“Where are we going?” asked Alison.
“I don’t know.”
“My father is really dead?” She put a knuckle in her mouth, knowing the answer.
“Yes. So is Polar Bears.”
“I thought he was the one — the one who killed those girls.”
“I thought so too, for a little while,” I said. “I’m sorry. Polar Bears thought so too for a little while. He was the one that finally put the; idea in my head.”
“I can’t go back, Miles,” she said,
“Fine.”
“Will I have to go back?”
“You can think about it,” I said.
I was just steering, just driving a car. For a while her crying was a wet noise beside me. The road seemed to wind generally westward. I saw only farms and a winding road ahead of me. After this valley there would be another, and then another after that. Here the trees grew more thickly, coming right down to the buildings.
She straightened her back on the seat beside me. There were no more crying noises. “Let’s just drive,” she said. “I don’t want to see Zack. I can’t see him. We can write back from wherever we get to.”
“Fine,” I said.
“Let’s go someplace like Wyoming or Colorado.”
“Whatever you want,” I said. “We’ll do whatever you want.” The curve of a neck, the pressure of a pair of hands, the familiar gesture of an arm. The blisters on my hands began truly to hurl; the nerves in my face began to transmit the pain of being burnt; I was beginning to feel better.
At the next curve of the valley the car trembled and the motor died. I heard myself begin to laugh.
Books by Peter Straub
If You Could See Me Now
Julia
Marriages
Copyright
POCKET BOOKS, a Simon & Schuster division of
GULF & WESTERN CORPORATION
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y.
Copyright © 1977 by Peter Straub
Published by arrangement with Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-57730
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information address Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc.,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016
ISBN: 0-671-81844-9
First Pocket Books printing February, 1979
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Trademarks registered in the United States and other countries.
Printed in the U.S.A.