"It's the mountains," she said. "We got towers. They just don't do us no good here." She pointed to a peak. "You can get a signal up yonder."

He frowned. "How far is that?"

She shrugged. "Maybe eight miles, if you was to walk straight over there, but you can't. There's a canyon between us. It takes several hours to get there."

He glanced back down the road. "Well, thanks for your help. I'll walk down to that house and call in." He turned and limped away.

She ought to let him walk. It would serve him right, but it was obvious that he wasn't from around these parts. He had no idea what he was walking into. Besides that, the bump on his head didn't seem to be the only injury he had received in the wreck.

"Mister," she called after him. "You’d best let me give you a ride. I didn't know your leg was hurt too."

He stopped and turned, his mouth twisting into a bitter smile. "I got this limp in an unfriendly encounter with a falling tree six months ago." He knocked on a hollow sounding leg. "Artificial."

Warmth shot painfully up her neck. "I'm sorry. I figgered...." She shrugged. "Well, it ain't a good idea to go down there this time of night, anyways."

He cocked his head to the side and looked confused. "Why not, do they go to bed early?"

She released a short humorless laugh. "They won't be in bed 'till mornin' but...well, let's just say it ain't safe to visit at night. That's when they conduct all their business."

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He glanced down the road for a few minutes before returning his attention to her. "Maybe I could hitch a ride into town with the next car that comes by."

He was exasperating - one minute asking for help and the next flat out ignoring it. Anyway, he ought to learn something about the area before he went prowling around.

"Mister," she finally said with a sigh. "They ain't nobody travels this road at night that you wanna trust."

He frowned. "The name's Barrett, not Mister. Geez, you make me feel like an old man." He brushed a hand over the balding spot on his head and heaved a heavy sigh. "I don't care," he finally said. "Just get me somewhere I can lay down for a while. Maybe then I can make some sense of all this."




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