Emily Devenport: The Long Ride

Elayne zipped up her dress and brushed her hair out. She found a little tube of Brylcream next to Terry’s stuff, and worked a little bit of it into her hair to give the front and sides some height. She fastened her hair with the rubber band at the base of her neck and worked a little more Brylcream through her ponytail to make it look neater.

“There,” she told her reflection. “Now the hair matches the dress.”

Elayne went to the bathroom window and looked out. The back of the motel looked out on desolate fields, untended stretches of land that weren’t even used for grazing. She wondered if she could get out the small window and disappear into those fields.

Terry opened the bathroom door. “Come on, sweetheart. Time to go.”

Terry drove Elayne to a drugstore for breakfast without Ross and Kal. In fact, the monsters were nowhere in sight, and she didn’t ask about them. If he had decided to leave them behind, she didn’t want to say anything that might change his mind.

The drugstore counter was a wonderful place, with shiny chrome trim and big, fat stools. It looked like something you would find in a small town, a place untouched by the onslaught of fast food and franchise coffee shops. Elayne managed to eat some sweet rolls and drink orange juice. Terry put away a breakfast of pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, and coffee. He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket and lit one.

“You smoke?” asked Elayne.

“Sure. From time to time. Bother you?”

“Don’t they make you sick?” she said, frowning.

“Do I look sick?”

“Not now. But some day you’ll have lung cancer or emphysema—”

“Says who?”

“The surgeon general.”

He looked at her through narrowed eyes, but he wasn’t defensive the way most smokers were. He seemed to enjoy the argument.

“Didn’t you ever learn to smoke?” he asked, and blew a ring in her general direction.

“No.”

“What was the matter? Were you afraid it might stunt your growth?” He let his eyes travel up and down her body.

“Very funny. They make you sick, that’s all. Hardly anyone smokes anymore.”

But just about everyone in the drugstore seemed to be doing it, so she felt silly for saying that. “I only smoke a few a week,” Terry was saying. “I don’t have a habit.”

“Okay.” She didn’t want to argue about it anymore.

Afterward, they got into the car and just drove. Elayne was relieved when Terry didn’t drive back to the motel, but her good feelings were short-lived. Before long, a feeling began to creep up the back of her neck. She kept turning to look in the back seat. It was always empty.

Terry drove on without speaking, and Elayne was afraid to break the silence. She was afraid she might slip and ask about Kal and Ross. Her headache had come back, and her anxiety seemed to grow with every mile they traveled, as if they were going to their doom, driving to the end of the world. She wanted to fasten her seat belt, but the car had apparently never been fitted with one. If they had a crash, she would probably go right through the windshield.

Elayne couldn’t stand it. She looked behind her again, at the empty seat. She tried to sit with her back to the passenger’s door, but that was no good either. She slipped down on the seat until her head was against the cushion, and thought she heard a scratching on the other side.

It was the thing from Ross’s head! She knew it! It was crawling on the floor in the back, waiting to claw its way up and seize the base of her skull. She listened intently, and was sure she heard scratching. She had to look again. She sat up, took a deep breath, and turned around.

Kal and Ross were sitting in the back seat, looking right at her with their bruised eyes.

Elayne screamed and pushed away from the seat, hurting her back on the dashboard as she tried to scramble as far away from them as possible. The car was swerving and Terry was yelling, then jamming on his brakes as Elayne clawed at her door handle, crying, “I can’t stand it anymore!”

He managed to bring the car to a stop just as she tumbled out into the barren fields. She scrambled onto her feet and ran, stumbling on the high-heeled pumps and falling several times. Terry stopped the engine and ran after her, catching up to her within a hundred feet. But she broke away from him twice and stumbled on.

“Don’t!” he shouted. “Stop fighting! Calm down!”

“They were back there,” she sobbed. “They were invisible.”

“They’ve been there the whole time.” Terry grabbed her by the shoulders and held her tight. “They were in the diner with us, for Chrissakes! Calm down!”

“No. I’m not getting in the car with them!” She looked over his shoulder and saw Kal and Ross approaching. Ross had swollen horribly since the day before, and Kal was carrying a small black box in his hands. “It’s in the box!” She tried to wrench away from him again. “The thing for my head!”

“Elayne, stop, don’t make me—”

He punched her hard, in the jaw, and the lights instantly went out.

Elayne woke up in the front seat, her head pillowed on Terry’s jacket, against his thigh. He was still driving. From the back seat she could hear grinding noises, and realized, with horror, that Ross was eating again.

“Terry,” she whispered. “Did they put something in my head?”

He put his hand on her forehead and smoothed her hair away, either to warn her or comfort her, she didn’t know which.

“No,” he said. “There was nothing but wires in that box, sweetheart. I made them show me.”

She sighed, and hoped that he was telling the truth. Her jaw hurt. It was probably bruised.

“Dad?” she called.

There was no answer from the back seat.

“I know you’re there, Kal. Answer me.”

“Yes, child?” came his voice. Her dad had never called her child.

“Why am I younger now?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Another glitch, I suppose.”

“Like the brunette?”

“Yes.”

“She was from nineteen fifty-seven,” Ross put in, between bites.

Elayne turned onto her back, so she could see the top of the seat. Terry continued to stroke her brow.

“What year is it?” she asked.

They didn’t answer.

“Terry—”

“Nineteen sixty-two.”

“Nineteen sixty-two,” she called to the back seat. “I should be three, not twenty!”

“Don’t try to figure the physics out,” advised Kal. “They have nothing to do with logic, I assure you. At least, not any logic you would understand.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Not that you’re not intelligent,” he added, as if suddenly remembering his role as her dad.

Ross continued to grind his food, grunting happily.

“So now what?” she asked.

“Now you’ll take us someplace we need to go.”

“Where?”

“Frankly,” he sighed, “we don’t know. You’ll have to be our compass, child.”

“How?”

“We’ll keep track of your misery,” he said, then hushed Ross as he began to giggle.

They stopped for the night at another motel. Terry took Elayne’s clothes and then went off to get her some aspirin and ice for her jaw. He came back with a nightgown, too.

“I thought you shouldn’t have to sit around naked,” he said. “Much as I would like you to.”

“Thank you.” She slipped the thin, cotton gown over her head. His eyes told her that it revealed more than it hid, but it made her feel better.

“Terry,” she said. “If you shot them, do you think they would die?”

“Sure,” he said. He was taking off his jacket, his money belt, and his gun. When he got down to his shirt, he said. “Maybe.”