She fired it into the air. It went off in a brilliant orange burst. Carter was beginning to wonder if Norris was asleep when they heard a noisy splashing. He watched glumly as the enormous armored fish swam up to the dock and poked his vast head out of the water.
"Somehow, I'd forgotten quite how big he was," remarked Fen.
Norris couldn't grin in fish form, but he seemed pleased by that comment. He flapped his fins, making both of them jump back to avoid being splashed.
"Stop that," Carter said crossly.
Norris stopped flapping and floated, his eyes and toothy jaws above the water. Without changing his expression—fish didn’t really have expressions—he managed to convey,I’ll be good.
Carter returned to the edge of the dock, crouched down, and explained to Norris what was going on and what they planned to do. As he did so, he thought,I'm squatting on a dock talking to a fish. This is my life now.
Halfway through he realized what was going to happen and backed up. Sure enough, when he got to the part about taking Norris on a road trip to Iowa in an aquarium truck, the immense fish not only flapped his fins, he did a barrel roll.
"I'm glad someone is happy," said Carter bitterly.
He and Fen had decided not to tell Norris that the truck had fish controls. Better safe than sorry, they had agreed. She had pointed out that it would also spare him the disappointment of knowing he had the capability of driving but wasn’t allowed to. But when they removed the tarp to laboriously get him onto the hoist, and then hoisted him into the aquarium, it became immediately obvious that he recognized the set up. Norris immediately swam to the fish driving controls and hopefully nudged them.
Carter wasn't sure if Norris could hear outside noises from within the tank, so he shook his head emphatically. Beside him, Fen was rapidly typing on her phone. She held it up to the tank. The entire screen was covered with the words, FISH DRIVE IS DISABLED.
Norris swam to the bottom of the tank and sulked.
Chapter 23
Fen was havinga surprising amount of fun on the road trip. Once they’d gotten more accustomed to driving the giant truck and she at least had stopped worrying that Norris would somehow be able to seize control of it, she could relax and enjoy taking a trip with Carter. In a world where shape shifters and giant prehistoric fish existed, it seemed completely possible that a porcupine witch in Iowa could undo a gargoyle’s curse.
“I've never really done a road trip before,” she said. “We should do some fun road trip things. It's too long to drive in one day anyway, and the last thing we want is to get so exhausted that one of us falls asleep at the wheel.”
“Now there’s a viral video waiting to happen," said Carter, instinctively glancing over his shoulder at the tank. "I did some road trips when I was a kid, but I haven't as an adult. I fell in love with flying when I was pretty young, so for long trips, I mostly flew my own plane."
"You have to take me flying someday."
"Oh, I will," he assured her. "After I get… everything… figured out."
"So what did you do on road trips when you're a kid?"
"Asked ‘Are we there yet?’ about a million times. Stopped at skeevy gas stations with bathrooms I’ve tried to block from my memory. Stopped at little roadside diners and weird roadside attractions."
"Now that part sounds good," said Fen. "Let's keep an eye out for roadside diners and attractions."
"Absolutely. Half the fun of a road trip is seeing how the food changes at diners between wherever you're going and wherever you arrive at."
"Georgia definitely has its own food," said Fen. "But does Iowa?"
Carter shrugged. "Guess we'll find out."
They had loaded Norris’s tank with live trout they'd bought at a wholesaler, claiming they were stocking a pond, so he didn't need to stop for food. With a slight pang of guilt, Fen hoped he wasn't too bored. At least he could watch the traffic along with them via the camera feed projected into his tank that had been intended to allow him to drive the truck.
While they were still in Georgia, they stopped at a diner called the Peach Pit. Fen took advantage of their breakfast all day and got biscuits hot from the oven, golden on top and soft inside, along with country sausage and scrambled eggs. Carter had fried chicken and turnip greens. For dessert they split a peach cobbler with homemade peach ice cream melting into it.
Fen took Sugar into the diner inside her blouse, then transferred him into her lap. If he was spotted, nothing worse would happen that being told to take her pet outside. Carter brought Precious in her suitcase carrier and slipped bits of chicken and sausage to her through the discreet air holes. Fen got fresh fruit on the side for Sugar, and set it down for him on the napkin in her lap. She was relieved to note the lack of pawpaw.
Apparently she wasn’t the only one who felt slightly guilty about Norris, because Carter ordered three servings of fried fish to go. They drove the truck until they reached a wide shoulder of the highway, then they pulled over. Using flashlights, they wriggled underneath the tarp, as there was no way they were going to untie it, climbed up the tank on the built-in ladder, and opened the hatch.
Norris still seemed to be sulking. But when Carter held the fried fish over the hatch, he came to the surface and opened his jaws. Carter tossed the three full dinners into the dinosaur’s gaping mouth, where they were swallowed in a single gulp. Norris flapped his fins, so Fen supposed he was pleased.
"We’re going to stop for the night and do the rest of the driving tomorrow," she said. "It's too long to do in a single shift."
Norris flapped his fins. She presumed he understood.
