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CLUE NUMBER TEN (from North Carolina):


For the Hidden Journey:

Patterns repeat in life, and across lifetimes, much as waves break on shore. But each wave is different from the last.


For the Puzzle:

Here is the tenth set of 5 letters of the puzzle/cryptogram:

v w z i z

To solve the puzzle, collect the other 13 parts and assemble them in order. This is part 10.

                                   


The Story:

Then when the Cruiser bit the hard one in Kansas City, of course we're both upset, but he goes cattywompus and blames me for buying a crappy car. No, even worse, for making him go along with buying it. He just keeps his mouth shut until it's too late and then he whips a Mr. Jones and says, you were wrong, griff, griff, griff. Yah, that's so easy, after the other guy catches the jerk by making the call.

I was also spun because Mr. Macho can't bear to face the girl who slagged him off. Mr. Kung Fu is scared of the one girl who saw through his griff and took his edge off. Even King Widget takes a fall sometime, but no, Alex just wants to run away and to hell with what's important to me.

That frap about me taking charge really torques me, too. I always think of his feelings, what he might like to do, but he can't stop one second to think about the fact that this girl could be it for me. I'm not some sports hero or Romeo; this could be my big chance at romance. So will my pal help me out by just breezing for a few days? No.

After an hour of this I am ready to jerk the chain and blow him off right now, to hell with waiting until Iowa to vector on my own. All I have to do, I'm thinking, is survive until Charleston and then I'll ditti mau on a bus to Iowa; it'll be great, no more of his snoring and farting and no more worrying about his blinky second-guessing.

We didn't have a map of the Southeast because we we'd never had any plans to go there. Old Man Ching had left a thick bundle of maps wrapped with string in the glove compartment, but they were out of date and so brittle that when we opened the California one it split in half. So we just retied the string and put them under the seat. More for something to do than because I really needed a more detailed map I dig the bundle out and start looking for a map of South Carolina.

There's lots of state maps, but no South Carolina. I was curious how old these maps were and I found one dated 1960. The California one was dated 1969. All the other maps were 1960 or even earlier. Some were 1957 or '58. I tried to stuff them back under the seat, but something was in the way. I start to feel torqued again, like what the hell is stuck under here? and I reach way in and feel something along the side of the seat frame. I finally get a grip on it and pull out a tall thin little book.

(continued in Chapter Fourteen of I-State Lines)


All content and coding copyright © 2006 by Charles Hugh Smith, all rights reserved

                                    		 
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