It occurred to her that Carter hadn’t acquired any more strange attributes, they hadn’t had any serious problems with Norris, and they were almost at their goal. TicTech stock had tanked while Little Bit and Howe Enterprises stock had surged. Eldon McManus was in jail awaiting trial for kidnapping, assault, and stock market manipulation. She’d walked out on her parents and had an appointment for ADHD testing. She and Carter were engaged.
If the Iowa porcupine witch could de-curse Carter and Norris, all their troubles could be over within the next couple hours, and they’d have nothing pressing to attend to but planning their wedding and following Eldon McManus’s trial.
But she said nothing. It wasn’t over yet, and in a world with magic, she didn’t want to risk a jinx.
Chapter 24
Carter didn’t wantto admit that he was starting to relax, even to himself, in case that would jinx things. But he was. Maybe Kerenza Couch could help him, and he’d never have to deal with Balin and Eunice at all. He’d spent most of the trip braced to grow tentacles or a tail, but nothing had happened. And with his Fen by his side—as his fiancée!—every moment was a little piece of heaven.
Maybe, just maybe, for the first time in years, everything would turn out all right.
He took the driver’s seat and pulled out of the Dinosaur Park & Buffet. As he merged onto the freeway, the dashboard gave a sudden pop. The truck began to slow. He instinctively stepped on the gas, but nothing happened.
"What was that?" Fen asked sharply.
Carter looked down at the dashboard. He was horrified to see that the control marked FISH DRIVE had been activated.
"Pull over!" Fen yelped.
He frantically twisted the wheel. Nothing happened. He had no control over the car. It was drifting toward a stop in the fast lane, with cars and trucks honking all around it.
Carter wrestled with the controls, trying to disable the fish drive and enable normal driving. Fen twisted around and banged her fist sharply against the back of the cabin, screaming, "Norris!"
With a sudden lurch, the truck began to speed up. It zoomed forward, drifted into the next lane, over-corrected and almost hit the concrete median, then over-corrected again and barreled across three lanes, barely avoiding a collision with a fruit truck. The fruit truck slammed on its brakes, and oranges flew out and bounced across the freeway. Every car and truck and bus and motorcycle on the freeway honked at them as they wobbled uncertainly along. From her carrying cage, Precious let out a piercing shriek.
Carter took his hands off the steering wheel, since that was completely useless anyway, and leaned his head in them, moaning, "Norris took the wheel."
"I should have let us stop," said Fen. "We could have gotten towed."
"The last thing we want is a cop taking a look at what's under the tarp," said Carter grimly.
"But if the alternative is Norris driving…"
The truck steadied, keeping within its lane, though it continued to weave within it. Norris steered by watching the video feed and moving his head. It seemed like he was getting the hang of it.
"Does he know where we're going?" Fen asked.
"Yes, our GPS map is superimposed on the video footage," said Carter absently. He was trying to figure out how to get Norris to pull over and stop. "He seemed to hear you, or at least feel the vibration of you banging your fist. I wonder if he knows Morse code."
She shrugged. "Worth a try."
Fen began banging the rear wall with her fist for dots and her elbow for dashes in a pattern that spelled out PULL OVER AND STOP AT NEXT SHOULDER. Carter watched, impressed. Of course Fen knew Morse code. She’d probably learned it in the Girl Scouts and remembered it twenty years later. That was his brilliant, capable, clear-headed Fen.
Unfortunately, Norris either didn’t know Morse code or did know it but was ignoring it so he could keep driving. He kept on going. Carter had the distinct feeling of being trapped on a runaway train.
"Now I know exactly how Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock felt inSpeed," Fen muttered. "If it was a crossover withJurassic Park."
Norris barely avoided a collision with a SUV as he merged the truck onto the next freeway. The SUV driver honked angrily.
At that point Carter felt fatalistic. Norris hadn't crashed them immediately. Maybe he wouldn't. Maybe they would just arrive at the home of the porcupine witch in a truck driven by a prehistoric fish, and that would be that.
Norris exited the freeway, knocking over a stop sign as he did so, and began driving with unwarranted confidence along surface streets. Fen was biting her perfect manicure. Carter gave up on watching the road and devoted himself entirely to trying to fix the controls.
“We’re almost there—” Fen began, then let out a yelp. “Norris! No! Stop!”
Carter jerked up his head as she pounded on the back wall. They were barreling toward a low bridge with a big sign:
11’ 8” CLEARANCE
