The road that leads out of Amorea.
He doesn’t know why he’s never thought about it before.
(You have, that little voice whispers. You have thought about it before, why the hell can’t you see that? Why the hell can’t you remember? You have thought about this before. You’ve already tried—)
He sways on his feet almost drunkenly when he’s hit by a wave of déjà vu. It prickles along his skin and he can hear a woman saying, It’s like a goose walked over your grave, bucko.
Bucko. He knows that nickname.
Doesn’t he?
Mike Frazier takes a step out of Amorea.
It’s easier than he thought it would be.
It’s no Code Orange, he thinks. That’s just another earworm, though. Like the love shack. And the mountains.
What if someone jostles that balance?
Why would they?
Just to see what would happen.
I don’t know anyone in Amorea that would do such a thing.
Mike does. Mike knows someone.
Should really get to bed, he thinks.
Instead, he takes another step. And another. And another, until he’s walking right down that road. And he’s feeling fine, he’s breathing fine. The mountains are there, those perfect-looking mountains with their snowcapped peaks, and he’s thinking, I could go to them mountains right now if I wanted to, that’s fo sho.
He wishes Nadine the African Queen were with him.
He frowns.
No, that isn’t right. He doesn’t know any Nadine, much less a queen.
He wishes Sean were with him. Maybe he and Sean can come here this evening. It would be something special, wouldn’t it? Just the two of them, going for a stroll outside of Amorea.
He glances behind him. The town is getting smaller. He doesn’t know how he’s walked so far in such a short amount of time.
The mountains are the same size, and he wonders just how far away they are. What they’re called. What’s on the other side. Who is on the other side.
The air is getting a little heavier. Like he’s rising in elevation, but the road is flat. He’s not walking up any hill. It’s thicker here, and he’s sweating a little. It trickles down the back of his neck to the collar of his shirt, and he’s thinking he should turn around. That he should walk back the way he came. Forget about all of this. Make an appointment with Doc. Get checked up. Get checked out. Get diagnosed and medicated and live happily ever after in the town where everyone knows who he is and he knows all of them. And with Sean. Yes. He’d like to live happily ever after with Sean.
And yes, he’s just strolling down that road, isn’t he? The sun is bright, and there are these fat, white clouds above in the bright blue sky, and it’s like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Like he’s taken a midday stroll without rhyme or reason, just because he can.
He can’t take as deep of a breath as he could just moments ago, like everything is thicker. This worries him, but not enough to stop, because now that he’s here, he’s determined. He’s absolutely determined to get as far as he can just to prove that he can.
There’s a copse of trees ahead up on the left, and he sets that as his next target: just get there, get past it, pick another point, get there, get past it.
And it’s funny, really. What happens next. He’s looking at that copse of trees and he’s making his way toward it. He’s sweating and taking in these great gasping breaths and he’ll swear until his dying day that he hears the clop of horse hooves. He thinks, There are no horses in Amorea. And, Why are there no horses in Amorea? And, There’s no children or cars or—
And then it happens.
One second he’s looking at that copse of trees, getting to them mountains fo sho, and then he blinks, he blinks, and Amorea is in front of him. He was walking east, leaving Amorea behind him.
And now Amorea is in front of him.