Walter smiled; it was nice to see that Cassie had such a good friend. When Rachel finally agreed to come along, contingent on the fact that Cassie had promised to go shopping with her tomorrow, Walter was quick to herd them into his new pickup truck. He did still miss his old one sometimes, but the new truck wasn't without its good points.
They were soon on their way to the Dry Lands. The daylight slowly faded away as the three of them left the city behind. The Dry Lands were an empty, savannah-like area, well beyond the last vestiges of the city.
Cassie shifted in her seat, wishing they would get there faster, just so she could finally get out of this cramped front seat. She could also tell that Rachel was getting antsy too, Cassie thought it would have been better for both of them if they had been in a place where they could have talked privately.
But the back of the truck was off-limits for safety reasons, and the cab was extremely crowded. Not to mention the fact that my dad is sitting right next to us. There's no way we could even mention the Animorphs without it leading to all kinds of questions.
Cassie also knew that there was a chance that her father was a Controller, one of the very enemies that the Animorphs were fighting against. Cassie personally doubted it, but there was no way to really be sure, and no way that Cassie would risk the safety of any of her friends just because she happened to be bored for a minute.
"So, who's Crazy Helen anyway?" Cassie heard Rachel ask.
Cassie was glad that someone had finally thought of something to talk about.
"We probably shouldn't call her that, even though that's what she calls herself," Cassie heard her dad say. "She's an old woman, maybe eighty years old, and she runs a souvenir shop out in the Dry Lands. She lives in a trailer behind the shop. I met her a few years ago, when she called me because of some trouble with the Dry Lands horse herds."
"There was a problem with intestinal parasites," Cassie elaborated, noticing that Rachel was nodding in that way that people did when they didn't really understand something, but didn't really want to ask more about it. "Worms."
"For who?" Rachel asked, smirking slightly. "The horses, or Crazy Helen?"
Well, I think I walked right into that one, Cassie thought.
"There it is," Cassie's father pointed out, interrupting Cassie's search for a funny comeback to Rachel's remark.
A huge billboard, bigger than the actual store in fact, loomed ahead of them. Cassie's father stopped the truck in front of the store. The billboard itself read: Last Chance Souvenirs. The store was closed, and it looked like it had been that way for some time by now.
Behind the store was an Airstream trailer, sitting there and looking like the front end of a Bullet-train. Out from under an awning decorated with Christmas lights came Crazy Helen. Crazy Helen did look a bit eccentric, dressed as she was in an old, faded flowered blouse, somewhat complemented by patched jeans and cowboy boots.
Cassie and Rachel both thought she looked strange, but Rachel was grinning at the mental picture that this old woman was giving her. Rachel leaned closer to Cassie, fighting to keep herself from bursting out laughing.
"Hey Cassie, it's you. In about sixty or seventy years, that is."
Cassie elbowed Rachel in the side, and the both of them started laughing.
"Well, actually, you'll probably start some volunteer organization that saves unhappy chickens and whales, or something like that," Rachel continued, gently poking Cassie in the ribs.
Cassie grinned back, finding that image of her future more to her liking. Though, Cassie wasn't really sure how she was going to work with whales and chickens at the same time. But still, it was the sentiment that counted.
"She's over there. Over there," Crazy Helen said, heading for them as soon as they were out of the truck. "It's a big roan mare. She's been acting all funny. Like maybe she's been eating the loco weed."
"Loco weed?" Rachel asked, turning to Cassie.
Cassie shrugged; she didn't know what Helen was talking about, either.
"Hi, Helen. We'll go take a look at her, see what we might have on our hands. How have you been lately?"
"Those darned aliens still won't let me sleep," Crazy Helen complained.
Cassie's father was facing Helen, and Helen was more focused on him than on anything else, so neither of them saw Rachel suddenly stiffen, snapping ramrod-straight and narrowing her eyes at Crazy Helen. Could she know? Rachel wondered. Cassie leaned over to whisper discreetly in Rachel's ear.
"Different aliens," she said, and winked.
"They keep on sending me the messages through my teeth," Crazy Helen went on; as if what she was saying was perfectly sensible. "They keep on telling me they're gonna land, right out here. But I haven't seen a Martian land in forty years. They're very sneaky. Very, very sneaky, untrustworthy folks."
"Who?" Walter asked.
"The Martians, that's who!" Crazy Helen laughed.
Cassie couldn't help noticing that hers was not the laugh of a madwoman, but more that of someone that knew what they were talking about. Cassie often wondered if Helen was really crazy, or if she was just putting everyone else on.
"Well, we'll go take a look at this horse." Walter turned away, heading back to his truck.
