"Uh ... there's the crossroads." He pointed with his pencil without looking up. "Short walk that way."
"Crossroads of what and what?" Gio asked, glancing up from the brochures.
The clerk shrugged and went back to marking check boxes on the questionnaire. Max took a quick glance and saw that the header wasYour perfect love match.
Good luck with that, buddy.In the interests of fairness, she felt compelled to add,Good luck to me too.
They went out into the morning sun with their paper cups of coffee.
"I think he pointed that way?" Gio said, just as Max pointed the other way.
The highway lay blank and bare in the morning sun. They looked at each other. Max shrugged. She had left her phone in her room, as it didn't fit well in the tight pockets of her jeans and she wasn't wearing her jacket.
"We could take the Jeep," she said. "But I don't mind the walk. I'm pretty sure there is a fairly close turnoff to another highway in that direction." She indicated the direction she had pointed. "And he did say crossroads."
Gio sketched out a courtly little bow that made her smile. "I shall defer to your superior local expertise, madame."
"If we end up lost in the desert, I hope you don't regret that." She glanced once more toward the motel room where Javic, presumably, lay sleeping. "Sure you're okay with leaving him alone?"
"Yeah, I don't think he'll even know we're gone, but if he does wake up, I left him a note." They began to walk in the indicated direction, and after a moment, Gio went on, "He was out as soon as his head hit the pillow. I took a shower, and when I got out, he was still sound asleep. To tell you the truth, Max, he looks like he's been through hell, even before we got hold of him."
"I know," Max sighed. "I don't think he's lying to us."
"No, I don't either."
The road stretched before them, sun-bleached and pale. Off to the sides, there were sagebrush and an occasional scattering of low trees.
"Oh, look," Max said suddenly, touching his arm. A quick-moving, upright bird darted from the bushes, dashed across the road, and disappeared. "Roadrunner," she said when it was gone.
"Like in the cartoons?" Gio asked. "No 'beep, beep'?"
Max laughed. It only occurred to her after the laughter came that she didn't remember the last time she had laughed like that, full-throated and deep. "No beeping, but they do run!"
"I didn't even know they were real," Gio said. "I thought they were only in cartoons."
"Oh yes, they're real. Keep your eyes open. There are plenty of other animals out here, and dawn and dusk are the time you're most likely to see them."
They went on walking.
"I should have remembered to pick up a hat for you," Max said after a few minutes, glancing sideways at Gio. "And you're going to want sunglasses if we spend too much time outside."
"I'm from the Mediterranean, remember? I'm not unfamiliar with the sun."
She smiled. "That's true. Still, if you see a place selling hats and sunglasses, let's swing by anyway. Javic might need some."
"I shall be alert."
"Do you think he's telling the truth?" Max asked. "This entire thing about his sister could be a trap."
"I don't have any reason to think he isn't."
"Except the fact that he's been attacking you for months."
"I think he's sincere," Gio said quietly.
Max thought of the picture of the blonde girl, and Javic's fierce defensiveness of it. "Yes," she said. "I do too."
They had been walking for a while now, and some distant buildings were starting to emerge out of the haze shimmering above the ground. After a little while more, it was clear that they were approaching a small cluster of cinderblock and adobe buildings on the corner of two intersecting highways. It turned out that The Crossroads was the name of a small diner on the corner. There was also a gas station with some racks of tourist goods in front of it, including sun hats and shirts. Max raised her eyebrows at Gio.
