Glitch, page 12
Picking up her soda, Sandra then says, though not necessarily to her companion, "I guess I'm going to have a light dinner tonight."
As she sucked on the straw of her drink, Ike glanced over at her; not saying it openly, Ike thought the girl must have a habit of eating light meals since she was so skinny.
Outside, Ike tossed those fast food bags in a big blue garbage bend, which sat at the end of the rest stop. Then, on his way back to the car, he made a detour toward a row of payphones. Ike had noticed those six payphones before, yet he didn't bother to call his friend since he was focused on getting the food, but Ike figured he shouldn't wait till morning.
Back at the car, Sandra climbed over into the back seat. And that took a little effort because while she is slim, she isn't short. However, folding the armrest between the front seats helped her get to the back quickly; otherwise, she would have to be a real gymnast to hurdle over those seats.
Slipping out of her sandals, Sandra found the back seat plush and comfortable, and yet, she would gladly swap it for a proper bed, But not the one she slept in last time.
But then the girl noticed a hole in the roof pillar between the back window and the left-rear door. It was round yet jagged, and there was something in it. So with her right hand, Sandra picked at that hole, and a weird piece of metal fell out.
It was small yet dense and had a weird shape; one side looked like a dime, and the other like the back of an ink pen.
Back at the phones, Ike had punched in Dupree's number. But unfortunately, all he heard at the other end of the line was a constant ringing. Finally hanging up, Ike uttered in frustration, "Damn it!"
He didn't know where his friend was, but there was no point in trying again if he was out chasing tail. And that's because his buddy Vince has skills that most men can only dream about having. Ike has witnessed how his friend is with some new barely-out-of-her-teens girl every other month, although he's twice their age.
And when he asked his friend how he does it, all Vince would tell him was, 'their young and dumb.'
Returning to the Lincoln, Ike saw a barefoot Sandra through the left rear window; he figured from how the girl looked that she was about to call it a night.
Taking off his windbreaker, Ike got into the car. Then, turning to Sandra, he held the jacket out to her.
"Here, take this," he says, "since we have no blankets."
Turning and seeing that jacket, the girl replied, "what about you?"
"Hey, I'm cool. I've slept in far worse places than this."
"Oh, all right."
Taking the windbreaker, Sandra then slipped it over her shoulders.
Ike hit the switch for the car heater; he then followed that up by turning on the heater embedded in the front seats. Though he wasn't cold, he knew the desert could freeze you to death if you let it.
Sandra folded her arms on the top of the back seat while looking out the rear window. And as she rested her chin on her hands, Sandra caught sight of something across the road from them.
Sitting amongst a clump of stunted pine trees was a sign that looked as old as that fast-food joint, if not older.
Less than a full-size billboard, it had the faded image of an Indian chief in full headdress pointing at some painted hills; and next to him was a proclamation written in red that said, "Authentic Indian caves, six miles."
"Looks like something dad would've loved to get lost in," she uttered.
Hearing what the girl said and not knowing what she was talking about caused Ike to spout, "What's that?"
"Some Indian caves."
Turning his head and looking past his headrest, Ike saw that sign through the door window.
"Oh. So your dad is some rock hound? Cave explorer type?" Ike said as he settled back into his previous position.
"He's like Laura Croft," Sandra answered while her eyes continued to focus out the window.
"An archeologist? Really!" Ike guessed while showing off his snippet of knowledge about video game characters.
"More like a treasure hunter," she corrected him. "My one good memory of him was when I was about nine, and we all went to Mexico to explore old ruins. I could tell my parents were thrilled as they dug around these places. But after he disappeared, mom was sad for a long time; then she got mad. I think she's still a little pissed that he never returned."
"So your dad just ran off, huh?" Ike probed a little deeper.
"No!" Sandra said with a slight uptick in her voice. "I don't think it happened like that... and my mom feels the same way. He said he was going to Cambodia to check something out and that he'll be back in a couple of weeks, but then he — disappeared."
Sandra then went on in a tone that was much more subdued. "Long after he vanished, I looked through some of his stuff that mom had packed away in the garage. And in one of his notebooks, he wrote about some long-forgotten temple on the Thai-Cambodia border. Sometimes, I... I think I want to go out there. Not that I expect to find my dad, it's just that... I want to go to a place my dad never went to."
"Maybe you will when you're older," Ike said with encouragement.
Lying down in that back seat, Sandra pulled that windbreaker over herself. Then, with that piece of metal still in her right hand, the girl looked at it more closely. She then realized it was a bullet. This revelation caused an unexpected question to pop out of the girl.
"Ike, how long have you been a crook?"
"What!?" He uttered, surprised by such a question.
Ike doesn't see himself that way, but considering current circumstances, how can the girl not see him as a criminal.
Not holding back one bit, Ike answers her.
"This is my first time," he said. "A friend offered me a $50K driving job, and I could use the money, so I said yes. Then I found out I was driving the getaway car for some real crooks."
"And you did it, anyway?"
"My friend has helped me a lot, and I figured I'd be letting him down if I backed out."
"He must be a terrific friend for you to steal for him."
Ike was about to deny he was a thief, but he couldn't since he walked into this deal with his eyes open.
"Yeah," he uttered. But Ike's voice rose a notch as he quickly added, "But this is the last time."
Sandra continued to look at that bullet as she rolled it between her fingers. She didn't know if it came from Ike's armed robbery or his shootout with her kidnapper.
But remembering how big that pervert's gun was, it was probably her kidnapper. So while Sandra still had anxiety over the kidnapping, a weird fascination took hold.
What that man had in store for her, she could only imagine. A series of awful fates popped into Sandra's head. From that Howard guy making her his sex slave to selling her to overseas criminals and forced into prostitution. Or that Howard guy could have just raped and murdered her.
The bullet she had in her grasp could have ended up inside her if it was the latter. And yet, that idea doesn't scare Sandra anymore. Glancing up, she saw Ike's bald head peeking above the top of the front seat. As long as he's here, she knows nothing like that can happen to her.
Tossing that bullet on the floor, Sandra rolled onto her side to sleep. She also hoped this rear seat wouldn't give her the same cramps she got from that hard motel mattress.
***
Being a long-legged guy, snoozing in the front seat of any car can be problematic for Ike, and the Lincoln is no different. However, with his back against the door, Ike was the first to get a taste of the morning sun.
Throwing his right hand up to shield himself from that light coming through the back window, he knew he would not get another bit of sleep. Sitting up properly, Ike immediately saw that the rest stop was much less empty.
Cars, pickup trucks, and motor homes crowded almost every parking space, and everyone there, from kids to old folks with canes, was going off to eat, take a shit, or just stretch their legs.
Ike started the car and took only a minute to get out of that place.
With the Lincoln back on the road, Sandra woke up thanks to the vehicle's movement. Gazing out the back window, she saw the rest stop quickly fading out of view.
Looking up at her companion, she asked, "Why did you leave?"
"It got a little crowded back there," he replied.
"Well, I have to pee."
"Can you hold it?"
"No!" she said firmly.
With a slight sigh, Ike then said, "Right."
Some miles down the highway, Ike pulled over to the side of the road where brush covered the ground all around them. Some were stationary tumbleweeds, while others looked like misshapen coral deposits from the bottom of the ocean, and their colors ran from light brown to dark gray.
Pointing out the window at a clump of growth that looked like a large pile of brown pom-poms, Ike says, "That looks like a good enough spot."
Looking out the car window, then over at Ike, Sandra says, with dismay, "you gotta be kidding!"
"It's either that or mess up your diaper," he says, trying not to sound inconsiderate.
Sandra felt it was a very demeaning thing to say. Especially since she had no underwear, much less a diaper.
Slipping on her flip-flops, she wasn't looking forward to this. However, as she exited the vehicle, a sudden flash of temper caused Sandra to slam the door.
Shuffling through those bushes, Sandra looked down at her feet, and it wasn't to admire her painted toes either. It was too evident that these sandals were impractical in a place like this because the dirt was getting all over her feet, and she worried about stepping on scorpions, snakes, and coyote shit.
Reaching the backside of that bush with no mishap, Sandra scanned the ground to ensure no surprises were waiting for her.
Satisfied that there was nothing down there that could bite her on the ass, Sandra squatted down. But before pulling her pants down, she heard a car door shut. Barely having any privacy as is, the girl instinctively jumped up. Then, looking over to the car, she saw that Ike had gotten out.
"What are you doing?" she shouts.
Ike doesn't answer as he opens the left rear door. Then, snatching the windbreaker off the back seat, he slowly slipped it on.
Shutting that door, he finally answered her.
"I'm just checking for traffic," he shouted to her. Then, with a wave of his hand, he added, "Go ahead. I'm not looking."
Ike then turned away to prove he meant it.
Almost pissing her pants because of that interruption, Sandra had to go now. Quickly squatting down once again, Sandra pulled down her pants. From there, she took less than a minute to do her business.
But the girl didn't know there was a good reason Ike was checking for traffic, which had nothing to do with her.
That orange soda he got from the Happy Hunting Grill went through them with equal speed. Once he was sure no cars were coming, Ike zipped down his pants.
He then took a piss in the road, and that yellow stream he made almost reached the broken yellow line in the center of the roadway.
Marching on back to the Lincoln, Sandra looked as if she didn't give a toss about what she might step on.
Reaching the car, she flung open the front rider's side door. Then, plopping down in the seat, she slammed the door, and such force made the car window rattle.
Still leaning against the side of the car, Ike zipped up his pants. Hearing the door slam, it wasn't hard for him to figure that someone wasn't in their happy place.
Slipping back into the car, Ike glanced at the girl, and the first thing he noticed was that she was biting her lower lip.
Once they got on their way again, Ike finally spoke up.
"Why are you so pissed? You act as if you've never done it in the bushes before."
"Not since I was a little kid," she blurted out.
"You're still a kid," He said with a half-smirk.
Quickly turning her head, Sandra grimaced at him.
But Ike didn't know that it wasn't just the indignity and embarrassment of pissing by the side of the road that annoyed her. She was feeling a little icky in more ways than one.
Ike didn't notice that the girl had slipped out of her flip-flops. And she had used the floor mat to rub that dirt off the bottoms of her feet despite the few glass pebbles still on the floor.
She wanted to clean up at that rest stop since it's been a whole day since she bathed, but her most intimate spot gave her the most discomfort.
Sandra always likes to keep her crotch clean and fresh since she doesn't want the yeast infections that plague her mother.
Shifting a little in her seat, Sandra thought about her period and how her menstrual cycle has been so erratic since it started this year.
Giving Ike a sideways glance, she hoped she wouldn't need tampons soon because, like proper toilets, there's no guarantee such things will be around when you need them.
***
Sally Mae's was the last refreshment spot before the Nevada border. Starting as a small convenience store during the Kennedy administration, it expanded at the end of the century by adding gas pumps and extra parking spaces to handle the steady traffic. Yet, it maintained the feel of a small mom-and-pop operation.
This store looked like a big, 19th-century wood-frame house with whitewash walls, a wrap-around porch, and a multi-gabled purple-shingled roof.
Rolling up to the gas station section, the Lincoln stopped at the second of four gas pumps that sat underneath a canopy that matched the main structure's white and purple color scheme.
Exiting the car, Ike went over to that pump, but when he took hold of the gas nozzle, he noticed the booth sitting at the front of that self-service island.
A masculine voice abruptly pierces Ike's hearing.
"Can you come over here, Sir?"
Surprised by that sound, Ike immediately glanced upward to see a loudspeaker dangling from that canopy above his head.
He then figured the voice came from the guy in the booth. Returning the gas nozzle to its spot, Ike figured he would have to pay first before that man turned on the pump.
As he strolled to that booth, Ike thought it appeared almost like a repurposed odd house. That's because its orange surface looked like it was made of weather-beaten wood, and the large window in front had a simple sheet of glass covered by what looked like a rectangular chunk of chain link fencing.
Extracting a $50 bill from his wallet, he slipped it through the gap at the bottom of that window. Ike then says, "10 gallons on No. 2, please."
Taking the moolah, the young fellow flipped a switch on a console to the right of him. He then replies to Ike, "there you go, Sir."
Returning to the pump, Ike didn't waste a second as he refilled the Lincoln. And yet, as he did, a thought about the transaction leaped into his head.
Usually, only gas stations in the ghetto demand money upfront since poor people will take off without paying if given half a chance.
Looking around the parking lot and at the cars coming and going, he figured such felonious behavior could also happen here. A person could get mighty desperate if they found themselves stranded in the desert with no gas or cash to get any.
Filling the tank on the Lincoln, Ike returned to get his change. However, out of that $50, he got back only two bucks and some loose change.
Once he got back in the car, Ike finally noticed the $4.75 a gallon, written in small print, on those gas pumps. It made perfect sense to him why these people want their money upfront. With these prices, anyone would take a chance to pump and run.
Moving the Lincoln to the far end of the parking lot, Ike made themselves invisible from the other store visitors.
As he got out of the car, he said, "I'll get us something to eat."
Sandra opened her door and said, "Well, I need to go to the little girl's room and clean up a little."
Ducking his head back in, he says, "Are you kidding?"
Looking over the car's roof, Ike focused on the people around the store.
He then tells the girl, "Even if you can get over there without being noticed, all you need is one idiot in the bathroom to recognize you, and that's it, game over. Now just wait here, and I'll be right back."
Though she didn't enjoy sitting in the car, she knew he was right. Closing up her door, Sandra watched as Ike moved around the front of the Lincoln.
"Ike, wait up!" The girl shouted through the open rider's side window.
"What?" He uttered while stopping in his tracks.
"Can you get me some... deodorant?"
"Deodorant!"
Ike's face twisted a little since such a request confused him.
"Yeah," she went on. "I'm feeling a little...."
Sandra's voice suddenly dissolved as she felt a little awkward because it was the first time she had tried to explain her hygiene issues to a near stranger.
"Musty? A little funky?" Ike said as he picked up the slack for her request by finishing her sentence. He understood her all too well since he's been in that situation twice.
"Yeah," She finally spoke up.
"All right, all right. I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks," She said as Ike went to that convenience store.
Once Ike entered the shop, he could see that Sally Mae's was a full-fledged commercial operation despite the homey exterior.
And one of the first things that told him was the door sign that read, 'open 24 hours a day. We never close.'
And while it had aisles of merchandise you expect to see, the prices were practically in orbit, but considering how he got fleeced over the gas, Ike thought these prices shouldn't surprise him.
Ike figured the only convenience this store provides is to its owner, who must have decided they would make their customers pay through the nose and out the ass to access such a place.
Moving past the people crowding this store, it's clear to Ike that they were keeping their mouths shut if they weren't happy about any of this.
But Ike then noticed something a little more critical than overpriced merchandise. Seeing the foot traffic out of the men's and ladies' restrooms confirmed what he told the girl; using the bathroom here is the worst idea in the universe. She had a good chance of being recognized as soon as she stepped into this place.
