[This story is a chapter in a novel-in-progress. Some of the situations and characters mentioned refer to other parts of the novel. This chapter takes place approximately two-thirds of the way through.]

     Lily gripped the steering wheel and stared at the road stretching ahead of her to the western horizon. She sighed and shifted to try to find a more comfortable position. She was tired of driving and the day had been a long one. Kit's car wasn't designed for comfort and he hadn't even installed a radio, not that Lily wanted to listen to talk shows and Bible stations as she drove through the wastelands of Utah and Nevada. At least she didn't have to put up with much traffic other than big trucks carrying freight and some tourist traffic. The last truck stop was already hours behind her and lunch was only a memory. Lily rummaged around for her bag of corn chips in the pile of papers, junk food and garbage on the seat beside her.
     The driving was so monotonous that she let her thoughts wander toward Kit. It felt like forever and a day since she had last seen him. Lily had often thought about him since that brief visit home. She doubted if Kit even knew she had been there unless his neighbors told him. By that time she would have been miles away. She had sent Kit a postcard from the wilds of Wyoming, but that was it. Had he received it? Lily had no idea.
     Some days Lily missed Kit more than others. Especially when the big black car began making strange noises as it had since shortly after breakfast today. She felt mechanically inept, didn't know much about engines and didn't care to learn. The noises emerging from the hood sounded like kobolds armed with ballpeen hammers attacking some part of the engine. At least Lily imagined kobolds under the hood since she had been amusing herself with a book of German folk tales; for all she knew, they might be elves or sprites, but Lily imagined such creatures would prefer a more peaceful setting. Now it was late afternoon and the kobolds suddenly got excited and started swinging the sledgehammers just as she reached the edge of a forlorn town in Nevada. Lily got the feeling that they weren't going to let her go much farther. The kobolds apparently got out the matches, too, as a thin dark plume of smoke snaked out of the hood. The acrid smoke stung Lily's nose. She turned off the engine before the kobolds could do any more damage and coasted the rest of the way into town.
     "Welcome to Dry Springs," a sign proclaimed. Lily wondered if anyone in town could exorcise kobolds. She didn't see any signs advertising exorcism, but she was able to roll as far as Jimpson Service at the eastern edge of Dry Springs. The car rattled to a halt, still smoking slightly. Lily leapt out and accosted the mechanic taking his smoke break by the telephone booth at the edge of the lot.
     Lily peered at his name badge. "Joshua! I need your help with some kobolds. They're being very bad today."
     Joshua raised his bushy eyebrows and stared at her for a moment without saying anything. He took a couple puffs on his cigarette and took his left hand out the pocket of his dirty blue overalls. Lily thought he probably wondered what kind of creature she might be, careening into his station in a big black car and wearing a red mini-skirt, a cummerbund and with her left hand covered by a gray sock. Lily suspected few well-dressed, beautiful women visited his station. She figured the heat had gotten to him the way it seemed to have gotten to her today. Maybe years before, to look at him with his face all wrinkled from the sun and eyes red from the dust.
     As Lily waited for him to respond, Joshua chewed on his gray beard for a minute. He took one more drag on his cigarette, then ground it out with his left foot. "Well, ma'am, I don't know much about kobolds, but I don't got no one waiting right now if you want me to look at your car. I smelled the smoke as soon as you rolled in. You aren't likely to leave Dry Springs anytime soon without help."
     "This isn't really my car," she began to explain. "Kit knows I have it, though I didn't ask him when I took it. He's a very nice guy, even if ..."
     Joshua cut her off. "Let's just get the car inside, OK? How long ago did these...er...kobolds start messing with your engine?"
     "About 300 miles ago, I think," Lily replied. "I kept telling them to be quiet. They got mad at me and started really knocking about when I got to Dry Springs. Kit never warned me..."
     Joshua broke in again. It didn't seem as if he wanted to hear about Kit. "Put it in neutral so we can roll it in." He strode to the rear of the car.
     Lily was so taken aback by Joshua's brusqueness that she got in the car and fiddled with the gear shift. She wasn't sure where neutral was, even after driving all the way up to Alberta and down to Wyoming. She had had to teach herself how to use the manual transmission the day she drove away from Kit's. The car had been in reverse for some time before she managed to shift into low. Lily was, unfortunately, both a poor teacher and a slow student. Finally she wrestled the gearshift into neutral and the car lurched forward. Joshua yelled at her, "Turn right for God's sake! Turn right!" as the big black car threatened to forgo Jimpson Service entirely and visit the convenience store down the street instead. Lily managed to wrestle the wheel quickly enough to make the turn into the station, though not fast enough to avoid a construction barricade.
     "I'll take it on in!" Joshua ran up the car and motioned for her to get out. He took the steering wheel and slowly pushed it toward the open service bay. "Heh, heh. Just gotta make sure it's in the right place. Why don't you go in the office and wait for me there."
     Lily walked over to the office door and stepped inside. The room stank of grease and old cigarette smoke. She wrinkled her nose and tried not to breathe too deeply. Old calendars showing bikini-clad women fondling auto parts were hanging on the wall. The only chair had some car magazines and a Coke can stacked on the seat. She decided to stand at the counter to wait for Joshua. "Is it going to take long?" she asked as soon as he stepped through the other door behind the counter.
     "About an hour for the estimate. Why don't you come back at 5:00?" Joshua shoved a clipboard with some papers clipped on. "Here, sign by the 'X' so I can go ahead and make the estimate."
     Lily signed and wandered off, vaguely thinking about Joshua. If she were in the mood to forget Kit, she didn't think she would want to take up with a grease monkey in the middle of God-forsaken Nevada. Still, she liked his flaming red hair with gray streaks and he had been willing to look at the car even before she gave him a look he couldn't resist. He had looked intrigued by her. Lily was sure he didn't have many chances to meet someone like herself.
     The convenience store beckoned to Lily with the siren call of chips and a soft drink. She started toward the entrance, but a very small truck perched high above very large wheels distracted her. A greasy-haired young man in a Led Zeppelin T shirt clutched the wheel as he roared around the parking lot. Lily stepped backward into the shrubbery along the edge of the lot to get out of his way. She tripped on a low branch, but managed to stop her fall by grabbing the trunk of a small tree. She straightened up and watched the truck careening past. On the third time around, he cut too close to the center curb and his back right wheel suddenly lost contact with the parking lot. The truck began to tip over. There was absolutely nothing the driver could do except ride it out. The truck seemed to fall forever. Lily clapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. Her hands alone couldn't block out the horrible crunch of crumpling metal and breaking glass. When she opened her eyes, she could see that the man was lucky enough to be in much better shape than his truck, which was on its side with the front end pushed up against a light pole. Glass from the headlight glittered on the pavement and curb. The driver clambered out of the cab and cursed his truck, himself and everything in sight. Lily considered complementing Mr. Led Zeppelin T Shirt on his entertaining show, but thought better of it. She picked her way out of the shrubbery and ducked into the store as quickly as she could. He had been trying to impress her with the raw power of his machine, no doubt. From his curses, audible even over the air conditioner, he seemed to think it was her fault that his toy wasn't going to impress anybody now.
     The clerk behind the counter, a little guy with half-glasses and thin, dark hair surrounding a large bald spot, barely looked up at Lily when she ran in. She couldn't quite make out which tabloid he was reading, but she could see a headline which shouted in large red letters, "A Whole Townful of Martians Found in Desert!!" Maybe that's where she had ended up. So far everyone she had met was very odd, even if Joshua and the monster truck driver were only a sample of two. It was too early to tell about the clerk. She would have to keep an eye on him, too. He might sprout extra arms or an antenna might emerge from his bald spot while she had her back turned.
     The magazine and book rack stood a comfortable distance away from the little alien behind the counter. Lily quickly walked to the rack, skirting the display of brightly packaged fruit pies and glancing back at the clerk. He hadn't shown his true nature yet and was still reading the tabloid. She relaxed a little and thumbed through the magazines. Nothing interesting. Just the usual collection of Time, Newsweek, Gun Lover's Digest, Scorpions and Tarantulas Monthly. Lily spun the rack to expose the books. She picked up a spy novel and put it back down after reading the back cover. She spotted a guidebook on the oversize rack on the bottom, Colorful Towns and Denizens of the Nevada Desert. Aha, she thought, something useful! Maybe I can find out where the heck I am. Lily flipped to the index and ran her finger down the column of names. There it was, Dry Springs, p. 28. She turned back to find page 28. Dry Springs only rated a short entry and didn't even have an accompanying photograph.

Dry Springs. Pop. 235. Founded 1869 after a lone prospector reported finding silver ore near the northern outskirts of the present settlement. The town of Dry Springs doesn't amount to much. A few businesses line the highway that runs down the center of town. A few houses and trailers stretch out behind the shops. Silver made Dry Springs boom in a minor way, once, as the mines south of town made a few small fortunes during the 1870s. If the highway hadn't come through, the place would have dried up like so many other desert mining towns. Even so, the highway is only Nevada State Highway 27 and not an interstate; barring another silver strike, Dry Springs will probably continue its slow slide into obscurity. Perhaps it may leave behind another ghost town which is more interesting than the living town.

     Lily glanced at some of the other entries. Most of the places seemed more interesting than Dry Springs. Just her luck to be forced to spend a couple hours in a place that would be more interesting dead than alive. A loud scraping noise from outside caught her attention. She looked out the heavily tinted window to see a tow truck struggling to upright the crumpled truck in the parking lot. She put the guidebook back in the rack and watched as the tow truck's winch slowly pulled the truck upright. The tow truck driver's red hair looked familiar. When the monster truck was finally back on four wheels, the red-haired man turned around.
     "Joshua!" Lily walked closer to the window to get a better look.
     "What?" grunted a voice to Lily's left.
     Lily turned her head and saw the clerk peering at her over the top of his half-glasses. She shook her head. She hadn't realized that she was speaking out loud. The clerk went back to his paper, his bald spot still empty of antennae. Lily turned her attention back to the tow truck. Joshua was hooking up the hoist on the monster truck front wheels. I suppose this means he must have already finished with Kit's car, Lily thought, if he has time enough to rescue an idiot.
     A few minutes later, the tow truck pulled out of the parking lot carrying Mr. Led Zeppelin T Shirt's toy on the back. Lily watched as Joshua eased the truck out to the street and turned right. She went back to the magazine rack and looked at the spy novels for a little longer. She felt bored. She had loitered in the store as long as possible. She left the magazine rack and prowled through the store in search of corn chips and a Coke. She found the ones she wanted, walked to the front and dropped them on the counter with a bang. The clerk jumped and dropped his paper as he stood up. He looked at the price tags and punched the keys on the cash register. "$3.77, including tax," he said.
     Lily noted that he had the usual number of arms. She rummaged around in her little waist bag and found three dollar bills, three quarters and only one penny. She dumped them in a pile on the counter. "Sorry," she said, "I don't have any more pennies."
     The clerk grunted and waved his hand. "Don't matter. This'll do." He put the money in the drawer, shoved it closed and handed her the receipt. Lily picked up her purchases and walked to the door as the clerk dropped to his stool and picked up his tabloid again.
     Lily forced herself out into the blast furnace. She slowly made her way back to Jimpson Service, staying in the meager shadows of the buildings as much as she could. When she reached the garage, the wrecked truck had been towed to the lot and Joshua was scowling at it. "Got to order some parts for your engine from Elko," he said, barely looking at her, "Can't get rid of kobolds unless I get the right parts. I was going to send my lunkhead nephew to fetch them, but he ain't going nowhere for a while after this little accident. Motel is down at the other end of town. Should be ready soon." Joshua was obviously very unhappy about the truck and in no uncertain terms. Lily thought it would be best if she left as soon as possible. No amount of staring at him seemed likely to get the car fixed any sooner.
     Lily left the garage again and walked slowly down the street. The sun beat down. Even though it was only a couple blocks to the motel, the air was so hot that she felt her eyeballs burning. She dragged herself past the convenience store with the broken glass in front and past a few other shops and houses. As the buildings started thinning out, she looked around and saw the El Loco Motel and Casino looming to her left. The Vacancy/No Vacancy sign had been knocked over and was lying in the red pumice stones in front of the motel. Lily took it as a good omen and walked up to the office.
     The door squeaked when she opened it and banged closed behind her. She blinked in the dim light. A gray-haired woman was sitting behind the desk watching the TV that was blaring in the corner. "Do you have a room?" Lily asked.
     "Hm. I'll have to check," the woman answered in a rough, gravely voice. She pulled out a large book from under the counter and bent over it as she thumbed through the pages.
     "Did you know that your Vacancy sign is broken?" Lily wanted to be helpful.
     "Doesn't matter. Been like that since last year," she said without looking up. "I think you might be in luck," she said, at last, "We just had a cancellation for Room 32."
     "I feel so lucky!" Lily said. She noticed the woman eyeing her cummerbund and the sock on her left hand.
     The gray-haired woman leaned over the counter. "I'll tell you a secret," she said in a loud whisper.
     Lily leaned closer to her so that she could hear better over the TV. "What?"
     "We haven't been full in fifteen years!" The woman broke out with a braying laugh.
     Lily clutched her hand to her ear. The woman had been too close.
     The clerk handed Lily the key for Room 32. "Just go past the two nickel slot machines and around the back. You'll see it."
     Lily followed the directions, still holder her hand over her ear. She pushed open the heavy door past the slot machines and stepped back into the burning late afternoon. The bright light hurt her eyes and made her forget about her ear. She blinked and looked around for the right door. Ah, there was no. 32 at the corner. She walked over and got the key to unlock it after a few tries. She sniffed at the stale air. It smelled as if a heavy smoker had lived in it for a few weeks. Maybe even a hint of dead mice. She sneezed and went in. Dry Springs probably didn't get much better than this.

[There is some work to be done here. I don't know yet how much, but it was pointed out that Lily would have been suffering a bit as she was forced to hang out in Dry Springs. While I don't want to go on for pages, I agree that it probably is a cheap shot to simply jump to two days later without SOMETHING happening! gds 12/6]

     A couple days later, Lily felt that she had been stranded in Dry Springs for an eternity. The mechanic had assured her that he could fix her car soon, but he hadn't said what soon meant. Lily half-suspected that soon could mean any time short of a year in Dry Springs. Not that she wanted to insult Dry Springs--it was just that she hadn't seen anyone moving very fast in the heat. Lily wasn't moving very fast herself, at any rate. She sat in her room at the El Loco Motel and Casino and stared through the window at the rocks and sagebrush which looked distorted by the heat. The sight of the heat waves reminded her of Kit and fishing in the shimmering pools on the plaza.
     What was Kit doing? Was he enjoying himself? Was he doing anything interesting with his time? As much as Lily had liked Kit, sometimes she wondered if he had a life when she wasn't around. Did Kit make a sound when he fell in the forest? The thought of Kit falling without a sound made Lily laugh. Maybe Kit didn't make a sound when he fell, but Lily certainly did thinking about it. She ran her fingers through her hair and flopped back on the bed. Maybe Kit didn't even exist when she wasn't with him, much less make noises in the forest. That, Lily decided, was perhaps going too far. If the universe revolved around her, she wouldn't be stuck in a miserable motel in this dreadful town.
     Lily rolled over to look at the phone instructions. She wanted to call Kit, to contact him somehow, to reassure herself that he really was out there. Not that there was any way to get hold of him. As far as Lily knew, Kit didn't even own a phone. He probably wouldn't check her answering machine if she tried to leave a message at her own house. Contacting the Naybors, the couple living across the street from Kit, was out of the question, since they refused to have anything to do with either Kit or Lily except to spy on them so they could gossip. In this heat, the effort of reaching Kit seemed too difficult.
     She rolled on her back again and stared at the reflected heat waves playing across the flocked ceiling. Kit was fine. She didn't want to be missing him that much. Here in this heat, here in this town, here in this crummy motel room that stank of cigarettes, Lily felt very alone. She didn't feel like a wild woman. A limp rag, perhaps. Even a wildly dressed and attractive rag. But a wild woman able to handle anything and everything? Not right now, thank you very much.
     Lily stood up, glanced at the desert and slipped her black dress over her head. Nothing left to do save taking a good, cool bath. She had to flick some decidedly dead, but unidentifiable insects out of the tub. Lily wasn't all that fastidious--nonetheless, she feared some of the bugs might not be all that dead and would revive in the bath water.
     The bath filled with cool water. Lily slipped off the rest of her clothes and eased into the tub. She was too tall to fit comfortably in this tub. The water felt good even so. As she relaxed, Kit began creeping into her thoughts again. Everything would probably be worse if he were here. Lily loved him in many ways, even if she couldn't think of that many right now. She liked his agreeable nature. On the other hand, Kit's agreeableness often edged into spinelessness and that was one of the reasons she left. As much as Lily liked ordering people around, Kit's obsequiousness had started to get on her nerves.
     Kit had needed Lily in his life. At least that is what Lily believed when she first got to know him. And he was romantic--in a funny sort of way. Lily sighed and sank deeper in the bath. She could still see Kit rolling up in his big black car for the first time. She remembered how he looked vaguely dangerous. And she loved the carrot juice he always kept on hand. The car reeked slightly of old carrot juice even after so long. Lily found carrot juice to be extremely rare in the places she visited these days.
     When Lily had left Ted, or had more accurately been thrown out by Ted, and had taken on Kit in his place, Kit had seemed more fun than Ted had been and more open to her charms. Lily didn't quite understand what had happened. Perhaps if she hadn't accidentally roared off in the big black car, she would have been quite happy reforming Kit until the cows came home. Maybe she would have gone back to him if she hadn't been beaned with a golf ball. That blow seemed to change her outlook on life and she had had a lot of time to herself driving around the country. Kit might not believe in a thoughtful Lily--it was almost as bad as believing in the Tooth Fairy (which he had until his early twenties)--but here she was, thinking a great deal. Lily felt slightly worried about herself.
     Late night. Lily lay awake and restless. The desert air made her feel desiccated despite her long bath. She wished she could be somewhere else-- almost anywhere else, especially if she could have clean sheets. The sheets at the El Loco hadn't been too clean when she checked in three days ago and each hot night made them less attractive. Crisp, good smelling sheets might go a long way toward making her stay a happier one. Confused thoughts of kobolds, Kit, the car and Kit's dog, Baby Dee, tumbled around her head. Perhaps she wasn't as awake as she thought.
     Lily stood in a grand room covered with paintings of nymphs, shepherds and cherubs. Kit stood next to her in black tails. Although tails were far from Kit's usual style, Lily found him unbearably attractive. He looked at her and leaned toward her ear. "Lily, you are so beautiful!" he murmured. She looked around the room. Lily gazed herself in the mirror that she noticed to her right. Her long white dress flowed over her, strikingly contrasting with the requisite cummerbund. Her hair was combed, for once, and tumbled over her shoulders. "I am beautiful, aren't I, Kit?" She spun slowly. Her dress and hair floated out around her.
     Lily somehow knew that she and Kit should move to the door opposite the mirror. They almost glided. Kit needed no coaxing. Lily was enjoying this unfamiliar, suave Kit. As they neared the door, it swung open silently and they moved through to enter a softly lit ballroom.
     "Lilian Annelise Falandini and Christopher Edward Bean," a deep voice announced. Lily glanced around to find the voice. An extremely tall man with purple tails and a large gray sock over his left hand stood in the shadows to their right. "Go ahead," he gestured. Lily could see a swirling throng of couples on the floor moving to the strains of a waltz. Lily froze in a sudden panic. "I don't know how to waltz, Kit!" she whispered in his ear. "Of course you do," Kit whispered back. Lily relaxed. Kit was right. She had just forgotten for a moment.
     "Go ahead," the doorman gestured again. They stepped forward and let the music guide them toward the dance. They entered the swirling mass at the center and were swept around the floor. Kit led gently and with confidence. Lily cast him an admiring look and he smiled back at her. This was not the Kit Lily knew so well. She had never seen this elegant side of him and she liked it. Some of the other couples looked familiar. Lily recognized Ted and his friend Laura. Despite her stormy history with Ted, Lily felt happy to see him. Keith and Philip swept past. Nearby were Eleanor and a handsome man whom Lily knew only by sight. Lily's friend Marika and her friend Hans passed to her left and Marika winked at Lily as she passed. Even the Naybors were dancing. Lily had had no idea that they could look so happy together or be so light on their feet. "Hello, Poopsies!" Erna Naybor called out as she moved by.
     Lily closed her eyes and leaned into Kit. She smelled the dry leaves smell of his hair and skin as she brushed his cheek. She felt herself grow intoxicated with the motion, the music and Kit. She thought fuzzily that it was all so unusual, so strange, but so lovely that she didn't care. When Lily finally opened her eyes again, the floor was gone. Stars glimmered where the walls had stood. The music played on from somewhere and the couples floated in air. Any other time Lily might worry about dancing in mid-air but now it seemed perfectly natural. As she watched, all the couples began moving apart until all Lily could see were specks of color moving against the stars. Then the specks faded away and the two of them danced alone among the stars to the soft music that still played. Lily felt so happy and peaceful. She wanted to dance forever. No desert, no unhappy cars, no worries.
     She closed her eyes and leaned against Kit again. After a while, all she knew was the sound of the music and turning round and round. The music had changed. Waltzing still, but now it seemed that all she could hear was a lone trombone. She opened her eyes and there was Kit--no longer dancing with her, sitting cross-legged on the roof of his car, trombone to his lips. Lily could see him crinkle up his eyes as he smiled at her through his playing. Lily smiled back and danced around the car by herself.
     Kit finally came to the end of the waltz. He set the trombone down and clambered off the roof. He caught Lily by the hand. "Thank you for the dance. You were wonderful," he whispered and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "You're welcome, Kit."
     "Good-bye, Lily." Kit let go of her hand and went back the car. He put the trombone away, got in and started the engine. "Wait, Kit, don't go yet! I want another dance!"
     Kit waved and quietly drove away into the darkness. Lily closed her eyes. She tried to bring him back. She tried to hear the music again. When she opened them again, the early morning light streamed through the window. The El Loco was even quieter than usual. It was just as miserable as before, but Lily's mood had changed and it didn't seem to matter any more.
     Lily checked out of the motel that morning. She felt determined to escape from Dry Springs. She carried her bags along the highway back to Jimpson Service and prepared herself for arguing with Joshua. She was surprised to see the big black car sitting out in the lot. Joshua waved to her from the service bay where he was working on another car. He told her the parts had come in late afternoon yesterday and the car was ready. Those kobolds were definitely exorcised.
     Lily paid for the repairs with her credit card. She noted that Kit must have paid her bills on time. Maybe that was proof enough that Kit existed. The car seemed in order. The fishing pole was still in the back. Nothing looked different, so she got in and started the engine. Joshua was right; the kobolds were gone. Lily eased the car into gear and pulled out of the service station, missing the tire display by a good three inches. She managed to get all the way through Dry Springs without incident and shifted into a higher gear as she left the city limit sign behind her. Kit wasn't so far off, even if he probably wasn't the elegant, dancing Kit. She glanced at herself in the mirror. She wasn't quite as elegant either. It didn't seem to matter, somehow. Lily looked forward to reaching the far side of the desert.