Chapter 3

They drove in silence for the first part of their trip. Cindy would occasionally put her hand outside the window and let the air flow through her fingers. "Ah," she said at last, "I haven't driven with open windows in ages. When I was with my parents, it was just so easy to keep the climate system on and listen to music..."

"I've got some CDs if you like. Mostly Jazz, but also some Spanish guitar and choral music... Some Rock & Roll from the 60's and 70's too..."

"Sounds good... Nothing more modern?"

"Ah... No, I guess not."

Cindy raised her eyebrows. "What's the matter? You don't like the modern stuff?"

"Not really... especially these last few years. The lyrics are all about sex or drugs or how great it is to have an ego. I just can't get into it."

"I can't either. I think we have the same tastes..."

Jim smiled at the thought, and then he remembered something. "Ah, speaking of tastes, try one of these." He handed her the open bag of Kilauea Power Chips

Cindy looked at the bag for a while without eating. It appeared to be made of a shiny metallic plastic, very light and tough. "Funny. They don't list the ingredients. They don't say anything in fact. And there's no bar code on this bag. How unusual is that?" Cindy sniffed the bag, and then got out one of the dried vegetable chips and took a small bite. "Wow! These are fabulous!"

The ride continued. Cindy happily munched the rest of the chips in the bag. When she was finished, she noticed a faint trace of a green spice on her fingers and licked her fingers in appreciation. "It's a completely new peppery taste! It's not black pepper, not red pepper, not paprika. I've eaten lots of Indian spices too. They have nothing like this! What the heck is this?"

Jim shrugged his shoulders as he drove. "No idea. It's just something I picked up in a convenience store near Omaha."

"You like it?"

"Oh yeah, they're great."

"I love them too! See? I told you we have the same tastes..."

Jim laughed good-naturedly. "Well, maybe not in cars! How's the ride, compared to your Mercedes?"

Cindy shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I guess a bit stiff. Driving my coupe is like riding in a plush easy chair." She turned thoughtful for a moment. "But my car is out of gas and yours is not... Jim, why are you heading west? I mean, what's your destination?"

"Heading off to college, Cal Tech. How about you?"

Cindy smiled. "Ah, the same. College! I'm heading to New York City."

"Oh yeah? I'm from Philadelphia, not that far away. What school?"

"Julliard."

Jim gasped. "At Lincoln Center?!"

"Yep, the very one!"

"Wow... Wow, wow, wow... I insist you play something for me, before we part."

Cindy laughed. "Okay! But I should warn you, my music teachers say my originality is what fascinates them, not my form. Julliard will have to do a lot of polishing with me."

"Really? That's interesting... A number of my science teachers have said the same sort of thing with me. My physics teacher sometimes chided me for my lack of mathematical rigor, but he said my intuition on how to frame problems is the best that ever was... It was a hell of a compliment, I felt giddy for a week..."

And so they began chatting with each other, and the miles glided by. Jim talked about growing up in foster homes and his interests in science. Cindy described her family history in Hong Kong, the shipping industry her father owned, and her love of music and poetry. The afternoon rolled by easily. Cindy felt herself relaxing and really enjoying herself, happier than she had been in a very long time. But then she noticed Jim beginning to get very quiet, and shortly afterwards a worried frown appeared on his face.

"Jim, something the matter? You look pre-occupied."

"Huh? Oh... Yeah, there's something a little weird about this road. More than a little..."

"Yeah, I've noticed it too. We've been traveling for what, an hour now, right? And still no exits."

"It's not just that. My odometer says we've made fifty-five miles, a very long distance for no exits. But what's really getting to me is there have been no overpasses."

"Huh?"

"No overpasses, none at all. How is this possible? It means the area south of here is totally blocked off from the north. For fifty-five miles?! That makes no sense!"

"My God, you're right. I didn't think about that. Weird... Spooky... Why would they do such a thing?"

Jim frowned. "I don't think there could be a good reason, and yet... here is the road. It's so strange. And the sound-barriers..."

Cindy looked out the windows. "Huh? What about them?"

Jim felt a pang of unfocused fear, and his voice broke into a whisper. "Why would anyone ever build sound barriers for corn fields?"

Cindy shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Who cares? Maybe it's a Nebraska State requirement or something. Do they bother you?"

Jim didn't answer directly. "Don't they look bigger now? Taller?"

"Well, yeah, now that you mention it. So what? Maybe they were twelve feet high by my car, maybe now they're... I'm guessing seventeen feet. So what?"

Jim grimaced, silent for a moment as he thought how to respond. He then started to tell Cindy about his stop at the convenience store.

"That's so bizarre," said Cindy when he was finished. "... starting once you get to the middle, and then getting higher in both directions... Are you sure those were his exact words?"

"Maybe not verbatim, but yeah, that's more or less what he said."

Cindy considered. "Well, it's a really weird way to put it, but maybe the old man just meant the walls are at a minimum height in the middle..."

"Well, yeah, that's a good point..."

"And you had to get to the freeway through a cornfield, so ridiculous..." Cindy shook her head in disbelief. "That's probably why we haven't seen any traffic yet, there are no connecting roads to the Freeway. But Jim! You must know what the sound-barriers look like, east towards Iowa. You just drove it this morning, right? Before we met..."

"Well... I... well..." Jim gulped. He thought for a long moment, and then glanced at Cindy. She was waiting patiently for him to respond, and she gave him a kind smile. Jim smiled back and decided to trust her with his embarrassment. "I don't understand what happened to me this morning, right after I got on the freeway. I'm not epileptic. But this situation is getting so bizarre, I think I should tell you... With all the details... I really, really don't want to offend you. Give me some feedback if I start to..."

Jim took a deep breath and began to describe in as much detail as he could exactly what he went through after he entered the freeway, up to the time he met Cindy. It took him over ten minutes to finish... "And then my eyes caught the movement of you waving your white and red clothes. It snapped me out of it. I was an emotional wreck. I had been crying. I was sexually aroused. I was feeling that Susan had just dumped me ten minutes ago..." Jim took a deep breath. "Thanks for letting me tell you all this. Talking about it really helped."

Cindy nodded thoughtfully, and then did something that surprised even her. She reached up and petted Jim's shoulder for a moment, two very light strokes and a couple of pats. She pulled her hand back and sighed. "Now I must be honest too. The same thing happened to me. That's why I have no idea what the western half of Antelope Freeway looks like."