Ben beamed. “We’re only a hop, skip, and jump away from I-10,” he announced.
“And…?”
“And,” Ben answered with a flourish, “the dinosaurs.”
Alexei’s brow furrowed. “The dinosaurs?”
“The Cabazon Dinosaurs, Lex! A-plusridiculous roadside attraction! They’re notrightat the trail, technically, but only an exit away on I-10. Like a five-minute hitch. Done.”
“Oh.” Alexei scratched under his bandanna, somehow not appearing further enthused by this information. “Um. I am sort of terrified of hitchhiking.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ben waved this off. “I’ll do the actual hitching part. You just sit pretty. I think there’s fast food there, too. Which means bathrooms. Sinks, Lex! Trash cans!”
With that final argument, Ben twirled to maneuver around Alexei and take over the lead.
Alexei would see. Because while Ben had been excited about seeing the Cabazon Dinosaurs ever since he’d found out about them in his trail research, he felt particularly jazzed about them now. Because he was 90 percent sure they would make Alexei smile. And finding things that would make Alexei Lebedev smile was rapidly becoming Ben’s favorite part of the PCT.
An hour later, they were stuffed into Jasmyn Carbajal’s Toyota Corolla.
Or rather, Alexei looked stuffed, his long legs bent in front of him, his knees sticking into the back of Jasmyn’s seat, his and Ben’s packs crammed next to him. He looked distinctly uncomfortable, but Ben had to admit that he was having a rather fabulous time in the front passenger seat, Jasmyn’s rattling AC blowing onto his face. Being in a car felt like flying after weeks of traveling on foot, in a way that made Ben both giddy and slightly terrified. He watched the highway sail by as Jasmyn gabbed about the girls trip in Palm Springs she was returning from.
“We’ve been doing it every spring for the last forty years.” The bangles on her wrist clacked as she talked, her curly hair ruffled by the straining AC. Ben loved her immediately. “There have been a few years here and there where someone had to miss, but it’s just about my favorite thing in life, other than my sons. It’s important to catch up with your friends, you know? Even if it’s only once a year.”
“That sounds lovely, Jasmyn.” And Ben meant it.
“Important to catch up with your folks, too, of course,” she added with a light smack to his shoulder. “In case you boys need the reminder. It’s truly not that hard to call once in a while, you know.”
“If we have service at the dinosaurs, I promise I’ll be calling my own mother shortly.”
“That’s right.” Jasmyn nodded approvingly, the hoops in her ears nodding along with her. “Your poor mamas must be worried sick about you out here! I have to say, I’ve never quite understood wanting to walk through the wilderness like y’all are doing, but God bless you.”
A twinge hit Ben’s chest, a multipronged thing. Because he knew his poor mamawasworried sick.
And because he now knew Alexei’s mama didn’t even know he was here.
“I wish I could take you home and make you both a good home-cooked meal, but it’s still a ways to home from here.”
“Don’t worry about it, Jasmyn; it looks like we’ve got—” Ben leaned toward the windshield as the exit approached. “Burger King!” He let out a loud whoop. “And there are the dinos! Hot damn, Lex!”
Jasmyn let out a hearty laugh. “If I couldn’t already tell from your accent, I’d know you weren’t a local from your excitement about these dusty old dinos. Where you from anyways?”
“Tennessee. Where”—Ben craned his neck to try to glimpse the entire T-rex as Jasmyn pulled into the mostly empty parking lot—“we have a lot of pools shaped like guitars, but not as many dinosaurs.”
They did havesome, to be clear. George Boedecker back in Nashville had installed a bunch of dinosaur statues on his property in Bellevue. Which, like many things in Nashville, was weird, and great. But still, even those weren’t likethese.
Jasmyn kept chuckling as she put the Corolla in park.
“Well, I certainly hope you continue to enjoy yourselves out here. You quiet one back there, take care of this charmer, will ya?” Jasmyn waved a bangled arm as Alexei and Ben retrieved their gear.
“Oh, he will,” Ben promised. “Thanks again!”
With a sputter of exhaust, she was off.
And Ben and Alexei turned to face them.
There were two: a T-rex and a brontosaurus, standing watch over the Burger King.
“Yikes,” Alexei said.
