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“First day on the road?” the lady asked, taking theup the sale

“Yes Just left home How can you tell?”

“You don’t got a man with you?”

“How—”

“Men don’t let their woas” The woman leaned closer “Keep your , doll There’s a bad element out here ’Specially in the last few days Keep an eye out”

Elsa nodded and put her money back in her wallet As she did so, she stared down at her left hand, at the thin wedding band she still wore

“It ain’t worth nuthin’,” the clerk said, looking sad “You’d best keep wearing it, too A single woman can be prey out on the road And don’t stay at the auto court across the street It’s full of the shiftless kind About four miles farther on, just past the water tower, there’s a dirt road going south Take it If you go about a mile in, you’ll find a nice copse of trees If you don’t feel like ca another six miles west on the main road There’s a clean motel called Land of Enchantment Can’t miss it”

“Thank you”

“Good luck”

Elsa hurried back to the truck She had left the kids alone, with all their belongings and a full tank of gas and the keys in the ignition with shiftless men nearby

Lesson one

Elsa climbed into the truck The children looked as hot and tired as she felt “So, explorers First order of business We need a plan There’s a nice motel down the road that has beds and ht If we decide to stay in places like that, we’ll use up about fifteen dollars Or we can save that money and camp out”

“Ca!” Ant said “Then it’s a real adventure”

Elsa aze over Ant’s head

“Ca fun”