He struggled to keep us straight and slow down the vehicle,
"Whaaa..." Uncle Linden said, stifling and looking out at the darkness before us.
"Engine trouble," Heyden muttered to him. We came to a stop.
"Oh, no. Heyden."
"Don't panic," he said. "It might not be anything serious. Maybe a wire broke loose or something. Damn." he added when he scrounged about the glove compartment and the cabinets, "We don't have a flashlight, and we forgot to buy one." "What are we going to do? How are you going to see? We can't light matches over a gas engine!" I cried.
"I know that. Don't you think I know that? Let me think." "I told you not to leave the main highway, Heyden."
"I was just trying to make up far some lost time." he wailed.
"I'm hungry," Uncle Linden said suddenly. It seemed so unexpected and was so out of place for the situation. I couldn't help but laugh.
"He's right," Heyden said. "Let's just stay calm. We'll have dinner and wait until daylight."
"Right smack on the middle of this highway?" "There's room for anyone to bypass us and see us."
"You hope."
"Well, what else do you want me to do? We'll leave some lights on."
"I wouldn't mind a good hamburger." Uncle Linden said.
Heyden looked at me. He knew what I was thinking: Uncle Linden wasn't just acting like a little boy from time to time, he was a little bay in so many ways. Almost all of his adult life, someone had taken care of him. Responsibility was always a word with a small r. What we had done was taken on that responsibility but with a capital R.
"Just take it easy. Relax. It'll all work out," Heyden assured me.
"Sure," I said and went to the refrigerator to get same of our meat out of the small freezer. When the light didn't go on. I felt a surge of new panic. "Heyden."
"What?"
"I think the electric went off. too."
"No." He jumped up and looked at the refrigerator. "Damn it." he said.
"All our food is going to spoil. We can't just stay here. Heyden," I said when he didn't reply. "I know. I know, Don't you think I realize that? I'm not stupid."
I felt the tears come into my eyes. How terrible this was going to be: broken down on some country road, both of us runaways who took my uncle out of a residency. How could we be so naive and foolish to think we could do this? I had permitted so many emotions to block out my sense of reason. I had permitted my anger and my self-pity to possess me. As if to bring an exclamation point to what I was thinking and what I had finally realized, we heard a loud clap of thunder. Somehow, neither I nor Heyden had noticed how quickly the sky had become overcast and how we had been driving right into the impending storm.
The first drops hit like a warning, and then they grew big and pelted the motor home, sounding like nails, slapping into the sides, the roof, and the front of the vehicle. It was a deafening sound.
I put my hands over my ears. "It's horrible!" I screamed,
"Easy," Uncle Linden suddenly said, as if he had just woken from a deep sleep. "Everything will be all right. Willow. I'm here."
Heyden looked at me with shock and fear scribbled madly over his face.
The next clap of thunder came from my own heart.
11
Casa de la Luna
.
Even though we didn't have a flashlight.