Jeremy’s nostrils flared. He looked up at the computer-modeled perfection of her body, his eye following the rigorous geometry of her legs, her thighs, her hips, her breasts. He held out his trembling arms and she lay down with him and they were together.
A short time later Jeremy sat up and started unbuttoning his shirt. He froze when he saw the little girl.
Isis noticed his stare and turned. The little girl was watching them with big moon eyes, pale blue. She had on a shapeless, faded cotton dress, dirty and tattered, and her face was smudged. Her hair was pale yellow, almost white.
“Hello,” Isis said.
“Hello,” the girl said solemnly.
Jeremy sighed and buttoned his shirt. Isis got up and picked up her dress.
“Is your momma around?” Isis asked.
The little girl nodded and pointed down the road.
The house was a ramshackle bungalow with a gang of children playing in the junk-strewn front yard. The children fell silent when Jeremy and Isis approached.
“Can one of you kids go get your mom or dad for us?” Jeremy asked. “We want to speak to them.”
A boy of about ten ran into the house. Presently a woman opened the front screen door and looked out. She was dressed in a threadbare housecoat. Her face was thin and her corn-silk hair was mussed and tangled. She eyed Isis up and down, then looked at Jeremy.
“Kin ah help you?”
“Yeah. We had a breakdown, up the road a little. Is —?”
“Say whut?”
Jeremy cleared his throat. “Our … vehicle broke down a little ways back up this road. Is there a town near here where we can get someone to help us fix it?”
“Y’say yore vee-hicle broke down?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“An’ you want someone for tuh fix it?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, you jus’ go right into Peach Holler, there, and see Luster Gooch and his brother Dolbert. They’ll fix yore car.”
“Peach Holler?”
“That’s right, jus’ right down this here road a piece, take you right into town. You go an’ see Luster Gooch and see iffen he cain’t help you any. Ah cain’t stay and chew the fat with you, got somethin’ on the stove. Good day.”
She let the screen door close and disappeared into the odoriferous darkness of the house.
Peach Hollow (as the faded sign read) was a hamlet consisting of about a half a dozen houses, a few sheds, and the Gooch brothers’ garage. The garage was a good walk from the road, and the front of the place was littered with wrecked automobiles and their rusting components. There were other sorts of junk, everything from old wringer washers to piles of bedsprings.
The big wooden barn doors were open. Jeremy and Isis walked in. The place reeked of oil and gasoline and decayed wood. A pair of dungareed legs was sticking out from under a battered car of indeterminate make.
Jeremy said, “Excuse me … hey, mister?”
“Yo!”
“You got a minute? We need some help.”
“Start talkin’, it’s yore nickel.”
“A woman up the road told us that you —”
“Say whut?”
“Uh, our vehicle broke down up the road a ways, and we need some tools and stuff, and, like, someone to help.”
“Y’say yore vee-hicle broke down?”
“Yeah.”
“And you want someone for tuh fix it?”
“Uh … yeah. We’re in a big hurry and we’re sort of in a spot. Can you help us?”
“Well, ah don’t rightly know. What sorta vee-hicle d’you got?”
“Um. It’s a foreign make.”
The man under the car chuckled. “Hear that Dolbert?” he called.
A derisory cackling came from the back of the garage.
“Feller’s got hisself one of them there foreign jobs.”
The cackle rose in pitch. A shape came forth from the dim recesses of the garage. It was a short, chubby, homuncular man with a three-day growth of beard and most of his teeth missing. He was shirtless in grease-smeared bib overalls and wore big work shoes and a rat-chewed baseball cap.
The man under the car squirmed out and stood up. He was lanky and lean and wore patched dungarees over red long johns. Thick blond hair came out from under a baseball cap that had been gnawed by ferrets. He looked at Isis first and smiled, touching the brim of his cap and nodding.
“Ma’am,” he said, then looked at Jeremy. “Mister, ah don’t rightly know iffen ah kin fix one of them foreign jobs. Don’t see many of them around these parts.”
“No?” Jeremy said. “Well, would you come take a look at it?”
“Whut’s wrong with it? Does she start? Kin you drive it in?”
“No, it won’t start. The engine’s … not working.”
“Well, I guess you cain’t drive it in, then. We’re jus’ gonna have to git the truck and go up there and git it. This here’s mah brother Dolbert.”
Dolbert’s grin was gap-toothed and wide. His head bobbed up and down as he cackled.
“And ah’m Luster P. Gooch.”
“Nice to meet you,” Jeremy said. “I’m Jeremy, and this is Isis.”
“Pleasure to make yore acquaintance. Y’say this vee-hicle of yores is up the road a piece?”
“Yeah, not very far.”
“Wull, let’s go git it.”
They piled into the cab of the ancient tow truck, Jeremy squeezing next to Dolbert. Jeremy wrinkled his nose. Dolbert quite obviously had very little experience in the soap-and-water department.
Luster drove. “Where you folks from?”
“Uh, we’re from the … the eastern part of the country.”
“City folks?”
“Yeah.”
“Uh-huh. Whutchyall doin’ round these parts?”
“Oh, just driving around. You know.”
“Uh-huh. We don’t git many city folks out this way.”
“No?”
“Nope. Pretty quiet hereabouts.”
When they passed the dilapidated house, some of the children waved. Luster waved back.
“It’s right along here somewhere,” Jeremy said.
“Cain’t see nothin’.”
“Just a little farther. There, right there.”
Luster stopped the truck. “Whut the hay-ull is that?”
“That’s our vehicle.”
“Wull, what the hay-ull is that thing?”
“It’s a … vehicle.”
“Dolbert, you ever seen anything like that?”
Dolbert shook his head vigorously.
“Ah never seen anything like that in mah life. Whut the hay-ull is it?” Luster adjusted his cap. “Wull, whutever it is, let’s take her in.”
Luster backed the tow truck into the clearing, and everyone got out.
“There ain’t even any proper wheels on this thing. Lookit these little tiny wheels, Dolbert.”
Dolbert chittered his amazement.
“Don’t that beat all? How the heck are we gonna hook this thing up?”
Isis said, “There are two retractable towing brackets along this edge.”
Surprised, Jeremy said to her, “There are?”
Isis nodded. “They’re controlled by one of the multifunction switches. I’ll go deploy them.”
When the brackets popped out Luster said, “Wull, ain’t that slicker than owl spit. I guess we kin tow it.”
“Whut the hay-ull is this?”
Squatting by one of the on-board jacks, Jeremy peered under the craft. Luster was on his back underneath, a stained piece of cheesecloth between him and the hard concrete of the garage floor. He had been a while unbolting the access plate; now he stared up in bewilderment at the arcane mechanical works of the Sidewise Voyager.
“Who the hay-ull built this thing? I never seen nothin’ like this in all mah born days.”