Phoenix

We walked through the parking lot and jumped in Jewel’s blue Sentra.

“Where are we going?” Jewel said.

“Utah,” I said. “We need to go to Utah.”

“How do we get there?” she asked. Pete pulled out his smart phone and pulled up a map.

“Where in Utah?” he asked.

“Someplace red and desert-y,” I said, shrugging. All I had was a picture in my head to go by.

“Um, that’s like half the state,” Pete said, scrolling through the data on his screen.

“But south, right?” Jewel said, turning the key in the ignition. The car sputtered before it roared to life. Well, roared might not have been the right word. It was just a little Sentra.

“South,” I agreed.

The little blue car sped through the night, leaving Wenatchee, racing down the Columbia along orchards and palisades and neat farms lying still in the winter. We were pretty quiet for a few hours. In the shock of the moment, what we were doing hadn’t caught up to us yet.

“Look at that!” Pete said, leaning against the car window. We were near the Oregon border, in Pasco.

“What?” I asked.

“There,” he said, pointing.

There was a red neon sign on a building that looked white in the darkness. It read “Bruce Lee Chapel”. Pete and I burst out laughing. Near dawn, after a day like we’d all had, everything was pretty funny.

“What is that?” Jewel asked, laughing. “Really? Bruce Lee?”

“Uh-huh,” Pete said. “It’s the religion of kar-at-tay.” We all broke down laughing again.

“Hey guys,” Jewel said suddenly. “The tank is empty. I’m going to have to pull off.”

“There’s a 7-11,” I said. Jewel pulled the car up to the pump and got out. I felt weird, like I should be paying for gas. But how could I? I wasn’t even wearing my own shoes. I got out of the car anyway. I might not be able to pay, but at least I could pump.

Cold bit into me as I came around the front of the car to join Jewel by the gas tank. The smell of gasoline suffused the cold night and my insides clenched.

The wood. The gasoline. The flames. Lexia screaming. It all bounced around in my head and I had to put my hands on the little blue car to steady my feet.

“Are you okay?” Jewel asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded, turning to lean against the car. “I was just thinking about Lexia.”

“Here,” she said, handing me her credit card. “Go get us some food.”

“Jewel,” I said. “You really don’t have—“

“Make it a Code Red for me,” she said. “And stuff with lots of sugar and salt. I need to stay awake if we’re going to drive all the way to Utah.”

“I’ll pay you back,” I promised.

“Nix,” she said, looking up at me. Fluorescent lights shone down from the roof over the gas pumps, making her eyes glitter. She kind of gave me a half smile. “If you’re right, then money doesn’t matter, does it?”

“But--”

“And beef jerky,” she said.

“The amount of faith you’re showing in me is ridiculous,” I said. She just smiled.

“I have hope,” she said. “I believe in you.”

I couldn’t meet her eyes after that and nodded, opening the back door.

“Come on, Pete,” I said. “We’re on munchies duty.” He unfolded himself from the backseat to follow me.

“This is kind of weird,” he said, pushing the door to the store open. “Isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, browsing through the chips and doughnuts.

“Well,” he said. “We’re supposed to go on an epic journey, right?”

“Huh?” I asked. Funyuns. Perfect.

“Every good fantasy story has an epic journey, doesn’t it?” he asked. He was randomly grabbing stuff and putting it a little basket. At least, I thought it was random. Who really wanted to eat cheese puffs in a car?

“Yeah, but Pete,” I said, “this isn’t a story.”

“It’s a little weird that we’re making our epic journey in a Nissan Sentra,” he said, ignoring me. “Shouldn’t we be hiking through the wilderness or riding horses or something like that? And really? A credit card?”

“Pete,” I said. “What do you want to do? This is how the world works. You drive cars. You pay for stuff. I’m not supposed to be here, but the world is real. Kind of. And has rules, which I seem to know. Weird.”

“Why’s that weird?” he said, grabbing a bag of barbeque sunflower seeds.

“Do you know what’s really going on right now?” I asked, looking over at him. He shrugged. “Right now, in my real world, me and Lexia are going south and this guy who looked and acted just like you except he was a half-elf—“

“Whoa, I’m a half-elf?” he said excitedly.

“Was,” I said. “Kind of. Except he was you and not you and that doesn’t make much sense, but still—he died—and we’re running through Eloria and it’s completely dark and freezing cold and our horses died, and we’re probably going to freeze to death or starve to death and we’re trying to get to Utah there too to save a magical Scepter that will restore light to the world. Only, we don’t know how to get from Eloria to Utah, so we just have to guess. How’s that for epic?”

“Who made up that story?” he asked. “You’ve got some Dungeon Master on a power trip if you have to trans-navigate multiple planes in a single quest without a guide,” he said. “What kind of powers do you have?“

“Gosh, Eremil!” I shouted. His blue eyes flew wide and he smiled. I quieted myself. “Pete. I mean Pete. It’s not a stupid game. It’s real. I think. And Jewel thinks so too, doesn’t she? That’s why you guys are here.”

“Eremil?” Pete said, oblivious to my frustration. “My name is Eremil there? Am I French? A French half-elf. What about the powers? Magic? It’s pretty cool, right? Did you say I’m dead?”

“Pyromancy,” I sighed. I walked to the fridge and got Jewel’s drink. Pete followed. “And Lexia’s a Mindwalker. She can read minds and can manipulate your perception of reality. And then there’s the Darkness…” I didn’t want to tell him about that. “And Eremil rode into an army of possessed elves so we would get away. So yeah, he’s dead.” There was a pop and the bag of chips Pete was holding scattered on the dirty floor. “You okay?” I asked.

“I’m dead?” he said. Pete stared at the ruined chips. “That’s really not fair.”

“I’m not making this crap up, Pete!” I protested. “I didn’t want Eremil to die.”

“Maybe he’s not dead,” Pete said. I took the bag from his hands and surreptitiously lead him from the mess. “Maybe they just captured him. Maybe he just got away.”

I thought of my brave friend screaming as we ran, and I shook my head. Eremil could not have survived that. Besides, Lexia was certain he was dead.

“So, maybe the world it kind of cool, but the story’s a little lame,” Pete said. “Where’s the adventure? Where’s the danger lurking around every turn? Where are the little things that go wrong that make the story memorable?”

“Um,” I said, grabbing drinks from the refrigerator. “You two just busted me out of a hospital. And we’ve driven like two hundred miles without telling our parents anything. How is that not exciting?”

He shrugged. “I’m still waiting for this story to get good,” he said.

We unloaded our items at the counter. The guy behind it swayed a little. His eyes were red and he had a goofy half-grin on his face. I didn’t even want to know what he was on. He scanned the items, giggling under his breath, and took our card without asking for ID.

“Have a good night,” he slurred as we walked out of the store.

Jewel was just finishing cleaning off the windshield and put the squeegee back in the tub. “Onward to the red desert,” she said. I just shook my head and got into the passenger seat.

Was this some kind of joke to them? I mean, was it so unbelievable?

We got back on the road and crossed the enormous bridge over the Columbia. I think it was called a lake here, but whatever. In the dead of night, the passage over the bridge was terrifying, girders seeming to go on forever. I’m glad I wasn’t driving. Jewel drove silently, even turning off the stereo so she could focus.

I had to close my eyes.

The sound of the car thumping over the cement sections in the bridge changed suddenly, turning to a rhythmic muffled thumping. Hoofbeats.

“Do you hear that?” I asked. I opened my eyes, and I was no longer dozing in the car. I was back in Eloria.

Lexia looked at me, her silver eyes intent on mine. She turned her head slightly, and the sound grew louder.

“Hoofbeats!” she said excitedly, bouncing on her toes. She closed her eyes and turned toward it. “It is Princess.”

My heart stopped for a second.

“Princess?” I asked, remembering the terrible way we parted, Might’s bloody fall into the icy water.

Lexia shook her head, not looking at me. Through the trees, a red muzzle appeared, followed by the rest of the red mare. She was dirty and covered in scabs and the saddle clung crookedly to the side of her withers. Her bridle was completely gone.

She was probably the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

Automatically, my hand went to my pocket, but though butterscotch had been there before, nothing remained. They had been for Might, anyway.

Lexia walked up to the mare and stroked her neck. She didn’t flinch as Lexia’s palm passed over the welts left by the spiders, but I did. Princess’s muzzle came down and thumped Lexia in the chest. Lexia reached up to unfasten the straps which held the bedraggled saddle bags in place.

“So what are we going to do now?” I asked. “We’ve got a horse again.”

“One horse and two people,” Lexia said.

Lexia looked at Princess, shook her head. I took the saddlebag from Lexia and upended it. Water splashed down from the leather bag, and a mushy packet of what must have been gingerbread. She bent down to go through the detritus.

I ran my hands over the saddle. It was missing a stirrup and the tree seemed to be broken. It was unusable. My fingers found the straps holding the saddle in place and I began to undo them. The saddle dropped to the ground and Princess shied away from it.

“I guess you ride bareback,” I said to Lexia. Her mouth compressed into a line and she folded her arms across her chest. She shook her head, but I nodded.

“I need you strong enough to pull me back if I get lost,” I said. She breathed out and nodded.

I boosted her up.

“Let’s run,” I said. Lexia looked at me, her mouth thin and silent. There was a determination in her silver eyes I hadn’t seen before. I turned down the dark path and started to run. Lexia rode Princess at a canter.

Every now and then, I glanced at Lexia. Her face was intense with the effort of staying astride. Bouncing around bareback on a horse was not very much like riding in a saddle. Lexia groaned a little bit with every step, but she didn’t complain.

“Move with the horse,” I said, unable to help the grin I felt on my face. Isn’t that what Eremil had said to me? Payback was so satisfying. I snickered a little.

“Shut up,” Lexia growled.

Princess was sweat-soaked when we finally stopped to drink at a stream. Lexia hopped off, and walked to the water with stiff legs. I immediately thought of giardia, but I was so thirsty, the thought didn’t last long. Princess plowed into the stream as soon as we were done drinking. She took a long drink and then pawed the water, splashing it everywhere.

“What is she—“I started to ask, but Princess answered it for me.

She rolled in the water, not caring that it was ice-cold.

After a little rest, we set out again, Lexia jogging this time. Our pace was not as fast we went before. Princess trotted behind us without the need for a lead.

“Lexia,” I huffed, “How do you get her do to that?”

Lexia gave me a half smile, but didn’t break stride. Magic, I should have known.

“Really?” I said, looking at Lexia. “You can use your mind-powers on horses? You really could have pulled some mind trick with Might, and got him to hold this still, and you never did? You let me hop in circles and get walked away with and...Really?”

She just shrugged as she laughed. It was a good sound, especially in the never-ending dark. We ran in silence, our feet landing carefully on the trail, trying not to trip on rocks or fall in holes.

“Where are we going?” I asked. I had no gauge of how far we’d gone or where we were headed. The landscape changed from scorched forest to fallow fields to sere, dead grassland. I still couldn’t remember this place, and the eternal darkness did nothing for my sense of time.

“If we can keep this pace,” Lexia said. “We will make it to the Seven Pillars in two days.”

“What?” I said, almost stopping.

The Seven Pillars. At the height of elven magic, more than a thousand years ago, it had been regarded as the thinnest place between the planes. A place where one with magic and a little luck could travel between the worlds.

What? How did I know that?

Lexia laughed.

“You will find that you know all about our world,” Lexia said. “When you fail to fight against knowing it.”

“Quit reading my mind,” I said.

She shrugged. “It is what I do,” she said.

“But really, we have to keep on like this for two more days?” I asked. I was already spent. And starving, with no food and no chance of game. Maybe I had had been prepared for her to say “two hours” or “fifteen miles” or something like that, but two days…

“There’s no way I can keep going for that long,” I realized. Lexia shot me an angry glare.

“Do it anyway,” Lexia said. She jogged on as though she hadn’t just told me we’d never make it.

“Are we going to come through this?” I asked. “We’re taking on a force that is so powerful it’s cloaked the world in darkness? We don’t even know what we’re going to do if we find the Scepter.”

“Does it matter?” Lexia asked over his shoulder. The horse trotted along behind her, her breathing labored.

“Yeah it matters,” I said, incredulous.

“What are you going to do if I say there is no chance?” Lexia said.

“But,” I said. “There’s a chance, right? We’re going to win.”

“Again,” she said, “Does it matter? Will you only strive if you are certain to win? Are you going to lie down on the ground and die if I tell you we are going to fail?”

I thought about that for a minute, hearing our feet in the dark, hearing Princess’s hooves. The pounding seemed to drive us forward in the dark. The images I saw when Jewel kissed me flowed through my head. I remembered hope, even if I couldn’t feel it anymore.

“No,” I whispered. “I will continue to fight.”

“So,” Lexia huffed, “then there is a chance that we can set this thing straight. There is a chance that we can find Light and save this world from certain death.”

“Really?” I asked hopefully. “Or are you just saying that because I said I wouldn’t give up?”

“What is the difference between having a chance of success and refusing to surrender?” she asked.

“Hey,” I said, “If I wanted to play twisty word games, I would have stayed in the psych ward.”

My head slammed against the window and I came awake with a start in the car.

“Are you okay?” I asked Jewel. Her white knuckled hands shook on the steering wheel.

“Yeah,” she lied. Her eyes were wide. “I think I just fell asleep.”

Pete snored loudly. He was stretched across the back seat. He was totally oblivious. We could have crashed the car and he probably wouldn’t have woken up.

“You better pull off,” I said. “I’m sorry I fell asleep. Princess came back.”

“What?” she said.

“Pull off,” I said. “Where are we anyway?”

“Outside of Le Grande,” she said. The sun peeked over the horizon. The day was new and weak. Jewel put the blinker on and took the exit. We drove for a little bit before we found a motel. It was just a little place and had the feeling of age. Jewel parked the car and we went in. We rang the bell and waited. Then we rang the bell again. After a while, I walked behind the counter and looked into the room behind the desk.

“Hey,” I called into the darkness. I heard someone draw a breath in sharply and then a voice said, “Yeah. I’m coming.”

The night attendant had been asleep. In fairness, it was very early.

His hair was standing straight up and he had a red mark on his cheek, but he didn’t ask questions when we asked for a room and gave him Jewel’s credit card. He handed over a key and Jewel and I went outside to get Pete from the car.

“What?” he growled. “I’m sleeping. Go away.”

“Dude,” I said. “It’s too cold for you to stay out here. You’ve got to get up.”

“Go away,” he said again.

I poked him in the ribs. He slapped at my hand. I poked him again, harder. This time, he sat up.

“Come on,” I said.

Pete followed us to a little room with two beds. He immediately flopped across the bedspread of one, his body taking up the entire bed. He started snoring.

Jewel looked at me and then at the one remaining bed, her mouth started to form a word—it was probably something self-sacrificing—but I cut her off.

“I’ll just push Pete out of the way,” I said. “Don’t worry about me sleeping on the floor.”

She bit her lip and nodded. Sitting on the mattress, she took off her shoes and socks and crawled into the bed.

I tried to move Pete’s arms and legs nicely, I really did. But the guy just wouldn’t be moved. Finally I grabbed the bedspread and pulled Pete off the bed. He thumped to the floor and snuggled into the bedspread, but didn’t wake up.

I took off my own shoes and crawled into bed.

“Goodnight,” I said to Jewel.

“’Night,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said.

“For what?” she asked.

“For all of this,” I said. “Thank you for believing in me enough to break me out of the hospital, and...” I kind of wanted to thank her for the kiss. But that would have been weird, right? “Everything. Thanks for everything,” I finished.

“See ya in the morning,” she said.

I didn’t say anything else. I just lay there with the scratchy sheet pulled up under my chin, watching the growing morning light from outside play across the popcorn ceiling, waiting to shift back to Eloria. Time passed, but I didn’t sleep and I didn’t shift. I listened to the unfamiliar sounds of the motel room: the heater turning on, the pipes creaking, people walking by outside the door. Pete’s occasional snore accented Jewel’s light breathing. And I waited.

At some point, I must have fallen asleep. I don’t remember dreaming or shifting to Eloria, or anything except the searing light of the afternoon sun parting my eyelids. I sat up, seeing the other bed was empty and Pete was still on the floor snuggling into his bedspread.

“Pete,” I said. “Wake up. We’ve got to get going.”

“Shut up,” he said, throwing an arm over his ear to block the sound. Were they the same? Did it matter to Pete that Eremil in Eloria was dead? Somehow they were the same person, but they seemed to exist fully in each world. If only Lucius was around to explain it.

Jewel emerged from the bathroom then, rubbing her hair with a towel.

“What did he say?” she asked, poking her chin at Pete.

“Shut up,” I said. She stared angrily at me and I laughed. “No,” I said. “He said shut up. I wasn’t telling you to.”

“Yeah, okay,” she said, coming over to sit down by me on the bed. Her damp hair was curly and hanging past her shoulders. She smelled sweetly of hotel soap. She wore the same clothes as yesterday, but it wasn’t really a choice.

Jewel looked at me, and reached her hand out for mine. She drew a sharp breath in when our hands touched, her green eyes turning introspective. She was seeing something that wasn’t here.

“Magic isn’t real here,” she said, looking at me with newly sharper eyes. “Elves aren’t real here.”

I nodded. I flexed my scarred hands.

“You can use magic,” she said, pulling my scarred hand up to examine it. Her voice was soft, a little dreamy. She said the words like she questioned them at the same time she believed them.

I nodded, thinking of the roaring fire in Eloria. “But this place is so convincing, I have a hard time believing, even in Eloria, that I am who I am. I’m there, Pete’s there--kind of. Lexia’s alive.”

Jewel smiled, but then her face fell again.

“What about me?” she asked. “Am I a part of it?”

“You’re...” I trailed off as I realized the truth. She wasn’t there. She wasn’t a part of Eloria. But she was the one who convinced me it was real. She was the one who could see it, who made me see it. “I don’t think I know you there,” I said. It sounded so much better than “you don’t exist there.”

“Hey,” Pete cut in, his voice deep and growly. He pulled himself up beside me. “Thanks for making me sleep on the floor by the way. I feel awesome.”

“You absolutely didn’t even notice you were on the floor,” I said. “How do you sleep so deeply like that? It’s a like a super power.”

“Yeah,” he said, standing up and stretching, “At least my super power works.”

“Yeah, well, at least I’m not dead,” I muttered.

Pete tilted his chin down, making his eyes open wider under raised brows.

“What?” he said.

“Whatever,” I said, trying to brush it off. Eremil was lost from Eloria. But Pete knew things about Eloria. There was a connection there I didn’t understand. “Go take a shower. You just slept on the floor in an ancient motel. That’s gotta be sanitary.”

Pete shimmied by Jewel into the bathroom and shut the door. I heard a “click” as the lock engaged.

“So, Eloria,” Jewel said. I sat down on the bed, watching her pull her fingers through her hair.

“Yes,” I said, encouraging her to elaborate.

“You go back and forth?” she asked. “But Pete and I, we’re just in both places, all the time.”

I shrugged. I still couldn’t tell her that she wasn’t there. She seemed so much a part of it. “I can’t explain it,” I said. “Just like I can’t explain why I see Lexia here and you don’t.”

But I haven’t seen her in a long time. She’s getting weaker. The Darkness is wearing on her.

The holes in this story are getting bigger, the Darkness laughed. Kill her and be done. Cold rocketed through me.

“We need a plan,” Jewel said, thankfully changing the topic.

“A plan is probably a good idea,” I said.

“Getting to the ‘red desert’ is all well and good, but we need supplies. We need clothes and food and—“ she cut off as her eyes met mine in the mirror she faced. “Why are you watching me?” she asked.

Because you’re pretty, I wanted to say. I just shrugged. “You’re in my line of sight.”

“Whatever,” she said, scowling and pulling her fingers through her hair.

“You were talking about making a plan,” I prompted.

“Yeah,” she said. “Is there a Wal-mart in this city?”

“I’m sure there is,” I said. “We’ll have Pete look it up when he gets out of the shower.”

“Okay,” she said. “So where are we going exactly?”

I shook my head. “I don’t really know. I saw the place where the Darkness took Light and it was all red, like Mars, but there were green trees and-”it was my turn to break off. Jewel was staring at me.

“What?” I said.

“I just can’t believe we’re doing this,” she said. “What are my parents going to say? What are they going to do?”

“You’re just thinking about that now?” I laughed. “It’s a little late.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I guess it took a little while for reality to set in.”

“This isn’t reality,” I reminded her. She gave me one of those looks that said she only half believed me. Maybe less than half.

“Pete and I came on this crazy trip with you because we couldn’t stand the thought of abandoning you in the mental hospital,” Jewel said.

“Is that the only reason?” I asked. I was afraid of her answer. What if it was the only reason?

“That,” she said, “and the fact that I see glimpses of this Eloria every time I touch you. That’s a pretty big deal.”

“You know what else is a pretty big deal?” I asked. She raised her eyebrows. “That you didn’t care what your parents thought until now.” Her brows lowered in thought. “The Darkness is sneaky. It slides into our thoughts to make us doubt ourselves in ways so subtle we think we came up with the doubts ourselves.” She tilted her head to the side, contemplating that. “The answers aren’t there until we look for them.”

“That’s weird,” she said. “When you make me think about my parents that way, I get the feeling that they would be proud of me. But it’s like having two thoughts jumbled together. I can feel the doubt, the questioning, but I still think they’d be proud of me at same time.”

Pete came out of the bathroom then, running his hands rapidly through his hair to dispel some of the water.

“I’m starving,” he said. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in days. When are we going to eat?”

I looked at him. This was the second time Pete had brought up something that Eremil would have known. We’d lost our horses and our food in Eloria, and we’d lost Eremil too, but Pete in Oregon seemed to be feeling the effects of that. Pete and Eremil were connected somehow.

“Nix,” Jewel said. “Hurry and shower and then we’ll get going with our plan.”

“What plan?” Pete asked.

I moved past him into the bathroom. Within seconds, I was standing under a stream of hot water, letting tension and worry and doubt melt away like snow in the sun. Too quickly, I was done with the little bar soap and the tiny bottle of shampoo and was toweling dry. Pete and Jewel were talking beyond the door and I could hear their soft words.

“…cell phone charger for sure,” Pete said.

“How long do you think before they figure out that me and you are with him?” Jewel said.

“Maybe not very long,” Pete said, “if I charge my phone. My parents could track my phone and find us pretty quick.”

“Well,” Jewel said. “We’ll just have to let it die. We’ve got to play this thing out.”

I stopped breathing. Play this out? Jewel was playing with me? Maybe Jewel wasn’t really on my side. Wait a minute; that thought seemed really wrong. We were driving her car, using her money: of course Jewel was on my side. It was just poor word choice.

“They can track it whether or not the phone’s charged,” he said. “But I can’t just get rid of it.”

“Why not?” Jewel asked.

“It was expensive,” Pete complained. “It’s only a matter of time before they put it together that we’re with him anyway. That doctor you punched will remember seeing us.”

“What has he told us?” Jewel asked.

“Red desert,” Pete replied. “Red desert, red desert, red desert. I think I got the point a while ago.”

I smiled at that. I had been a little redundant.

“Maybe we go to a library,” Jewel said, “and then you can search images and find the place he’s looking for. But you’re going to have to chuck the phone.”

“What?” Pete asked. “I can’t just throw it away. My whole life is on it for crying out loud.”

“But if you don’t, they’ll find us,” she said.

“You’ve been using a credit card and driving a registered car. They’ll find us anyway,” Pete said. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“I know,” Jewel said. “I had the same thought.” My stomach clenched in dread, but then she said, “I wonder if it came from the same source.”

I walked out of the bathroom.

“Let’s go to Wal-mart,” I said.

“Let’s go to McDonald’s first,” Pete said. “I’m going to die of hunger.”

Jewel looked from me to him and shrugged. “Aren’t there usually McDonald’s in Wal-marts?” Pete pointed at her with both pointer fingers and raised his eyebrows while he nodded.

We left the little motel room and got back in the Sentra after Jewel asked the front desk person about the Wal-mart.

“I’m seriously going to die,” Pete said as we pulled into the parking lot. The familiar blue and white Wal-Mart sign marched across the front of the building.

“Why didn’t you just eat some of the snacks in the car?” Jewel asked him.

“I did,” he said, unfolding himself from the back seat and slamming the door.

Jewel looked at me and rolled her eyes.

We went into the store and pawed through the clothes. Jewel had a list for each of us.

“What size pants do you wear, Pete?” she asked. He was busy pawing through T-shirts.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I wear whatever my mom buys.”

“Holy crap,” she said. “Could you be any more of a boy? Come here.” Pete complied and she held up a few pairs of jeans before deciding which ones she wanted for him. She piled the cart with hoodies and socks. She didn’t even forget to make us pick underwear. She colored a little putting her own underwear in the cart, but she didn’t say anything. We picked shoes and coats before heading over to the grocery section to get a few staples. Peanut butter and apples and crackers went into the cart with a first aid kit and a loaf of bread. Jewel had me get a case of water, which we put under the basket because it was getting full.

“What’s the limit on your credit card?” I asked her. She shrugged.

“Pretty high,” she said.

“And your parents just let you have it?” I asked. She walked away to grab some gum and didn’t answer the question. I guess it wasn’t really any of my business.

Pete held a car charger for his phone in his hand for a second before he put it down. His blue eyes looked serious.

“I’m giving up my whole life for you,” he said, looking longingly at the phone. He opened a little covered port on his phone and a square metal-laced plastic card popped out. He took it between his fingers and looked at it for a second before dropping it and walking away.

We went to get in line for the checkout and waited our turn. There was a display of books and magazines by the register and I was drawn to it. Of course I was. There was a picture of the red desert, almost exactly the scene blazoned on my mind. I picked the book up.

“Utah Hiking Guide,” the cover read. I thumbed through the pages.

“Is the whole freaking state a red desert?” I asked. Page after page showed pictures that could have been friends of the one in my mind. Finally, when the checker gave me a dirty look, I put the book on the conveyor belt.

Jewel looked a question at me.

“That will be two hundred thirty-two dollars and twenty-seven cents,” the checker said. Jewel didn’t flinch. She swiped her card. “Your card has been declined,” the checker said. Jewel paled.

“Can you call them?” she asked. The checker rolled her eyes, but she picked up the phone and dialed. After a minute, she handed the receiver to Jewel. “Yes,” Jewel said. “This is Jewel Armstrong. I’m traveling. Okay. Thanks.” To the checker she said, “Run it again please.” This time, it went through without any problems.

“Now,” Pete said. “Breakfast. Get me breakfast.”

Jewel and I followed him over to the McDonalds and he ordered one of just about everything on the menu. Jewel got a breakfast burrito and I got a steak wrap. We sat down at the tables by the door and Pete moaned over every bite. Maybe he was just about to die from hunger.

“We’ve got to get going,” Jewel said. “They’re going to figure out where we are pretty soon. Just as soon as my parents get back they are going to track the credit, if they haven’t gotten notification already. We’re going to have to ditch it too.Come on,” she said, throwing her trash into the garbage. “It’s a long way to Utah.”