Route 666 Read online

  “Yeah,” she replied. Can you drive after this for a bit?”

  “I can. How about this, we eat and I’ll drive us for a few hours.” Lexie looked on Google maps. “If we take I-10, we can get halfway to El Paso in around four hours, place called Fort Stockton. We can get a motel there, it says. There’s a Days Inn, for one.”

  “Okay.” Connie was too tired to insist she drive from Fort Stockton after napping as Lexie drove.

  For once, Nelson didn’t offer an opinion.

  “Connie, wake up. I’ve checked us in and got the room key already.”

  Connie opened her eyes. “Mruh?” She blinked, raising her hand to her face as she felt wetness at one corner of her mouth. Gross, she’d slept with her mouth open and had drooled. Lexie laughed.

  “Yeah, you were great company on the ride. Come on, I’m bushed. Just grab Nelson and follow me.”

  Connie unbuckled herself and climbed out, giving a large yawn and a stretch before getting Nelson out. Lexie picked up Nash’s habitat, kicking the car door closed with her foot. She sat the habitat on the hood for a brief moment while she locked the car. After picking it back up, she led Connie to the stairs. Their room was on the second floor, fifth door down.

  Lexie unlocked the door and held it open for Connie to go in first. “Just sit him down. I’m not going to bring anything in, we’re just going to crash right here, on top of the covers and then go.”

  Sounds good to me,” Connie replied, putting Nelson onto the floor and flopping down. She buried her face in the pillow and drifted back off to sleep.

  “Connie, sweetie?”

  The man’s voice was familiar. She wanted to sleep but recognition teased at the edge of her consciousness. Her eyes snapped open and she sat up, looking around wildly.

  “Sam!” she shouted.

  “Yeah, babe, right here,” he said.

  She stood up, taking in her surroundings. She was by a beach with black sand. It was warm, but a cooling breeze wafted across the water, dancing among the palm fronds and keeping it from being hot.

  “Where am I and why are you in a food truck selling snow cones?”

  “This is Puna, babe, and this is shave ice, not a snow cone. It’s a much superior product.” He proceeded to make one and hold it out to her. She wandered closer. “Go on, it’s for you. Lilikoi, because you are my passion.”

  She hesitantly took it, her hand brushing against his fingers. They were warm. Tears pooled in her eyes.

  “You feel so real.”

  “That’s because I am real, babe. You’re close. So, so close. We’ve been trying to show you the way, but he keeps getting in the way.”

  “The guy we’re chasing?”

  “No, well, him, too, sorta. Just remember, not everything is as it seems. Remember the car trouble. That’s all I’m allowed to tell you. It seems stupid, but there are rules and Pele won’t help us anymore if we break them.”

  “So, it was you and Charlie we saw?”

  “Echoes and whispers, yes.”

  “Pele,” Connie frowned before taking a taste of her shave ice. “Oh my, this is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted.”

  “Best in the islands, babe, guaranteed.” he grinned at her, his teeth shining bright against his dusky skin, which was set off beautifully by the rich red of his aloha shirt. “You need to hurry up and finish that. We’re almost out of time.”

  She looked puzzled, but obediently took another taste and then another. He served four more customers. Then she was done and looked around for a trashcan. Spotting one under a nearby palm tree, she walked over to it and dropped the plastic cup in it. She turned around, smiling, only for it to fade.

  Sam was gone, as was the truck. The trees and the visitors began to fade from view as well. She turned quickly, looking at the beach and the vivid blue of the sea, but where they had been, was now only an endless void of nothing. As it closed in on her, she heard Sam’s voice once more. “Find me, babe. You know where. Just keep looking.” She screamed for him to come back, coming to with the taste of the shave ice still clinging to her lips.

  “What the ever-loving hell, Connie?” Lexie asked, eyes wide from having been startled awake.

  “We’ve got to go, now.”

  “Okay, but why?”

  “I just saw Sam. Go potty, then get your asses in the car. He said to keep looking for him, that we were on the right track. Charlie is there, too.” It was true, not just a dream. She could feel it in her very soul.

  She dashed to the bathroom, hurriedly washing her hands as she came out, not bothering to dry them. Grabbing Nash, she all but ran out the door. Lexie stared in astonishment after her. “Okay, then. Mind the stairs,” Lexie said.

  Chapter 29

  Coffee Nirvana

  Lexie followed her down to the car less than a minute later. She hadn’t yet buckled her seat belt when Connie whipped her head around to look at something behind them. She looked in the side view mirror to see what it was. Across the street, in an empty parking lot, a familiar silver Ford pick up truck with a red and white cooler in the back was doing donuts.

  “Are you serious?” Lexie asked.

  “Oh, it’s on,” Connie said with a wicked grin. She backed out of their parking spaces. The driver of the truck spotted her move, coming to a halt for a brief moment before peeling out.

  Connie pulled out onto the road. They followed him from several car lengths away, the truck gathering a significant lead after they became separated at a set of lights. It went on like this for several miles, with the sisters gaining, then losing the distance.

  “”Just don’t let him out of your sight!” Nelson shouted. “He’s turned off!”

  “Looks like he’s headed to I-20,” Connie said. “Where the hell is he going!”

  “Route 66, and no, he’s going on TX-218.”

  Connie followed him doggedly. Three hours later, she hurriedly pulled over. “Swap!” she cried out and Lexie slid over to take her place as Connie ran around the bonnet and yanked the car door open, jumping in. She barely had the door closed before Lexie was on her way.

  “Seatbelt!” Lexie snapped.

  “Where are we?” Nash asked.

  “Closing in on Amarillo,” came the reply as Lexie scanned the dusty highway for signs of the truck. “Here he is, I can just make him out on the horizon,” she muttered.

  The chase ended abruptly in front of a parking lot of an old metal diner on Route 66 that reminded Connie of an Airstream. The town was not much and Daddy Dade would have referred to as a podunk town if he’d been with them. The pickup was parked in front of it, next to several older cars which had all seen better days, their owners sitting within the diner.

  “Welcome to Glenrio,” the man grinned. “You brought my way home for me, I see.”

  “Yeah, Lexie said, getting out of the car . “Nelson and Nash will be very happy to provide you an escort.”

  The man guffawed. “I’m sure they would. Nelson has been trying to get his Daddy's approval since forever, from what I hear. Oh, he’ll get it when I go back, never fear. But you, you really have no idea do you?”

  Connie let Nelson out and removed Nash from his cage.

  “Put me on the ground,” Nash said.

  “Okay. Just don’t let him step on you or get run over by a car or anything.”

  “I won’t,” he told her.

  A vintage neon sign in the coffee shop window caught Connie’s eye. “Everlasting Cup,” she read. The words had a cup of what was supposed to be coffee sandwiched between them, outlined in green neon. “Hey, you guys got this? Can I go grab me a cup or are you going to need me for something.”

  “I’m not going to give them any trouble, ma’am,” the man said. “It was all fun and games until you pulled me across realities with you; now I’m ready to go home.”

  Connie headed for the front door. Lexie looked doubtful at the two bounty hunters. “You guys sure you’re okay? You going to be able to, you k
now, open a portal here?”

  The man laughed harder. “Oh, this is rich, You are all clueless.”

  “Don’t mind him, he’s an asshole,” Nelson said. “Just, before you go, draw us a circle of salt, will you? All the way around us.”

  “Sure,” Lexie replied, reaching for the salt shaker that had remained in her purse ever since the incident at the Waffle House. She unscrewed the top and began to pour a thin line of salt onto the ground.

  “Around him, too,” Nash supplied.

  “How’s that?” Lexie asked, completing the circle. The shaker ran out of salt just as she finished.

  “Oh, that’s fine, thanks,” Nash assured her.

  “Okay, I'm just going to go in with Connie. If you need anything, just wave at us or something.”

  “Sure thing, and thanks for everything,” Nash replied. Lexie smiled sadly. The little shits had grown on her quite a bit and she realized she was going to miss them. Lexie turned away and took several steps towards the door Connie had her hand on. As it opened, Lexie could hear the strains of Hotel California playing on a jukebox.

  “This is so cool.” As Lexie spoke, a man jumped up from a stool at the counter and made a rush for the door. It slammed shut as his hands grasped the handle, leaving them all inside.

  “Hey!” Connie cried out. “It was closing. I wasn’t letting any air out. “

  The man just stared at her and sighed, wandering back to his stool.

  “Don’t mind him,” the waitress told her. “Just grab a seat anywheres. We’re not all that busy, as you see.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Connie said as they slid into a booth in front of the plate glass window.

  “Why are the three of them out there staring at us like that?” Connie wondered.

  “I don’t know,” Lexie replied.

  “Two coffees,” Connie said to the waitress. “And do you have any pie?”

  She returned her attention out the window after verifying she’d love some of their cherry pie. Dust rose from the circle surrounding the trio outside. “They’ve opened the portal, Lex.”

  “Bye, guys,” Lexie whispered, raising her hand in farewell.

  “We did it, Lexie,” she said. “Caught the bad guy, got the guys back to their own dimension,” she said as they faded from sight, “and made it to Route 66.”

  “Yep, and it’s been a hell of a trip so far, no pun intended.” Still, she had to admit it had been fun, though as the song playing began to loop, she really hoped the jukebox wasn’t stuck. “So, about that dream you were having this morning…”

  THE END

  (to be continued in Cafe California)