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.]