Miracle (boyxboy)

Chapter Seven

My legs pumped mechanically at the pedals of my bike, tires rattling over the stony dirt road. It was even hotter now than it had been this morning, but I barely noticed. My brain was too busy trying to process everything Mrs. Moss had told me. Her son's story was more frightening than anything I could have imagined, but in the end I still didn't know enough. What kind of study Elioud Biogenesis was conducting, why they'd disqualified Timmy Riker before he was even born... 

Whether what had happened to him was going to happen to me.

At least he'd had a mother who took care of him. If I went crazy like that Mom would likely drop me off in the middle of a field somewhere and leave me to my own devices.

And what about Maddy? What did all of this mean for her?

In my backpack, I had a copy of the contract Mrs. Moss had signed as a teenager. As soon as I got back to Prickly Pear I would take it to the library, grab a highlighter and a notebook, and go over every single line one at a time. Maybe there would be something in there that she'd forgotten to tell me.

I'd tried stopping by the address in downtown Dumas where Mrs. Moss said the doctor's office had been. It was a FedEx now, and none of the employees knew anything about the company that had occupied their building prior to them taking over. So that got me nowhere.

A rumbling behind me was cue to swing my bike to the side of the road, so that a big black pickup truck could go thundering past. For a couple seconds the distinctive twang of Garth Brooks was deafening as the truck went by, windows down. Once the clouds of dust behind it were starting to settle, I got going again. But up ahead, the truck suddenly put on its brakes.

Then it rolled backward.

I pulled over, and the truck backed up until its driver, a gap-toothed, sunbrowned cowboy type in a ten gallon hat and ratty denim shirt leaned an arm out the window. His radio was no longer blaring.

"Hey there, sugar. Where you headed?"

Once again my ponytail and small build had confused someone into mistaking me for a girl. After the uncomfortable incident with Marvin the other day, though, I wasn't taking any chances. I straightened up so he'd be able to get a good look at me. "Just going home, sir."

"Well, I'll be durned. What's a boy doin' with all that hair?"

I gave him the same answer I gave everyone who asked that question. "My dad's a hippie." No idea if it was the truth or not, since I'd never met the guy, but hey. As far as I knew it wasn't a lie.

"I guess. You sure wear it well, though." The way he was looking me over made my skin crawl. "Hop in, I'll give you a ride."

"Uh... no thanks, sir." His offer wasn't that unusual, folks around here were quick to help each other out, especially in the middle of nowhere. It was probably just paranoia after all the bad luck of this week, but my instincts were warning me it wasn't a good idea. I didn't know this guy.

"Ah, come on. It's a million degrees out and you look like you're about to fry. I can getcha where you're goin' in a blink."

"That's really okay. I'm, uh, trying to get my exercise in today. Thanks, though. Have a good one!" I started pedaling again, keeping to the side of the road so that he'd take the hint and drive on by.

He started rolling forward, keeping his window right alongside me. "Who ever heard of someone exercisin' in this kind of heat?"

Fucking go away, I wanted to snap, but that was definitely not a smart idea. "I'm good, sir."

"Like hell you are, you're sweatin' like a whore in church. Truck's got air conditioning."

I was pretty sure that wasn't true. He was riding with both windows down. I just shook my head and pedaled faster.