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"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.
Admittedly Baker wasn't much. A couple of hundred inhabitants, a few gas
stations, a convenience store or two. But it was definitely too big to
overlook. He drove another ten miles, searching the salt plain north of the
highway. They had yet to see so much as a sign.
At least the sky had brightened. The unnatural darkness had vanished.
The absence of their intended destination, however, mitigated the relief he
felt at the return of the sky to normalcy. He checked the map. Baker should be
twenty miles behind them by now.
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"Sweetheart?" Alicia shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "Shouldn't we be
there by now?"
"According to the map." He nodded at the dash.
"Could we have gone past it somehow?"
"You can't go 'past' a whole town out here," he shot back irritably.
"Maybe it ain't Manhattan, but there's at least one off ramp. I don't see how
we could have missed it. We've both been watching and there are no wrong turns
out here. I don't under -- "
She interrupted excitedly. "Oh, there's a sign!"
Sure enough, they were coming up fast on one of the familiar big green highway
signs that were posted on the shoulder. He could read it easily.
LAS VEGAS -- 152 Miles
HADES JUNCTION -- 6 Miles
The sign came and went at fifty-five miles per, leaving him little time to
ponder the implications. Hades Junction but no Baker. He squinted at the map.
There was no town by that name anywhere along I-40.
"They don't always show the real small towns, Frank," Alicia said, replying to
his concerns. She leaned close to the dash, looked satisfied when she sat back
in the chair. "This map's a couple of years old. They're always putting in new
stops."
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