Carter jerked back, releasing her. He hit the overhead light and stared at his hands. Little dents had appeared in his fingertips, just below his nails. He flexed his fingers, and a set of catlike claws emerged.
Looking upward, he demanded of the car ceiling or, more likely, the universe, “Really?!”
Chapter 22
Carter had never experienced sucha mix of emotions in his entire life. He’d asked the most wonderful woman in the world to marry him, and she'd said yes. And also, he had mood ring eyes and a brand new set of claws, and he was about to take a road trip with a swimming dinosaur.
"Think of the bright side," Fen advised him. "We did find an aquarium truck—in Georgia, even!"
Carter was not reassured. It had been a long, tiring drive from Refuge City to Georgia—too long for Fen to have done all the driving. They’d had to take turns, which was nerve-wracking. He’d rather have flown, but if they’d taken a commercial flight, they wouldn’t have been able to bring Precious, and he didn't trust himself to fly his own plane. At least with a car, if his hands suddenly turned into tentacles or his feet into paws, he could pull over. If worst came to worst, Fen could grab the wheel. But she didn't know how to fly, so his own plane was out of the question. He'd really wanted to take her flying, too.
By the time they arrived, they’d been so exhausted that they’d booked a hotel and collapsed into bed. The next morning, they returned their rental car and took a taxi to the business that would rent them the aquarium truck, which came complete with a hoist to lift Norris out of the swamp. Fen had Sugar hidden in her cleavage, and Carter carried Precious in her little suitcase/carrying cage. They’d gotten her a small raw steak to keep her happy.
Carter tried to stay hopeful, but it was hard given how self-conscious he was about his eyes and hands. Sure, he could wear contact lenses to hide his eyes turning steak-colored and gloves to hide the weird dents in his fingers. But who wore gloves on a hot Georgia day? The checker at the supermarket where they’d bought the steak had stared at him.
As if Fen had read his mind, she said softly, "The checker stared because she recognized you. You're famous, remember?"
"I'm hoping not to become famous for being a lunatic. I feel like Howard Hughes in these gloves."
"Relax." Fen squeezed his gloved hand.Shecertainly seemed relaxed. It made him happy to see that after the stress and tension of the horrible evening with her parents. Once she'd told them off, it was as if she'd shed a lifetime of second-guessing herself, and could justbeherself.
They knocked at the door. A harried-looking man with rumpled sandy hair ushered them inside, barely glancing at them. Carter had expected a normal business office, maybe with lots of aquariums, but the place looked more like a technical workshop. It did have a few aquariums, but it had many more machines, robots, and computers.
Oh goodie. Please don’t let anything explode or short out.He sent the thought up to a universe that seemed to have it in for him.
Two women crouched in the middle of the floor, gazing intently at something blocked by their bodies. All Carter could see was that one of them had long locs tied back into a ponytail, and the other had a pixie cut dyed bright blue.
Pixie Cut exclaimed, "She's doing it! She's doing it! She's turning left!"
The sandy-haired man rushed to their side, crouched down, and shouted, "Yes! She's avoiding the obstacle!"
All three of them cheered.
The trio seemed to have forgotten that their customers existed. Carter peered over them to see what was going on. A miniature pickup truck loaded with a goldfish bowl containing a single goldfish was slowly trundling across the floor through an improvised obstacle course of coffeemakers, shoes, purses, and a six-pack of artisan hard cider.
“What,” said Fen.
The trio continued cheering as the goldfish truck moved around a coffeemaker. It was, Carter noticed, a Little Bit Smoother. He cleared his throat. "Excuse me. We're here to rent an aquarium truck."
Locs glanced up and cheerfully remarked, "What perfect timing! This here is Goldie Twelve, and she's driving her own aquarium truck."
"Your goldfish is driving?" Fen sounded incredulous.
“Yes!” Sandy replied. “Goldie Twelve is in control. It's such a coincidence that you want to rent our truck."
For the second time in two days, Carter’s heart sank and sank until it was resting somewhere near his toes. He had a horrible feeling that he already knew the answer, but he asked, "Exactly why is that a coincidence?"
The three goldfish watchers laughed merrily. Beaming, Pixie said, "Because the aquarium truck is also rigged so its inhabitants can drive it!”
“What the actual fuck,” said Fen. Carter understood exactly how she felt.
Sandy explained earnestly, “We were going to use it to raise money for our workshop by doing a demonstration with a shark driving the aquarium truck. But then you called and wanted to rent it, so we decided to put that off and rent it to you instead."
“You see,” explained Locs, “We don't yet have a shark."
Fen nudged Carter and said, "So what I'm hearing is that if we get tired on the road, we could let Norris spell us."
He knew she was joking. It was still the most horrifying idea he had ever heard. Hoping against hope that he was somehow misunderstanding what was going on, he said, "Let me get this straight. Are you saying that if we put a large fish in this truck, it can take over and drive it?"
