Page 18 of Mac (Demented Souls #7)

All too soon they'd left the town behind and were once again speeding through the desert.

She didn't think they were going quite as fast as before, but she was the first to admit, she wasn't the best person to judge that.

They'd been on the motorcycle maybe fifteen or twenty minutes when they passed another cluster of houses, but the speed limit didn't drop, so Elyse assumed it was just another neighborhood of people who liked their space.

That was a pretty common thing in this part of the state.

She didn't know about other states, but Arizona had a lot of people who liked their space, and would have small groups of houses, three or four maybe as many as six or eight, but rarely more, scattered all over the desert.

Another twenty minutes later they crossed a bridge that seemed to stretch over a bunch of bushes and nothing else.

It wasn't until they were nearly completely across the quarter-mile span that she spotted the river, not more than eight or ten feet across and probably not a foot deep.

She could only shake her head. Only in Arizona, where snow run off and monsoon storms could make a river swell so dramatically did they build a bridge this big for such a tiny stream.

But she knew why they did. She'd seen it over and over as she'd grown up.

Tiny streams that became raging torrents for a few hours or days only to return to the trickle or muddy bed it was before.

Mac slowed, signaling Elyse that they were probably approaching a town.

Since she'd never been up this way, she kept her eyes open and took in as much as she could.

They passed a sign that said Winkelman. She'd heard of the town, but that was about all.

He pulled to a stop at an intersection and waited for the cross traffic to clear.

"Need to stop?"

"I'm good." She didn't know what else to say, so that sounded good to her.

Traffic cleared and Mac eased across the intersection before speeding up to match the rest of the traffic on the highway through what looked like just another tiny town.

As they left the small community, to one side of the road, Elyse spotted something she didn't think she'd ever seen before.

There was a tall thing that she could only describe as a chimney, but why was it so tall?

And as far as she could tell, it wasn't attached to anything.

As they got closer, she noticed the large piles of black debris surrounding the chimney. That only made her confusion worse.

"What's that?" she asked.

"What's what?" Mac looked in both directions.

"That." She lifted one arm and pointed to the chimney, still in front of them but approaching swiftly.

"Oh, remember that mine I mentioned earlier?"

"Yeah." Elyse frowned. It hadn't been but a few minutes ago, of course she remembered.

"That's part of it. I thought they'd knocked them all down, but I guess not."

"What's it for?"

"It's called a smelter and it was for melting copper to take it out of the rock."

"So that's the burnt rock all around it?

" The giant chimney and surrounding mess were behind them now, but she couldn't help but recall the sooty mounds that for some reason reminded her of the fake snow on some of her Christmas decorations.

She could only imagine it had been dumped there after they'd finished extracting what they wanted.

"It's called slag, and yes."

"You know an awful lot about it, did you work there?"

"No, but I knew a few people who did."

"Friends?"

"A few, but mostly customers."

"Customers?" Elyse couldn't help but be aware of how much she was talking and how many questions she was asking, but she couldn't help it.

Mac's tendency to let information out in dribs and drabs made her feel like she had to pull each one and see what came next.

Just thinking that made her visualize a clown's handkerchief.

You know the one... Where the clown pulls one, and out comes a second, then a third, and the string just keeps going.

Elyse felt like if she didn't follow one hint of informationwith a question or two, then he would stop talking all together.

She didn't want to be the only one talking, so she asked another question.

"Do you run some kind of business? Oh, that’s right you said you have a mechanic shop. "

"Yep, it's not the most glamorous job but it's honest work and I like it." Mac didn't sound annoyed or irritated by her questions, so she asked another.

"Have you done that long?"

"A while. I started out working for someone else, just another wrench monkey in a big operation, but I saved what I could, and a friend pitched in and helped me out, so I was able to buy a little run down, three bay shop almost fifteen years ago."

Elyse stared at the back of his helmet for several seconds, wondering what else he might have told her that she’d forgotten.

"Is that a deal breaker?" Mac's voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"No, not at all. I was just trying to remember if I'd ever seen you drive anything but this." She tilted her head to one side even though he couldn't see it. "I don't think I've ever seen you with anything else."

"I've got a tow truck at the shop, but that and the bike are all, most of the time. We do have a few loaner cars, and if I must use something else, I just take one of them."

"I guess if that works, then even better.

I'm sure you must prefer the motorcycle to anything else.

" Personally, she didn't mind the bike, but she liked her car too. She liked being able to load a week or two weeks’ worth of groceries in the back, maybe with a couple bags of books, and not worry about making more than one trip or having to go again any time soon.

"I do. I like the bike. Given the choice, I'd probably never drive anything else."

"Is your shop a bike shop?"

"We work on bikes, sure, but not exclusively.

" He lifted one shoulder. "I might make enough to stay in business with bikes only, but I'd have to go into fabricating customs and doing high end work.

While I can do it, and I do once in a while, it's not my preference.

I like the challenge of figuring out the problem and fixing it.

It's not just about the bikes, it's about the puzzle, the taking something that's not running or not running well, and tracing out the problem and making it work, usually far better than it has in years. "

Elyse couldn't help but hear the affection for his job in his voice. The passion with which he spoke, told her how much he really did love his work. She could relate, as it was much how she felt about her job.

"Enough talking about me and what I do. How are things going for you?"

"Not bad. We've been a little shorthanded, but I've hired a couple new staff, and so far, their training is going well. They're almost ready to be put to work on their own."

"That will make things easier for you."

"It will. I'm just ready to be able to put them on the schedule and not have to worry about making sure there's someone there to give them their assignments for the day and keep them on task.

That takes a few weeks longer than the usual training, but once new hires get there, I can usually tell if they're going to stick around a while, or if I'm going to have to replace them as soon as they find something better. "

"Finding something better is always a worry.

Especially if you hire teenagers. I don't hire a lot of teens anymore, but once in a while I find someone who has a real affinity for the work and I'll bring them on, the ones who really love it are worth the work to train them.

I have to admit, there's something satisfying about watching them go from little to no knowledge to knowing a bit more and becoming more confident in their work.

Eventually they leave, or nearly all of them. But I don't mind losing those so much."

"That's sweet. I only have one person who's been with the shop even half as long as I have. I get it. It's just a little bookstore, not a career for most people. But I love my job and I love my customers."

"You don't have to justify yourself to me. I get it."

A warm, comforting feeling spread through her and she relaxed a little more against Mac's back as she watched the landscape speed by.

They rode in silence for a while, climbing up then going back down.

Elyse couldn't help but notice how pretty the trip was, even if there wasn't anything special but a few cactuses and scattered trees.

She lived in the desert not because she had to, or just because she'd grown up here, but she'd stayed because she really loved the desert.

She liked the mountains too, but not as much as the lower elevations.

Some people talked about the beach as the ultimate place to live, how much they love the ocean and often went on and on about it.

She'd taken a trip to San Diego once, spent a day at the beach, swam in the ocean and all the things that people swore was the ultimate living and while it was nice for a vacation, it wasn't how she wanted to live.

She didn't like water that pulled at her while she swam, she hated the salt that had coated everything, and sand?

She'd thought it was bad here where it mostly stayed on the ground, or flew when there was a haboob, but at the beach it stuck to everything and got in creases and crevices she didn't even know she had until she had been done after a single afternoon.

The motorcycle slowing down brought her attention back to the road, which seemed to be coming to an end, well, kind of. The one they were on ended in a T with another highway. Mac pulled to a stop, waited for traffic to clear then took a right.

"How you doing? You need a rest, or to walk around a little?"

Elyse thought about it a moment, then spoke. "I wouldn't say no to getting off here for a few minutes, but I don't need to."

A few minutes later, he slowed and pulled into another gas station convenience store. "It's an hour and a half or so until our next stop, if you need to use the restroom or anything," he said after he'd pulled into a parking space and killed the engine.

"Thanks for the warning."She left him with her helmet and headed inside.

After visiting the restroom, she stopped in the snack aisle, scanning the options, wondering ifshe should grab something or wait.

"Get something if you're hungry, but I planned to stop in the next town for lunch," Mac said as he walked by.

With one more glance at the sweets arranged in front of her, Elyse decided she could wait and followed him back outside. By the time she made it to where he'd parked, Mac sat on his heels beside the motorcycle, rummaging through one of the saddlebags.

"Want this?" He held out her bottle of water.

"Thanks." She accepted it, twisted off the top and took a long pull. "You said lunch is the next stop?"

"That was my plan. You okay with it?" He stood, his own water in hand. "There is a cluster of towns in a little over an hour, there are several places to eat there, if that sounds good to you."

"Sounds great. I'll be more than ready for a longer break by then." Elyse shifted from one foot to the other, lifting her legs in turn to stretch her stiffened muscles.

Mac chuckled. "I should have warned you. It's a long ride and you'll probably be sore tomorrow."

Elyse bit back a groan then drained her water and glanced around for a trash can.

Spotting one, she took her bottle over and dropped it in before turning back to watch Mac.

His head tilted back and his Adam’s apple bobbing as he drained his own bottle.

Heat pooled low in her body, making her more than a little happy that she was getting ready to climb back on behind him and wrap her arms around him for several hours yet.

For that, she was willing to take a little soreness tomorrow.

And if she got her way, maybe in more way than one.