James Axler – Circle Thrice

“You’ll get to meet her. Everyone passes through Memphis gets to meet the countess. She got some triple-odd people around her. Not a woman to cross, if you take my meaning.”

THEY STOPPED for the evening by a looping waterway. Sullivan told them that it was called the New River, since it had appeared out from nowhere some time after the ending of the long winters.

“Good drinking,” he said. “One thing you can rely on.” He slapped the side of his engine, ticking as it cooled. “Like a John Deere engine.”

“How do you do for gas?”

The farmer looked at Ryan. “I do what I can. Quality gets worse as the processing plants fall apart. But there’s still places. Long as you know where to look for it and you got the pocketful of jack to pay them for it. We tow it in the pair of bowsers at the back of the last two wags in line. That’s more of a risk from cold-hearts than the grain.”

SULLIVAN HAD TWENTY good men working with him, with a couple of hard-faced women to do the cooking and washing. Everyone was related to everyone else and all came from the same farming ville, speaking rarely in the soft Kentucky twang.

Sentries were posted for the night camp, and the offer from Ryan to let them share the guard was gently but firmly refused. It was done with a generous good nature, but Ryan would have done the same thing if he’d been in the farmer’s place. You didn’t just up and trust armed outlanders to the extent of letting them watch over you while you slept.

It was a good night, and Ryan slept dreamlessly, waking with the freshness of dawn dew on his sleeping bag, lying alongside Krysty, appreciating a magnificent golden sunrise that spilled all across Tennessee.

“We reach Memphis today?” he asked, seeing Sullivan toweling water from his gingery hair as he walked by toward one of the cooking fires.

“No. Some rough track to come, where the land shift was worse. Stop off at Country Row for the night. Make the ville by noon tomorrow.”

“What’s that?”

“Oddball little ville. Tell you about it over bacon and biscuits. Time you folks was up and doing. We’ll be hitting the highway within the hour.”

THE FARMER ELABORATED as they sat around snatching the relics of breakfast, while the taciturn women waited to clear away their plates and get them washed and stacked. Engines were coughing into life on the grain carriers, turning the air blue-gray with their thick fumes.

“Country Row’s one of them places that got born and popular just because it was there. Nukes didn’t leave much of Nashville, and what was left kind of fell apart. But in these parts everyone still loves country music, so folks wanted a focus. A place to hear the beating heart. Touch the soul of old America. About ten years ago a guy called Wolfram came and opened up Country Row. Filled it with costumes and guitars and all kinds of stuff he swore was genuine. Waxworks. Records. Memorabilia”

“Wolfram?” Ryan said. “There’s a name you keep stumbling across. He still there? Be good to finally catch up with him after all we’ve been hearing over the years.”

“Long gone. But place is thriving. It’s kind of become its own myth.”

“Sounds fun,” Mildred said.

Sullivan looked sideways at her, hesitating. “Fact is, ma’am, and I don’t want you to think we’re prejudiced”

“But?”

He caught the note of instant anger in her voice and held up his work-hard hands. “Not me, lady. I don’t give a flyin’ fuck what color a person is or how they choose to worship their own gods. But that don’t apply everywhere and for everyone around this neck of the woods.”

“I’ve been dealing with redneck peckers ever since I was knee-high to a possum hound, Sullivan,” Mildred snapped, lips a thin line of bitterness. “Few more won’t make any odds.”

“Country Row’s a kind of redneck heaven, ma’am,” one of the younger, freckled drivers said hesitantly. “Black folks keep clear and” he turned toward Jak, who was brushing out his long mane of snow-stark hair “long hair doesn’t go well with them good old boys, neither. My advice might be for you to stay with the rigs for the night. We can put a real good watch on you so there’s no trouble.”