We’re back in the city. Out the window there’s a giant holding a giant tire. There’s a building that looks like a castle and another with a blinking antenna on top. There’s a Ford pickup painted like it’s on fire. What are you gonna do? Johona asks Jesse. We’re getting out of here tonight, he says, driving as far as we can before daylight.

The baby starts bawling again. She’s burning up, Johona says. We’ve got to get her to a doctor. Jesse says we need to clean up first. We stop at a Gulf station and he takes me to the bathroom. He scrubs the blood off his face and makes me do the same. Johona and the baby ain’t in the car when we get back. She’s run off, I say. Quiet, Jesse says. He waits jingling coins and whispers okay when Johona comes out of the ladies’ room.

She gives him directions to the hospital. He parks away from the lights. She goes to get out but Jesse stops her. Better if I do it, he says. He asks for her shirt ’cause his is bloody. Johona thinks on it and takes off her top. Her brassiere is pink and shiny. A girl I fed on in Kansas City had one just like it. Jesse wearing Johona’s shirt makes me laugh. You sure are pretty Miss Jesse, I say.

He gets out of the car takes the baby from Johona and runs off across the parking lot. An ambulance drives past quiet but with its red and blue lights going. I ask Johona does she want me to sing Neil Young. She says no thanks watching where Jesse went. Don’t worry, I say, he’s real smart.

Jesse comes running back and strips off Johona’s shirt. We drive out of the hospital so fast I take hold of the dash. Jesse gave the baby to a nurse. She didn’t have any questions? Johona says. I imagine she did, Jesse says, but I got the hell out of there before she could ask them.

Everyone’s quiet for a spell.

Johona lights a cigarette. Can I go with you? she says. We aren’t going to Los Angeles, Jesse says. Anywhere’ll do, Johona says, I’ll get a bus from wherever we wind up.

We can’t have a woman with us. They’re bad luck, Jesse always says. He don’t even like Abby. But I can see he’s mulling it. I poke him and shake my head. He tells me to quit. Bad luck, I whisper. He don’t pay me no mind.

We’ll drop you in Denver, he says to Johona, but you have to do exactly what I tell you to while you’re with us. We can’t even stop at your place. Anything you need we’ll pick up along the way. Fine, Johona says.