Jigsaw World Read Free Page A

were any indication.
Tom spent a couple of moments contemplating the sheer incongruity
of the dream components, and then he returned to sleep.
    When he woke up, it was after 4 PM, and Susan
was still sleeping in the bedroom. Bailey was pretending to be
asleep, but Tom could see him open his eyes briefly from time to
time, hoping to find that Tom had miraculously produced a fine dog
dinner. After finding the makings for an egg, pancake and bacon
breakfast, and starting a pot of coffee to perk, Tom proceeded to
do exactly that.
    When the pancakes and the omelets were done,
Tom forcefully shook Susan awake, and once she was seated at the
table, filled her and Bailey’s plates with the egg and bread
concoctions, sided with strips of dead pig. Soon enough, all
parties were engaged with the comforting task of filling their
empty stomachs.
    When they were finally done eating, it was
about 5:30, and the shadows were starting to get longer, sliding
down toward the dark of night. As they sat with their coffees in
hand, Susan started discussing her potential plans. She had decided
that she wanted to go to her sister’s in Dilbert, New Mexico. She
didn’t explicitly say so, but her plans seemed to include Tom
coming along on the trip. Tom didn’t want to go with her, but he
didn’t see a good opening for saying so.
    Susan said that she had an old Caravan Voyager
in the garage, and that her last boyfriend had fancied himself a
mechanic, so he had stocked the garage with tools and supplies.
Would Tom check the van out, and see if it was up to the trip? Of
course he would.
    By six o’clock, he was busy in the garage,
checking the fluid levels, tires, hoses and belts on the van. The
hour saw the van with a new oil change, a new set of spark plug
wires, and a retouch of the coolant. Tom gave her the once-over,
but could find nothing else significant to improve. Bailey panted
his approval of a job well done.
    Tom and Bailey went back into the house, after
Tom had washed up in the shop sink that Susan’s Ex had installed in
the garage. Soon enough, he was nursing his fifth cup of coffee of
the day, and the sun had done its setting thing. Susan looked as
though she would be ready to go on her little adventure in another
hour or so. Tom still had not come up with a good way to beg off of
the trip, and was starting to think that maybe going east wouldn’t
be such a bad thing. Once she got where she was going, He and
Bailey could hitch across country until he got somewhere in the
Mississippi delta.
    Tom spent the next hour gathering up things
that he thought they might need on the trip. He placed a box of
tools and a gas can in the back of the van. He put together a bag
of travel goodies, including food, reading materials, a can of
orange spray paint that he found in the garage, some candles and
other miscellaneous items. This bag was currently in the living
room, in case he found something else that needed to go into it. By
this time, it was a little after eight in the evening.
    Now that he had a chance to think about it, he
was kind of looking forward to the trip. It would be good to be
traveling again. He was sure that Susan would not be a great
traveling companion, but she really needed his help, and he would
be nearly a fifth of the way across the country, and if he had to,
he could always pick a convenient fight with her.
    He was ready to go. She wasn’t ready, and for
the next forty-five minutes she kept him waiting. Just about the
time he was starting to rethink his plans, she came into the living
room with a packed bag. It looked like she was finally ready. At
this worst possible time, that was when it started.
    A growling sound started outside. It sounded
like the house was surrounded by unseen predators. Looking out of
the window, Tom thought that he saw yellow eyes reflecting in the
darkness, but he could not be sure. Once the sounds started, it
took Susan about ten seconds to turn into a full-blown basket
case.
    Tom turned to