White Space

“You know where we are?”

In the mirror, Bode saw Eric’s reflection hesitate. “No,” Eric said. “I don’t. Where were you coming from?”

“Outside Jasper,” Bode said. He ignored Chad’s sharp, reproving look. “Stopped off at this little cowboy honky-tonk around eight, nine o’clock.”

“Jasper? Never heard of it. What’s it near?”

“Uh …” For a moment, Bode’s mind simply blanked to a white dazzle. Then a word slid onto his tongue. “Casper.”

There was a small silence. Then Eric said, “Where?”

“You know … Casper.” For a weird moment, Bode thought that this was like when you tried to explain to the hootchgirl that you didn’t want any starch for your shirts, only she didn’t speak but two words of English and you kept shouting, No starchee, no starchee! Like that would get her to understand what you wanted, which she never did. “Casper.”

“Where’s that? Is that near Poplar or something?”

“No, it’s …” Bode licked his lips, then blurted, “Cheyenne!” He felt like he’d just passed a really tough exam he’d forgotten to study for. “Yeah, north of Cheyenne.”

“Cheyenne,” Eric repeated.

“Yeah, Cheyenne.” Chad cranked his head around. “You got some kind of hearing problem? The man said Cheyenne.”

“No, no. It’s just … where do you guys think you are?

What state?”

“What state?” Chad repeated. “Wyoming, man. Where else?”

4

ERIC WAS QUIET for so long Bode’s jaw locked. He had to really dig deep to push the word out. “What?”

“Wyoming plates,” Eric said, but he might as well have said aha. “That’s why you have Wyoming plates.”

“Well, yeah,” Chad said. “So?”

“You guys,” Eric said, slowly, “you guys are a real long way from Jasper, Wyoming.”

“Oh hell. Are we in Kansas? We’re in Kansas, aren’t we?” Chad turned to Bode. “I told you we took a wrong turn outside Laramie.”

“You guys aren’t in Kansas,” Eric said.

“Then where the hell are we?” asked Chad.

“You’re … Oh man.” Eric blew out. “You’re in Wisconsin.”

A beat. Then two. Chad broke the silence with a laugh. “That’s crazy.”

“No.”

“What are you talking about, no?” Chad sniggered again and shook his head. “No, he says. How many spiffs you smoke tonight?”

“What?” Eric waved that away. “Never mind. Look, I started out in Wisconsin this afternoon. I know I didn’t take a snowmobile into the storm and end up blown clear to Wyoming. So we’re either still in Wisconsin, or somehow we’ve all ended up in Wyoming.”

“Mountains are right,” Bode said. “Valley’s right for Wyoming.”

“That’s true. But I honestly don’t think that’s where we are.”

“So we’re in Wisconsin?” Chad asked. “Like where in Wisconsin?”

“I’m not sure of that either, but if we are … then we’re north,” Eric said. “I … I don’t know exactly where.”

“No, of course you don’t,” Chad said.

Battle’s head still floated in the mirror, but Bode focused on Eric’s reflection. “What if …” His tongue gnarled. Bode licked his lips and tried again. “What if we’re not anywhere?”

“What?” Chad said.

Eric returned Bode’s look. “I don’t know where we’d be, then.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Chad asked. “We’re right here.”

“Yeah, but where is that, exactly?” Eric said.

Or when. The thought was suddenly there in Bode’s mind, like the rip of a fart you just couldn’t ignore. “Maybe we’re in between, like limbo.”

Eric’s dark brows drew together. “Wouldn’t we be dead then?”

“Dead? You guys are nuts.” Chad bounced an anxious glance from Eric to Bode, then out the passenger’s side window. “Nuts,” he repeated, jiggling his leg, picking furiously at his sore. “I’m not no Catholic, man.”

Bode said to Eric, “Where you shipping out to, again?”

“Marja, I think,” Eric said. “Probably.”

“Well, I never heard of that.” Chad’s voice was tight with fear and anger. “Is that, like, north or south?”

“South … actually, southwest.”

“So, like, close to Phuoc Vinh? Or Dau Tieng?”

“Dau …?” Eric paused, and Bode saw that the other boy couldn’t ignore that awful stink either. “You guys,” Eric said, evenly, carefully, “what war are you fighting?”

Bode’s mouth was dry as dust. He couldn’t speak. A fist of dread had his throat.

“What war?” said Chad, and gave a sour laugh. “Why … ’Nam, of course.”

ERIC One Step Away From Dead

OH, OF COURSE. A balloon of sudden fear swelled in his chest. Vietnam, of course.

Yet it made a certain loopy sense. Factor in the vintage uniforms, the old Dodge, the way these guys talked—not only their slang but what they didn’t know. Bode and Chad were from the past. Or Eric was in it. Or, maybe, Bode was right and the valley was some crazy kind of limbo.