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Froed theie Buster runs a diner in Sand Dune, Arizona, and over the phone sounded tired
Lucky has no idea that she has spoken with Taylor, or that she watched his body coraphics turned the Hoover Dae of Luckythere like the protagonist of a dark-huame
Only Lucky and Turtle, perpetrators of the miracle, still believe they’ve witnessed a secret
It was Turtle’s idea to drive hied his sprained ankle and held him for observation Turtle is a TV heroine now, so police officers and even doctors pay attention to her One reporter said that Turtle’s and Lucky’s destinies were linked now; that according to Chinese belief, if you save someone’s life you’re responsible for that person forever Taylor wonders if he wasthis up Why would you owe them htly off-base logic you soet in a fortune cookie
She turns the car south on Arizona 93 and picks up a signal on the radio An oldies station, they’re calling it, though it’s playing the Beatles If Beatles are oldie nohere does that leave Perry Coroups with their broken-heart songs and bulletproof hair? As nearly as she rearten when the Beatles first hit it big, but they persisted into her adolescence, shedding the missionary suits and skinny ties in favor of LSD and little round sunglasses She can’t identify the song but it’s one of their later ones, with that odd sound they developed toward the end--as if their voices are co from inside a metal pipe
What did he think about for a day and a half down there?
Taylor can’t bring herself to iernails scrubbed, his red checked shirt cleaned and respectfully pressed in the hospital laundry, what he’s been through seems impossible The doctors presumed he never lost consciousness, unless he slept From the looks of hi away that night Worn down by the unifor looks, it would have been such a so on to Nevada She shivers
The Beatles give up the ghost and Elton John takes over, his honky-tonk piano chords bouncing into "Crocodile Rock"
This one Taylor remembers froym, with some boy or other who never could live up to her sense of celebration on those occasions They were always too busy trying to ja is about that exact war, and it excited the girls as much as the boys to hear it because you kne Suzy felt when she wore her dresses--as the song says--tight Like so no boy could ever touch Taylor liked Elton John, his oversized glasses and preposterous shoes, laughing at hi limp hair and closed eyes and heads rolled back to the sounds of their own acid chords, going for the crucifixion look
Music is all different now: Jax belongs to neither breed, the Jesuses or the Elton Johns Now they don’t just laugh at theeneral Jax’s wide-eyed, skinny band members wear black jeans and shirts norance, just wishing they could suckle forever at the breast of a pulsing sound wave
Jax is a probleh she would never say that aloud She feels disloyal for thinking it, even He’s the first boyfriend she’s ever had who is actually funnier than he thinks he is He is nice to Turtle to the point that it’s nearly eure out as going on here: that he’s crazy in love with her Possibly that’s the proble white rabbit held up at arth for her to take Or a European vacation
Soive back
She turns southwest at the little noncity of Kingman, back toward the Colorado River or what’s left of it after all those da hard to make the border Mountains rise low and purple behind the river like doctor’s-office art She’ll follow the river south through Lake Havasu City, where soht the London Bridge and shipped it over block by block to stand lonely in the desert Eventually they’ll reach Sand Dune, where Angie Buster awaits her son Taylor can call Jax from there and tell him about the neist on their vacation