And okay, that was overly dramatic and in need of revision. She might instead fall—happily—in undying lust, and mild disappointment might ensue. Yes, that was better. Also, who saiddatinghad to be serious? Dating could absolutely be casual.
So stop whining, and worry instead about Maddie,Harry helpfully popped in to admonish her.
He was right. The most important thing was finding Maddie and bringing that girl safely home.
“Where is it?” Maddie looked at Dingo as he pulled off Old U.S. Highway 395. A sign announced they had reached the Manzanar National Historic Site, but…
“Maybe we have to drive further in,” Dingo suggested.
Maddie just shook her head. The mountains in the distance looked like the photos she’d seen on Great-Aunt Hiroko’s wall. But that was where the similarities ended.
Where were the rows upon rows of cabins, stretching out as far as the eye could see? There was a fence and a guard tower and signs pointing the way to the “Auditorium Interpretive Center,” and “Block 14,” the “Children’s Village,” and the “Hospital Site.” Aside from that, this was just a great big scrub-filled dusty field.
The speed limit was fifteen mph, and a woman in a volunteer shirt picking up trash along the side of the road gave them the stink eye and aslow down, you asshole gesture, because they were apparently going too fast. Dingo not only slowed, but he stopped and even backed up, rolling down his window.
“ ’Scuse me, miss,” he said in his best fake Aussie. “How far is it to Manzanar?”
“You’re here,” she said.
“No, no,” he said. “I mean, to the part with all the cabins?”
“That’s just around to the right,” she said, pointing. “Just past the auditorium, at Block Fourteen. We’ve reconstructed two of the barracks, and moved one of the original mess halls back into the camp.”
“Reconstructed,” Dingo echoed. “D’ya mean the rest of ’em are gone?”
“They were torn down or moved, immediately after the war,” the woman said. “All that information is in the Center—in the auditorium. There’s a great film, we run it every half hour. It shows what it looked like back when—”
Maddie burst into tears. She’d been holding it in ever since she’d counted the money they’d taken from Fiona’s room, ever since she’d seen the picture of Nelson’s spray-painted message,$12K NOW. And now that she was thinking about it, she realized how stupid she’d been, not only to assume that all those cabins would still be here, but that they’d be a place where she and Dingo could hide and get some desperately needed rest.
What had she expected? That they’d just drive up, and it would be deserted but preserved, like time had stood still? God, shewasstupid, but it had just seemed so perfect, her seeking sanctuary in this place where Hiroko and her great-grandparents had been harmed.
“Her great-grandparents spent the war here,” Dingo told the woman as Maddie continued to sob. “It’s an emotional experience.”
“Oh my God, honey, of course!”
“Is there possibly a place, maybe somewhere in the shade, where we can rest for a bit?” Dingo asked. “Maybe a…covered picnic area?”
“I’m afraid there’s not. We’ve got picnic tables near the main parking lot, but they’re out in the open,” the woman told him.
Dingo nodded. “Thanks so much, that’ll do. Excuse us, please.”
“Of course! Oh my God! Let me know if you need anything!”
He put the car back into drive and rolled his window back up.
“I’m sorry,” Maddie said. “I fucking hate it when I cry.” But she still couldn’t stop.
“Well, love, it’s not like we’re both not exhausted,” he pointed out.
“We can’t stay here,” Maddie said. “What if my father calls,Hello have you seen a really stupid half-Japanese girl and her douchebag fake Australian boyfriend?” She answered her own question,“Why yes, as a matter of fact, they completely caught our attention when the really stupid girl burst into tears.”
“A) I’m not your boyfriend,” Dingo said as he pulled into the nearly empty lot, and parked over by a set of very sad-looking picnic tables. “And B) even if he calls, he’s in San Diego, which is like, a million hours away from here. So I think we have time to stop for a bit and figure outwhat the fuck.”
She looked at him. “But that’s just it. I keep thinking,What are we gonna do now?and I come up completely blank. Because we die, Ding. That’s what we do. Nelson catches up to us, and we die.”
Dingo broke his stupid rule and pulled her in for a hug.
Maddie closed her eyes, because even this—his arms around her—didn’t make it better.
