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Who knows? It’s Wrecker speak, I says But this is the place Starlight Lanes

You read good, Tos Tommo’s life is split in two Before Ike an after Ike Life-after-Ike he’ll talk about Life-before-Ike he won’t, not a word When he learned to read ht Innerduce ourselfs, I says

I lead us through the gates We’re quite the gaggle Eight of us, sundry horses, a stolen pony, Bean thean a nervous crow perched on my shoulder Nero’s stuck to me the whole way here Hostile to anybody else that comes near him, quick to beak whatever bit of ’em happens to be closest

Oh h in front of us I ain’t never seen its like Countless piles an hills of scrap e, with cranky paths that wind between ’em There’s a scatter of rackety low sheds an lean-tos A flat-topped grassy hill rises behind the yard In front of it stands the biggest junkpile of all

A shack grows fros to it Made of flotsam an crazyjunk, thisses an thats of all sizes an shapes an descriptions At a quick glance, I see car doors, goodyears, ether any old way It’s a puzzle how it holds together I never seen such a wackadoo place Dozens of ladders an ays sprawl out like a spider’s web froround, up the junkhill, sidewise an every which way There’s ropes an chains an pulleys with buckets Slides an chutes Tracks an swings Barrels an nets an wheels an flags There’s a raggedy wash hung on a line An there’s live birds in cages Hunnerds of birds Everywhere, birds The air trembles with their trills an chatter Nero caws to his cousins in their prison cells

Molly shakes her head in aht the Lost Cause was a duht? says Ash An what kinda name is that anyways?

A camel mooches into view from a nearby scrapmetal hill He’s a fleabit shambles His hump sluh I fergot he was here

It’s Moses He loathed us from the start Five-time winner of the Pillawalla Camel Race, fer years he hauled the Cosmic fer Sli the Flight took Moses on to haul his junktub After the handover, Sli of seed rye an long, confused songs about camels an brotherhood We pretended sorrow, fer Slim’s sake, but secretly we celebrated You can only take so lares with unbrotherly malice

He don’t look too happy, says Creed You don’t suppose he blames us?

Don’t be stupid, I says Hey, Moses

He belloith rage He charges

He blaht! shrieks Eirl an beast Jest as we do, a giant bird coht at us from the sky No, no bird, a flyin machine But not a Wrecker flyer A junkflyer A revas an tindcranks One on top, one behind A skinny old fossil in goggles an a helmet wrestles with the stick controls

Look out! I yell

Moses turns on a dime an scrambles I dive fer cover We’re all jest in time The flyer smashes at speed at the scrapmetal hill It explodes in every direction The racket’s so fearsome, you could hear it on the it to our feet an brush ourselfs down Bean’s honkin his head off in raucous alarm Moses hollers back from wherever he’s hid Nero shrieks an swoops

Welcoht Lanes, says Creed