Excerpt: In the Passenger Seat

The further away they got from the border, the better David's stomach felt. His headache disappeared after about fifty kilometers, and when Lyle and Katherine stopped bickering he even felt like he had possibly not made a terrible mistake. The clack clack of Anna's knitting needles met with the sound of the road, and time seemed to melt away. He hardly noticed the turnoff to the motel.

"Hey, homo," Lyle called from the back seat. "Aren't we stopping up there?"

David hit the brakes, and flipped his blinker on. "Don't call me that," he said.

"Lighten up, dude," Lyle said, "it takes one to know one. I'm just reclaiming the language, you know?"

"Sure," David said, coasting into the driveway of the roadside motel. "But you can do your reclaiming on someone else from now on, okay." He turned into a parking spot, and Anna turned around to face Lyle.

"I don't care what you folks do after dark," she said, "it's none of my business. But that's a terrible word to use, and I don't need to hear it. None of us do." She gathered up her knitting, and got out of the car, heading to the lobby.

Lyle lifted his eyes to the car ceiling, and said, "Lord, deliver us from your followers. They know not what they do." David found himself chuckling, and he noticed in the rear view mirror that even Katherine was unable to suppress a grin.

"She's not that bad," Katherine chided. "You should just be thankful that she doesn't care 'what you folks do after dark'," she said in a good imitation of the older woman. "Imaging how long this trip would be then, right you two?"

"Ugh," Lyle said. "I really would have to take up hitch hiking, then." He opened the car door, and David popped the trunk. The three of them pulled out their bags from the car trunk, David hauling out Anna's heavy suitcase as well. They took their bags into the lobby, where Anna had secured a pair of rooms for them. She held out the two magnetic key cards.

"Well," Lyle said, in his best effeminate voice, "this is awkward, now isn't it?"