Where was Bobby at this time?

I dont know. I think he was driving around the country cashing in gold coins.

And the Kid?

He’d show up from time to time. Usually a bit out of sorts. Sometimes I’d wake up in a hotel room somewhere and I would hardly even know how I got there. Lying on the bed in my clothes. And the Kid would be pacing up and back and he’d be saying things like we dont have much dough but I got us in here for now. We need to just lay low. Think things over. I felt like John Dillinger. What things? What are you talking about? You realize that you havent bathed or eaten in several days. You’re not sure where your car is. You go downstairs into the street and it’s hot. Midmorning. You walk down to the corner and there’s a newspaper-stand there and you take a look and it’s the Miami Herald. Okay. That’s a start. You go back up to the room and the Kid’s gone. You crawl into the bed and pull the sheet over you. You dont have to do anything. You’ve got a few hours yet before checkout. Nobody knocks on the door. Turns out I’ve paid for a week. In the afternoon I went out and came across my car parked at an expired meter with a ticket stuck in the windshield. I’d just move my car from street to street. Meter to meter. Ticket to ticket. I went into a little mom and pop grocery and bought some tomatoes and cheese and stuff. Some rolls. Went back to my room but the Kid seemed to really be gone. Actually everything was sort of cool. Except for the drunks banging on your door at odd hours. A deskclerk in a hotel in Topeka Kansas asked me point blank if I was a working girl and I told him to take a good look at me and then to ask himself that if I was a hooker what would I be doing in a shithole like this?

What did he say?

He said I see your point.

What did you think was going to happen?

I didnt know what was going to happen. I thought I might wind up here. I parked in the parkinglot here once and slept in the car. But in the morning I drove on.

You didnt have any friends. Anywhere?

No.

You said you had no friends in high school.

I was elected president of my senior class. But I think they just wanted to see what would happen.

What happened?

Nothing. I was getting ready to leave for college. Anyway, I was only fourteen.

Did you ever tell your brother that you were synesthetic?

Yes. He asked me.

He asked you?

Yes.

What made him think to ask you?

Because Bobby is very smart and he knows lots of things. He could see that I was a good candidate. And he knew that synesthetic kids often keep it to themselves because they see that the other kids just think they’re weird.