“We don’t have much choice. The car’s not going to make it any further today. Better to hole up here than get stuck on the side of the road.”
He parked at the rear of the motel, backing it into the spot to hide the license plate. Buying Snowball from Travis at the salvage yard hadn’t exactly been the most legal of transactions and God knew what would come up if some cop decided to run the plate.
Franklin, Nebraska reminded me of Planerville, only with more personality. And a certain pride: though our motel was cheap, it had a quaint, clean dignity. The lady behind the front desk—Mary Ellen Hildebrand—was pushing sixty and looked the embodiment of the perfect grandma. Her sweet demeanor and welcoming courtesy calmed my nerves.
Mary Ellen hollered at her husband Hank—a picture-perfect grandpa—to man the front desk so she could show us to our room, pointing out some of the old architecture of the place as she went.
“We had the pool put in some ten years back, though I’m afraid to say it’s not heated. But Lord have mercy, who needs a heated pool with the summer we’ve been having?”
“I agree,” I said, shooting Evan a wry look. “Who needs a pool?”
Once unpacked, Evan said he’d go find a deli and get sandwiches.
“One sandwich,” I said. “We’ll split it.”
He didn’t argue. We were running out of money. I thought about calling Del to wire me the four hundred bucks I had in her “bank,” but feared that would implicate her and get her arrested.
I watched the door every second Evan was gone, jumping at sounds. He came back just as jumpy, and we ate in silence, lost in our own thoughts.
Mine were back in Wichita. At the break-in. Some flash of…something that struck me the moment that lamp hit the hotel clerk’s head. I couldn’t grasp it, and wasn’t sure I wanted to.
Evan turned on the TV and we snuggled up to watch reruns of The Munsters and Beverly Hillbillies. The Hillbillies episode revolved around the Clampett family taking a trip to a local fairground. It reminded me of Joyland and despite the horrible scare we’d had in Wichita, I reveled in my restored memory.
Evan shut off the TV. I raised my head from the crook of his arm to look at him. “Tell me something about your childhood. Your happiest memory.”
“My happiest memory.” He rubbed his cheek, fingers rasping over the stubble. “Renting a tuxedo to go prom with you.”
“You weren’t really a child then.”
“No, but it was my happiest memory of being taken care of by my parents. Of them providing for me.”
I snuggled closer to him. “Explain.”
“Well, Norma insisted that I have a suit just as fine as Merle or Shane’s. She made sure of it. She even bought me a corsage to give to you because I hadn’t thought of that.”
“She did?”
“She sure did. Merle trampled on it, of course…”
“Weird how your best memory comes from the worst night of my life?”
“It was my worst night, too. But the day was awesome. That whole week was amazing. Things were still shitty with Merle and Shane, but I felt closer to Harris and Norma. Norma, mostly. For a whole week, I had a real mother and father. And come the weekend, I was going to have you. You were going to wear a beautiful dress for me, go to the dance with me. You’d walk in on my arm in front of the whole school and I knew you’d look astonishing. And after, we were going to be together. I was going to make love to you. I just… I’d never been so happy. I’d never felt so close to normal in my life.”
“We were robbed,” I said, my eyes stinging. “They took you from me. They tore us apart.” I turned in his arms. “I really wanted our future. The Grand Canyon. Are we still going to have that, Evan? Is it part of whatever plan you have for us here?”
“I can’t see that far ahead. I think the Grand Canyon is out there, waiting for us, but it isn’t time yet. We have to reach the Center before we can go home.”
Home. I hadn’t known such a place since I was a little kid, and those memories were still lost in the gray fog. The home I’d known when I was thirteen was tainted and poisoned by Uncle Jasper. I couldn’t define home until I exorcised him from me. Not only him, but my mother in the bathtub, knowing my scarred face had driven her to suicide.
I shivered, and Evan’s arm around me tightened. “Let’s get out of this room,” he said.
“And go where?”
“I’m taking you on a date.”
“A date?”
“We were robbed on prom night, right? So let’s take it back. Will you have dinner with me?”
“Do you think it’s safe?”
“Safe enough. I want to take you out, Jo. Nothing fancy. Just somewhere nice.”
A smile spread over my face. “I’d love to.”