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SIXTEEN
I don’t like spectacles other than the entle displays of nature, such as color-splashed sunsets, and the more frivolous works of humanity, like fireworks Otherwise spectacle is always twined with dae and nearly alith loss, the former partial and perhaps repairable, but the latter absolute and beyond recovery We’ve lost so e or sht on the already swayed back of civilization
Nevertheless, I’ across the brink of the first slope, angling down so sharply that for a moment it appears about to tip forward, stand on end, and slahts itself and rushes seaward as though an eighteen-wheeler cruising overland, breaking a trail through the tall wild grass, is as natural as a white-tailed deerthe same journey
The truck ceases to seem appropriate to the landscape when it meets a formation of rock that, like the beetled brow of so the vehicle to heaven The big rig is airborne, but not for long Pigs don’t fly, and neither does an eighteen-wheeler carrying perhaps sixty thousand pounds of frozen poultry Canting in flight, it crashes down onto its starboard side with such iht think the first peal of thunder has just announced the stor lot, I feel the earth shudder underfoot As the windshield shatters, the vertical exhaust tears loose with a sound like the angry shriek of soeration unit bursts, white clouds of evaporating coolant billowing Less rigid and less impervious than it appeared in better ties and ripples as several thousand ice-hard turkeys prove to fly no better than their warher than the trailer, and they decouple, rolling in different directions Casting off a fender like a failed pauldron of body arainst an ancient Monterey cypress that stands as a lone sentinel in that portion of Harmony Corner Before it loses momentum, the trailer tumbles into a swale and halfway up the next slope, where its skin splits and its rear doors buckle open, and choice frozen turkeys turassy hillside as if fro the back of the diner, where the only door is to the kitchen and the jalousie s are of frosted glass I’ to avoid any member of the Harht co into the lot, the parked trucks screenedout a restaurant , and for a e of the ProStar+ was an accident
As I sprint past the diner, I glance twice toward the land below, certain that fla up from the tractor But it lies there without a lick of fire, its slanted headlight sockets like reptilian eyes, sorill I think I reasoline, and nite the stuff
Fro the evening news, it seems so easy to be a terrorist or a saboteur, if only you don’t ular baths, but as in every other profession, success rewards those who take time to learn the basics of their trade, train hard, and plan carefully I’ Furthermore, I have no love of destruction, and in fact I’ seems necessary to me
On the south side of the diner, because there is no gas-company service in this rural area, four propane tanks stand on a concrete pad, under a sheltering corrugated overhang On the first, I turn the knob that closes the valve I twist the fe, which doesn’t want to unscrew, but then suddenly it relents I free the tank froas line that feeds so out of the diner, shouting and excited, but they’re all on the north side, where the big rig wentBecause other parked trucks had screened the doo out of the restaurant s, they e below, either badly injured or dead They’re so fixated on the disaster that they don’t even notice me as I tilt the propane tank on its bottom ri area on this side of the diner is smaller than the one to the north, and it’s for cars only The thick wooden posts that serve as a barrier against catastrophe are not linked by cables as they here the big trucks are parked I stand the tank between two of the posts, open the valve, and retreat as pressurized propane hisses into the early- air
Six vehicles stand in this lot The nearest is a Ford pickup On its tailgate is a bumper sticker that declares USA NEEDS A MISSILE DEFENSE With people like ree
Drawing the pistol from underits hood to steady as is escaping, I squeeze off a shot I never quite hear the round strike the tank, because the spark from the ricochet instantly detonates the propane A piece of shrapnel sings past s off the pickup, and yet another shatters the windshield Spewing flames, the tank topples over the brink and tu fire to the diner or the es, and the seven houses are far to the south of here The rainy season has hardly begun, the tall wheat-colored grass is dry from the summer sun, and the hillythe sea doesn’t breathe, and if there’s wind sohtly corked A well pump supplies a water-tank tower that, like one of the alien machines in The War of the Worlds, looes; that continuously refreshed reservoir feeds all the water lines in the Corner and provides the high pressure that the firefighters will need The flah to ensure that they will be contained without loss of property, although getting them under control will require manpower that would otherwise be impressed into the search for me and the defense of Hiskott
No sooner does the propane tank tuht than I tuck the pistol underthe parked cars and pickups From there I hurry toward the cover of the trees that shade the cottages fro to need any more NoDoz
SEVENTEEN