It hadn’t been much longer than fifteen minutes since Glenda had left me, even though it felt like an eternity. There was no sign of her or Aahz or Tanda.
I kept moving, fighting down the desire to shout out Aahz’s name. And the desire to just run. I didn’t know where I would run, but for some reason running was a massive desire.
I reached the edge of town and stood on the last board of the covered sidewalk looking up the road that wound toward the cliff where we had hopped into this dimension. I was sure Tanda and Aahz would come back for me.
Unless, of course, Glenda had done something to them on
Vortex #6.
I didn’t want to think about that. If that happened, I was going to be stuck right here for a very long time.
There was no sign of anyone on the road coming down the hill. I turned and headed back up the sidewalk, doing my “Howdy” bit to anyone who passed, with the hit-tipping routine added in. When I reached the other end of town and the end of the shaded sidewalk, I stared off into the distance to where the road vanished into some low hills.
Then I turned around and started back.
At the moment there was nothing else left for me to do.
I managed to walk the entire length of the town six times before I decided that my behavior might attract attention I didn’t want. When I reached the end of the sidewalk again, on the end of town where we had first entered, I sat down with my back to the wall.
Overhead the sun was slowly dropping. It didn’t look like it would be more than a few hours before it set. Then what would I do?