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CHAPTER 46

A Bus Ride

      THE BUS rolled toward a horizon that paled from black to gray, to blue-grey.

      Then a line of pale yellow appeared at the lower edge of the sky. Tumbleweed and cactus became visible, and a occasional solitary pumping jack, bending and bending, all alone with nobody to watch it, like a mammoth toy bird, pecking and pecking the ground.

      When the sun rose they were passing a succession of sorry-looking farms. At one of them Lucy saw a sway-backed horse standing in a dry field near the highway. The horse turned his drooping head toward the bus with a weary, irritated look. The horse looked exactly the way Lucy felt after all these hours on the bus.

      The light increased and became a hard, dull morning. Scrubby bushes began to appear at the edge of the road, and later they were joined by a few reluctant weeds. After another hour of traveling the highway median was furred with a coat of grayish grass. Austin was now only a couple of hours away.

      Lucy put her head back against the seat and tried to doze again. But she'd had no real sleep, because her thoughts rolled along with the repetitive progress of the wheels of the bus.

      She'd called Charles White, and learned that his friend was assistant manager of the Genial Armadillo Tape Recording Company. She told him that Shark and Gallatin had left some items behind and she wanted to send them on to Austin, and he had seemed to believe her. She hadn't mentioned the missing money, of course. No point in that.

      For bus money, she'd taken all the change that had been left them and then borrowed the rest from Swan. She didn't tell anyone where she was going, simply said she'd be gone a couple of days.

      It was wrong of her to borrow from Swan when she knew she couldn't pay it back. Mama had always said that was just same as stealing, but Lucy was beyond shame. She was doing what she had to do.

      She hated this bus with all the strangers on it. She'd have taken the truck all the way, only she thought it wouldn't make it.

      The man sitting next to her smelled bad. He was asleep now, thank goodness — leaning back against the seat with his mouth open, snoring. Lucy was glad he was asleep. He was dangerous-looking. Maybe he was a desperate character. Well, if he was, Lucy was desperate, too.

      No, she couldn't sleep. She sat up again and opened the paper sack on her lap and took out one of the sandwiches it contained. She'd brought them so as not to have to spend for food, because she hadn't wanted to take more from Swan than she had to.

      The sandwich already tasted stale.

      It was noon when the bus got to Austin. Lucy had the name and address of the Genial Armadillo written out on a slip of paper, and at first she'd planned simply to go there. But when the man at the information counter told her how far away it was, she changed her mind. "Oh. Well then, can you tell me where there's a pay phone?" He wouldn't be lodging at the record place, anyway.

      When a young woman answered, Lucy had a lie all ready. After she'd made sure that this was the right place, and that Gallatin and Shark had already been there, Lucy used the same lie she'd told to Charles White: "Yes, those are the same two gentlemen that were staying at my motel, before they came there to Austin. And by mistake they left several things that I got to return to them. Can you tell me where they're staying? So I can mail their things today?"

      The young woman was very pleasant, and she gave Lucy the address without any argument. Left the telephone a moment and then came back and gave it to her.

      When Lucy went back to the information counter, the man there showed her on the map exactly where the address was. "Here we are at the bus terminal," he said, pointing to his map. "You go right down this street ten blocks. Turn left at that corner, go two blocks . . . and then right four blocks . . . and there you are. And there's the rent-a-car desk right over there."

      Lucy thanked him and went out of the building, not stopping at the rent-a-car desk. It was lucky she was a good walker.

     


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