by Jax Spenser
***
Back at the car, I load my aching body into the back seat. I sit and wonder how John Bruce got out of the restroom so quickly. He had to have heard me. And what was he doing in front of the urinal? He wasn’t even using it. It’s totally weird.
Dad taps on the back window, smiles, holds up a bag of snacks. I have to say something to him.
Before I can, John Bruce opens his door just as Dad gets in.
I pretend to look through my backpack while the stranger pulls the seatbelt around himself very carefully, as if he doesn’t trust it. The belt clicks and he pulls on the strap, fascinated by it somehow. Then he looks back at me. Smiles. A strange, empty smile. Whatever that means. He adjusts the sunglasses and the mirror surface from his lenses flashes in my eyes. “Shall we go? We are close now,” he says. Psycho Pilot preparing for landing.
Dad hands me the bag with corn chips sticking out the top. “Hungry, Keeg? Hope so, got some jerky in there too if you want. Alright, here we go.” The tires chew at the gravel in the parking lot and pretty soon we’re on the open road.
I sit frozen with a lap full of junk food—all of Dad’s favorites, not mine—reminding me how empty my stomach is and how I still need Dad to feed me.
But I can’t get the hitchhiker out of my mind. What did that smile mean? Did he know I was watching him in the bathroom? Is he trying to let me know?
I stare at the back of his plain red baseball cap, hoping the answer comes to me. But I’m suddenly tired. Really tired. Doesn’t seem possible; how much sleep can a person get? This time I’m going to fight it. And stay awake every second that John Bruce is still in the car.
My eyes feel like sacks of wet sand. I shake my head trying to fight it. So tired.
I look out the window and there’s a patch of clear window that the dust has missed. It’s no longer Oklahoma flat. We’re out of our neighborhood for sure. Layers of rock pushing up out of the ground now. Mountains shaped like stools and tables for giants. The bright, sun-weathered desert drifts off behind us. My body keeps getting heavier and heavier.
We really are going West. Away from her.
A smile pushes at my mouth and I feel like I’m floating into space.
Can’t keep my eyes open. I want to … so badly.
