The Carrier by Preston Lang Page A

or
anything.”
    “ Damn, you’ve got to be
pretty bright to get into college these days.”
    Two minutes from Main Street the
stores and houses faded away and the corn fields
returned.
    “ Why are there so many kids
up partying on a Monday night? Can you explain that to me, Kevin?”
Danny asked.
    “ It’s Lawton’s
Day.”
    “ What’s that?”
    “ It’s a thing—this holiday.
There was this student in the seventies who dug a tunnel and, uh,
you know it’s kind of hard to explain.”
    “ You are stoned, aren’t you?
Okay, let me give you some advice: don’t call the police until
you’re sober. Otherwise, you are just going to get yourself in a
lot of trouble. You understand that, Kevin?”
    “ My name’s not
Kevin.”
    “ Well, let me tell you
something—my name is Kevin. And I don’t forget a man who crosses
me. Do you understand?”
    “ I’m sorry.”
    “ Don’t apologize to me . That’s the guy who’s
unhappy with you.” Danny gestured to Marcus in the backseat. “Does
he look like he plays games?”
    “ Please just—let me
go.”
    “ Okay,” Danny said, “stop
the car.”
    The boy stopped the car. They were
about three miles from campus.
    “ Get out,” Marcus
said.
    The boy got out.
    “ Sit down and think about
life. Do not leave this spot for an hour.”
    “ Okay.”
    “ Seriously. We’ll come back
to check on you in ten or twenty minutes.”
    “ I won’t move.”
    “ You better be exactly where
you’re sitting now,” Danny said. “You move an inch, this guy’s
going snap your neck.”
     
    ***
     
    Danny tore off, and soon they found
the highway again. Marcus didn’t say anything.
    “ Well, we’ve got a car,
let’s just floor it and see if we can pick them up out on I80. You
think it’s a Toyota with Delaware plates?”
    “ You’re kidding me? You’ve
got to be kidding me.”
    “ If you have a better idea,
I’ll listen.”
    “ We’re not going to find it;
we’re just going to get arrested.”
    “ Settle down, big man. It’s
going to be all right.”
    Danny held up a fist for a bump.
Marcus just shook his head.
    “ This is a pretty good
car—Lexus? I mean, I like the way it handles. I would do
commercials for this car: high performance
and intensity of spirit . You know how they
say shit like that?”
    Danny was going over eighty as soon as
they hit the highway. They passed a few cars, but not the one they
were looking for. The police had stopped someone by the side of the
road. Danny didn’t even slow as they passed.
    “ We’re not going to get
arrested?” Marcus asked.
    “ Hey, we’ve got Iowa plates.
We blend in.”
    “ That doesn’t make us
invisible.”
    “ Were you always such a
nervous cow?”
    “ Maybe you like it in
prison. I like to be free.”
    “ Tell you what, if we get
caught, I’ll tell them I abducted you. I made you come out here
against your will. Happy?”
    “ No, I am not
happy.”
    “ How about you shut the fuck
up and be a man in this situation?”
    Danny was nasty, a little demon
driving reckless after nothing, and Marcus seriously considered
hitting him in the side of the head. One blow would knock him
senseless, and then the car would just careen out of control. It
would be like a rollercoaster. There was one enormous punch
somewhere inside of him getting ready to come out. But wasn’t he
already on a kind of rollercoaster? Wasn’t this already a doomed
ride? So he sat quietly for another ten minutes, angry with his
lack of control, until they saw it—the brown Toyota.
    “ There it is,” Marcus
shouted.
    “ What did I tell
you?”
    “ No way,” Marcus laughed in
spite of himself.
    “ The First
State ,” Danny read off the license plate.
“Number one in my heart. We’re back in the game.”
    And Marcus’s friend Danny was back
too, the even-tempered joker with a few unconventional ideas in his
head.
    “ Where are they going?”
Marcus asked.
    “ I hope they’re getting the
money right now, but—who