Chapter 10

The sun was almost overhead as we headed west from Abilene. The highway turned from side by side buildings, to small buildings with parking lots. Then it turned to buildings with huge spaces between them. We were out on the highway with lots of heat and lots of dust for company.

I could tell Marty was suffering. I had a bit of a hangover, but Marty's was much worse. His was a mix of alcohol and God alone knew what else. I didn't like to see him suffer, but I had no sympathy for him. Even worse I was going to have to tell him it was time to reset the relationship gauge to friendship. If he took it poorly, then the trip would disintegrate quickly.

We rode the new improved bikes up the very slight inclines seemingly effortlessly. Sure we bled off a little speed, but we didn't get slow enough to pedal the bikes. Even so, the GPS told us we weren't going to make our day's objectives. Of course the trip plan hadn't taken orgy into consideration. Our plan called for us to make 200 miles on Sunday, we made less than 75 miles. We stopped at an adobe knockoff motel compound a few miles from Snyder, Texas.

Even though he blamed it on the gathering clouds, Marty needed the downtime. The motel compound had an old style cafe and general store. The selection was crap in the store, but I managed to buy a boy's size white tee shirt. I also snagged a men's size small light blue work shirt. My jeans were still clean enough to wear another day at least.

I explained things to Marty when we checked in without confronting him. "We need a room with two beds," I said to the clerk, so that Marty for sure overheard. Since he was doing the actual check in, there was no way he could have missed it. If he asked, I would have explained that I couldn't be his bodyguard and his lover. Funny thing, Marty never asked. He actually seemed almost grateful.

"Looks like rain," I commented to the waitress at the cafe.

"Probably rain every evening from now till the end of the month. Gonna start turning colder soon, birds are all fluffy," she informed me

I nodded my understanding even though I had no real idea what would happen. Marty seemed to be enjoying a discussion with a ranger about grass of all things.

"So what's the road like up ahead?" I asked.

"All Texas roads is shit," she informed me.

"Are there many hills up ahead? Me and the old man there are traveling on small motor scooters." There was no sense trying to explain what a motorized bicycle was to her. I had found that out from the hundred or so other waitresses I had spoken with so far.

"If you stay south, you won't have too much trouble, but you are going to run into some foothills. Shouldn't be anything you can't handle. It might be slow going, is all." That advice came from what appeared to be a truck driver.

"Good." I said smiling at him. It was just a stranger's smile not an invitation. I had been thoroughly screwed out.

We refilled our gas cans before we went to bed that night. We also loaded up on water and crackers, just in case. Everyone said the road would be getting empty, since most of the traffic had been diverted to the interstate highways. The most likely we were to find food and lodging was where the old roads bumped into the federal highways.

The old roads did go through the small western towns, so it was possible to find food and lodging in those towns. Some tourist accommodations still operated, but they were far down the scale from modern travel accommodations. Marty and I were better suited to those older places. We were hardly dressed for a high end restaurant. Our clothes were better suited to a country diner. In my case, I preferred it. I couldn't speak for Marty though.

Tuesday morning the road was dry, so we had breakfast at the cafe next door and hit the road. By lunchtime, I had developed an itch. The itch was where two weeks new growth of pubic hair was coming in. I thought for a while that the stubble was itching, but I knew deep in my mind that two weeks was too long for stubble to grow before I started to itch. There was something else wrong.

In the bathroom of a service station, where we stopped for a water and gas break, I took a good look at my pubic hair. I was really getting concerned because my scalp also itched. It was maddening.

"Marty do me a favor/" I asked before we got back on the road.

"What you need Max?" he asked.

"Take a good look at my scalp, see if you see anything crawling around up there. I have some terrible itching going on."

Marty took a long time looking before he said, "Max you got some kind of critters running around up there." He paused a long time then asked, "What you want to do about it?"

"I want to stop at a drugstore somewhere and get some poison shampoo and I want to get one of those electric clipper things. You are about to share the ride with a new kind of bird, a bald headed bitch."

"I never met a bald lady before. It will be a thrill."

"Well you are going to have to do the head shaving," I suggested. The son of a bitch just grinned.

It was late in the afternoon when we arrived at a town large enough to have a shopping center. Inside the shopping center was a chain type drugstore. Inside that, I was able to buy the pest kill shampoo and the electric clipper. I needed the clipper in order to cut my hair short enough to satisfy me.

"You know you don't really have to cut your hair these days. This new shampoo will work pretty well without taking things that far," the young female pharmacist suggested. To her losing all her hair would be a tragedy of monumental proportions.

"If I just shampoo my hair, how long will it take to get them all?"

"A couple of days at least," she said.

"And if I shave my head first, then shampoo it?"

"Gone in twenty minutes, but so is your hair. It will take months for it to return." The girl behind the counter suggested.

"Think I'll go with the sure thing," I replied.

"What's your boyfriend going to say?" she asked, trying one last time to talk me out of it.

"Not a damn thing if he ever wants to get laid again." I said loud enough for Marty to hear.