Hank:

The kid went from staring out the window to staring at a book. Sometimes I think that backpack of hers might be magic, given how much crap she can pull out of it. I like being able to turn the radio station to whatever backwater music I can stand, but this much silence is starting to make me uncomfortable. I can kick myself for that one. When we first started this damn cross-country tour (must have been three a.m., shit) the kid poured out questions. Wanted to know what the plan was, what I know, more about who I was you get it. The first two subjects were easy to answer, I thought I knew jack-shit about our situation but apparently, I had a better idea of what was happening than she did. I told her enough of my theory to satisfy her curiosity without making her panic. As for my plan, I planned on driving both to put some miles between the bad guys and us and to find out why they were after us in the first place. After that was when the questions got personal. Once the basics were out of the way I started getting pissy with the deeper questions. I declared the car to be a “need to know” zone, meaning only emergency concerns and inquiries about the trip itself. She snapped shut like a clam after that and turned to face as far away from me as possible. I heard her mutter “ well fuck you then,” under her breath. Too late I realized she might have been to figure out how much of a murdering psycho I was. I tried to think of something to say to make things less awkward, but nothing good enough came to mind. It was starting to get dark and we still had a few hours to go. Guess I should patch things if only so we can talk to keep me from nodding off til the next stop.

“Whatcha’ readin’?” I asked, my voice sounded strained after so much silence.

She slowly looked up, like breaking off took effort.

“Just some book I’ve had since I was young,” she answered, furrowing her brows. I couldn’t tell if she was still mad at me or if she didn’t like the question but her glare was unsettling.

“Oh,” I said. I decided not to try to talk anymore. She kept watching me.

After a moment she finally spoke, “What exactly is your plan again?” she asked skeptically.

“I’m driving us to Storm City, Iowa to find out why Big Dic Energy is after us,” I replied.

She cocked an eyebrow, “you can’t give me more details than that?”

I sighed and cleared my throat, “Storm City is where I live, and it’s also where I keep records of my dealings with B. D.” I left out the fact that it was also where my three dogs and life partner, Kamal, were waiting for me. I made a note to myself call him once we stopped. She nodded but didn’t seem completely satisfied.

“So why is Big Energy after you?” she probed bluntly.

I scratched my chin, “that’s a bit of a long story, but let's just say I haven't made life easy for them. I'll explain more once we stop for the night." I knew how dodgy I sounded but my mind was already spinning from everything that had happened.

She turned to face front again and reopened her book, “In an hour we should make a pit stop, I can take over driving from there if you want a break,” she said, turning her eyes to the pages again.

“Sure,” I replied, the conversation clearly over for now. I fiddled with the radio knob and settled in for another boring hour of driving.