Hush up I said. Goddarnit, you would of thought I poisoned you. Here, drink some of that lemonade, I know you like that. But dont drink it all up or I sure enough will leave you by the side of the road. You got that, Maury?

He drinks, and the moaning goes away. His gaze goes blank again.

Lord, Maury, youre a big slobbery mess of devilment, aint you? You better hope Jeb and Jeanie Duchamp know what to do with you cause theyre your last chance. Im depositin you there no matter what.

*

They drive on. She makes sure to keep the setting sun ahead of her and the rising sun behind. On some stretches of freeway you can really fly but you can just as easily get caught up in a tangle of crumbling overpasses and massive multi-car collisions, ancient burial mounds of metal and exploded upholstery.

Sometimes its better to stay on the side roads where the opportunities for detour are more plentiful.

And even though she knows its impossible, she keeps expecting to look behind her and see Moses Todds black car bloodhounding her trail.

Mississippi is one of the words she recognizes when she sees it. All those squiggles in a row, separated by vertical lines. She sees a sign that says Mississippi on it, and it doesnt surprise her. Along the roads the trees have been overpowered by kudzu, like a blanket of green tossed over all the shapes of the earth. Driving through the small towns, she finds canted tree houses with rotted floors, plastic slides toppled over on front lawns, whole communities gone dense with the smells of honeysuckle and verbena. Elsewhere, on rolling stretches of back-road, desolate plantation land has long ago gone back to wildflower and weed, grazed over by riderless horses travelling in packs and mewling cows that stand like statuary on the hilltop horizons.

Just outside the centre of one Mississippi town, they come across a big marble building with columns in front like a plantation mansion except more stoic. The front doors are shut tight, so they go around back and find a window they can bust, high enough off the ground to keep the slugs out. She instructs Maury to roll a dumpster underneath it so they can climb on top and get in.

Its a museum, she says when theyre inside. Thats what it is. Come on, Maury, lets edify ourselves.