18

18 The train hisses and sighs as you turn things over in your mind. Things catch fire repeatedly, like piles of dead leaves. Each thing is ignited between fear for yourself and fear for your mystery. The mystery binds you and your friend, yet the separation means that you each must survive in your own way.

As day fades, sleep swallows your mind. You stay in place for the night.

Before day breaks, you are illuminated by a flashlight. “Out,” the railman says. “In,” the police woman says, and you are escorted to the police station.

Your mind begins to spin, repeating itself blindly in a dark jail cell. Later, you recount the story in search of what went wrong.
[return to chapter 1]

17

17 Night falls. You are running feverishly between a fear of the sirens and a fear of missing clues, again. Your past outweighs the present danger of being caught, so you follow the sirens from a distance.
Avoiding roads, you weave through a dump. The ground is uneven and slides away beneath your feet as dump trucks reverse in your path. The sirens fade, again. Finally, you climb a barbed wire fence. From there you are chased by a pack of horses across some fields.
The sirens have returned. Now they are silent, and you see them parked next to a blinking semi truck. As you approach across a distant field, you see Loli and Lacy handcuffing the driver. You continue to descend on the scene under a veil of trees.
As you inspect the area around the figures, you notice body parts rustling like leaves in the wind. The image becomes clearer and it is merely trash. Yet your imagination continues to run wild as you glimpse the faces of the officers. They are not Soli and Lacy.
The foreign faces of the uniformed women becomes less an issue as you study the driver. His hunched figure and bony face suddenly remind you of two people: the old man and your friend. This mixture casts a convincing shadow behind the driver, who is otherwise unrecognizable.
The emergency vehicles take off with the driver, leaving you with a decision.
[to go to the police station, skip to chapter 19. To rest and walk west of Lexington, skip to chapter 20.]

16

16
The old man's passage overlapped with the women's passage in an uncanny way. It was as if the old man had split into two women. This increases your curiosity, so you follow closely.
In the outskirts of town, the women split. You follow Loli since she waves at you. Suddenly, you pivot and run. Loli has entered the cockpit of a police cruiser. She revs the engine and sirens begin to wail as you cut onto some train tracks.
You bolt through a clearing along the tracks. Sirens penetrate the forest, mixing with the whistle of an oncoming train. Again, you pivot and prepare to jump the train. Abandoning your bag, you leap at full speed.
After successfully jumping onto a box, the train rides southwest, away from the sirens. It coasts for a few miles, then grinds to a halt.
[to get out and run, continue. To remain partially hidden on the train, skip to chapter 18]

15

15
Winds push you across the expanse of waving grass. Sirens pierce the wind, pulling images of danger out of you. They are twofold.
First, you picture your family seeking your arrest. They clearly wish to help. For them, however, help is rehabilitation into society through an institution. This endangers your ability to close the case that violently divides you and your friend.
That disability is palpable enough to avoid. On the other hand, Mario's ambiguous presence always seems to be two steps ahead. Rather than return to Lexington, you're ready to take shortcuts to Little Rock. Little Rock, Mario mentioned, "is a nice place."
The sirens increase. You decide to watch them pass from behind some trees. As the emergency vehicles go by, you fail to see a driver. Instead, you see Loli and Lacy, hanging out of the passenger windows. They are chanting in harmony with the sirens.
"We see you." Their voices echo even after the sirens fade.
[skip to chapter 17]

14

14
Running past houses, your figure reflects in windows and in children's actions. The elderly don't blink. You pause in front of him and everyone listens as you say, "Wait."
"Cut!" he responds while taking back the front of the line. You march ahead, past the restaurant and out of town. He finally turns and says, "What? You, again?"
Of course, you say "yes" and use the chance to say something. "How do you do?"
He says "Swamp brain. Jump out of the pond, scumbag."
You laugh and respond, "never mind." He winks and leaves in a blink. Next, you see two women coming from the old man's horizon, carrying tomatoes toward you.
As they approach, you see their hands and mouths stained red. Mud drips across their faces. They have been smothered by a harvest. You smile and feel satisfied to see them.
"Hello." "Hello." "Hello." You exchange hellos.
"I'm looking for somebody," you say. They look at you and say "I'm Soli." "I'm Lacy." Soli then pulls Lacy past you, and back toward Lexington. Both of them laugh hysterically, and pull you with rolling eyes. You start to follow them, but you hesitate.
It's growing dark and time to find sleep, again. Crows caw from buzzing telephone wires, watching you walk. Which way now might mean which way forever: you are tired of this mystery, and afraid that you will sooner find yourself in an institution than find your friend in Lexington.
[To leave Lexington, continue. To follow them, stop and go take a break. Then go to chapter 16]

13

13
Outside, a row of large boxes lines a gravel street. A bluish grey mist seals the street into a narrow world. As you walk, a tunnel of laughing children unfolds. Sparrows dive around you and elderly couples eye you from open porches.
At the end, a field approaches. It is waving in winds that carry the smell of soil. Mounds of human flesh spot the field, working close to the land. One is moving. It comes towards you as you cross towards it.
The old man stands before you, yet his complexion seems smoother and darker. He reminds you of Mario.
"Hola." "Hola." The exchange is brief, for the old man proceeds back the way you came. You stand there, watching. Sparrows land on his shoulder, and he swats them with an the automatic manner. He moves like a camel through you; you are deserted, again.
[to follow him, continue. To stay ahead, skip to chapter 15]

12

12
"I'm fine, and you?" Despite your memory, you find Maria's presence consoling. But memory has complicated things. Part of you responds to her, veiling fear with dumb questions. "What's the special?"
The special takes extra time to prepare. You are waiting patiently, when suddenly a cop walks in. He heads straight for your booth, then proceeds to turn towards the toilet compartment. You decide not to wait around.
Maria sees you passing out the door. "Lo siento," you find yourself speaking words you've never learned.
[continue to chapter 13]

11

11
Sleep saws through you with paralyzing images. The light of dreams fears its shadows, and struggles to flee. It's as if some waking body won't let the nightmare expire.
When you finally make eye contact with the world, you forget where you are. You have a remote suspicion that you awoke before falling asleep. The lapse in memory shifts the ground; as if the earth were spinning the wrong way, you trip over yourself in pursuit of a stable place. Walking into the wind, you listen to the roar of this waking nightmare.
Finally, the fear subsides and you venture out into Lexington. This time, the world seems dramatically different. It is emptied of anything familiar. Nothing resembles the people you search for or the places you've been.
Fearless and hungry, you enter a Mexican restaurant. It is different than the ones you've been to. This one is divided into many compartments. You poke through them until you are surprised by a familiar face.
You quickly withdraw. Mario didn't see you. You walk away when somebody taps you on the soulder.
"Hi, I'm Maria and I'll be your server." It's Mario's likeness, yet in a woman's disguise. "How do you do?"
[to stay and see, continue. Otherwise, flee to chapter 13]

10 !

10
The wide open night spurs you into the fluorescent grid of Lexington. With an edge of loneliness, you look into windows and see families watching each other. Solitude strengthens your desire to seek traces of the lost companions. You search all night, avoiding trespassing at the cost of being thorough.
While weaving around neighborhoods and highways, you become tired and delirious. Everything seems to echo the old man's sayings. Signs seem to give meaning to his illogical reproofs. Even squirrels mimic the man's laughter. You wonder if he has encoded you with the means to finding your friend.
As the birds begin to chirp, you find yourself in an encampment of migrant workers. Figures are hunched around trashcan fires and hidden in makeshift shelters. You scan the scene, seeking anybody familiar. The crowd seems to represent all backgrounds, echoing everyone you've ever met. Various features jump out at you, but they are part of strange faces.
You have become depraved for lack of sleep. Despite the vulnerable situation, you decide to blend in and settle down. The past drills itself into your head as you lie still.
[continue or return to chapter 9 to see the past]

10

9
Walking with the man, you have the illusion of shifting from the center of a crater to its rim. From here, you see into two vast craters. There are many others across a shiftless horizon. Layers of the ground seem to emerge at abrupt angles, showing you more about the depth of the situation than is useful.
Instead of pursuing your line of logic, you decide to probe the man's logic with an open ear. This closeness irritates both of you.
"Cut. It means quit following me. Or get lost." The old man says such things, and you give him no feedback. So the warnings give way to illogical things, like "red is boring. So bound away, before rain turns to shine." Or "ill is this Loch Ness monster. She is disrobed. No peeking in her pond."
In these reproofs, nuances sing the ragged edges of a hard life. The lack of logic amazes you, and entertains you all the way to Lexington.
Meanwhile, the pond seems to surround you. Like a dense mist, the old man's presence is not perceptible through this ancient atmosphere he lives in. This tells you something about your own concerns.
Mario spoke of his wife Maria, and how she wanted to adopt a white man as a child. He thought this was absurd, but apparently Maria was serious. She wanted to teach him how to be a spoke in the wheel of Mexican life. She wanted this for her people, as if the mixture would dissolve their problems.
Perhaps, you think, Mario adopted your friend. This would be good for all, since your friend was undergoing difficult times among his kind. Of course, Mario laughed at the prospect. He could hardly be expected to adopt or suspected of kidnapping your friend.
This kind of introspection was visible to the old man. "Cut!" he would yell each time you thought you had a point.
By the time you reach Lexington, the man has grown quite friendly. This actually distances him from you. He escapes while you urinate behind an abandoned wall. Neon signs dizzy you, so you give up on pursuits for the night and lie behind the wall.
Immediately after falling asleep, you awake. The sun has not quite set. Shadows seem to be covered in confetti as traffic parades before the wall. You are unable to think clearly, and feel uneasy behind your roadside shelter. Sun rays casts lumpy shadows as you skirt Lexington.
In your paranoid state, there is a conspiracy among the old man, the incident of separation, and the sunshine. This plot exposes the conflict between your safety and that of your friend. Despite the confusion, you feel ready to find out where these conspirators are going. Of course, you might fare better after some rest.
[To avoid Mario while looking for the man and your friend, and continue. To go back to sleep, skip to chapter 11]

8

8
You start singing "Engine of the Night Time" as you outpace the old man. Before you disappear across the horizon, you notice his hunched shoulders turning about face. The man leaves you for good.
You are soon picked up by a patrol car. In handcuffs, you hover past the old man, who seems intent on his course.
The mystery begins to repeat itself as you approach Nashville. Your parents are waiting for you. You hear sirens, children imitating sirens, and cats imitating children while thinking back to the emergency itself.
[loophole. return to chapter 1]

7

7
"Cut," the old man says.
"Either he is thinking to himself, or he thinks very little of my situation," he hears you thinking out loud.
"You've told me the way in, now show me the way out," he responds, at last.
"What? Whatever." You stop talking to contemplate this show and tell trick he's playing. You sing to him, simply passing the time. "Blue borders, of red and gold, show you outside, what's been told," the song fits the situation like an arch fits a rainbow.
You feel lucky, and walk with the man towards Lexington.
[to be continued in chapter 9]

6

6
The eye of the star sets over the haze of Cleveland. In that moment, the poetic feeling passes. You look into it. Like strangers, you avoid contact. The feeling is distinctly ephemeral. Nothing will make it last.
You have forgone the mystery of a violent past. Now you must live in its shadow, tending to values rather than fighting for them.
Your family helps you to grow. Yet, like a flock of crows surrounding a cardinal, something about your family is not connected to you. Your disparate appearance disguises the common catastrophe that separated you and your friend.
Without looking any further, the case is closed. The mystery remains normal, and you discontinue the pursuit in exchange for happiness.
[dead end]

5

5 As long as the man is gone, nothing stays the same. The sun rises and rains sets in. The motel turns out to be working, and you are finally noticed by management.
As you are leaving, the old man returns. "Okay, follow me," he coaxes you with fearless eyes. Wondering where the fear went, you follow him north.
"Show and tell. Tell me what you've been shown." The rubbing of the man's gums nearly drowns his words. But you see where he's going, and begin to tell him your story.
"It doesn't make sense. But I'll tell you what I know. So something happened in Lexington last week. My friend and I had been walking north, on our way to Cleveland. We stopped in Lexington for the night. Before I knew it, we were were separated.
"The last thing I remember was Mario, this man who had promised to show us a good time. By the middle of the night, he was threatening to rip me apart. He said he wanted to play battleship with my body parts in a bathtub. My friend was nowhere to be seen, so I split the scene looking for him.
"Well, finding somebody in a mass of neon signs is a nightmare. My friend could have been sleeping in any shadow. Lexington is damn big, and without a car or a cell phone somebody is damn small. It dawned on me that either we both fled or one of us would fall prey to Mario. So I left, hoping that my friend had left, too.
"Mario had mentioned Nashville, so I figured my best hope was to find my friend there. Do you think I should go down there, or back up to Lexington?"
The old man didn't respond. You must either probe him for more or go on toward Lexington, alone. Either way, you're too frustrated to turn around, again.
[to probe the man, skip to chapter 7. To go on alone, skip to chapter 8.]

4

4 "What?" you ask. "Cut!" the old man imitates the sound with his hand. "Cut it out, nobody cares. Go back home!" Instead of pursuing the man's logic, you follow him from a distance.
After an hour of tracing your steps, you stop. The mime merges with the horizon, and you turn north.
Despite the colder nights, you've determined to return to Lexington. The situation is too complex to ignore. Ever since it emerged, it's been growing. Without a simple way out, it has been eating you alive.
A few nights later, the old man finds you sleeping on the porch of an abandoned motel. "Too many twigs in your pack," he says, scratching his bald head. "What?" you try to utter, somewhat paralyzed between this wakeful figure and a deep dream.
He drops his things. "Donuts if you want." The smell of freshly baked fat calms your nerves. "Uh, did you follow me?" you ask.
"Cut!" the old man says and scurries off, abandoning his things. "Huh?" you stand puzzled, wondering if the old man intends to return. You also wonder if he is following you, or if you followed him.
[To stay and find out, go on to chapter 5. Otherwise, return to chapter 3]

3

3 Nothing terrifies you as much as a boring conversation, so you avoid the man and walk onward. Besides, you've got places to be. Mario, the Mexican waiter from Planet Terra, had suggested Little Rock before disappearing.
Your attention is dividing the land between walking and wonder when a cop car pulls up. The patrol men pull you in and take you to a station. There, your parents assume control. The sun sets on Nashville and rises on Cleveland, where you are behind bars. This time, the bars are those of a mental institution.
These bars have been painted the color of flesh. They are supposed to feel safe. Buttons divide rooms. Therapists press them, accessing broken brains and setting things in order.
You spend months here, struggling to act independently while letting others set the stage.
Each morning, you sit behind greasy windowpanes. You soak in a mild bath of sunlight. Time slows to a halt as dust mixes skies that evaporate with rays that penetrate. As a runaway, your strength couldn't get enough time, now it has too much time it is weak. For a moment, that infinitely tense desire to leave falters, and breaks.
"Yes," you speak learned words in defense of your sanity. Appropriate timing gets you off the hook, and eventually you're faced with a choice: do you pursue the mystery that broke your strength?
[To pursue the mystery, return to chapter 2. Otherwise, skip to chapter 6.]

Chapter 2 [Pickor Poison ]

Tinted windows twist you into a strange figure. Then they vanish, and trees rustle in the wind.
"What?!" you cry after the car. You thought it was offering a ride. Suddenly, you were slapped. Now the car rolls away, detracting its arms. On either side, the forest shakes.
This is where you stand. Madness creeps through you like an itch. Since you can't find it, you itch everything.
You begin walking again, deciding not to thumb a ride. Another figure appears on the horizon as you step over some sort of roadkill.
Most people mistake these lands for roads, as if nothing else should be there. You see those people hovering past right now, on a conveyor belt. Not many walk the road as if it were land. Those that do must leap across weed eaten cracks and pause upon meeting. The figure switches to your side of the road.
After a slow pause, the pale old man is close enough to talk above burning rubber. "Hello." "Hello." The man gestures like a mime. He seems to be trapped in a box as he walks; his actions must have been learned in some terrible enclosure. Fear emanates from his eyes. "Goodbye." "Goodbye." The meeting passes quickly.
As you walk away, you hear him mutter something. The utter tone is enough to frighten the dead. As if boundless indifference was gasping, the man's raspy voice seems to name what you've done. He keeps walking away, but you must decide whether to respond.

[To respond, skip to chapter 4]