Mountains come down and bury ya.

 “God gave me this power, papa. I’m doing God’s work.”

“No ya ain’t. You doin your work,” Gramps spat through gritted teeth. “What you think needs to be done n nuthin else. Is this how we gonna part ways?”

“Part ways? What do you mean, papa?”

“You gonna git back to Pogo but I ain’t gonna be there no mo. I’m stayin here, in the In-between place.”

“This place?” Kris asked. “This high space we’re sharing? You in Colorado, me in a truck trailer? Probably some highway in Kentucky, me not back in Pogo Springs with you? This is my trip and you’re in it.”

Sweeping her up into his arms and kissing her forehead, “Does this feel high to you? Does this feel like a dream?”

Kris stood still and only after a few moments, patted Gramps on the back with desultory taps. “No, papa, it doesn’t. I’m so happy you’re here. That I got to see you and touch you.”

Gramps pulled Kris tighter and whispered, “You gotta let that machine a yours go, sweetie. It ain’t made for this world cuz you ain’t made for this world.”

“Everything came together for me, papa, no matter how bad you think my Resonator is.” Caressing her fingers over the idle bumps of her keyboard, Kris drooped her eyelids and pouted her lips. “The Universal Resonator. The meth. Even the Colonel. All things bringing my work to fruition. To make my existence in Pogo Springs seem worth it.”

Gramps stuffed his hands in his pockets and fingered coins, keys, and a wadded handkerchief Mara had missed when she last did the wash. “Indians said they gave Pogo Springs to the Spanish because they believed the waters was possessed by evil spirits. Yo mama and daddy figured that out really fast. Put an end to Herman’s ski-n-soak idea after that proppelerhead from CSU talked to yo daddy. Your Papa-san n Oh-Me n me dint know where we was landin but we done good with what we got. And so did yo mama n daddy. Now, it feel like it all gonna come crashin down. And your evil Resonator is a part a it.” 

“Papa? I’m not sure I understand.”

“Pogo Springs. Where the mountain breathes, sheds pieces of itself as it do. Mountains come down and bury ya. Like how it kilt yo mama n daddy.” Blood ran warm and bitter where Gramps bit the inside of his lip. “You figured out how to make that happen, makin the mountain come down on folk. Even if it was the Colonel and them damn skinheads that ya done it to, it’s still evil. You doan need that power”

Nesting words within her thoughts, Kris let the silence between them whisper her doubts before she spoke. “Are you a ghost? Or are you just high?”

“We both high,” Gramps chuckled and then turned serious. “You think I’m a ghost?”

“Not yet.”

“I ain’t no ghost yet. Not sure I will ever be. After what I been these last coupla years? Doan think I wanna ever be a ghost. I want what I am now. I choose this place.” Gramps pounded a fist into his palm, repeatedly. “You gotta destroy that machine, Christmas.”

As she sat near her make-shift work station, Kris fanned her thighs like fluttering wings. “I can’t. Not yet. I got something more to do. With it. The Resonator.”

“That ain’t workin for me,” Gramps growled in a voice that was resonant and gravelly. “I need some promises befo I gone fo good.”

“When you die, can I still talk to you?” Looking up at the old man, her eyes were wet and shiny.

Of everything in life he would miss, Gramps knew the most would be how Christmas spoke to him in a way that no one else could. Her words warmed him like a thick blanket on a cold night. “You can talk to me all you want. Will I talk back? I think that depends on whatcha listenin fo. But from what I know of ghosts, they got a way of talkin bout things they know nuthin bout.”

 “Y’know, I never did talk to Mona and Lilly, papa.” Giggling slightly into her fist, Kris betrayed a hint of devious grin. “I told everyone I did because, if they believed in them, the ghosts would be real. And I wanted them to be real. Some things don’t become real until people believe in them. Then, they live forever. All we have to do is think about them and they come back.”

“Doan think I’m comin back, sweetie. Not this time. So I need you to promise me two things befo I go.” The old man bolstered his stance before folding his arms. “Get rid a that Resonator and quit doin that meth shit.”

“I’m not doing meth, ever again. Not after getting high on my brother’s drug, and then seeing you. I promise you, never again with the meth.”

“You made all kindsa promises to me bout that garbage, that death. Ya never followed through, not once. Why I gotta believe you now?”

“You see what I’m saying,” her tone flat with resilience. “You see inside me. You always have, sensei.”

“Baby girl, I love it when you call me that.” The crinkles at the edges of Gramps’s eyes were lit with an inner glow.

 

79     Gears ground lower as the semi slowed, the hiss of air brakes announcing the slight lurch of a full stop. Kris looked up at Gramps with tears in her eyes. “Is this where it ends, papa?”

Gramps swallowed, shrugged, took a moment to respond. “I dunno, sweetie. It doan feel like it but you started your trip a few hours befo I did. So maybe you won’t be here for me when I get back. But I’m bout to find out why this truck stopped.”

Flashing portals once again surrounded Gramps, like a swarm of fireflies dancing around him, blinking their presence in a dark, moonless night. The portal that dragged him in dropped him into the back of Ra-Ra’s bus.

Rolling off of Sage, Gooch pressed the button on the intercom. “Why are we stopping on the side of the freeway? Everything okay?”

“State police. Again. Dammit, they got no reason to pull us over!” Ra-Ra’s voice echoed anger through the intercom.

Leo keyed in on the CB, “Everything all right with you?”

“No,” Ra-Ra groaned. “Meet us at the rest stop, just after mile marker four twenty.”

After changing the band to twenty-four, Leo, Emma, and Billy heard the deep sigh of Ra-Ra’s desperation. “The first place you stop, rest stop, gas station, just watch for us. Stay off the radio, I’m locking my mics so y’all can follow what we got goin on.”

The other vehicles keyed back twice to signal they’d understood her commands.

“Okay, family, we’ll get out of this clusterfuck.” Ra-Ra tapped her mic three times to let the others know she was locked and live. “These pigs ain’t holdin us up from gettin home. Gooch and Sage? Clean up back there!””

In the rear of the bus, Sage and Gooch gathered up roaches, ashtrays, and the small sack of weed Ra-Ra allowed in the passenger compartment. The two wiped everything down then dropped evidence into the commode at the rear of the bus, flushed a few times, and consigned detritus to black water infused with chemicals. Once the bus was cleaned they overheard Ra-Ra on the intercom, “So, why am I being pulled over? I know I wasn’t speeding,” Ra-Ra’s intercom locked open and broadcasting to the back. After requests for license, registration, the cops asked if they could walk to the back of the bus.

“Sure, go on back, officer. If ya gotta warrant. Otherwise, I’d like to keep headin home, I wanna sleep in a real bed.” Ra-Ra laughed and snorted over cop mumbles that went on for several minutes. “DEA said what? Gooch ain’t here! Leo ain’t here! Ya wanna bring dogs in? Sir, I’ve been clean n sober for over ten years. Jesus is my drug now!” After several minutes of more cop mumble, Ra-Ra snarled, “Bring on the dogs, officers! I got nothin, but bring em out and let em do their thing.”

Gramps initially suppressed a laugh but then let it roar full throated with the knowledge that no one in or out of Casey Jones would hear him. This story in the book was clear and he knew the outcome. Surrounding him, the back of the bus was refreshed with a collective sigh of relief when everyone heard, Okay ma’am, you’re good to go.

The bus got into gear and was back heading home. Emma gushed over the radio. “Fuck! You were brilliant, sistah! How you handled those cops!”

“You heard all that? You guys must be close.” Ra-Ra’s voice was cradled in a massive grin. 

Emma responded, “Rest stop, just up the road from where you got pulled over. You’ll see us in a few minutes.”

Gooch keyed the intercom to break in on Ra-Ra and Emma’s conversation. “I’ve got concerns. Something that came up earlier. We need to pull over, next place we can.”

“Gotcha, Gooch,” Ra-Ra answered with a laugh. “That’s our plan.” Then on the CB again, “Billy you catch all this?”

“Ten-four. Got Emma’s ten-twenty and I’m pullin up next to her and Leo.”

After about ten minutes, Ra-Ra pulled next to Billy and released the pressure on her brakes. With Kris refusing to leave her computers, the rest of the group piled into Casey Jones to determine their next steps. Once the doors were closed behind them, Ra-Ra raged. “First time I ever been pulled over in this rig was when we was in West Virginia. Used to happen all the time when I had Bertha but never in Casey until now. And twice in one day!” Pacing, her dreads flipped back and forth like a breeze-blown rug hanging up to dry. “And it was weird. They had no reason to pull me over. But to say some stuff about the DEA. Kept us here like fuckin forever, wanted to check out the bus. As you heard. Pulled me over for no fuckin reason and then let me go.”

Gooch cleared his throat then measured his words, unhooked his arm from around Sage’s waist and threw out his hands. “Don’t ask me how I know this, it’s too weird to explain. But I trust my sister, even if she is trippin right now.” Stammering and shuffling his feet, he looked to family to see if they were following his narrative. “She said the DEA has sniffed out Powerball and that they’re onto us.”

“How’d she learn about this?” Emma’s expression was almost comical with incredulity.   

Gooch shot a derisive glare her way. “I said don’t ask. A feature of her trip, I think. But it sounds legit. Cosmic Charlie was in jail when he heard Randal and some DEA agents talking. Charlie told Gramps. And I guess Kris has some psychic connection with him.”

Sage sneered, “How do we know it’s not just her hallucinations?”

Stepping between group members, Gramps looked into each of their faces and laughed uproariously.

Billy raised his head and his voice. “I believe her. I say we take blue highways back, not the interstate. Two lanes. The roads less traveled.”

“Excellent idea, brother,” Leo clapped Billy on the shoulder. “All the way, we can lead.”

Ra-Ra shouted back, “You know where you’re going, Leo?”

“The moment I knew where I was going was the moment I knew I was truly alive.”

“Spare us your Nindian bromides, will ya?” Gooch’s growl angry and dismissive.

“What are blue highways?” Ra-Ra asked.

“Means the roads that no one drives unless they live out in the boonies.” Stroking his long black hair, Billy looked as though he was totally on board for the trip.

“William Least-Heat Moon.” Turning up his nose at the group, Leo thrust an index finger out then waved it around like a magic wand. “We need to travel those paths if we don’t want to get harassed again.”