Page 24 of Anywhere with You
“Oh,” I said. The wind whipped the plastic bag out of my hands and instantly skyward. I wrapped my arms more tightly around myself. “In that case, how is it this fucking cold?”
“Do you think one of us is magnetic?” she asked.
“What?”
“First the elevator. Now the car.”
“I doubt it,” I said reasonably. “But I think I’ll avoid air travel for a while.”
I have no idea how long we walked. We stopped now and then to check for a signal. We’d put both of our phones into a mostly clean Tupperware container to keep them dry.
Finally, the rain stopped pounding and only drizzled. I was able to look around a little, especially as the clouds overhead thinned enough to allow some daylight. I was surprised that the sun was still overhead and not half hidden behind the mountains. I was sure we’d been out here for hours.
A movement beside the road startled Cara, and she took several fast steps back. I froze.
Several gigantic rabbits, bigger than your average cat, with angry faces had crawled out from under the roadside bushes and were eying us. They looked either wet or mangy, their fur matted like they’d just been washed out and hung up to dry.
“Jackrabbits,” Cara said, as though she knew I’d ask.
“Vegetarian jackrabbits?” I whispered hopefully.
I had no idea how these monsters could be related to the cuddly bunnies at the pet store. They were closer to rabid kangaroos. One of them took a hop toward us with its freakishly huge feet. It looked hungry, too thin, and not nearly as frightened as we were.
In unison, the others hopped forward, too. I grabbed Cara’s arm and took several steps backward, dragging her with me, not daring to turn my eyes away from their hungry black pupils.
The jackrabbits must have heard the car approaching before we did. In an instant, thirty of them were fleeing, their unnaturally long back feet flexing as they bolted away from us. Only after they vanished did Cara turn and start waving.
The massive RV honked once, and its brake lights were the most beautiful red. I felt breathless with relief. I knew that jackrabbits were probably far from the most dangerous creatures out here.
Then again, we were two women alone on a highway with a stranger stopping to pick us up. No doubt, we’d be safer with the jackrabbits, the javelinas, the bears, or whatever else was waiting for us in the darkness.
Still, I couldn’t see a better option, and Cara had already started running to meet the RV.
It took the RV some distance to stop, but as soon as it was parked, both of the front doors swung wide open, and two elderly white people emerged and walked toward us, meeting at the back of the RV.
I sized them up and figured Cara and I could take them, if it came to that.
But they were both smiling, and Cara had already reached them.
“Caught in a rainstorm in the desert? Which gods did you piss off?” the woman said, her voice projecting over the empty road.
A moment later, I’d caught up with Cara and stood close to her, just in case.
“Mildred!” the man scolded, then turned to us. “I apologize for my sister, now and for the duration of our acquaintance.”
“Need a ride, cursed ones?” she asked.
He put his head in his hands and turned away.
I was laughing in relief as I followed them to the door. They might still turn out to be axe murderers, but at least they would keep us entertained.
Mildred and Jeffrey were in their seventies, retired, and exploring North America.
They gave us most of their life story before Cara and I could even tell them what we needed, but they were delightful, and it was clear that Mildred only acted the way she did because it embarrassed her little brother.
At Mildred’s insistence, Cara and I took the two seats behind them, even though we were sure to leave puddles, and we buckled in.
To my surprise, Jeffrey offered to go back and get Cara’s car.
“It’s no trouble,” Mildred said, turning the wheel and getting back on the road. “This thing is built to tow. Honestly, we should’ve been towing my car this whole way. It’s a nightmare to get this whole thing in and out of the Starbucks parking lot.”
“Where are you headed?” Jeffrey asked.
“Muir Woods,” Cara said.
Jeffrey whistled. “That’s still quite a distance. Well, where’s home?”
“Houston,” I said, miserably.
“That’s even worse,” Mildred agreed. “Er, farther, I meant. We like Houston and love Muir Woods. But for now, we’ll get you to the nearest town with a service station, how’s that?”
“That is more than generous,” Cara said. “We can pay you.”
Mildred and Jeffrey laughed so hard that I thought we would crash.
“Mildred invested in Netflix’s IPO,” Jeffrey explained.
“In 2002,” Mildred said with a chortle, “back when they still sent you DVDs in the mail. Took a second mortgage out on the house, sold as much plasma as they’d take, and put all the cash into stocks.”
“Most foolish thing you ever did,” Jeffrey said. “What if it’d failed? Most businesses do, you know. And IPOs are risky as hell.”
Mildred glanced over her shoulder and winked at us. “Twenty-plus years, and he’s still going on about it. True, it took a dip that first year. Scared the bejeezus out of me. But since then…” Mildred whistled and drove her index finger straight up. “Through the roof!” she exclaimed.
Cara did exactly what I did, looking at Mildred and Jeffrey, then turning to look behind us at the interior of the fanciest RV we’d ever seen. There were leather recliners, a wall-sized TV, a full kitchen, and…was that a tiny chandelier? It was absurd. It was also larger than my first apartment.
“The shower has a skylight,” Mildred bragged.
Cara turned back to me, her hair and clothes dripping and plastered flat, makeup obliterated by the heavy rain, and laughed out loud. She must have been thinking of the absurdity of our situation, stranded on the side of the road, rescued by millionaires.
I took my phone out of the Tupperware. “Would you two like to be on our Mesmio?”