where are you taking me? johnny asked the driver.
why do you ask? the driver asked. ii am taking you where i am taking you. there is nothing you can do about it.
how do you know i don’t have a gun in my pocket and i will take it out and shoot you?
you fell asleep, remember? did it occur to you that i could have checked your pockets while you wee asleep?
did you?
what do you think?
how do you know i do not have psychic mind powers and can just zap your brain and kill you?
i guess i don’t know. it is just the chance i am taking. besides, if you have secret powers, why would you be out desperately hitchhiking on the highway?
how do you know i am desperate? johnny asked.
i guess i just know it. i might have psychic mind powers, too. look, why don’t you ask me a reasonable civilized question?
like what?
like my name. all this time and you have not even asked me my name. that is kind of hurtful.
i don’t care what your name is. and getting kidnapped is kind of hurtful, too, wouldn’t you say?
that is an ugly word, with even uglier connotations. i am not kidnapping you, i am recruiting you, doesn’t that sound less stressful and hostile? my name is buddy , by the way, since you didn’t ask.
bleep you, buddy.
all right, buddy replied with a sigh, take that attitude.
what are you recrutiing me to?
i am glad you asked that question.
before you go any further, johnny interrupted, i am hungry. you said you were not going to kill me, are you going to starve me?
now that mention, buddy replied, i am kind of hungry myself. but we are deep in the dark heart of the american night.
johnny glanced out the window. the whole time they had been talking, nothing had appeared on the highway, either behind them or in front of them, or on either side of the road.
isn’t there anything to eat in the dark whatever? johnny asked.
buddy laughed, as if johnny had said the funniest thing he had ever heard.
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