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.If they did happen to get pulled over--God knows Dwayne had a history of getting arrested at the most inopportune times--the plates were in order.Dwayne even had a renewed driver's license, praise the Lord."You know," Dwayne said, "I used to know a Kate in high school, used to wear this low-cut thing, and when she'd bend over, she'd know you were looking and didn't give a shit.Wonder what she's doing now.""I'll bet she's not sitting in some antique pickup truck driving on the Mass Pike with no A/C when it's a hundred degrees out.Maybe we should have hung on to the Explorer.It was old but the air worked."Dwayne shot her a look."What's with you? You still pissed about what happened back there?"At Denny's.She'd given him shit for that as soon as they'd gotten back into the truck and were on the highway."What the hell were you thinking?" she'd said."Probably somebody's already called the cops.""It was no big deal," Dwayne had said."I did that guy a favor.""What?""From now on, he'll get those kids to behave, they won't grow up to be monsters."For thirty miles she kept looking back, expecting to see flashing red lights.Maybe no one saw them leaving in the truck from Denny's.This habit Dwayne had of losing it just when they needed to keep a low profile, it definitely was a problem.She just hoped he could keep a lid on things until they got their business done in Boston."Look, I'm sorry about that," Dwayne said as they continued along the highway."So put the bitch back in the box and cut me some slack."She held her hand out the window, felt the wind blow between her fingers.They didn't speak for several miles.She was the one to break the silence."What was it like?" she asked."What was what like?""Prison.""What are you asking, exactly?""Not that," she said."I mean, just like, everyday life, what was it like?""Wasn't so bad.You always knew what to expect.You had a routine.You knew when to get up and when to go to bed and when it was lunchtime and when you got to go out in the yard.You had stuff to look forward to."This was not the answer she was expecting."But you couldn't go anywhere," she said."You were, you know, a prisoner."Dwayne hung his left arm over the sill."Yeah, but you didn't have to make a lot of decisions.What should I wear? What should I eat? What should I do? That kind of stuff wears you down, you know? I don't know sometimes how regular people do it, having to make so many decisions.Every day you got up, you knew what to expect.It was kind of comforting.""So, it was paradise.""Not always," he said, missing the sarcasm."The food was shitty, and there wasn't enough of it.If you got in line last, there might not be anything for you.They cut back on how many times they did laundry.Ever since the place went private, the fuckers were looking to pinch pennies every place they could.""Private?""The place was run by a company, not the state.Some of the guards, you'd listen to them, they got paid so lousy, they'd be talking about whether they were going to make it to payday, what with kids and the mortgage and car payments and all that shit.Almost made you count your blessings.Not that that's going to be a problem for us very soon."Dwayne moved into the passing lane, went around a bus."You get what I'm saying?" he said."About all those decisions? Only decision I want to make is how big a boat I'm gonna get."She was thinking about what he'd said.She actually got it.Wasn't that what her life had been like the last few years? Decisions? Endless decisions? Having to make them not just for yourself but other people?It did get tiring."Let me ask you this," she said."You feel free?"Dwayne squinted."Yeah, sure, of course.Yeah, I'm free.I wouldn't trade this for being inside, if that's what you're thinking."The thing was, she felt like she'd just gotten out of prison, too.She'd escaped, gone over the wall.Here she was, heading down the highway, feet up on the dashboard, the wind blowing her hair all over the place.What a feeling.What a rush.She wondered why she didn't feel better about it.The plan was pretty simple.First, they had to go to the two banks.Then, once they had the merchandise from the safe-deposit boxes, they'd find this guy Dwayne heard about who'd assess the value of their goods, then make them an offer.If it wasn't good enough, Kate figured there'd be room for negotiation.Or they could go see another guy.Where was it written that you had to take the first offer?She just hoped it would be worth the wait.Hard to figure how it wouldn't be.She--they--were going to be rich.The only question was how rich.It was the only thing that kept her going all these years.No doubt about it, money was a great motivator.Knowing that at the end, there was going to be--in all likelihood--millions of dollars [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]