have no options except for this one really shitty one. If Larry wasn’t injured, if Michaela wasn’t Cheetos’d, if none of those horrible wishes had been granted in the first place . . . But they had. I’d done something stupid and maybe that meant I needed to do something even more stupid to correct it.
As if reading my mind, Smith says, “I’ll be right there beside you.”
“Okay,” I say, turning to Rabbit. “Is he at the bar?”
“You’ll come, then?” Rabbit claps his hands gleefully when I nod. “Excellent, excellent. Cash will be thrilled. You don’t even know.”
“We’re coming too,” Dyl announces, jerking her thumb to indicate W2 beside her.
I expect Rabbit to object, but he just grins. “Wonderful! The more the merrier, is what I always say!”
As if that settles everything, Rabbit scampers off, promising to meet us at the bar, while the rest of us climb into the Jeep. The bar is on the outskirts of town, but we still get there sooner than I’d like.
The idea of having to face my father makes me more than a little sick, and the only thing that keeps me from turning and running is my connection to Smith. He’s the anchor holding me here, but more than that, his hand fused with mine seems to lend me some of his strength. And right now, I need it.
I look over my shoulder at Dyl. She sits with her arms wrapped around herself, staring through the back window, watching an empty corner of the parking lot.
How could I have forgotten for even an instant? No matter how wrapped up I am in this train wreck of a day, how has it not even crossed my mind that this is where Dyl was last seen and where her remains were found weeks later. In that suitcase, in the trunk of a car, in this parking lot. Perhaps it was left in that very same parking spot she has her gaze locked on.
Rabbit knocks on my window, making us all jump. “Why are you all just sitting around? Come on inside!”
Now that we’re here, looking at the dingy building, which is oddly empty and quiet for ten o’clock on a Saturday night, we all hesitate.
“Came this far,” W2 says at last, swinging his door open and trotting behind Rabbit into the bar.
And for some reason, we all decide to follow the lead of the biggest idiot in the group, perhaps even the biggest idiot in the world.
The interior of the bar is dark and musty. Despite the sprinkling of cars in the parking lot, there isn’t a single person inside. The parking lot lights filter through windows thick with grime, and the tables are covered in a sticky layer of residue. If I hadn’t been here last night and seen how packed the place was, I would swear from the broken-down and neglected ambiance that it had been shut down and left to slowly rot away years ago.
Behind the bar, Rabbit fills four cups with a sprayer thingy. “Who’s thirsty?” he calls when he’s finished.
Again W2 eagerly leads the way and the rest of us reluctantly follow. The glasses, in keeping with the rest of the décor, are greasy to the touch and something that looks like a roach floats at the top of mine. Without taking a sip, I quickly set it back down again.
“Look, Rabbit,” I start, “I don’t have a lot of time—”
Rabbit claps his hands together. “Of course, I understand completely. We’ll just let your friends stay here and enjoy their refreshments, while we go seek out your father.” Turning toward Smith, Rabbit gives him a strange little bow. “Young man, if you would hand the young lady over to me, I assure you I will take excellent care of her.”
Smith smirks. “I bet you would.” He holds up our linked hands. “But right now where Lennie goes, I go. We’re stuck. See?”
“Oh.” The friendly smile that had been on Rabbit’s face since he found us fades away. “Oh, I do see. That’s not . . . Oh, dear.” His little eyes dart between us nervously. “And I suppose that’s the result of a wish?”
“Yeah,” Smith answers.
“I wonder if you might be able to share with me the exact wording of that wish?”
“It was sick!” W2 jumps in. “I wasn’t there, but everyone was talking about it. It was a total burn. No offense, Lennie, but Smith totally slammed you. He was all, ‘I wish I could see you in