Page 54 of The Hitchhikers
“Well, can I have one now?” Alice didn’t want to eat until Tom could, but it might relax Jenny if Alice was busy doing something with her hands.
Jenny picked up one of the wrapped burgers and held it out. Alice carefully took it from her and leaned back against the counter. She nibbled on the burger, sipped her Dr Pepper.
Minutes passed—enough of them that Alice was wondering if Simon had run into problems. Jenny hadn’t stopped watching the door either.
Footsteps, outside on the pavement, then the click of the door handle. It swung outward and Simon lunged up the steps, making the RV bounce, before slamming the door behind him. He dropped a new Dairy Queen bag on the table and sat down across from Jenny, breathing fast.
“Those guys are idiots.” He lifted the burger out and unwrapped it in quick agitated movements before placing it in front of Jenny. “Dude was going to melt a new slice of cheese on the patty and use the same bun. I was like, man, you better get this right. My girl can’t smell or taste any tomato. So, then he finally makes it fresh, but when he brings it out, he just dumps it into a bag and slides it over to me. No sorry. No free ice cream. Nothing!”
Simon took a bite of his own food, which was probably cold by now, and with his mouth still full, he said, “We’re going to teach them a lesson tonight.”
CHAPTER 21ALICE
Alice listened to the chug of gas entering the RV, willing it to hurry up. The attendant, a wiry middle-aged man, with straggly hair and overgrown sideburns, dipped his squeegee into a bucket and dragged it across the windshield, removing dust and dead bugs. He scrubbed hard at the splattered remains of a particularly large bug that had dried in the corner near Simon. She glanced sideways. Simon was leaning back in his seat, the brim of his baseball cap pulled down to shade his eyes, as though he was sleeping, but she could see his tight jaw, his fingers tapping.
Finally, the attendant moved away from their windshield and the RV tanks were full. Alice handed over cash, relieved when the man gave a quick nod and went to help the next car.
The Dairy Queen didn’t close until eleven and Simon didn’t want to go back to the nature park, so they found a dusty road that might have been used for logging in the past but was now rough with potholes. Overgrown shrubs and branches brushed against the RV as it bumped and dipped for a couple of miles until they reached a clearing where Simon told her to park.
Then he revealed his plan to rob the restaurant at closing time.
Tom tried to talk Simon out of it. “A Dairy Queen isn’t going to have much money in the till. It’s not worth the risk.”
“All money is good money.”
“Is it worth dying for?”
“You think I can’t handle myself? I beat your ass, didn’t I?”
Tom’s hands clenched into fists, like he was thinking about how much he wanted to wipe that smirk off Simon’s face right now. Alice sure did.
Tom tried another approach. “Just leave Alice. You don’t need her.”
“What I don’t need is you shooting your mouth off.” Simon tugged the gun out of his waistband and lifted his eyebrows at Tom. “You going to be quiet now?”
“Yes, he is,” Alice said. “And I need to get some rest.” She walked to the back and crawled onto the bed with Tom. Simon sat with Jenny at the table and played Uno.
Alice fell asleep and dreamed of messy burgers, with bits of lettuce and cheese dropping onto the RV carpet. She tried to clean it up, but more food kept falling. Then there was a baby crying somewhere in the RV, and she was searching under the seats, in the cupboards. She woke up to Tom softly calling her name and barely had a moment to adjust when Simon got to his feet.
“It’s time. Let’s go.”
Alice stumbled off the bed, grabbed a soda from the fridge, rubbed at her eyes to clear the dreams and sleep, and got behind the wheel. When they reached town, they parked again at the laundromat. This time behind it. Simon’s theory was that if anyone saw the RV, they’d think they were doing laundry—which Alice would have liked. The RV windows were rolled down, but the air was still steamy. The brick building, having absorbed the heat all day, was now radiating it out at them. Alice futilely fanned her face with one of their travel brochures.
“They’re just kids,” she said to Simon, who was in the passenger’s seat, waiting for the last cars to leave Dairy Queen. Theycouldn’t see the front, but they had a clear view of the parking lot and the back door to the alley, where a few minutes ago one of the workers had come out with a garbage bag that he’d tossed into a dumpster. Alice didn’t want to rob anything, but especially not a restaurant where teenagers worked, no matter how much Simon hated them.
“Even better,” he said. “They’ll piss their pants.”
“With two people working, there are more chances of a problem.”
Simon gave her a look, then got up and made his way down the center of the RV. Alice turned in her seat and watched as he reached into the storage where he’d put the disguises. He rummaged through one of the pillowcases, then brandished a roll of silver duct tape.
“I kept this.”
Alice slumped in her seat. Maybe the Dairy Queen had an alarm. Simon sat back down in the passenger’s seat. When the parking lot was empty of all cars, and it was one minute until closing time, he said, “We’ll try the back door first. It’s probably unlocked.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Jenny pleaded. “It was just a mistake.”
“The dumbass was rude to me. That was abigmistake.”
