Butterfly's eyes nearly popped.
"That's ridiculous," Crystal said.
"So it's ridiculous. Learn the hard way if you want," Sunshine replied.
We drove on in silence, the sky darkening as storm clouds continued to drift over us. Finally, a motel came into view.
"This is a good enough place, not too busy. They'll be happy to see us. Let's get a room and get some pizza delivered," Sunshine said.
"I guess it will be okay," Raven said
reluctantly. She looked at me. I glanced at Crystal, who was fuming, her arms folded across her chest, her face turned to the window.
"This is a democracy," I declared. "We'll vote. All in favor of stopping here for the night, say aye." Everyone but Crystal did. "The aye's have it."
"Since when does she vote for us?" Crystal asked.
"She gets a vote. She's paying," Raven insisted.
"Do what you want," Crystal moaned.
I pulled into the motel entrance driveway and Sunshine stepped out.
"This won't take long," she said. We watched her go into the office.
"How can she have a credit card, Brooke? She has no permanent address. She stole it for sure and we're letting her use it," Crystal pointed out.
"She's signing everything, not us," Raven said.
"You're letting her take over. We're going to get into more and more trouble," Crystal predicted.
"We're on the road. We have to survive. I don't want to go back, do you?" Raven challenged. "Do you, Brooke?"
"Of course not," I said.
"Me neither," Butterfly said.
"Let her do something for us in return for picking her up," Raven concluded. It was obvious that Raven didn't want us to jump to conclusions about Sunshine--she believed everyone deserved a chance to prove themselves.
We watched the office door. After another five minutes, Sunshine emerged, smiling, holding up a room key. She got into the car.
"Drive over to 32," she said. "Straight ahead."
"There wasn't any problem?" I asked.
"No. Why should there be?"
"You had identification?" Crystal asked skeptically.
"Sure. I have lots of identification," Sunshine said with a laugh. She opened her bag and produced a few licenses, other credit cards and even a college I.D. The college I.D. had her picture on it.
"Where did you get all that?" Raven asked.
"I.D.'s R Us. Where do you think?" she replied with a laugh. "Some of this friends got me. Some I got myself. If you're all nice, I'll tell you how to do it. And guess what, the clerk said there's a great pizza delivery place nearby. I can't wait to take a hot shower. Oh, the manager is willing to bring over a foldout cot. I guess you guys are used to sleeping together, so I'll use the cot."
No one objected. Just as Sunshine had told us, the manager, a young, balding man followed, rolling a cot into the room. He handed Sunshine the extra bed linen.
"Thank you," she told him with a seductive smile. He smiled back. "See you later," she added.
"What's happening later?" I asked when he left.
"Nothing. I just promised him I'd meet him after work to have a drink in a nearby bar. Maybe I will," she said.
"But you said you promised," Butterfly reminded her.
She laughed.
"It won't be the first promise I broke or the last. Let's order the pizza. I'm starving."
We ordered two pies and some soft drinks. While we waited, we took turns showering. The pizza arrived and Crystal dug into our bank to pay. We had our feast, everyone talking at once, except Crystal, who was still upset. Afterward, we watched some television and then, just a little after eleven, Sunshine said she had decided to meet the manager as promised.
"I won't be long," she said. "Can I borrow the car keys, Brooke? I want to get my suitcase and put on something else."
Crystal looked at me with worry, so I followed Sunshine out and opened the car myself. She got the suitcase, brought it in and changed her skirt and tank ici0 to a pair of jeans and a blue sweatshirt.
"I hope I'm not overdressed for this place," she said with a laugh. "Sleep tight, guys. I won't wake you when I come back," Sunshine promised and left.
"Good riddance," Crystal mumbled.
"Will you just let it go, Crystal. So far she's only given us good advice and helped us," Raven said.
The rain that had threatened to fall all day began, the drops tapping on the window and the roof, falling so hard it sounded more like hail.
"I hope she doesn't get caught in the storm," Raven said.
"It serves her right," Crystal answered.
"I'm exhausted," I said before they could get into another argument. I glanced at Butterfly, who was already asleep. "Don't wake Butterfly," I whispered.
Crystal turned off the lights.
"I like Sunshine," Raven whispered. "She's a little nuts, but she's fun, isn't she, Brooke?"
"Yes, but Crystal's right, too. We can't take her with us forever, Raven. I'm worried about how we're going to get rid of her down the road," I said.
As it turned out, we didn't have to worry about finding a way to part company with her.
We all fell asleep soon after we closed our eyes. When we opened them again, the first light of morning revealed Sunshine had never used her cot. The linen was still folded beside it. Raven was the first to notice when she sat up in bed.
"Look," she pointed, "Sunshine never came back last night!"
Crystal moaned and rose slowly. Butterfly sat up and I followed. Everyone stared at the unused cot for a moment.
"Wait a minute," Crystal said. "Her suitcase . . . wasn't it right there by the door?" she asked. "Yes," I said.
"She came and took it and left us?" Raven said. "Why?"
Crystal shook her head.
"I don't know, but I'm happy and . . ." Something else caught her eye. She gasped. "What?" I cried.
Crystal moved so slowly across the room, I felt I was still dreaming. She lifted her blouse from the floor beside the chair where she had placed it and her skirt. Her purse was gone.
"Our money!" she cried and turned to me. "Brooke, all our money is gone!"
7 Just in the Nick of Time
"It's all your fault!" Crystal screamed at Raven. "I told you we shouldn't pick her up, but you insisted. Now look," she shouted, pointing at the chair where her purse had been.
Raven's lips began to tremble and her eyes teared. She turned to me and then looked at Butterfly, who was sobbing hard, her arms wrapped around her body as if she were freezing. Her eyelids fluttered and then her sobbing stopped so suddenly I thought her vocal cords had snapped.
"Butterfly?" Raven said. Butterfly fell back to the pillow, her eyes wide open, staring up at the ceiling, her mouth open too. She looked so scary. Her face was turning whiter every moment.
"Crystal! Something's happening to her," I cried and hopped off the bed.
"It's all right, Butterfly," I said, taking her hand. It felt so cold. "Crystal."
"Don't panic," she said in a controlled, deep voice. "If she hears your panic, she'll get even worse."
Raven stood behind us, waiting, her head down. Crystal turned to her.
"Get a cold washcloth," she ordered and Raven went to the bathroom. When she brought it back, Crystal put it on Butterfly's forehead. She patted her hand. "Come on, Butterfly. Don't drift off now. We need each other."
Raven bit down on her lower lip, embracing herself as if she were freezing too. We were all falling apart and fast. I moved quickly to put my arm around Butterfly and then carefully lifted her into a sitting position. Her eyes looked like they were rolling back in her head. Crystal came around the other side.
"What's wrong with her?" I asked Crystal.
"It's just another anxiety attack, a little more severe. Stay calm," she coaxed. She was really going to make one great doctor, I thought. "Quickly," she said to Raven who crawled up on the bed. She put her head down and met Crystal's and mine. We bro
ught Butterfly closer until she touched gently and then Crystal started, "We're sisters. We'll always be sisters. What happens to one, happens to all."
Raven chanted along with me and soon our voices melded into one voice, one hope, one prayer. I felt Butterfly's taut body soften. Her skin became warmer. Soon, we heard her voice along with ours.
"We'll always be sisters. When one is sad, we'll all be sad. When one is happy, we'll all be happy."
The four of us separated and Butterfly blinked her eyes rapidly, looking from one face to another.
"What's going to happen to us?" she asked as if time had stopped, as if the attack had never happened.
"You scared us to death," Raven said shakily. "I did?"
"Forget about it, Raven," Crystal advised, giving her those big eyes.
Raven, still smarting from Crystal's
accusations, was quick to listen. Butterfly looked from one of us to the other, confused.
"What will we do, Brooke?" she asked me. I had no answers and neither did Raven nor Crystal. Then Crystal went to her clothes.
"We're going to have to go back," she said. "No!" Raven cried. "I won't go back."
"I don't want to go back either," Butterfly said.
I didn't say anything. Crystal was probably right, I thought. We couldn't live off a gas credit card and soon, Gordon would get his bill and put a stop to that anyway.
"You think I want to go back? Remember what Gordon did to me," Crystal said, "but I don't see as we have much choice now. At least with that money, we had something of a budget. Now, we have nothing."
"I've got two dollars," Raven said.
"I think I have a few dollars, too," Butterfly said.
"We all have a few dollars. Pool it and what do you get, ten dollars? How far is that going to get us?" She sounded defeated.
"Crystal's right. All we have now is some clothing in pillowcases. It's ridiculous to think we could drive across the whole country with that."
"We can't go back," Raven pleaded.
No one spoke for a while. We all got dressed, used the bathroom and then left the room. Raven stood on the sidewalk, holding her pillowcase of clothing, looking miserable as the three of us got into the vehicle.
"Raven, don't be ridiculous," I said. "We'll go back and we'll think of something else."
"No, we won't. If we go back, Gordon will make our lives a living hell--that is, if the state doesn't separate us and make us live somewhere worse than the Lakewood House." She started to sniffle. "It's all my fault. I thought Sunshine was just like us; that she deserved a chance."
"She took our money, Raven. No one's blaming you. We all bear some responsibility. I let her in the car, too. Just get into the car, please."
"Get in, Raven," Butterfly begged. "We can't leave without you."
"I'm sorry I yelled at you, Raven," Crystal said. "I can't blame you for wanting to help someone out."
Raven gazed at Crystal and then softened. She looked down the row of motel rooms and then back at us.
"You know Gordon will probably have us arrested," she said as she reluctantly got into the station wagon. "We should drive awhile to see if we can find Sunshine. I'll make her give us our money back."
"We won't find her," Crystal said. "Now that she has our money, she won't be hitchhiking, I'm sure."
"How could she do this to us? She knew we were just like her!" Raven cried as I drove out of the motel parking lot.
"We're not just like her. We're better off than she is, Raven. She's alone. We've got each other. How do you think she's going to end up? She'll probably die in some dark alley somewhere," Crystal predicted.
"Which way?" I asked when I got to the road. Crystal referred to her maps.
"It looks like we should continue west for about twenty miles. We'll pick up the entrance to one of the main highways and take our chances. Now that we're going back, it won't matter if we get stopped anyway," she decided.
The funereal atmosphere I had felt earlier yesterday was like a happy celebration compared to the mood we were all in today. Compounding it was the heavy overcast sky. It began to sprinkle and then rain harder. It rained so hard at one point, I had to stop and pull over to the side of the road.
"I hope she did try to hitch a ride and she's out there caught in this," Raven mumbled. Then she sighed andskimped in her seat as the water gushed over the windshield and down the sides of the station wagon.
"I'm hungry," Butterfly said. "Won't we stop to get some breakfast somewhere?"
"I don't have any money," Crystal said. "Brooke, how much do you have exactly?"
"Just some change. Maybe ninety cents. You had everything in your purse."
"We could share something," Butterfly suggested.
"And then what do we do about lunch and supper? We have to travel a few days to get back," Crystal said. "Maybe we should turn ourselves in to the police."
No one spoke. Every moment that ticked away seemed to be bringing us closer and closer to a disaster even worse than we had imagined Finally, the rain slowed down until it was just a fine sprinkle, but it was still windy.
"I feel like such a fool," I said. "Why didn't I realize what she was like?"
"Don't," Crystal commanded.
I looked at her in the mirror. Her face was firm. She was right, of course. I hated self-pity and despised it in other people. It made me feel that much worse to hear myself moan and groan.
Raven suddenly sat up.
"Listen. I have an idea. Once when I was with Dede and we were with Charlie Weiner, we didn't have enough money for cold drinks and Charlie thought about pulling up the back seat to look for loose change. Maybe we'll find some now," she said.
"What good is some more loose change?" Crystal asked.
"At least it will get us some breakfast. I'm hungry, too, Crystal," she said. "And we'll have some time to think," she added, turning to me.
I shrugged.
"So we'll pull up the back seat," I said.
She and I got out and opened the doors. Crystal and Butterfly stepped out and Raven and I dug our fingers into the rear of the seat and pulled up. It came out easily and there we saw a few dollars worth of change, but we also saw something else.
"What's that?" I asked. I didn't touch it. Raven reached down slowly as Crystal looked over her shoulder and Butterfly looked over mine
It was a heavy clear plastic bag filled with what looked like white flour. Raven opened the bag slowly and put her finger in. She looked at me as she scooped up the powder and brought some to her lips. Her eyes widened.
"It's cocaine!" she declared, holding up the bag. "And a lot of it."
"Cocaine?" Crystal said. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. I've seen it before," Raven said. "My mother and her boyfriends used to leave some around our apartment. This is worth a lot of money."
"Gordon must have been selling it," I said. It started to rain harder again, but none of us seemed to care. "Now I understand what he was doing when I saw him with someone at the station wagon late at night. I bet that was his supplier or a customer."
"You did?" Butterfly asked.
"Yes, a few times. I thought he saw me watching him from the window last night and I got scared," I
said. "Wow, cocaine." My mind reeled. "And. we've been driving around with it stashed right under us."
"Yes, and-across state lines, too. Let's get rid of it right away," Crystal said.
Raven started to heave it.
"Wait," Crystal said. Raven hesitated.
"You want to keep it?"
"No. Give it to me," she said. Raven handed it to her. Crystal opened the bag. "We can't just throw it on the side of the road like this. Someone else might find it and sell it, even to kids, and we'd be
responsible." She walked away from the car.
"What are you doing?" Raven cried.
Crystal shook the bag into the wind. The powder flowed out and began to spread on the ground. The rain started to dissolve it quick
ly.
"Hurry up before someone comes and sees this," I cried.
Crystal shook harder. A small white cloud appeared and then thinned out and was gone in the wind along with most of the powder. Crystal walked a few feet deeper off the road and put the bag under a rock.
"Let's go," she called as a car appeared coming toward us.
We fixed the rear seat and everyone got back into the wagon. I started driving away as the approaching vehicle slowed. A man and woman gazed at us. They looked about fifty or so. They didn't stop, however. I watched them in my rearview mirror.
"I hope we're never sorry we did that," Raven whined.
"We'll be sorry about a great many things we've done," Crystal assured her, "but never about that."
"Wait a minute," I said as we continued to drive on. "We can't go back now."
"Why not?" Crystal asked.
"Gordon might not kill us for taking his car, but dumping his drugs . . ."
"Brooke's right, Crystal. There's no telling what he might do to us," Raven said.
Crystal was silent.
"We could go to the police," she said.
"They're going to ask why we didn't come to them when we had the drugs in our hands," Raven said.
"We should have," Crystal said mournfully. She looked back through the rearview window as if there were some way we could return to the spot and put the cocaine back into the plastic bag. "We're really in deep water," she said. "We just better keep running until we think of something else to do."
Together with the change we had found under the seat, we had a little more than eleven dollars. My stomach was growling, too, so when we saw a sign advertising the Crossroads Restaurant, I turned off the highway.
"I just hope it's not an expensive place," Crystal said.
When we set eyes on it, we didn't think it would be. It wasn't rundown, but it looked unpretentious: a restaurant in a building that might have once been someone's home. There was a parking lot in front, two gas pumps, and the road sign advertising,
CROSSROADS RESTAURANT, EAT HERE AND GET GAS.
"I hope that isn't a comment on the food," Raven quipped. Crystal and I laughed.
We saw a large trailer home to the right of the restaurant with a sick patch of lawn and a rundown mower in front. Behind the restaurant there was a small cottage, the front windows boarded up, a drainpipe dangling from the right side of the roof. There were a half dozen other cars and three pickup trucks in the parking lot when we pulled up. The screen-door was open and we could hear the sound of country music being played inside.