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"No," the old guy insisted. "My reward is seeing your happy face." |
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Kyna reached out and slipped the bill into the pocket of his stained trench coat. "I will," she whispered, "if you will." |
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He glanced over her shoulder and saw Cyrus trotting back across the lot with the stack of water-stained handbills. "All right." |
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Kyna really didn't want the box, but she waited until the old guy was busy thanking Cyrus, then opened the trunk and tossed it into the back next to the spare tire. By the time Cyrus slipped into the front seat, Kyna had the motor idling and was staring at the clock on the dashboard. |
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"We're never going to make it," she said, and floored the accelerator. |
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"That old bugger is crazy as a shit-house rat," Cyrus gasped as he held up one of the handbills. The paper was blank. |
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The Lincoln rolled onto the ferry just as the tender was lowering the gate. As soon as Kyna shut off the engine she grabbed Cyrus's hand and dragged him up to the observation deck, where they sipped hot chocolate and watched out the window as the boat passed through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Just before the ferry docked at Port Angeles, thick rain clouds rolled down from the Olympic mountains and sapped all the color from the sea, leaving it as gray and lifeless as flawed steel. At the same time the wind brought the aroma of brine and wet earth to mix with the greasy diesel smell from the ferry's engines. |
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The Lincoln was the last car to disembark. Undaunted, Kyna suggested they drive over to the Pacific coast, then backtrack up the east side of Puget Sound to Seattle. She said the drive was scenic, lots of wild creatures. She said it would be romanticthe rocky coast, the tall trees, the blue ocean. |
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They got lost and by the time they reached the coast it was dark. All Cyrus got to see of the rugged Washington coast was a blur of midnight-green conifers under a pall of low-hanging |
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