Catherine Jinks TheRoad (56 page)

‘Just check it out, and see if I’m crazy,’ Alec interrupted. ‘Just hop in the car and head south. If you haven’t reached my truck in fifteen minutes, then I’ll – well, I dunno.’ He seemed to search for an answer, in a confused sort of way. ‘Then I’ll admit I’m a loony. Or the time warp’s gone, or something. Like it disappeared overnight.’

‘Things do look better in the morning,’ Verlie remarked, for no particular reason. It was an unbelievably stupid thing to say. She blushed as four pairs of eyes swivelled in her direction. ‘Sorry,’ she added.

‘Be that as it may,’ said Ross, turning his attention back to the rest of the group, ‘I don’t see any point in retracing our steps. Whatever Mr ...um...’ He had obviously forgotten Alec’s surname, but didn’t let that deter him. ‘Whatever Alec may have experienced yesterday,
for whatever reason
, it’s neither here nor there.’ (Clearly, from his tone, Ross attributed strange temporal anomalies to drug taking or epileptic fits or some other embarrassing habit.) ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t see the relevance. Not to us.’

‘Well I do.’ Del spoke stridently, folding her arms. ‘What if he’s right? What if it really happened?’

‘Of course it didn’t happen,’ Ross responded testily. ‘How could it?’

‘Easy. How could the Red Sea part? Because God ordered it to.’ Del began to lecture Ross, who drew himself up to his full height, and looked down his nose at her. ‘God works in mysterious ways, y’know. He works miracles. And I tell ya what, mate, something pretty bloody peculiar is goin on here.’

‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous.’

‘Hey. Just a minute. What gives
you
the right to call
me
ridiculous?’

‘Ross,’ warned Verlie. She put a restraining hand on his arm, bestowing an apologetic smile upon Del as she did so. If Del was one of those manic born-again Christian types (a possibility that Verlie would never have anticipated, after studying Del’s general demeanour and appearance) then arguing with her would be worse than useless. It would simply put her back up, and cause endless difficulties. ‘I’m afraid we’re none of us at our best, just now,’ Verlie twittered. ‘The important thing is that we don’t lose our tempers.’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ Noel interjected. ‘The worse thing we can do is argue.’

‘I’m not arguing,’ Del retorted, eyeing Ross balefully. Beside her, Mongrel shifted, and laid his ears back. ‘I just wanna know what makes
him
so right all the time.’

Ross raised both hands in a defensive gesture.

‘Okay, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said what I said,’ he sighed, without a trace of apology in his voice. ‘But before we start talking about miracles, I think we should look for the obvious answer, don’t you?’

‘Which is?’ Del inquired.

‘Well – that we should keep heading north.’ Ross didn’t add the word ‘naturally’, but it was there on his face. His expression suggested that he couldn’t understand why he was having to spell it out. Verlie knew that he didn’t
mean
to be rude – he was just anxious – and she winced as Del’s brow furrowed.

Fortunately, however, it was Noel who jumped in first.

‘The thing is, Ross,’ he said tentatively, ‘while pursuing the reasonable course would seem to be the obvious choice in
normal
circumstances, I would have to say that events haven’t exactly been normal, have they? I mean, I’m not implying that a miracle or some such thing
has
occurred, I’m merely pointing out that perhaps, in light of what’s been happening – which doesn’t seem to accord with the experience of the locals among us – we should at least
consider
trying to confirm or disprove Alec’s claims. If it’s not going to take a lot of time, or waste a lot of petrol.’

There was a long pause. Verlie, for one, was busy trying to interpret what had just been said. By the look of it, so was everyone else.