Twenty Twenty by Nigel Watts

Author:Nigel Watts [Watts, Nigel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2022-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

16

They took it in turns to drive through the night. William had been reluctant to let Julia take the controls, but she'd managed to convince him she wouldn't crash his precious car, and he finally fell asleep somewhere past Tonopah.

She was glad to see the dawn. It had been a starry night, quiet and black and seemingly endless. By five-fifteen, the eastern light was edging a grey stain into the sky, then it was orange, then white, until William woke up, snuffling and stiff and blinking.

They stopped outside a random diner in the middle of nowhere. It was a last stop store, which looked like it sold everything from gasoline to chocolate bars and toilet paper. It was the only building for miles, surreal in its isolation, and they stared through the dusty windscreen almost waiting for it to shimmer and disappear like a mirage.

'Do you want something to eat?' she asked.

William looked at it doubtfully. 'Is it still open?'

It was a mess: a twelve-foot tower of plastic crates looked on the point of collapsing into the road. Its painted sign was so bleached by the sun it was illegible. Behind the diner they could see the carcass of a burnt out Chevy, stuffed to the sunroof with tumbleweed, as though it were the nest of a monster bird. And next to it, a sun-bleached trailer with pink nylon curtains, and no sign of life.

The sun was still slanting long shadows across the parched earth, so Julia didn't bother with her UV glasses and sun hat before she got out of the car. William went behind the water tank to piss while Julia did some stretching exercises, touching her toes and breathing deeply. She looked at the inverted image of the diner between her legs. The remnants of pink gloss paint were blistering off its wooden shutters. A solar panel formed a square of light on the roof, next to a patch of corrugated aluminium sheeting which would be as hot as a frying pan in an hour or so. It looked as though it had been abandoned some time ago, and even then hadn't been much of a place.

She stood up straight as a dog started baying from somewhere behind the diner. William came running out, zipping his fly, and looking for a stone to throw. He ran to the car, and she joined him, infected with his fear. The howling mounted as though the animal were in pain, and then an albino bloodhound came into view, lolloping clumsily through the obstacle course of the yard. It stopped about twenty-five feet away from them and paused to sniff the air. The dog lowered its muzzle to the ground, the folds of its face collapsing over its eyes, and then with enormous concentration followed the invisible trail of scent towards the car.

William reached under the dashboard and brought out his revolver. Rabies was bad news in this part of the state.

'Now, you put that gun away, mister.'

The voice was pure hillbilly.

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