Another ten or twelve hours' driving and
they'd be at the foot of the trail where the grass grew to waist-high.
"Well, then, *drive*." She got in the car and slammed her door.
He climbed in, started the engine, and put the hertzmobile into reverse.
#
Two hours later, he realized that he was going to nod off. The thumps of
the body sliding in the trunk and the suitcases rattling around in the
back seat had lost their power to keep him awake.
The body's thumping had hardly had the power to begin with. Once the
initial shock had passed, the body became an object only, a thing, a
payload he had to deliver. Alan wondered if he was capable of feeling
the loss.
"You were eleven then," he said. It was suddenly as though no time had
past since they'd sat on the bed and she'd told him about Auntie.
"Yes," she said. "It was as though no time had passed."
A shiver went up his back.
He was wide awake.
"No time had passed."
"Yes. I was living with a nice family in Oakville who were sending me to
a nice girls' school where we wore blazers over our tunics, and I had a
permanent note excusing me from gym classes. In a building full of four
hundred girls going through puberty, one more fat shy girl who wouldn't
take her top off was hardly noteworthy."
"The family, they were nice. WASPy. They called me Cheryl. With a
Why.
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