Keep driving,” Elisa told Sarah.

“What about Larry?” Sarah asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Elisa said. “We’re going back to Lodi.”

When Sarah glanced in the rearview mirror to see what was going on with Larry, she realized that he had flopped over on the seat.

“It’s drugs, Sarah,” Elisa told her. Sarah thought Larry looked zoned out, all right. But he didn’t seem to be passed out—just tripping on whatever drug he had taken. Every so often, in fact, Larry would sit up and stare out the window. It appeared that Elisa had told Larry they were taking him home. He seemed very docile, even trusting.

Elisa had Sarah pull onto the San Bernardino Freeway, Interstate 10, headed east. Some distance from the City of Industry, Elisa instructed Sarah to take the Devore Cutoff toward the desert on Interstate 15. Once through Cajon Pass, the freeway headed down into the flatland of the high desert. Soon an interchange appeared for U.S. 395, another highway that headed almost due north through the desert toward the eastern wall of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

“What’s going on?” Sarah asked Elisa.

“For your own good, you should forget you ever saw Larry today,” Elisa told her. “He was never in this truck.”

Sarah at first said afterward that she didn’t know what to make of this remark by Elisa, although she knew it didn’t sound good. Sarah said she wasn’t sure if Elisa was telling her to keep quiet about Larry using drugs because of possible repercussions from the state bar association, or if she meant something else. But much later, Sarah would admit that Elisa had told her hours earlier that she had given Larry what she thought was an overdose of “Special K.”

As the morning wore on, the red dually flew north, passing mile upon mile of creosote bushes, tumbleweed, sagebrush and later, Joshua trees, branches uplifted as if in mute supplication to the heavens. Large rock formations rose on either side of the road as they drove on, eventually giving way to blue shadows of distant mountains far off to the northwest and northeast as they came into the Owens Valley. Sarah had the truck’s stereo on while Elisa rolled more joints. In the back, Larry continued to doze, although he occasionally became alert enough to sit up and look out the window. Based on his fragmented remarks, Sarah had the impression that Larry was remembering things, experiences from the past, asking Elisa if she remembered, too. What Sarah did not know was that Larry was experiencing waves of extremely vivid hallucinations that came and then receded. From time to time he asked Elisa for something to drink.

“I’m thirsty, Blanchie,” he said. Elisa reached down to the floor of the truck, found a water bottle, and passed it back to Larry. Larry drank some, then lay back down, back on his mind-trip.

By late in the afternoon, they had passed the small valley town of Bishop and had begun to climb along the eastern escarpment of the mountains. The road climbed higher and higher as the sun angled down behind the peaks to the west, which topped out at over 13,000 feet. At length they came to Deadman’s Pass, just over 8,000 feet above sea level, and began going downhill again toward the small ranching village of Lee Vining. Just before Lee Vining, Elisa told Sarah to turn off the highway to head west into Yosemite National Park on State Highway 120. After crossing Tioga Pass at almost ten thousand feet, they arrived at Tuolumne Meadows on the eastern side of the spectacular park. There they filled the dually with diesel, and got something cool to drink. Larry was conscious and exchanged a few more inconsequential words with them. Elisa gave him more water from her bottle, and Larry went back into his semi-trance.

It was well past dark by the time Sarah drove the dually through the guarded gate into the Woodbridge development and pulled the truck into the driveway of the rented house. “We’re home, Larry,” Elisa said, and Larry seemed glad to hear it. “Oh good,” he said, “we’re home.” Elisa opened the truck’s door and helped Larry get out. “I’m going to put him to bed,” she told Sarah. Together she and Larry walked toward the front door, arms around each other, Larry staggering slightly. They went inside the house.

Larry seemed happy that they’d finally made it, Sarah said.