“Think of yourself as a rock star,” said Carrie, and Todd remembered the Elvis Costello pin she’d been wearing at their first meeting. “You’re taking on America. And America is not going to win.”

Todd couldn’t argue with that. He was too busy being fascinated by the concept of a full schedule. He watched, almost distantly, as his hands wrote out an itinerary that didn’t so much straddle the U.S. as spiral around it, crossing coasts and circling into the Midwest and out again via cities in the South which might be sympathetic to him, and then out to the coasts again.

Sara plotted everything on a big gas station map for him, and blocked out the dates on the calendar.

“Wow,” she said. “Guess I won’t be seeing you before Christmas.”

“That’s a point,” said Todd. “Where shall we spend it? Christmas, I mean.”

“What’s wrong with here?” said Sara, putting her arms around him, and giving him a royal boner.

“Too many memories,” said Todd. “I feel like it’s time we moved on.”

“Together, I hope,” said Sara, and she wriggled closer to him. The royal boner became imperial.

“Of course together,” said Todd. “How else?”

*  *  *

Todd’s itinerary was further complicated (for him, anyway) by the fact that, while some of it would be undertaken in the luxury he’d sort of assumed was his new birthright when he’d signed to Franklyn and Sullivan—for example, when he made appearances in New York and Los Angeles, he’d be put up in a fancy hotel and wined and dined by the local publishers’ representatives—a lot of it would not be.

“We can pay for flights to, you know, far-flung places like Nevada,” said Carrie. “But a lot of the time I’m afraid you’ll be driving yourself and checking into motels.”

“I guess that’s okay,” said Todd.

“We’ll reimburse you for gas and accommodation, of course,” said Carrie apologetically.

“Of course,” said Todd. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Hey,” Carrie said, “this is going to be the last time you ever go tourist class, Todd. Savor it.”

Savor my hot balls, thought Todd, and felt rather shocked.

“I’ll remember these days and laugh,” he told Carrie, and rang off.

*  *  *