I guess I should have killed Timothy. That’s what he asked for. But I got the keys out of my pocket and opened up the trunk of the Galaxy and took the gas can and poured it into the tank. I got my arms under Timothy and got him loaded in the backseat of the Galaxy. His flesh came off on my hands and I had to go out to the side of the road and wipe my palms in the grass; it was as if I had been holding greasy pork chops.
I got the car going and made a U-turn and drove us away from there. I talked about anything that came to mind, and Timothy when he did speak, said, “Kill me.”
I didn’t seem to know how to do anything but drive, and I did that through the day and through the night, finally stopping to rest. I kept going like that, kept talking and singing and reciting poetry to myself, and I don’t remember eating or drinking at all.
There’s not much to tell after that. My throat got hoarse. The road pulled me on. When I was nearly out of gas I saw the lake-your lake-and I guess it made me realize how thirsty I was, and I went for it.
Next thing I knew Jack here was pulling me out and then I was in the back of your camper. I woke up and had to pee, and when I came back from that, you guys were here.
FOURTH REEL
1
Bob said, “You’re welcome to stay with us.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it. But tomorrow, or day after tomorrow, when I’m rested, I’m going to start after Sue Ellen. I owe her that. I went sort of nuts when I found Timothy, panicked, took off in the opposite direction. But I’ve got to go back now and find her.”
“You don’t have a car,” I said.
“If I can get to Shit Town, I think I can get a car and some gas. If not, I’ll go on foot.”
“I’m going too,” I said.
“What?” Bob said.
“I can’t sit here the rest of my life.”
“See a set of titties and you go all to pieces, don’t you?” Bob said.
“If what she says is true, we know what’s at the end of the highway,” Crier said. “So why go?”
“Let Grace be the White Knight,” Bob said. “She’s into that kind of shit. Kung fu lady and all that. We’re into surviving.”
“I may have to do some ugly things when I catch up to Popalong,” Grace said. “It won’t be an easy trek, especially if I end up on foot.”
“Listen to her,” Bob said.
“This isn’t living,” I said. “This is existing. It’s giving up. I did that once before. Won’t do it again. You’re the one made me do something last time, Bob. You’re the one pulled me of out just getting by.”
“But this isn’t so bad,” Bob said.
“Maybe we can find a way home at the end of the highway,” I said. “Maybe there’s something more than what Popalong told her about. And there’s that little girl, Sue Ellen.”
“I’m not asking anything of you,” Grace said.
“Not much you’re not, lady,” Bob said.
“Shit,” Crier said. “We’ve been through some things together, the three of us. I feel like we’re the three musketeers or something.”
“Oh hell,” Bob said. “Here it comes.”
“We’re all we got,” Crier said. “I’d like to see us stick together. Hell, fellas, you’re the first real friends I ever had.”
“Well, fuck,” Bob said. “Guess we could use a change of scenery. We can take the camper to Shit Town and get some gas there.”
“Hey,” Grace said. “I’m not asking-”
“Hush,” Bob said. “I might come to my senses.”
2
Up in Jungle Home I tried to sleep, but no dice. I got out of bed and slipped on my blanket and left Bob and Crier sleeping and went out on the deck where a warm breeze was blowing.
I went on down and walked over to the camper and touched it. It was cool to my touch and I got a mild sexual charge out of it, which made me feel pretty damn silly. I thought about what Grace had said about fucking the ocean in case there was a shark in there that had swallowed a girl, and suddenly it made a lot of sense.
I went around to the end of the camper. The tailgate was down. My mouth filled with saliva. I knew then that I was going to at least look inside.
I looked.
She wasn’t there. There was just a basket of fruit. I guess my sexual charge had come from that or a horny spare tire.
Then I heard splashing. I think I had heard it before, but now it registered.
I walked around on the other side of the camper and looked out at the lake.
The moon was high and bright and it made the lake slick as a mirror. Not too far out in it, halfway submerged, was Grace. She was slapping her arms on the surface of the water. Playing.
I went down there, and when I was fifty feet from the water, I stopped and looked at her sleek, marble-white back sticking out of the water like a flooded Grecian statue.
She looked over her shoulder and smiled.
“Out for a walk, Jack?”
“Sort of.”
“Excited about tomorrow?”
“I guess.”
“You saved my life today.”
“That’s all right.”
“Of course it is. I got hot in the camper. Funny, Timothy’s down at the other end of the lake and here I am playing in the water at this end. I never made love to him, you know.”
“Did you want to?”
“I think I saw him as a brother.”
“You telling me this for a reason?”
“I don’t know.”
She turned and started to shore. She came out of the water like Venus being born. The moon hit the sheen of water on her breasts and made them bright as moons themselves. The little pink stripes on her skin looked like birthday ribbons.
“You’re going to go blind,” she said.
“I don’t make you go naked.”
“I didn’t make you come down here.”
I put my hands in front of me and clasped them together.
She came to me and kissed me lightly on the lips. Her breath smelled of fruit. She took hold of my arms, lifted them over her head and around her neck, said, “You’ll have to pull out, you know. I don’t have any birth control. And
