In a Handful of Dust

At first glance Lucy thought Lynn must have been mistaken. This was no river. Water stretched as far as she could see, wider than any field from home. It had to be a lake, or even the ocean itself. It should have made her glad to see a seemingly endless supply of what so many yearned for, but she screwed her eyes shut against it. The sheer terror of something so large existing in the world she had thrown herself into only made her own smallness more apparent, the very fact that she was alive meaningless to anyone besides herself.

She heard Lynn pulling up beside her, Black Horse’s hoofbeats ringing out in time with Spatter’s, gaining on them, then passing them, followed closely by Brown Horse. Still, she kept her eyes closed.

When the first raindrop fell on her cheek she cried out in alarm, her eyes flying open. The dark clouds that had hovered all day were cracking open and dropping their burden. She could see the far shore now, and the buildings of the river town they were heading toward at breakneck speed. Most of the houses looked deserted; the empty eye sockets of glassless windows stared blankly at their approach.

Lucy leaned low over Spatter’s neck, not daring to glance left or right at the endless stretch of water, focusing only on Black Horse’s flying tail and the flash of his hooves. They cleared the bridge and Lynn’s horses followed her guidance, breaking to the left and following the river as it flowed south. Spatter was losing ground on the bigger horse, his smaller legs unable to eat the distance as quickly.

Lucy clamped down on the urge to cry out to Lynn. Buildings stretched along her right, more than she had seen in a long time, sparking memories of Entargo. Lynn shot a glance over her shoulder, but Lucy waved her on despite the distance opening between them. There were no signs of life, no reason for concern as their mounts sped southward.

The wet smell of the ground opening up to welcome the rain filled Lucy’s nostrils, and she pulled it deeply into her lungs, happy for the reminder of home—a place where she had mattered. The buildings on the right gave away to a residential area with houses set so close to the water it made Lucy shiver to think of every drop of rain falling into the river and swelling it. A brick house flashed past, and she just had time to register the sight of three buckets set out on the sidewalk to catch the rain as she passed.

Soon the houses grew sparse, and the road veered west again. Spatter followed it, a deep huffing in his lungs giving voice to his irritation at Black Horse for leaving him so far behind. Lucy could see Lynn had slowed her mount after breaking into the open. Spatter pulled up alongside him, and they matched each other at a slower pace, the riders not exchanging words until they were well clear of the town, and the river no longer lingered in the air.

“Well,” Lynn said, wiping raindrops from her brow and motioning toward the unbroken road ahead of them. “We’re in Iowa.”

“Wow,” Lucy said, still breathless from their ride. “And I thought Indiana was flat.”

Fifteen

The heat beat down on them, drawing all their water to their skin and killing the grass that filled the plains. An endless sea of brown stretched to all sides, undulating with the wind and reminding Lucy of the rolling Mississippi, but drawn in dead tones. The horses stopped to rest more often, and their riders let them, their own misery trumping the need for progress.

Lynn slid from her horse and nearly tumbled into the shade of a tree. Lucy followed suit, not bothering to loop Spatter’s reins around a branch like she usually did. She wiped her face with her shirt and sank beside Lynn, whose eyes were closed against the unending glare of the sun. Her lips were cracking slightly.

“You need to drink more,” Lucy said, uncapping her own water bottle.

“I’m fine,” Lynn said, her eyelids not even fluttering. “Right now I’m wishing I could take my own skin off and wring it out.”

“I know it,” Lucy agreed, wiping more sweat from her brow.

“I’m thinking we might consider traveling at night,” Lynn said, eyes still closed. “We’d make better time, and it’d be less work on the horses.”

Lucy pulled from her water bottle. “Could we even sleep in this heat? Not to mention anybody could see us.”

“True enough. There’s nowhere to hide out here.”

It was impossible to leave the road without creating a trail behind them. Anytime they allowed the horses to wander into the grass, a perfect line of broken stalks followed them. Lucy pictured a group of men much like the ones from Indiana veering off course to follow the curious path of crushed grass, and finding Lynn and Lucy peacefully asleep at the end of it. Even in the heat, she had goose bumps.

“I think we should stick to what we’re doing, for now,” she said. “The heat has to break sometime.”

“You’re talking about Ohio weather,” Lynn reminded her. “We’ve got no idea if Iowa follows the same rules.”