Rustles

Part 21

“Nathan?” she asked, when Ellinger house disappeared from side mirror.

“Mm?” he wasn’t concentrating on the driving.

“You said you knew them before all this happened?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“I…”

“Look, Margaret, we can’t talk about it.” He cut her off.

“Ok.” She was ready to let it go, when he suddenly reached over gear lever and pressed something between her fingers. She frowned, looked up, but he didn’t look her way. Instead he kept driving on like normal.

“I’m taking my children for a picnic.” He was nervous, but tried to look as normal as he could manage. “Wanna come with us?”

She nodded, reading the few scratched words on the paper in her lap. There had to be microphones hidden somewhere.

YOUR PHONE IS TAPPED!

“Sorry, I can’t.” she said with a frown. He had no kids – he told her himself. “I’ll be out of town by then, I’m afraid.”

“Really? Where to?”

“Thought I spent a week-end with my brother and the circus freaks. You know – quality time.”

“Imaginary world, huh?”

“Ken and Barbie – these are imaginary. My freaks – they’re real.”

“Ever thought why Ken was called Ken?” he asked suddenly and she wanted to cry for help. Why were they suddenly talking about that? “His original name was Kenneth – but they changed it into Ken, because Americans couldn’t spell it!”

“No, as far as I know they Ken’s full name was Carson…” Kenneth?

“No, that’s the last name.”

“Heh, you would know – you’ve had to buy many Barbies lately, haven’t you?”

“Oh yes, joys of being an uncle.”

“They sell the Beast Ken at the ticket point you know? If you’re girls are still in that age – you could buy them over with those if you want?”

“That’s good idea. They have show tonight?”

“Yes, free for under-meter fellows.”

The conversation died soon after that, but she felt better. Was it the fault of the whiskey or understanding that Kenneth was in the same boat with them, didn’t matter anymore.

When they reached her street, she recovered from the warmth, remembering how she’d become object of peep show and she gave each car standing on the street scrutinizing look. While Nathan parked, she examined the last ones in the end of the street, but saw none that she would either recognize or that would have anyone sitting in them.

“Say hi to Ken for me, will you?” he reminded her, when she opened the door. Their eyes met and she smiled

“Will do.”

She got back to her apartment without anyone around and tossed her shoes off before landing flat on her back on her still unmade bed. She hitched the bag off her shoulder and slammed it hard in the pillows. It felt good to lie down and for a second she imagined falling asleep. It could have been so easy – the curtain nicely hid all the light coming from the window and the room was in dark.

Only she couldn’t sleep right now. First things first and she pushed herself up again and went to kitchen to get something to eat. She pushed the curtain out of her way.