The ice broke after she got one down her. I had a little of the joint left and we shared that. By the time we got to town we were laughing and talking and singing along with Monroe’s tapes. I felt a little guilty, but he was still sleeping on the back seat. When we got to the bar he was still asleep, and she had wormed her way over next to me in the seat. When we pulled up and stopped, she said she didn’t really want to go in, and could we ride around a little longer? I said sure.

I can’t remember anything that happened after that. I know a lot of things happened, but I can’t remember what they were.

48

We were in a ditch when we woke up. It was muddy, and we had mud all over us. Mud was all over the seats. It had caked on the dash, on our clothes, on the headliner. We were way up in the woods somewhere, as usual. The sun was shining. It was nine o’clock in the morning. My mouth felt like a wad of cotton, and mosquitoes had feasted on us all night long. He was still asleep on the back seat. I woke him up and we flipped a coin to see who’d walk out to the road and flag somebody down to come pull us out. He won. Or lost.

49

I slept for about two days and then I went back to work on my work. I thought about painting a few houses just to keep my hand in and help tide me over when winter came but I could hardly bring myself to do it. It was hard to turn loose some of that freedom. That old freedom was nice.