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but she found herself sticking to the narrow back roads that twisted through the rugged high country like worms. Part of the reason was that Cyrus had told her he had never been out West before, and to her surprise she found that she liked showing him the countryside. Another part, the part that she didn't understand, was that she had this terrible feeling they were being followed. Cops? The FBI? She wasn't sure. To combat this growing sense of unease, she found herself opening up to Cyrus, and even more surprising, he opened up to her. She was amazed to discover that he was charming and smart and he had a real odd-ball sense of humor. She drove well out of their way to give them more time to talk, passing through Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and then turning up toward Yellowstone National Park. But as the afternoon wore on, and the shadows of the mountains grew long, she pressed down on the accelerator, flying through the western part of Yellowstone at warp factor ten. In fact, they were going so fast that Cyrus kept having to ask, "Were those buffalo? Were those elk? Was that a geyser or a giant lying on his back taking a whiz?" |
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After eighteen hours on the road, they stopped at a steak house for a quick bite to eat. It was one of those faux Western places where the waiters and waitresses wore cowboy boots, jeans and plaid shirts with white piping on the pockets. Every window had a set of long horns mounted above it and the restroom doors read: HEIFERS and BULLS. |
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A waiter named Buckaroo Bob led them to a table next to a window overlooking the highway and winked at Cyrus when he lit the candle in the center of the table. Kyna had a salad and a cup of soup from the chuck wagon salad bar and Cyrus ordered a T-bonerare. After Bob took the steak back twice for being overcooked, he rolled a flaming grill up to the table and said to Cyrus, "Say when." |
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Bob dropped a sixteen-ounce slab of meat on the grill and the moment it hit and started to sizzle, Cyrus said, "Turn it." |
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Bob looked at Cyrus the way most people look at Branch Davidians, but he did as instructed. Again, the moment the meat began to cook, Cyrus said, "When!" |
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