with one emerald piercing the blonde veil.  ”We should be getting out here soon anyway.”

With a profound contentment, Kyle asked without turning to look, “Why?”

“For many reasons, Kyle,” she said pushing herself backwards and up off the bed.  ”The most practical being that I only paid for a few hours.”  With both hands, she pushed her hair back over her head.  She leaned down and grabbed her pillow and threw it at him, “So, come on.  That’s what you get for waking me up.”

Kyle pushed the pillow off with his finally obedient arm and sighed, “Fine.  Fine.” he said and pushed himself up to a sitting position so that he could cradle his abused head.  ”So,” he said and considered his question carefully, “what is the plan here?” he tried and then corrected, “I mean, why did you, like, kidnap me?  Or whatever it was you did.”

She regarded him silently until he felt compelled to raise his head from his hands and look at her, still not quite meeting her eyes instead allowing gravity to pull them back toward her stomach.  She let the question dangle for a moment before she finally said, “I was going to make you take me to Denver.”

Recognition and memory threatened to flood Kyle all at once.  Involuntarily his eyes grew wide for a moment until he could control them back to normal.  Suddenly, in the growing light of a new day the events of the previous night seemed distant.  Suddenly, that thin thread holding him to home seemed barely strong enough to reel him in.

Christine frowned at his reaction, “It’s not like–” she started, and then, “You were obviously too tired to make it.  Its safer to have you get some rest.”

Kyle nodded chewing on his lower lip.  ”Yeah,” he said.

“Well,” she said, “I guess, do–Do you still want…”, she trailed off for a moment and said, “Would you take me to Denver?”

Kyle laughed quietly afraid that if he let it go all the way it would become a mad cackle.  ”Definitely,” he said looking up at her, catching her eye briefly before looking away.  ”But, I’m nearly out of gas and completely out of money,” he sighed.

“Okay,” she smiled at him, “We’ll just have to take care of that.”  There was an edge to her voice that made Kyle’s throat clench a little in anticipation of both fear and excitement.  He climbed out of bed.  His headache had subsided a degree.  He walked to the door and opened it on an entirely new day.

Nonetheless, his nervous giddiness being around a female, coupled with his eye scraping lack of sleep gave him an overwhelming sense of detachment.  Kyle turned up the radio and started to dance as much as he was able and attempted to sing with even less success.  ”You’re such a strange girl.  I think you come from another world!”  he sang.

The woman looked at him baffled.  Her press of the gun eased against his side as her every muscle succumbed to her confusion.  ”What–” she started, “What are you doing!”  She exclaimed at him momentarily pulling the gun away to express herself better with both hands.  Realizing, she quickly remedied by ramming the gun back in against him.  He winced, closing his right eye against the pain and stuttered a moment in his singing.

When he finally did reach a break in the song, he turned to look at her sidelong, but not directly into the eyes.  He didn’t want that again.  Not yet, anyway.  He said, “I’m singing,” and after a brief thought, “I’m also dancing, sort of.  I mean, it’s not that easy to dance when you’re strapped into a seat with a belt.  Especially not in a car this size.”

The woman didn’t respond.  So, Kyle continued singing, when the interlude had passed.  ”Such a such a such a strange girl, the way you look like you do.”

“Seriously!” she said, angrily, “dude, I have a gun!”  But at that same moment the dog huddling in the back decided to jump forward over her arm and into her lap.  She screamed wordlessly and threw her hands up in despair.  The gun flew out of her hand and hit the roof, clattering back down against the seats and onto the floor.  Kyle slammed on the brakes screeching to a halt.  Fortunately there were not many cars around at this hour.

The dog climbed carefully off the woman’s lap and onto Kyle’s.  It turned and they both looked at her expectantly as the moment passed.  Still staring forward with slightly wild eyes, she slowly closed her wide opened mouth and lowered her still raised hands into her lap.  She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths before opening them again.  Pressing her lips together, she leaned forward and grabbed the gun.  Shaking her head she put the gun into her pocket and reached for the door.

“No, wait!” Kyle said reaching out.

“Wait?” she asked as incredulously as possible, “For what?”

“I’m Kyle,” he said in response offering his hand and an awkward smile.  She rubbed the corners of her eyes, pressing her fingers to her nose while she laughed quietly.  Shaking her head, she looked over and said, “Alright, Kyle.”  And after another breath she said, “I’m Christine.”  Kyle smiled uncontrollably big as she settled back into the seat.  He stepped on the gas and began driving again.  The dog climbed gingerly into Christine’s lap, and she accepted it without comment.

“What now?” he asked.

She scratched the dog absent minded and watched as the large buildings disappeared from beside them to be replaced by the more ordinary structures of the city.  ”Just drive, Kyle,” she said still staring out the window.  ”Let me have a minute.”

I don’t know what I’m going to do, duder.

With a great effort he lifted one arm off the wheel to turn the ignition and start the car.  His limbs and head felt like water balloons.  He blinked a few times trying to make sure his eyes worked well enough.  Hopefully as he started back home, the sun would come up behind him and wake him up.  Hopefully.

He eased his way out of the parking spot and down the twisted helix that lead to the exit of the garage.  It wasn’t nearly as busy on the strip at this hour, but it couldn’t really be described as quiet either.  The lights were still incredibly loud in his eyes.  He pulled slowly out onto the strip and made his way at 10 miles per hour down toward each traffic light.  One at a time.  Each time he stopped he focused on the light, willing it to turn while he breathed a steady count.

“Drive the car,” said a woman next to him.  Kyle had no idea what was happening.  He turned to look at her, and she jabbed him in the side roughly with something hard.  ”The light is green,” she said, “Start driving.”  He did as he was told and started moving again.  In the back of his mind, he knew he should be afraid.  He was pretty sure it was a gun in his side that she held pressed almost between two ribs.  But in the front of his mind, all he wanted was to hear her say something again.  There was an extra twang to her accents that he couldn’t quite place.

Maybe Irish, maybe New York.  If he got her to speak again, he might be able to place it.

“So,” his voice croaked from a lack of use.  She jumped and pushed the gun deeper into his side.  Kyle winced and cleared his throat and tried again.  ”So.  What is this?”

“What is what?” she said, her eyebrows low over emerald green eyes as she looked at him.

French maybe?

“This,” said Kyle, gesturing at her and the car, reaching over to touch the gun she had lodged in his side.  She reared back with the gun and brought it up to eye level.  Kyle swallowed and faced foward.

“Just shut up and drive,” she said.

Duder, Kyle couldn’t help grinning, despite the confused grunt next to him, you are so totally not going to believe this!

Copyright (C) 2011 Nathan Fabian. All rights Reserved.

Okay, apparently I’ll do just about anything, but write.  This is a comic idea I had for a while.  Based on what I imagine my life would have been if I’d never married:  Sitting at home talking with my computer.