“I just happened to be passing by.”
“That was convenient.”
She gives me a little kick with her pointy designer shoe.
“Besides,” she says, “I couldn’t let you disappear. You still owe me a car, remember?”
“A little. My head is kind of fuzzy. What kind of car was it?”
Sally leans against the guardrail.
“The exact model doesn’t matter. But something big and powerful. Red. And not recent.”
I have to think about it for a minute.
“Wasn’t it a Catalina fastback? Late sixties?”
She stands up again.
“That will do.”
“Where’s Howard?”
She makes a face.
“By the Bugatti. He’s a bit of a mess. So are you, but you’re in one piece.”
“What are you going to do with him?”
“I thought I’d leave that to you. We could chuck him into that little hole I pulled you from or we could do it my way. Leave him where he is. Let his spirit wander the roads and freeways of the city with all the other lost souls forever.”
“But he’s immortal. I mean, I think so. Yeah, his body’s a mess, but won’t he wake up alive again at some point?”
Sally looks at me, annoyed.
“Immortality? On my road? Darling, there’s only room for one immortal here and it’s not a moth-eaten necromancer. He’s as dead as anyone else. Just another highway ghost.”
I try to pull myself up but fail miserably. “Let’s do it your way. Let him thumb rides forever and no one will ever stop, right?”
“No one. He won’t even know he’s dead at first. Some of his kind spend years frightened and confused before they admit what’s become of them.”
“I like that. But what about the hole?”
“What hole?” she says.
I look back and Howard’s shaft to the void is closed.
“As for you, get off your rear and get in the car.”
I try to stand up. I can’t do it. With both hands on the guardrail, I try to pull myself up, but that doesn’t work either.
I sigh, embarrassed.
“Sorry. I might have to spend eternity right here with Howard.”
She comes to me and puts out her hands.
“Men are such babies.”