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“Fuck the duck,” he said.
THIRTY-FOUR
“What are we going to do now?”
“Get a motel room.”
“But, I mean, beyond that.”
“What beyond that?”
“You know, we can’t stay anywhere near the Dells now, and I was going to get a job as a waitress.”
“Don’t talk about it.” Elro’s hands clutched the steering wheel. His eyes were outlined in red, as if someone had taken a crayon and run it around the edges of his lids. Another narrow country road stretched out before us, disappearing ahead into the darkness of jaggedy pine shadows. We’d arrived at this route, heading north, after winding tediously through back alleys and side streets. Now we weren’t just fugitives from Katydid, but also from the Dells, whose police were undoubtedly eager to find the hotrodder responsible for disrupting their busiest Saturday. Elro had slipped into one of his silences again; in fact, he’d already passed a few motels without even seeming to notice.
“It’s getting late,” I said.
A slight shrug of his heavy shoulders.
“I’m tired,” I added.
A grunt, perhaps an approximation of “Me, too.”
“We’re never going to find a motel on this road.” Aside from a tractor pulling a hay wagon, we hadn’t seen a vehicle in ten minutes. Even the farms seemed forsaken. Coming over one hill, we’d driven past the crumbling remains of an enormous barn, whose rotting, caved-in sides looked skeletal, like the ribs on a huge, fallen beast.
“We’re really in trouble,” said Elro.
“Well, if you hadn’t panicked back there.”
“Me? If you hadn’t lied, we’d have been all right. Why’d you have to lie to him?”
“What was I supposed to tell him?”
“Nuthin’.”
“Well, you weren’t any help. You just sat there rubbing your pants.”
“That’s better than blabbing. You’re as bad as your mother.”
“What’s she got to do with this?”
“She’s got a big mouth.”
“She does not.”
“Does too. Every time she came to school, she acted as if she owned the place.”
“Did not.”
“Did too.”
“Shut up, Elro.”
“You shut up.”
We swung around a sharp curve cut into the side of a hill. The pebbly, rust-colored soil had bled onto the road, leaving thin, red fingers on the concrete.
“You know something?” I said. “I don’t really understand why you did this—why you ran away with me. I mean, I think I know why, but that doesn’t seem like enough.”
