07

« Can you pass me the iced tea ? »

« What ? » He jumped and turned to her.

« The iced tea, which by now isn’t so icy. It’s in the bag. I need a drink and I need caffeine and sugar, in that order, right now. »

He reached down and pulled out the glass container. He twisted the top off and handed it to her.

« Thank you. » She took the bottle from him and took a sip. It was still cool, which was nice, but that only reminded her that it was cool in the car and only getting colder outside. She was wishing she’d brought her coat with her.

« Where’s the stupid cup holder in this thing ? » he asked as he looked around, poking and prodding and pulling on things as he tried to locate it.

She handed him her drink to hold and pushed on a small strip of plastic under the radio and CD player so it popped out about an inch. She then tugged on it and out came a two cup holder. He put her drink in the holder closest to her and then reached down the pull out the cola she’d gotten him.

« I didn’t know if you were into diet, » she said sweetly as he twisted off the top and took a liberal swallow.

« Funny. » He gave her a look and took another drink.

« Pass me a sandwich, » she said as she nodded to the bag.

« What ? » He put his drink in the second holder.

« You looked in the bag, did you actually see what I bought ? »

« I didn’t really pay attention. »

« They didn’t have much, we’ll have to stop again later, » she said apologetically. She was still trying to wrap her head around why she’d bought anything. Why she’d filled the tank with gas and why she hadn’t told the police officer or the gas station attendant that she’d been kidnapped at gunpoint and gone home and while Tom went to jail. Her mind was telling her she was crazy, but at the same time it was her mind that was telling her to just go with it. He obviously needed help and that she shouldn’t turn him in.

« Which do you want ? » he asked as he glanced at the labels on the two wrapped sandwiches. « Chicken or ham and cheese ? »

« Chicken please. »

He unwrapped the sandwich and handed her half. When she’d taken it from him he unwrapped the other sandwich and took a big bite.

She watched out of the corner of her eye as he almost inhaled the sandwich. He’d eaten both of his halves before she was even half done her first.

« Hungry ? » she asked as he gulped down most of his drink.

He nodded and politely tried to cover up and mask the huge belch that was never far behind when that much carbonation was consumed. She just ignored it and looked at him.

« It’s been a while since I ate. »

« When was your last meal ? »

« Yesterday, sometime. »

« Well, it’s past lunch now, no wonder you’re hungry, » she said as she popped the last of her sandwich half in her mouth.

He handed her the second half and she shook her head. « You have it. » She could deal with her hunger, he seemed to need it more than she did.

« Are you sure ? »

« I’m sure. »

« Do you want to open the pretzels ? » she asked when he’d finished and tossed the garbage into the bag. « You can if you’re still hungry. »

« Maybe in a bit. Is that okay with you ? »

She nodded and signaled to pass a slow moving compact car ahead of them. The driver of the other car, an older woman, gave her a dirty look as she pulled alongside of her. She sped up a bit and then pulled in front of the car. She’d noticed that the woman had sped up when she’d tried to pass her and had tried to match her speed. She hated when people did that.

They lapsed into another silence and after a while Tom pulled the map she’d bought out of the bag and opened it.

She kept sneaking glances at him as he tried to read the map. He looked pretty cute as he flipped it this way and that, trying to use the index and then giving up and trying to locate them by the highway they were on.

« I don’t think we’re going the right way, » he said after a pause. « Highway 17 doesn’t go to Midland. »

« We’re on Highway 2, » she said with a grin.

« We’re where ? » he asked and flipped the map around again.

« Highway 2. » she repeated. « We’re coming up on Whitvale. »

« Whitvale, » he muttered as he looked for it. « It’s a town near what ? » he asked after a long pause.

« It’s a hamlet, and we’ve passed it. Now we’re coming up on the county of Greater Eglinton. »

« Greater Eglinton ? » He searched the map. « Is there a Lesser Eglinton ? »

« I don’t think so. » She smiled. « Can you find it ? »

« I can’t even find Highway 2. »

« You really can’t read a map ? » She signaled to the right and slowed down. There was nothing behind her that she could see but the gavel on the shoulder would do quite a bit of damage to Kevin’s car if she wasn’t careful, so she started to cut her speed before she drove onto the shoulder.

« What are you doing ? » he asked.

« Pulling over to give you a little map reading lesson. »

« On the side of the highway ? »

« Relax, we’ll be on the shoulder. » She stopped the car, hoping that she’d been careful enough that none of the kicked up rocks scratched the paint of Kevin’s car.

She put the car in park and then put on her hazard lights. She undid her seatbelt and moved a little closer to him in her seat and leaned over as he extended the map out to her. After a moment he unbuckled his own seatbelt and shifted so he was closer to her and they could put the map between them.

First she had to get the map turned the right way, then she had to put him on the right part of it. After a second she found both Whitvale and Greater Eglinton and followed the highway up until she found where it intersected with Highway 58. Highway 58 would take them up to Highway 82 and that would bring them to Route 4. Route 4 would take them into Midland.

Midland really was the middle of nowhere and she couldn’t imagine who he would know up there. It might have been four hundred miles to Midland point to point on the map, but it would be closer to five hundred because of the roundabout route that they’d to take. There was no faster way that she could see without some serious backtracking, and even then it would still take just as long or longer to get there. If they’d actually taken the eastern highway out of town they could have taken that to Highway 17 and jumped right onto Highway 58 and cut at least two hundred miles off their trip, but he’d said north so she’d gone north.