There were moments when he broke into a run, partly out of fear, partly due to gravity. The slope of the drive dipped more in some places than others, and before he realized it was happening, the cover of trees dwindled, the groves of pine and fir giving way to solitary stands, piles of salal and, like everywhere else around, the pungent scent of sage. Stripes of light blinked over the ground and Rodney knew that he was coming after him, the crackle of tires on gravel and finally the bellowing of Lester’s voice.
“Rodney!”
His name, catapulted out, like the blocky, dripping letters of a comic book panel. Oof! Plack! In almost every issue he’d ever bought, or stolen, nobody got away.
“Come on back, kid! It’s dangerous out here!”
Rodney thumbed the switch on the flashlight and gave into the moonlight. He felt his way through the sparse brush, to a cluster of salal and the skeletal trunk of a fallen tree. As the white sheet of headlamps swept over his vast world, Rodney sank down to the ground, surrendering himself completely to the landscape. Invisible.
“You better look out for snakes!” Lester yelled. “This place is riddled with ’em and they don’t take kindly to being woken up!”
Rodney held himself still as that log, the rocks beneath his body seeming to melt into the wood as Lester rolled on past, the Bonneville creaking over ruts, the engine thrumming, congested, winding down that last hundred yards or so to where the highway lay. The taillights glowing like two angry red eyes as the car waited there, the cloud of smoke tumbling blue. Then the engine howled and the car lurched to the right, kicking into a sharp whine as it charged out onto the open highway, disappearing around a bend and reappearing half a minute later, the headlights almost a breath of yellow now.
Rodney lay there with the skin of the dead tree brushing his face, the scent of pine and dirt and his stale breath, listening for Lester’s return, which happened in short order, the Bonneville navigating the drive with a lot less care and intention than it had on its way down, a clanging, boneless surrender as it headed past Rodney, homeward.