Page 53 of The Hitchhikers
She never made eye contact with Alice, who was sitting with Tom, and worrying that Jenny was going to tell Simon about her note. Would she really keep it to herself? And why? Alice could think of only two reasons. Either Jenny didn’t want Alice and Tom to be punished because she cared, or she was worried about losing their driver and the RV.
It had grown even darker in the parking lot, the cars leaving one by one, until they were alone. Simon had lowered the table and turned the bench seats into a bed, so he and Jenny could rest, but he’d positioned them with their backs to the windshield and facing Tom and Alice. He sat partway up, Jenny’s head on his lap. He stroked her hair.
“Are you getting hungry, babe?”
“I keep thinking about French fries and onion rings. I saw a Dairy Queen in town when I was at the pay phone, and it smelled so good. I’ve only ever had onion rings with my dad when I was little.” She looked up at him. “But it’s okay. I know we can’t drive back into town.”
Simon shrugged. “Let’s go. I’m bored sitting around.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We deserve it.”
Alice scoffed into her pillow. Why did he think they deserved it? Was it a reward for their hard work of keeping captives? Or being fugitives on the run? Alice wasn’t going to complain, though. Any time Jenny or Simon left the RV, there was a chance they’d be caught. She prayed for a policeman who had a hankering for a cold treat on a hot summer night.
They drove back into town, which was quieter now, with fewerpeople milling about. A soft evening light draped the buildings in pink gold and cast long shadows on the streets. The Dairy Queen was easy to find, with its familiar cherry-red metal roof and lips-shaped sign. The restaurant was on a large lot at the corner of a street, with parking out front. Across the road, to the right of the restaurant, was the laundromat and pay phone they’d found earlier.
“Park alongside the laundromat but leave space so Jenny can walk out behind the RV.”
Jenny looked small as she made her way across the street, stopping to look both ways for traffic, and disappeared into the Dairy Queen. Simon slouched in the passenger side, staring at the Dairy Queen. He tapped his fingers on his knee, a fast, chaotic beat.
Jenny reappeared, making her way around the parked vehicles toward the RV. She held a large paper bag with both hands under the bottom, the weight of it resting against her chest.
Simon swung the RV door open for her, taking the bag in one hand, and helping her up with the other. The RV filled with the scent of onion rings and hamburgers.
Simon set the bag on the table and Jenny unpacked it, while Alice moved around getting napkins and sodas. Tom was watching them from the back. He met Alice’s gaze and tried to smile. She wondered if he was remembering how she’d craved soft-serve ice cream when she was pregnant. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Jenny gagging behind her.
Alice turned around in time to see Jenny pressing a napkin against her mouth and staring down in horror at her burger, which was lying open-faced. Alice followed her gaze, expecting to see a bug, a hair, or something hideous, but it was only a tomato slice resting on a grilled patty with cheese. The other side of the bun sported a stack of lettuce, onion, and pickle.
“What’s wrong?” Simon was halfway out of his seat, his bodyfrozen as though he didn’t know if he should lunge across the table.
“I told them no tomato!”
Alice remembered now that tomatoes made Jenny feel sick.
“Take it back,” Simon said.
“Maybe I got the wrong one.”
Simon checked the other burgers. They all had tomato.
“It’s okay,” Jenny said. “I’ll try.” She used her napkin to pick the slice up and move it off the burger, but it was breaking into mushed-up pieces. Alice handed her a fork, and watched as Jenny scraped every bit of tomato juice and seed off her patty, removing half of the cheese with it. She managed to get it all into the now-empty paper bag, then put her burger back together, but when she brought it to her mouth, she couldn’t seem to bring herself to take a bite. She dropped it back onto the foil wrapper and pressed the napkin to her lips as her shoulders heaved.
Simon shook his head and Jenny’s eyes turned glassy. “I’m sorry…” She tried to say something else behind the napkin, but it came out muffled.
“Not your fault.” Simon wrapped the burger in the foil paper, then shoved it into the empty bag. “I’ll get you a new one.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
Simon put the gun on the table in front of Jenny, spinning it so the handle was close to her body, and the barrel aimed ahead. Then he was out the door before any of them had a chance to register this change of circumstance. Alice looked at Jenny, who quickly picked up the gun.
“I know how to shoot.” Her voice quivered, her eyes still watering from either the tomatoes, or the fear that Alice was going to push her limits. “Simon taught me.”
Jenny hadn’t threatened her before. It was always Simon saying what he would do to them, but Jenny’s grip was tight, and her finger dangerously near the trigger.
“I want to give Tom his burger.”
Jenny hesitated, looking at Alice, then in the direction of Tom on the bed, like she was weighing the risks. “Not until Simon comes back. Stay where you are.”
