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For me and for aon the fors and metaphors rather than as a detailed vision of as to come in the days and years ahead Claustrophobia wound around rave cloth and I were being reat cities had to offer, they were nonetheless mazes of streets Mazes could thwart and trap Broad, open freeways offered freedohborhood, rich or poor, was potentially a ghetto, every ghetto easily converted to a prison, every prison a potential death cahway, the residences and offices and retail outlets seemed at one moment to be burnt-out and boarded-up, but an instant later they appeared to be bunkers and battleainst the other in a war of all versus all Now I felt the shadows that flailed the land, as though they were accoht were alh to blind In addition to the broad freeway along which vehicles raced at high speed, I was also aware of these same concrete arteries in a state of sclerosis, perhaps hours or weeks or years from now, coue preri the lanes of stalled cars and trucks, s uns firing, boots stoht have lost consciousness for a few seconds, because when I openedand inexplicable shadows The surrounding coainst conflict, traffic sped along the freeway, and Mrs Fischer sounded worried when she said, "Oddie, what’s wrong? Do you hear es fro in the path offor ht?" Mrs Fischer asked

"Sort of Yeah I’ there for a moment What’s up?"

"I think we’ve lost hi lanes with bravado, passing between a pair of eighteen-wheelers that bracketed us like cliffs, searching for the one that got away "There were suddenly so ht I still had a lock on hi"

State Route 134 had becons promised exits for Azusa and Covina

The dark clouds massed in the south were dramatically closer than before, and I suspected that I had been unconscious for minutes rather than seconds

"Ma’aht Take the next exit"

"Do you knohere he’s gone? How can you knohere he’s gone?"

"I have a hunch"

Working the car toward the right lane, Mrs Fischer said, "A hunch? A hunch isn’t worth spit"

"Well, this one is, ma’am It’s worth spit and then some"

"Your hunches usually pay off, do they?"

"I learn by going where I have to go," I said, deternetism

She didn’t slon much for the exit ramp

I said, "Left at the botto surface street, she didn’t obey the stop sign

"Come to think of it," she said, "how did you knoould be at that truck stop earlier?"

As ent through an underpass beneath the freee politely pretended not to see the obscene spray-painted graffiti, which was colorful but, as usual, uniraffiti and the work of Re

I said, "Trucker at a truck stop It seeic?"

"Yes,around the truth, child You told ht to lie to evil"

"And you said you ht be I didn’t say I was"

"Please turn left in two blocks, ma’am"

"Fact is, I’m not evil"

The effect of the preh to allow ht be evil, now you say you’re not I better tread carefully with you"

We passed through a once prosperous retail area where a third of the businesses were gone,shops and services had a tattered look that suggested they eek-to-week enterprises So was a week-to-week enterprise, including the country and the world

A traffic signal turned green to accommodate us, and I said, "After the intersection, pull to the curb"

Mrs Fischer braked to a stop in front of a thrift shop operated by the Salvation Ar the rest of the way alone, on foot"

"Is that really wise?"

"I’ I do is wise, er than I ever expected"