Guardrails

As Gavin turned his attention away from Ennis Town and focused on what lay ahead.

By contrast, the people in the Ford RV kept their eyes on Ennis, growing more distant by the moment.

Looking at the familiar town, William raised a hand to his forehead. His lips trembled as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

He used to be a talkative person. At least, when he'd first met his idol, he'd talked so much it was hard to follow him. He'd even been a little all over the place.

But only a few hours had passed.

William's silence had already made everyone meeting him for the first time think he was a quiet, reserved person.

Beside William, Eugene rose from the sofa and made his way toward the back of the RV.

He stopped by the bed and looked out the rear window, gazing reluctantly at the town where he'd spent decades of his life.

But the place he watched and was reluctant to leave was far more than just a town.

It was the life he'd lived for more than thirty years.

At the same time, at the RV's dining table, Winnie's little mouth fell open unconsciously as she watched Ennis recede through the window.

Noticing where her daughter was looking, Doris took her little hand and said softly,

"Don't look, sweetheart."

"It's okay, Mom. I'm just looking. You don't need to worry about me."

Winnie answered in a calm voice, but somehow, that calmness only stirred Doris's emotions.

In that moment, Doris's expression twisted with emotion, and she snarled under her breath,

"I said don't look, child. Your father isn't buried there. That place is hell, goddamn hell!"

After she spoke, Doris slumped helplessly over the table, burying her face in the crook of her arm and squeezing her eyes shut.

Hearing her mother suddenly yell, Winnie froze for a moment. Then she turned and ran her fingers through Doris's hair.

"If Dad and my brother knew we were still alive, they'd be so happy, Mom."

Without waiting for Doris to reply, Winnie leaned over beside her and rested her head against her mother's.

At the back of the RV, Eugene listened to the two women, took a deep breath, and turned around.

He first wore a scornful smile, but a moment later, it turned a little bitter.

He simply dropped the awkward smile and went to sit across from Doris at the table.

As he fiddled with the rose on the table, Eugene said,

"I was just about to ask how you could be worse than a kid, but then I thought about it, and fuck, I'm not any better than one either."

"Believe it or not, when we drove through Ennis, I damn near cried!"

"It's so embarrassing. I'd rather piss myself than let water leak out of those two holes up top, you know why?"

As he spoke, Eugene tapped the table with his finger, making Doris look up at him, slightly afraid.

Madison heard him from the driver's seat and called back when she had a moment.

"Eugene, I didn't know you could be so serious."

"There's a lot you haven't seen. Answer my question, nigger. Do you know why I hate crying so much?"

Eugene kept pressing Madison. Then, without waiting for either Madison or Doris to answer, he continued, asking and answering his own question.

"Because I learned something interesting when I was fighting in the Middle East."

"Whenever one of my buddies broke down from a string of suicide attacks and hid in a tent or a trench, crying like a little girl, he was as good as dead."

"It wasn't a coincidence, and it wasn't just one or two cases. The wars I fought in weren't like the ones in the movies."

"In movies, the soldiers who cry the hardest seem more likely to survive to the end and gradually grow stronger."

"But the moment the soldiers I knew in real life got scared or started to break down, they didn't have time to become stronger. Death always found them, right on target, without exception!"

"So..."

Eugene tapped the table again and looked at Doris's anxious, evasive eyes.

"Do you want to die like my buddies?"

After he spoke, Eugene stared hard into Doris's eyes. Doris sucked in a breath and hurriedly shook her head.

"No, I..."

"Haha, I'm fucking with you. You're a woman, after all. Cry all you want!"

"I was talking to William. Right, little William? Ever since you saw your deadbeat dad, you've been acting so girly, like you can't wait to put on some lingerie!"

"Those panties with a strip of cloth wedged between your cheeks, hahaha!!!"

Laughing loudly, Eugene left the table and gave William's head a rough rub.

After Eugene had messed with him for a while, William finally reacted. He huffed in annoyance and kept dodging Eugene's hand.

Seeing that William was genuinely getting angry, Eugene let him go. Then he sprawled on the sofa and pulled out a cigarette.

"I'm not going to smoke in the passenger seat. I'm not as fussy as the Quarterback. Besides, the world's changed. You two ladies are going to meet plenty more assholes like me!"

He muttered, took out a cigarette, and slowly lit it.

Blowing out a stream of smoke, Eugene looked toward the driver's seat and asked,

"Madison, want to learn how to smoke?"

"Trust me, you'll need this stuff in the future. It'll slowly kill you as it burns, but it'll also fill in a little of what's missing from your heart."

"Even if what it stuffs into your heart is shit, trust me, even shit is a lot better than emptiness. Those two feelings are worlds apart... huh?"

Just then, Madison suddenly slowed the RV!

The people inside instantly dropped their philosophical moment and rushed to the front of the RV, all looking at the Tyrannosaurus.

The Tyrannosaurus slowly decelerated, then pulled over. Gavin jumped out.

With his feet on the highway, Gavin walked to the roadside and frowned at the guardrail.

There hadn't been any guardrails on the highway near Ennis. Why were there suddenly guardrails now that they'd left town?

As he leaned closer to inspect it, the others filed out of the RV, leaving only Doris and Winnie inside.

Before anyone could get close, Gavin waved them off.

"Don't worry. I'm just taking a look at the guardrail. When I used to drive this road, I never paid attention to which stretches had guardrails and which didn't."

Gavin wasn't one of those top-level geniuses who could get into the super-brain category. His memory was only average; he was just a little more cautious than most.

Gavin examined the guardrail's material.

It wasn't one of those plastic-barrel crash barriers used to slow vehicles down. It was made of sturdy metal and would be hard to break.

Nearby, Madison asked Gavin hesitantly,

"Is something wrong with the guardrail? There are always guardrails by the road. They're everywhere."

"Yeah, they are everywhere."

Gavin nodded, then shook his head and said thoughtfully,

"There's nothing wrong with the guardrail itself. It's just that if we get near Coskana and have to avoid the city, leave the road, and find a way through Coskana..."

"When that happens, I'm worried the guardrails might cause us trouble, trapping us on the road with no choice but to go forward or backward."

As he spoke, Gavin turned to the others and asked,

"Are there guardrails like these on the roads near Coskana? Do any of you remember?"

"Ha, I do, actually."

Eugene counted on his fingers as he replied,

"There are a lot of guardrails around there, and they're all pretty sturdy. Plenty of trucks pass through that city, after all, and Coskana's economy is a lot better than Ennis's."

"Unlike our Ennis, where there's only one straight road into town and out of it. You'd have a hard time even getting into a car crash."

"Coskana's got roads going every which way, and the city planning's a total mess. The goddamn City Hall and State Assembly are useless, the lying politicians do nothing but deceive people, and the State Government only knows how to collect taxes. Motherfucker."

As he finished cursing, Eugene spat on the ground.

Gavin nodded, then headed toward the Tyrannosaurus.

"It's fine. Let's keep going. We've still got more than thirty kilometers to go."

After he spoke, Gavin waited for everyone to get back into the RV, then set off again.

But after they'd driven less than eight kilometers, Gavin stopped once more.