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'Sooooo Sistah." Eva says slowly. "What are we going to do with Ole Red?" she thumbs back to where the unconscious youth was riding. "Cos that sure looked like one hell of a set-up we were about to run him into." she chews on her lips, the nose crinkling and wriggling a bit. Her hand shifts to window down the window so she can burp out and then lean her head to the opening so her hair can feel the breeze through as you drive.
*
Two words, 'Cheap', an' 'Motel'.", Amber replies firmly. "But no place nearabouts here. We gotta get this sumbitch off th' radar completely.", she adds, then sighs. "Which means…..th' heart a' darkness."
*
"Seems like a smart idea." Eva mumbles, her gaze remains fixed in no mans land somewhere in the darkness. "I'm going to have to find a new dance club, new hot dog stand, hell probably even a ne dress thanks to Ole Red and his problems. " she scratches at her scalp before flopping back into that slump again.
You know it always happens. A plan starts coming together and life… just stomps on in.".
*
"No, no, you're just gonna have to stay in New Jersey until this idjit sobers up.", Amber replies. "Which should be punishment enough. Speaking of which, do have any idea how the hell we're s'posed to get there?", she asks with a grunt of amused frustration at finding herself in this weird position. "We'll find us a market someplace, get some food and some water so he can lay low there for a few days."
*
"I can't. My brother. He…" Eva frowns, "He's not use to being alone. " She slaps at her cheek likely to try and help wake her up, but the driving of a car is soothing in its rocking motion and constant white noise. "And too young to be alone. I look after him see."
*
"Well, shit. All right, I'll do it..", Amber sighs. "You're gonna have t' get yourself back t' the city, can you manage that?", she asks.
*
"Yeah, I do that. The trucks run interstate, all I need to get to is a hub or stop and I'll be back to the home city in no time. Sorry about leaving you like this. There was no way I could have known. The jerk didn't even tip me good for the service either. He probably thought it would hurry me up to getting him home." she lets loose a sigh. "Do you know the curious thing about it all. YOu don't seem to see this as something weird." The hand waves to encompass 'All this'.
*
"Heh, honey, I've been in situations far weirder than this, believe me.", Amber chuckles mirthlessly. "But it's only f' t'night, mind. Tomorrow, I gotta get back t' work. I got enough cash on hand to keep him in th' room for a few days. After which, his ass is on his /own/.", she says firmly. "I'll give him some pointers as t' how t' disappear. Speakin' of, you be damn careful with them truckers. Most are pretty okay, until y' meet the one that ain't, savvy?"
*
"I try to take care of myself and avoid the sorts that need avoiding." Eva admits before giving you a half cocked smile. "I gotta say, I never expected to end up with a sister. You've got a good heart. Thanks for being you." looking back to the black space behind she pauses to consider. "How do you think ole red will take it? I'm sure I saw bodies coming outta his place."
*
"Heh, you're welcome. Us on the wrong end of the stick's gotta stick t'gether, right?", Amber winks. "I did see that, an' he'll take it th' same way you or me'd take it.", she says simply. "There's gonna be some tears, then a journey. A /long/ journey, he's got half the sense God gave a goose.", she notes, finally finding after many failed attempts, to find the right road to New Jersey. "Maybe I'll give him my Wyoming map.", she chuckles sourly. "Good country t' get lost in."
*
"Great country to get lost in." Eva agrees with a grin. "It never amazes me how young they look when asleep." she twists back to looking forward settling in for the ride. "For now he 'ain't got a care in the world and that. That is a good thing." she pushes her toes down, stretching out her legs. "What do you do for a job?"
*
"Didn't we just have this conversation?", Amber chuckles. "You sound 'bout nearly wasted as him. I work as a groundskeeper for a school in Westchester.", she re-iterates, tapping the brakes just as softly as possible to wait to merge onto the bridge.
*
"It has been a long night." Eva agrees, but there is a sense of relief in her next breath that you at least kept to the same story. She sways with the gentle breaking and places her feet back on the floor boards.
*
"Yes, yes it has.", Amber sighs, nodding as she fishes out her thankfully, mostly unspilled bottle of Coke and takes a swig. "So who was this 'friend'? What'd he look like, talk like, so forth an' so on?", she asks.
*
"He went of with the guys girl friend. I remember more of her. She wore a button down blouse and red shoes. It was an odd mix considering the club." Eva admits. It's always easier to remember a girl than a guy in her mind. "He had black curly hair. I've never seen them like that though, like super curly. No accent, so must have been local. I think the girl called him Bo, but it coudl have been beau. She seemed happen enough with the change of arrangements. " She pauses to consider it all, "He was cheap with his cash though, just enough to get me interested and not enough to do the jbo well. I wonder how much of that was smarts and how much of that was laziness." her shoulder rolls, no real way to tell the answer to that now.
*
Amber doesn't reply for a while, intent on navigating Bertha over the bridge into New Jersey, grumbling to herself quietly. "Huh..", she finally grunts. "What d'ya know about ol' Red back there?", she asks, almost rhetorically.
*
"Not a thing. He was just a job. His wallet had a few details. He was hoping to get lucky tonight, so I'm thinking he didn't see this…" Yes, ALL THIS, her hand gestures. "Coming. He had a good wad of cash in his wallet, so he comes from money or had just helped himself too some." Had was the correct past tense with that cash. "I think he had an accent, but he was off his face. It was hard to tell, and it came with yodelling. " she pauses to wince. "And I mean the real old fashioned country sort of yogelling, not what he did on the pavement by the 'dog stand."
*
"Honey, listen to me very, very carefully.", Amber intones in near Biblical fashion. "Give him his money /back/. He's gonna need it more than you or me.", she says firmly. "So, let me sum this up, we don't know shit about /him/, we don't know shit about /them/, an' we don't know shit about /why/.", she states, then makes a rude noise with her lips, guiding Bertha into the Garden State.
*
"It has already gone." Eva admits. "Nothing I can do about that now, we took the long way home. " and the low and expensive road too by the sounds of it. "Used the last up at the stand. The fact we took a while to spend it probably saved his life. I figure with him endangering mine, it works out about even on the stakes department." She shrugs off the disquiet the dishonesty tries to guilt trip her with. "Sorry Sistah, I'm no golden child. I haven't got the money to be that."
*
"Fair enough.", Amber nods, falling quiet as she navigates the unfamiliar off-ramps from the bridge. "Okay, this looks promisin'.", she says, mostly to herself as she nudges Bertha on course. "Beach-wards, if I read that right, lots a' cheap motels t' be found.", she says again. "So what's your story, honey? You heard th' most a'mine.", she inquires.
*
"Born and bred here. Left it soon as I was old enough too, only came back when pops died to look after my brother. " Eva is susinct with every word, just enough said to say there isnt' about to be much more forthcoming. "I make a mean martini and I'm pretty good with finding out stuff and that is about it. " her shoulder shurgs. "I make do as I can, when I can and we get by. "
*
"Sounds familiar.", Amber replies, driving Bertha into the deepning night. "What'd your pop do, if I might ask? Mine was a deputy sherrif."
*
"Laborered when there was work about." Eva says flatly. "But there was never much work about. Mum did laundry. Did things honest. You get no where doing things honest, but she never agreed with me on that."
*
"I mostly stayed honest.", Amber admits. "Took jobs as I could find 'em. Even the shit ones.", she smirks in the passing streetlghts. "Free since th' age of sixteen, I ain't /never/ been any man's doxy.", she says firmly, and proudly. "I earn't my keep. My Daddy taught me that, if nothin' else."
*
"See, I like that mostly. That's why we make good sistah's." Eva says with a cheerful grin. "I saw that licence by the way. You should get something better. They are worth the investment when you can afford them." and just might be where some of ole Red's cash disappeared too. "I don't know where from." She lies. "But given time and tenacity you'll find somewhere."
*
"I maybe have, don't know yet.", Amber replies. "We'll see how things go. Don't usually stay in one place very long.", she notes. "Wanderlust, they call it.", she chuckles. "An' before you ask, yes, I am kinda enjoyin' this.", she adds with a wink. "Long, dark road in th' middle a' the night? You kiddin' me?", she says. "Piss on my paddle.", she sighs happily, settling to steer Bertha towards the coast.
*
"Yeah, I am enjoying it too. I'd give almost anything to get the tar beneath the wheels and not have to go back. To just…" and the longing comes in along with the sadness of the ties she's chosen to honor. "Drive. Never look back. Just… keep rolling forward." Eva laughs, the head half back out the window and the wind streaming across her two tonedd hair. "I can't wait until we can smell the salt of the sea. Have you been this way before?"
*
"Figuratively, yes.", Amber sighs, smiling. "Been goin' this way for years, sister. Into the beyond."
*
Eva smirks a little at your words, "I like the sound of that." she says before her head moves that iota too far out the window. The wind catching in her cheeks and flapping them about before sher jerks back as if someone had just rammed a cattle prod at her. From laughing and warm to pale and strained she pulls her head back inside the car. Apparently she wasn't born to be a labrador out the window after all. For a while she's just stunned in the pain of that wind through her teeth, eventually she begins to breath cautiously again.
*
Amber tries not to laugh, she really does, but she can't stop herself. The next mile or so is accompanied by her guffaws. "You swallow a bug or somethin?", she asks, finally getting enough air to speak.
*
The response is grumpy. "Sensitive teeth." she says loath to move much from where she's huddled. "Sometimes when I suck wind it gets me. You think I'd be use to it by now but its like someones pulling out my brains through my teeth when it strikes." Defensive and huffy, she just snugs into the gap between door and seat. She plucks a come back line to help save her from the discomfort. "Are we there yet?"
*
"Near enough, start keepin' your eyes open, now.", Amber replies, giving Eve a little prod with her non-driving hand. "Coast's comin' up, start lookin' fer hotels, shabbier, th' better."
*
"Interstates, rail yards and docks. All attract divesof that sort of description." Eva states like she knows this as a fact. The prod just motivates her to straighten up and she peals her eyes back to the road sides. "At least in the fringe locations. Other dives would get too much attention inside the city lines."shepeers at a passing option just shaking her head. "No. Not that one. If you got a map of where the old interstate use to go, there's a good chance of a dive there too.'
*
"A map's what I /don't/ have.", Amber notes, "Was hopin' you might help in that area?", she inquires pointedly. Her tone distinctly 'You got me into this'. "Wait, now here's somethin' promisin'.", she says, pointing towards a profoundly down-on-it's-luck motel.
*
"Yeah, lets give it a try. Might want to rattle your look up some. You're a bit tidy for this sort of 'thing'." Eva pulls her own hoody back on, hiding the two toned hair and slouching down low. The skirt she wears is short enough to help ensure any guy won't be looking at her face when she sashays in.
*
Amber brings Bertha to a stop before the 'Golden Sands' hotel, two stories of faded, cheery paint right on the Jersey shore. "Good idea.", Amber nods, shedding her Stetson, tucking it under her seat, and running her fingers through her hair enough to make it untidy. "Okay, here we go.", she says, swinging open her door. "Maybe you oughta do th' talkin'.", she suggests.
*
"Put the hood up." Eva says as she gets out and stretches, the weary traveller eptiomised. she looks about left, then right. The door it is then. She heads straight up and knocks on it. A couple of quick urgent wraps before she lays on a thick accent. It could be southern if you'd drunk enough to have cloth ears. "Helllooo helllooo can you help me and my sister please. Heelllllooooooooo" her voice is two octaves higher.
*
Amber puts the hood up obliginly, and starts peering into Bertha's engine bay.
"Just a minute! I'm comin'.", a wheezy, elderly voice calls from the back of the manager's apartment. "I'm comin'!"; Then he arrives, a sick-figure thin husk of a man in his latter years. "What's going on?", he asks, irritably. "You need a room?"
"Don't lay it on so goddamn thick, honey.", Amber grunbles to herelf as she pretends to diagnose Bertha's imaginary problem.
*
Elderly? That kills the vibe some but with yourr recommendation she eases up on th eaccent. "Yeah a room. When my brother wakes from his hangover, he can fix the on clanger but we got here and hoping you got a vacancy. Something cheap, we can't afford " she pauses and then can't resist, "Palacial". Looking back at the vehicle, she wrinkles her nsoe. She should have thought of the plates before coming in. Some one is off her game. Pulling the eyes off them she looks back to the inn keeper as her face remains in the shadow of the hoodie.
*
"Room's seven dollars per night.", the old man says, eyeing Eve curiously.
*
"I don't think we can do that. " she mumbles before shouting out, "Seven. He wants seven." Eva winces and twists back to look at you. "How much can you put together sis, he says seven.". her hands wring with anxiety as she waits for your answer.
*
Amber slams Bertha's hood home, smiling as it catches perfectly. "We can do seven.", she replies, marching up to the desk. "We'll take three nights, double.", she says, fishing out a wad of ten dollar bills. "No need for housekeepin'.", she adds. "We can clean up after ourselves."
*
"Hopefully we'll have enough left to make the coast." Eva says dubiously, "But you're the brains. That's why you got the money." turning back to the manager she lets the teeth flash their white in a smile at him. While the rest of the expression remains in the shadow of the hood. "Just point us in the direction of the room please. "
*
"Room 217, up the stairs, on your right.", the old man replies, passing over the keys. "I don't want any fuckery up there, you hear?", he growls.
*
"Thank you, Sir" Eva says demurely and takes the key. Confident that she can work out where the room is, she doesn't wait for directions. "Think we can limp the car across the lot?" she asks you. Either way, she's wanting to help and get the next stage of shifting both body and vehicle over as quickly as possible. When she's closer to you she mutters, "How do you feel about a change of state number plates?"
*
"Good idea.", Amber nods, heading back to Bertha. "There's a burger joint over yonder, get two with cheese an' fries.", she instructs, passing a five dollar bill into Eve's hands. "I'll get Red to th' room."
*
"Deal." Eva says, taking the cash. She's not afraid of exercise. Lips keep neatly together so no wind can get through to her sensitive teeth. She'll return with the burgers. "If you're good, I'm going to head back." she thumbs back towards the interstate.
*
"Just be careful.", Amber cautions, before laboriously hauling the unconscious Red across her back, and huffing and puffing, up the stairs and into the room to flop him uncermoniosly on the bed. "Shit…….boy weighs a goddamn ton….", she sighs, slouching sleepily against the foot of the bed.
*