Chapter Twenty-Two: Miles to Go
The sky was putting on a cosmic lightshow.
The stars were crystal dust, scattered across black velvet. Each particle glittered like a field full of fresh powder snow, reduced to a pinpoint. Up, above, and all around, constellations and galaxies were mapped in silver fire – a dazzling, connect-the-dots display of science, history and legend.
The glory of the universe, undiluted by city lights.
Jane could see Dippers, big and little, Andromeda, Orion, and Sirius. He could even see Mars, gleaming red off in the distance. Only Crater-Face was absent, lost in the shadow of the Earth.
Without its main attraction, the rest of the night's tapestry seemed to glow brighter than ever. It was as gorgeous as a Van Gogh painting, as surreal as a hallucination, and Jane was hard-pressed not to exclaim in wonder when a shooting star streaked across the skyline.
He pointed at it with his free hand, but Penny didn't turn her head. She just continued to shuffle along beside him, obedient as a little zombie.
This wasn't the first time tonight that Jane had wanted to show her something beautiful, teach her something fascinating, tell her something funny, or hopeful.
It had been a long while since he'd been in the extended company of a child.
Right now, that child's face was pale as a corpse, her eyes dull and blank, but Jane knew he could bring her back to life. Soothing, honest words to ease her pain. Vivid stories to distract her from the misery.
The power of his voice.
Without it, he was more crippled than if he had two broken legs.
Jane wasn't used to censoring himself. Lisbon, in fact, believed him incapable of it. She often accused Jane of having impulse control issues, Attention Deficit Disorder, and the like, but Jane didn't think this was true. It wasn't an impulse control problem, so much as an "I don't give a damn" problem.
It was just hard to care about little consequences like getting punched in the nose, having to pay a $15,000 fine, or being forced to spend a few nights in jail. Hard to care about anything, really, after he'd already suffered the worst punishment of all.
But if this little girl died…
Somehow, numb as he was, Jane knew he would feel it.
And if she died because of him, because of some stupid mistake that he made, that feeling might just be actual pain.
So, in spite of all impulses to the contrary, he kept his mouth shut.
Who knew how far even a whisper might carry across the desert? Who knew who might be close enough to hear it?
They were in a complex, three-way game of hide-and-seek. Team Psychopath versus Team Lisbon versus Team…Jane looked down at the little girl, remembering the sight of her bedroom before it got demolished. Team Oz, he thought, smiling faintly.
The smile slipped when he saw a shiver grip Penny's small body. Jane's own nose, ears, fingers and toes were aching with the cold night air, but the icy temperature was like a balm on his broken leg. The swollen skin felt less tight, and the fierce pain itself had dulled somewhat.
Penny, however, was in shock. And woefully under-dressed, too. Cold was the very last thing she needed right now. Jane's eyes traveled over her paper-thin t-shirt and equally flimsy shorts, her spindly white arms and bare, dirt-blackened feet. A popsicle would probably feel toasty warm compared to those little toes…
As soon as they stopped, Jane would take care of that. It was one thing he could do, at least.
And he was planning on stopping at some point. The joints on his good leg were creaking and cracking with every little hop-step. Each time he paused to look and listen and make sure they were still safe, it got a bit harder to start moving again.
Penny herself was doing a lot more tripping and lurching than actual walking.
Neither one of them could go on indefinitely.
But Jane wouldn't let them quit just yet. He couldn't shake the feeling that they needed to get somewhere, to reach something. What, he didn't know. It was the desert, after all, and there wasn't a whole lot to be found out here. Basically all they'd encountered over the whole length of their journey were a few tiny tufts of dry vegetation, some medium-sized rocks, and a sprinkling of old goat turds.
Still, Jane kept hopping slowly along, admiring the sky.
Half an hour later, a dark silhouette came into view. A huge, dark silhouette.
Jane hobbled closer to the mystery object, curious and entirely unafraid. The thing loomed tall against the night – three or four times as tall as a grown man. Tall enough to blot out Mars completely. And as its contours melted into sight, traced in weak blue starlight, Jane began to wonder if he might actually be hallucinating.
Because the thing looked an awful lot like a dragon…