[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Jake began to consider the possibility of going back to sleep.
Shoot, everybody has money troubles, the kid was saying. His words were
supported by beer fumes, but he kept the truck slow and steady as it swung
around the traffic circle.
Had an enjpyable night? Jake murmured conversationally.
Sure as he^l did, the kid said proudly.
Your family know where you are?
He laughed. Shit, half the time they don t know where I am and the other
half they don t much care. I m my own man. Didn t have no luck with the ladies
last night, but it weren t for lack of tryin . He laughed again, looking more
than ever like an adenoidal Huck Finn. If you don t mind my askin , what put
you down on your luck?
Jake thought a moment, then said, I made trouble for some people with bad
tempers.
Cops? You runnin from the law, mister? The boy sounded excited instead of
frightened. Different from my day, Jake thought dourly.
No. The driver looked disappointed. I m not completely sure who I m
running from, son. But they re not good people. He thought again of the
murdered couple lying back in the motel, whose only crime had been helping
him. It made him angry. His heart started to hurt slightly. Anger and tension
weren t good for him, but at the moment he didn t much care. Somebody ought to
be made to pay for what happened at the motel, he knew. It wasn t right that
something like that should go unpunished.
Page 125
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
The boy leaned forward until his chin was practically resting on the wheel.
Now that s funny. They were approaching the old steel bridge which spanned
the Clear Fork of the Brazos east of town. Looks like some kind of a
roadblock up ahead.
Jake squinted through the windshield. His eyes were old, but he could still
make out the two cars parked hood to hood that blocked both lanes at the far
end of the bridge. At the same time a sudden roar announced the appearance of
two more cars. They materialized from a parking lot concealed by trees and
accelerated until they were tight close behind the pickup. Figures were moving
around the two cars parked ahead.
Wonder what s goin on? the boy muttered. Sure a lot of excitement for so
early in the mornin . He glanced sharply at his passenger. Hey, you sure you
didn t cross no cops, mister?
Jake didn t hear him. The intent was clear. They were going to trap him on
the bridge. There d be no escape this time, no friendly back window to slip
through, no familiar old car to speed to safety in. The boy was starting to
slow down.
I d better see what they want. His youthful bravado was fading fast and he
sounded frightened and uncertain,. Beer makes a lousy crutch.
Damn them, Jake whispered to himself, haunted by the image of the slain
couple who d helped him. Damn them all to hell. His heart was hammering away
and the angina stole his breath. The fear of the moment, his anger, an
overwhelming feeling of helplessness in the face of relentless pressure, the
fact that this time there was no way out, all combined inside him. Maybe it
was all those things and maybe it was nothing more than forced repetition, but
for the very first time in his life Jake suddenly knewhow he made things
slipt.
Funny, after all these years, a distant part of him thought. How strange, all
those bottles of soda opened for the neighborhood kids, all those erasers
mysteriously falling loose from their pencils back in grade school. All the
card tricks he d deftly performed without having to read the instructions.
Bottle caps and erasers and wheels and rags.
He suddenly didn t care much what happened anymore. Twenty years he d spent
nursing a bad heart and now it didn t seem to matter. He could go at any time
anyway, whether he took care of himself or not.
But he wasn t going to go at the hands of these people, and he wasn t going
to give them what they wanted from him, and he was going to find out what
they d done to his beloved Amanda.
Pull over, someone was shouting. The voice came from one of the cars that
had pulled out behind them. It was in the wrong lane now, paralleling the
truck. Come on, kid, pull it over. Rightnow . The speaker gestured with a
pistol of indeterminate caliber.
Its size didn t matter to the now-pale youngster. Yes sir. Geez, he
muttered, you wouldn t think sneakin a few crummy drinks would cause so much
trouble. His right foot started to shift from the accelerator to the brake
pedal. The pickup started to slow. Jake roused himself from his stupor and
jabbed out with his left foot. The accelerator went toward the floor.
Jesus, mister, the kid yelled, cut it out! He put his own foot over
Page 126
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Jake s, but that only increased the pressure on the accelerator. He tried to
kick Jake s leg aside, but the oldster resolutely leaned over with his weight
and held the pedal down.
The pickup responded with admirable speed. It leapt forward, leaving the
paralleling car in its wake and allowing its driver only enough leeway to
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]