A streak of pink showed in the eastern sky, and the dark prickly shapes of cacti and tumbleweeds showed as shadows in the desert around us. We flew straight past the sign for the Murray Plant and kept heading south. In another two minutes we were on the front end of town. Sunny was still fast asleep on the floor of the truck. I slowed to 40 m.p.h., careened past the laundry mat, the livery and feed supply on one side, and the hardware and lumberyard on the other. The needle on the dashboard mentioned the truck’s gas tank was nearly empty, but that didn’t matter no more—I downshifted and roared right past Gummer’s filling station. When we hit Main Street, I took a hard right, shifted into second, and drove past the sheriff’s office and jail. Another hard right and we pulled up into Halligan Barker’s driveway where I turned off the engine, jumped out, and ran around to the passenger side. Gently I opened the door. Carefully I scooped up Sunny. She stirred and nestled her head into my shoulder, and I kept Rance’s jacket over her for warmth as I headed toward the back door of Halligan’s house and knocked.
