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The sun was coht on the BMW&039;s gas gauge had begun blinking Laura tried not to pay any attention to it - tried to will it begone - but the light kept snagging her eye
"Low on gas," Didi said over the wind&039;s screa their feet and legs while they froze froh, was that neither Laura nor Didi could be lulled to sleep with the cold and the wind singing them a banshee symphony Didi kept her hands in her pockets, but every so often Laura had to unclench one hand fro wheel, flex the blood back into it, put it back where it was and do the same to the other ahead of thereen van, its left side scraped to the bare ehammer had been taken to it Traffic had picked up on the interstate: al limit Twenty minutes or so before, Laura had seen a patrol car speed past on the other side of the iven Mary Terror as much of a start as it had herself Beyond Mary&039;s van, the sky was still dark and oht refused to recede froone," Didi said "Hearto doi Wait until we have to push the dai"
Laura didn&039;t answer She really didn&039;t knohat she was going to do; this was a wing-it-by-the-seat situation If she pulled into a gas station first, then Mary Terror ht turn off I-94 at the nearest exit If she waited ive out and they&039;d be coasting There was so darkly comedic about this, like a twisted Lucy and Ethel on the trail of a celebrity when Ricky went to Hollywood Don Juan, she thought Wasn&039;t that the movie Ricky visited Hollywood to filmi Or was it Casanovai No, Don Juan She was aletting details Who was it that Lucy had gotten a booth next to at the Brown Derbyi William Holdeni Hadn&039;t she spilled soup on his headi Or was it a salad instead of&039;s -
The blare of an air horn behind her almost lifted Laura out of her seat and caused Didi to yelp like a dog She jerked the wheel to the right, back into the lane she&039;d drifted out of, and the huge truck that was loo dinosaur
"Screw you!" Didi shouted, and shot the truck&039;s driver a bird
Laura&039;s heart began to pound
Mary Terror was cutting her speed, and easing over toward an exit ramp that was about a quarter mile ahead
Laura blinked, wasn&039;t sure if she alking on the paths of La-La Land again or not
In the sky was an apparition a syht have said Up on stilts on the roadside was a gigantic yellow Sn that said HaPPY HERMaN&039;S! GaS! FOOD! GROCERIES! NEXT EXIT!
Oh yes, Laura thought That here Mary Terror was going Maybe she needed gas Maybe she needed so to keep her awake In any case, Happy Her Mary Terror off the interstate like a hippie to a be-in
"Where&039;s she goingi" Didi said excitedly "She&039;s getting off!"
"I know" Lauraup Mary Terror took it, coht, and Laura cut the BMW&039;s speed as she followed
Happy Herman&039;s was on the left It was a yellow cinder-block coas station, with full-serve and self-serve pu yellow Smiley Faces were painted on the s a couple of trucks were at the diesel pu fueled with self-serve premium unleaded Mary Terror slid the van under a yellow plastic awning as her front tires went over a rubber hose across the concrete, a shrill bell rang She stopped at the full-serve puular leaded hose Then she sat there and watched in the sideview mirror as the BMW came in and went to the self-serve puot out, the injured side of her face bruised and swollen and her hair windblown Was there a gun in her handi Mary saw the woman start to walk toward the van, and then a man&039;s wrinkled face appeared at theHe tapped on the glass, and Mary quickly glanced in the rearview otten all of Edward&039;s blood off with her saliva and fingernails Some blood remained at her hairline, but it would have to do She cranked the n "Fill &039;er upi" the rease-stained Happy Herorously on a toothpick
Mary nodded The man moved away from the , and Mary stared at Laura, who stood less than ten feet away Her hands were e up the BMW Laura took two steps closer, and stopped when Mary rested her arm on theframe, the baby&039;s blood-spattered white blanket over her hand and about three inches of the Colt&039;s barrel showing
The sight of the bloody white blanket transfixed Laura She couldn&039;t take her eyes off it, and she felt a hot surge of sickness rising in her throat and then Mary&039;s other ar on a pacifier The Colt&039;s barrelaias puher
Mary sensed the Happy Herot there She slid her arh He peered in at her, his eye catching for a second or two on the baby "So at a molar with the toothpick "Got bullet holes in your van Soovernment auction," she said, her expression blank "It used to belong to a drug dealer"
The"Oh," he said Then he sprayed the windshield with cleaning fluid and started to wash it with a squeegee as the gas kept flowing into the tank
Laura Clayborne was no longer there
She stood in the dank women&039;s roo yelloas the toilet water She glanced in the ht mask Then she hurriedly soaked paper towels in water fro her face sent electric jolts of pain through her cheekbones, but she had no tientle Her vision was hazed by tears when she finished She crumpled the bloody towels, dropped them into the wastebasket, and then she relieved the pressure on her bladder There was a dribble of blood between her legs, too, the stitches popped by Earl Van Diver&039;s knee When she was done, Laura went out into the cold again, and she saw Mary Terror carrying David into the grocery store, the shoulder bag over her aruns in it
The attendant had finished puas into the van Laura walked to it and opened the driver&039;s door Mary Terror&039;s sered within No keys in the ignition, of course Laura reached under the dashboard and gripped a handful of wires One good yank, and and whati she asked herself The situation wouldn&039;t change Maybe the van wouldn&039;t start, but Mary would still have David, still have her guns, and still kill him as soon as the police arrived What was the point of disabling the van if David would die as the resulti
She released the wires "Dath shouting
She looked behind the van&039;s front seats In the back were suitcases and a couple of large paper sacks Laura reached over and searched in thehnuts and cookies, a box of Pampers, and some baby formula as well as paper cups and a half-full plastic bottle of Pepsi Traveling food, she thought Groceries that Mary and Edward Fordyce had bought for their trip also amid the clutter in the van&039;s rear was a pillow and a blanket She took the blanket and one of the sacks containing junk food, the cups, and the Pepsi She left the diapers and the forht her attention: a pacifier on the passenger seat She picked it up, intending to keep it It had her baby&039;s saliva on it, and his aro, the crying ht snap Mary Terror&039;s nerves, and then
Laura put the pacifier down Itshe&039;d ever had to do
Laura carried the booty to her car and that hen she realized the gas portal was closed, the puone
In the store, as Mary Terror paid for her gas, a box of No-Doz tablets, a jug of pure water, and a package of trash bags, she watched Laura raiding her van Won&039;t touch the engine or the tires, she thought Bitch knoould happen if she did
"Is that alli" the woister asked
"Yeah, I think -" She stopped Beside the register was a glass bowl On the glass boritten in black Magic Marker Don&039;t Worry! Be Happy! In the boere hundreds of little yellow Smiley Face pins She wouldn&039;t have stopped at Happy Her that she was invincible under its power It had proved her right Laura Clayborne couldn&039;t touch her "How much are thosei"
"Quarter apiece"
"I&039;ll take one," Mary said "and one for ht blue sweater she&039;d bought Drummer in New Jersey, and then she pinned the other on her oeater, next to what she realized looked like dried oatet hurti" the wo distastefully at the splotches of crimson on the blanket nestled around Drummer
"Nosebleed" The answer caet the Mary&039;s purchases into a sack "Me, my ankles swell up Look like a couple a&039; treetrunks walkin&039; around the house They&039;re swole up on ht now"
"Sorry," Mary said
"Means a storm on the way," the woman told her "Weatherman says all hell&039;s &039;bout to break loose out west"
"I believe it Have a nice day" Mary took the sack under one ar Drummer with the other, and she walked out of the store toward her van She had to pee, but she didn&039;t want to let the van out of her sight so she&039;d have to hold it until she was desperate She put Druer-side floorboard, and then she roceries and the blanket No big deal, Mary decided as she put the new supplies and her shoulder bag in the back of the van She took the Colt out of the bag and put it under the driver&039;s seat Then she popped the No-Doz open, so tablets with a drink of the bottled water, and slid behind the wheel She put the key into the ignition, the engine starting with a throaty roar
Then she looked over at the BMW, and Laura Clayborne standing beside it, staring at her
She didn&039;t like the wo but a lie, she reripped the Colt, and withdrew it She cocked the pistol as she brought it up, and she aimed the barrel with a steady hand at Laura&039;s heart
Laura saw the gun&039;s dull glea her nostrils There was no tian to cry, wanting to be fed
Mary caught sight of a car in the sideviewup to the pued to the Michigan highway patrol She lowered the Colt, easing the halance at Laura, she drove away from the pumps and turned back onto the road that led to I-94&039;s westbound lanes
Laura was looking frantically for Didi The woht She&039;s left ray world of false faces and naetting away She got into the car, started the engine, and was about to pull ahen a woman shouted, "Hey! Hey, you! Stop!"
The cashier had co at her The state trooper, a burly block of a man with a Smokey the Bear hat, devoted his full attention to the BMW "You ain&039;t paid for your gas!" the cashier shouted
Oh shit, Laura thought She put on the parking brake again and reached for her purse from the backseat, where she&039;d left it Only her purse wasn&039;t there Fro toward her, and the cashier was conant that she&039;d had to venture out into the cold The trooper was almost to the car, and Laura realized with a start that the Charter arht on the floorboard Where was the damned pursei all her one