Dean Koontz - Tick Tock

Grinning, Del said, ‘Really? Already, I like you a lot.’

‘Let’s go,’ Tommy’s mother said.

Backing into the street, Del said, ‘Where?’

‘Go left. Just drive, I tell you when turn. Gi say you save Tommy’s life.’

‘She saved my life more than once,’ Tommy said. ‘She-’

‘Don’t think you save my son’s life then I like you,’ Tommy’s mother warned Del.

‘Earlier, I almost shot him.’

‘Is true?’

‘True,’ Del confirmed.

‘So okay, maybe could like you a little,’ Tommy’s mother grumbled.

Glancing back at Tommy, Del said, ‘She’s a hoot.’

‘Gi says you total stranger to Tommy.’

‘Served him dinner maybe ten hours ago but only really met him less than six hours ago,’ Del confirmed.

‘Served dinner?’

‘I’m a waitress.’

‘He eat cheeseburgers?’

‘Two of them.’

‘Stupid boy. No dating?’

‘Tommy and me? No, we’ve never dated.’

‘Good. Don’t. Here, turn right.’

‘Where are we going?’ Tommy asked.

‘Hairdresser.’

‘We’re going to the hairdresser? Why?’

‘You wait, you see,’ said his mother. Then to Del: ‘He’s a bad boy, break your heart.’

‘Mom!’ he said, mortified.

‘Can’t break my heart if I don’t date him,’ Del said.

‘Smart girl.’

Scootie squeezed past Tommy and thrust his big head into the front seat, sniffing suspiciously at the new passenger.

Turning in her seat, Tommy’s mother met the dog face to face.

Scootie grinned, tongue lolling.

‘Don’t like dogs,’ she said. ‘Dirty animals, always licking. You lick me, lose tongue.’

Scootie still grinned at her and slowly eased his head closer, sniffing, surely on the verge of licking.

Baring her teeth at the Labrador, Tommy’s mother made a warning sound low in her throat.

Startled, Scootie twitched, drew back, but then bared his teeth and growled in response. His ears flattened against his skull.

Tommy’s mother bared her teeth further and issued a growl meaner than the dog’s.

Whimpering, Scootie retreated, curling up in a comer of the backseat.

‘Turn left next block.’

Hoping to ingratiate himself, Tommy said, ‘Mom, I was so sorry to hear about Mai. What could’ve gotten into her, running away with a magician?’

Glowering at Tommy in the rear-view mirror, she said, ‘Brother was bad example. Young girl ruined by brother’s bad example, future destroyed by brother’s bad example.’

‘Which brother would that be?’ Del asked teasingly. Tommy said, ‘Mom, that’s not fair.’

‘Yeah,’ Del said, ‘Tommy’s never run off with a magician.’ She glanced away from the street, at Tommy. ‘Er… have you, tofu boy?’

Mother Phan said, ‘Marriage already arranged, future bright, now good Vietnamese boy left without bride.’

‘An arranged marriage?’ Del marvelled. ‘Nguyen boy, nice boy,’ said Tommy’s mother. ‘Chip Nguyen?’ Del wondered. Tommy’s mother hissed with disgust. ‘Not silly detec-tive chases blondes, shoots everyone.’

‘Nguyen is the Vietnamese equivalent of Smith,’ Tommy told Del.

‘So why didn’t you call your detective Chip Smith?’

‘I probably should have.’

‘I’ll tell you why you didn’t,’ Del said. ‘You’re proud of your heritage.’

'He pisses on heritage,’ Tommy’s mother said.

‘Mom!’

Tommy was so shocked by her language that his chest tightened, and he had to struggle to draw a breath. She never used foul words. That she had done so now was proof of an anger greater than she had ever displayed before.

Del said, ‘Actually, Mrs. Phan, you misunderstand Tommy. Family is very important to him. If you’d give him a chance-’

‘Did I say don’t like you?’

‘I believe you mentioned it,’ Del said.

‘More you talk, less I like.’

‘Mom, I’ve never seen you be rude to anyone before -anyone not in the family.’

‘Just watch. Turn left, girl.’ As Del followed instruc-tions, Tommy’s mother let out a quavery sigh of regret. ‘Boy for Mai not silly Chip Nguyen. This Nguyen Huu Van, family in doughnut business, have many doughnut shops. Perfect for Mai. Could have been many grand-children pretty as Mai. Now strange magician children.’

‘Isn’t that what it’s all about?’ Del asked.

‘What you say?’

‘Strange magician children. If there are three words that sum up what life should be all about, it’s “strange magician children.” Life shouldn’t be too predictable. It should be full of chance and mystery. New people, new ways, new hopes, new dreams, always with respect for the old ways, always built on tradition, but always new. That’s what makes life interesting.’

‘More you talk, less I like.’

‘Yes, you said.’

‘But you not listen.’

‘It’s a fault of mine,’ Del said.

‘Not listening.’

‘No, always talking. I listen but I always talk too.’

Tommy curled up in the back seat, in the corner opposite the dog, aware that he could not compete in this conversation.

His mother said to Del, ‘Can’t listen if talk.’

‘Bullshit.’

‘You bad news.’

‘I’m the weather,’ Del said. ‘What say?’

‘Neither good nor bad. Just there.’ ‘Tornado just there. But bad.’ ‘I’d rather be weather than geology,’ Del said. ‘What mean?’

‘Better to be a tornado than a mountain of rock.’ ‘Tornado come and go. Mountain always there.’ ‘The mountain is not always there.’ ‘Mountain always here,’ Mother Phan insisted. Del shook her head. ‘Not always.’

‘Where it go?’

With singular elan, Del said, ‘The sun explodes, goes nova, and the earth blows away.’

‘You crazy woman.’

‘Wait around a billion years and see.’

Tommy and Scootie locked eyes. Only minutes ago, he wouldn’t have believed that he could ever have felt such a kinship with the Labrador as he felt now.

Del said to Tommy’s mother, ‘And as the mountain blows away, there will be tornadoes of fire. The mountain will be gone, but the tornadoes still whirling.’

‘You the same as damn magician.’

‘Thank you. Mrs. Phan, it’s like the rock and scissors game writ large,’ Del said. ‘Tornadoes beat rock because tornadoes are passion.’

‘Tornadoes just hot air.’

‘Cold air.’

‘Anyway air.’

Glancing at the rear-view mirror, Del said, ‘Hey, guys, we’re being followed.’

They were on a residential street lined with ficus trees. The houses were neat but modest.

Tommy sat up and peered out the rear window of the teardrop-shaped sports car. Looming behind them was a massive Peterbilt tractor and trailer, like a juggernaut, no more than twenty feet away.

‘What’s he doing in a residential neighbourhood at this hour?’ Tommy wondered.

‘Killing you,’ Del said, tramping on the accelerator. The behemoth of a truck accelerated to match their pace, and the yellow glow of sodium-vapour streetlamps, flickering across its windshield, revealed the portly Samaritan behind the wheel, his face pale and his grin broad, although they were not close enough to see the green of his eyes.

‘This can’t be happening,’ Tommy said.

‘Is,’ Del said. ‘Boy, I wish Mom was here.’

‘You have mother?’ Tommy’s mom asked. ‘Actually,’ Del said, ‘I hatched from an insect egg. I was a mere larva, not a child. You’re right, Mrs. Phan - I had no mother.’

‘You are smart-mouth girl.’

‘Thank you.’

‘This is smart-mouth girl,’ Tommy’s mother told him. Bracing himself for impact, he said, ‘Yes, I know.’ Engine shrieking, the truck rocketed forward and smashed into their rear bumper.