Red Queen (23 page)

“I told you, I had already put it in the hotel safe.”

“Go on,” Jimmy said.

I explained how I was kidnapped by the weird taxi driver and the rich woman with the Taser. When I got to the part where I woke up in a meat locker, Jimmy was shaking his head again but I kept talking. I went through my whole ordeal of breaking out of the freezer. How I failed—how I hurt my ankle and sat down to rest. How I began to doze and eventually blacked out.

I moved on to the morgue, to Dr. Dave and Dr. Susan. This part scared me to recall, and I hoped the obvious fear in my voice would add weight to my story. But Jimmy listened with his gaze focused outside the SUV window, if he was in fact listening.

By the time I escaped from the hospital, I decided my story wouldn't be enriched by my encounter with Wing, Moonshine, and Squat. I skipped that episode and told Jimmy I headed straight back to Russ's hotel. But rather than playing twenty-one inside the casino, everyone was playing twenty-two.

That was it, I had gone too far, at least in his mind. He stopped me.

“You honestly believe all this happened,” he said.

“It's not a matter of belief. It happened.”

“The entire city of Las Vegas gave up its favorite game for the night and decided to play twenty-two instead of twenty-one?”

“That's not what happened. It's more complicated than that.”

“No, Jessie, it's actually more simple. Up until the time you met Russ, everything was normal. But then he went out of his way to separate you from Alex and the moment he did your fantasy started.”

“This isn't a fantasy!”

He stared at me. “Pull over to the side of the road.”

“No. You're in no shape to drive.”

“You can keep driving but first you're going to listen. Pull over.”

I did as he requested and we sat in silence for several minutes before he spoke. “Jessie, have you ever heard of STP?” he asked.

“That's a motor oil, isn't it?”

“Yes. It's a motor oil. It's also the initials of a drug far more powerful than LSD. I've been reading about it in the paper lately. It was created in the sixties but few people took it then because it was too scary. But now a modified version has reappeared and the police are worried. The person under the influence of it can be so convinced they have entered a new reality, they never come out of it.” He reached over and took my hand. “Jessie, there are people in mental hospitals swearing that they are witches, warlocks, and wizards—all because of this drug.”

I felt profoundly sad. I realized then there was a chance he'd
never believe my story. And I couldn't blame him. I wouldn't have believed it.

“Are you saying Russ slipped me this drug at the blackjack table?”

“As soon as Alex was gone, the miracles started happening. That was no coincidence.”

“What about the money we won?” I asked.

“Like I said, I'd have to see it to believe it.”

“But when you see it, will you believe me?”

“No.”

“Jimmy.”

“How can you expect me to believe that for one night—no, make that two nights—all of Las Vegas was transformed into the Twilight Zone?”

“The transformation happens again and again, between today and tomorrow.”

“And that sounds like reality to you?”

“Jimmy. You have no idea what I went through before I finally accepted all this.”

“Did Russ keep hammering on you until you did accept it?”

“Russ and my father.”

“Your father? Jessie, your father's not here.”

“How do you know?”

“If he's here, then call him. Call him right now.”

“I don't know his cell phone number.”

“Jessie. Do you know how feeble that sounds?”

“Explain to me how I was able to beat you up.”

“I don't know. I can't. But that doesn't mean you just returned from a journey to an alternate reality.”

“My supernatural strength is a fact. My speed is also a fact.” I pointed to a desert hill out the window. “How about we stop the driving and have a race to that hill?”

“Right. You forget how far-off objects often look closer in the desert. That hill is five miles away.”

“What if I run there in ten minutes? Will you believe me then?”

“Five two-minute miles? That's impossible. The greatest runners on earth haven't been able to string together two four-minute miles in a row.”

“Then you'll have proof.” I opened the Expedition door.

“Shut the door, Jessie.”

“Why?”

“Close it, please.”

I closed the door. “I know what's wrong. I know why you can't believe me.”

“I hope that's true. Are you beginning to accept that what you're saying is impossible?”

“That's not it. The Jimmy I know believes in the impossible. He believes in magic, or at least he used to believe in it.” I paused. “It's because I told you Huck's still alive.”

“That's not it.”

“Yes, it is. When I told you your son was alive, you reacted
with disbelief. But then you dropped it, you dropped it right away. The reason is because you can't go there. It's too painful. But the more I talk, the more you realize that's where my story's heading. That's why you've got to stop me.”

“That's not true,” he replied.

“But it is,” I said.

Jimmy gripped his fists tightly together. I could see he wanted to get behind the wheel, turn around, head back to Las Vegas. “I swear, when I meet this Russ, I'm going to beat the shit out of him.”

“That won't be easy,” I said calmly.

He stared at me. “Do you have a crush on him?”

I smiled sadly. “You know I only have a crush on one boy. And he's sitting right in front of me.”

Jimmy sat silent a long time. Then he reached out and put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me close.

“I'm sorry I said that,” he said.

“It's all right.”

“But I'm not sorry I stopped you. Your story may seem true to you but it's not. Right now, for one reason or another, you're delusional. Only it's not your fault. You say you know me, Jessie, and I can't argue with that. Even though I left you for Kari, I know you took me back because you know I love you. And I know you love me. That's how you were able to forgive me for going back to Kari. The bond between us is real, it's deep, and there's no way you'd intentionally try to hurt me
by bringing up Huck unless that Russ guy hadn't screwed with your brain somehow. That's why I've listened to you this long. But now I have to stop you, and help you come back to reality.”

“Thank you for your kind words. They mean a lot to me.” I nuzzled his side and kissed his cheek before pulling back. “They just happen to be false. And the only way to prove that to you is to shock you again. Harder this time. So hard your head cracks wide open and you're able to accept a story about an entire town playing twenty-two.”

Before he had a chance to react, I got out of the SUV and closed the door. Hurrying to the rear bumper, I knelt down and lifted up the back of the vehicle. This time I felt the weight but it seemed manageable. Creeping forward with my head beneath the driveshaft, I let my arms spread out wide and gripped the vehicle as close as I could to the edges. Inside the SUV, I could hear him shouting but paid him no heed.

When I reached the center of gravity, I allowed the front to lift off the ground so that I was holding the Ford Expedition six feet above the asphalt. Breathing hard, focused on my task, I began to walk up the road. I went maybe fifty yards, half a football field. Thank God the road was deserted.

“Jimmy!” I called finally.

He sounded close to hysteria. “Jessie?”

“Do you need any more proof?”

“No!”

“Are you sure? Can I put you down?”

“Yes!”

Crouching down, dropping to my knees, I slowly lowered the front of the vehicle and then the back. Finished, I rolled out from beneath it and brushed the dust off my shorts. I climbed back in the front seat.

“You look white as a ghost,” I said with a smile.

He nodded in faint, jerky movements. “You look like a witch,” he whispered.

I started the SUV. “Is it all right if I keep driving?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like to hear the rest of my story?”

“Absolutely.”

“Do you think I'm delusional?”

“No.”

“Good.” I leaned over and kissed him on the lips. “I love you, Jimmy. I love you in both worlds.”

He stuttered. “I don't . . . I don't understand.”

I put the vehicle in gear and gunned the engine. “Trust me, you will,” I said.

Ninety minutes later we were stopped on a dirt road with our windshield covered in dust. Reaching for the wipers, I activated the sprinkler system and tried washing away the guck. It took a lot of fluid to get a clear view.

Jimmy was busy studying the maps in the travel book I had purchased at the hotel. “From what I can see, a lot of
these towns will be cordoned off with high fences and barbed wire.”

“I can handle that,” I replied.

He glanced at me. “Please don't go crazy on me. I don't think my heart can take any more.”

I laughed. “I'll try to behave. How close are we to ground zero?”

Jimmy squinted at the map. “Funny you should ask that. These places seem to be grouped in a rough semicircle around a big black
X
that's labeled ‘Ground Zero'—in caps. The names of the towns are appropriate: Hades, Purgatory, Inferno, Fission's Fury, Blaze.”

“Were they all built to determine what a certain-strength bomb would do to a certain-size city?”

“Yeah. But from what I've read, the army also stocked them with plenty of pigs. They put pigs in the houses, pigs in the barns, pigs in the basements—and they left a bunch of pigs outside.”

“Why pigs?” I asked, not really wanting to know.

“Because pigskin resembles our skin the most closely. So does their cardiovascular system. That's why pigs' valves are still used in heart surgery. Plus pigs are one of the smartest animals in the world. The scientists probably wanted to see what kind of effect the radiation had on their whole bodies, their brains, and their skin.”

“It disgusts me we could treat animals so cruelly,” I said.

“Just think, we dropped two of these bombs on Japan. On real live people.”

“That's a scary thought.”

“Hey, you're the one who wanted to come out here. You know you still haven't told me why.”

“My dad made a remark about how the Lapras experiment on human beings using the radiation left over from atomic tests. I want to see if it's true.”

“Can't we just believe your dad and call it a day?”

“No.” I was trying to avoid Jimmy's question and I think he sensed it. The real reason I had driven us to these towns was beyond reason. I had come here because I felt I had to come here. The name Inferno drew me the strongest. I asked Jimmy where it was located.

“It's to the right, east of here,” he said. “It's pretty close to ground zero.”

“That's our destination,” I said, making a sharp right, kicking up more dust. Ironically, it seemed the faster I drove, the easier it was to keep in front of the dirt. But the potholes and bumps made the road painful on our butts.

Twenty minutes later we were forced to halt. A thirty-foot steel gate, topped with three feet of barbed wire, blocked our way. Jimmy quickly gave me a suspicious look but I just nodded and climbed out.

“Scoot over, get behind the wheel,” I said.

We were in the hills far east of Las Vegas. We couldn't see
the city, nor much of anything else except sand and tumbleweeds. The sun was straight overhead. I had forgotten to put on sunscreen that morning and I could literally feel the moisture being sucked out of my pores. It appeared witches were not impervious to everything.

A heavy-duty chain, along with a lock the size of a book, held the gate shut. Grabbing hold of the chain, I tested its strength.

“What do I get if I break this chain with my bare hands?” I called to Jimmy.

“Break it and I'll kiss your ass!” he shouted back.

“How about my breasts! I'm an old-fashioned girl!”

“Jessie! Give it up! There's nothing out here . . .”

I shut him up by snapping the chain in two pieces. Even through the dust and the SUV's tinted window, I could see his incredulous expression. I kicked open the gate and gestured for him to drive through.

“Amazing stuff, that STP,” I said as I climbed in beside him.

He stared at me. “How do I know you're a good witch? You never told me how I could be sure.”

“The only way to be absolutely sure is to make love to me. If you die when you come, I'm a bad witch. Now drive. I want to get to Inferno before I melt.”