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After Laura tells you where the Jinn is headed, you speed away in the cab. You are driving so fast the landscape is only a blur past the mirrors and the cab’s locks rattle in their metal rings.
It takes you a while to realize that you don’t know where you’re going.
You pull over at a convenience mart and ask about the House on the Rock and Wisconsin. The lady behind the counter reeks of cigarettes and gives you an ugly look, but amidst her diatribe about foreign people taking over the country, you hear the word <i>north</i>. Wisconsin is north. The Jinn is north. Your life is north.
You get back in the cab and follow the blue sign that says <i>north</i>. You get on the interstate, which would have been terrifying just a week ago. Nothing scares you anymore, except not seeing the Jinn again.
You have not been on the interstate long when you hear an ugly clunking noise from the cab’s belly. It growls, then chokes.
You feel north draw you like a compass needle, but the cab is dead on the side of the road.
You have to do something. You have to keep moving. No matter what happens, you have to get to House on the Rock. There’s a tool kit in the trunk, you think. Maybe you could [[fix whatever’s wrong with the cab yourself|Fix Cab]]. Or … look at them, all the cars flying past you. [[Maybe someone will stop and pick you up.|Hitchhike]] Or you could walk to the nearest exit … and then what? [[Steal a car?|Steal Car]] You have to do <i>something</i>. You remember seeing a tool kit in the trunk of the cab. You fetch it, pop the hood, and look down at the cab’s innards. Cars rush by you so fast the body of the cab rattles, and it kicks up a sooty wind, blowing right in your face.
It strikes you, suddenly, that you have no idea what you’re looking at. You never owned a car in Oman; you learned to drive in one of your uncle’s, but it was more a rite of passage than a practical thing. You had a tough learning curve figuring out how to gas up the cab; fixing something wrong with the engine is probably beyond you.
But you have to get moving again.
“I am coming, ifrit,” you say, “I can walk any path for love.”
You look down at the engine’s parts, focusing. There’s a fat hose that appears to be pulsating, and a thin, white smoke coiling up from beneath a heavy plastic cap. You have snips in your tool kit; that would take care of the hose. Or you could unscrew the cap and see where that smoke is coming from. Which will it be: [[cutting the hose]] or [[investigating the smoke]]?Several cars pass you by, but finally one stops. It is a man with a gold complexion and many earrings. His eyes are incredibly kind, and you trust him immediately.
“I am going to Wisconsin, too,” he says. “I can take you there.”
You cannot believe your luck. You fall asleep listening to the man hum along to the radio.
You dream. The Jinn has taken you to his bed, and you lay on your back looking up at him. The bed floats alone in space; on all sides of you, there is midnight black and the twinkling of thousands of diamond bright stars.
“What do you know of eternity?” the Jinn asks.
You answer honestly. “Only that I wish to spend it with you.”
The fire in his eyes warms every inch of you. He bends down to kiss you, his lips soft against your own.
There is a screech, metal on metal, and you jerk against the seatbelt so hard it bruises you. It is a rude awakening, and you are disoriented; for a moment, it seems as if everything is spinning, and then you realize it <i>is</i>. The man with the earrings is yelling, but you are so disoriented it takes you a moment to make out what he’s saying.
Finally, you do.
He is saying, over and over again
<b>R U N</b>
The car stops spinning, caught in the bent arm of a warped highway barrier. You look out the window and see men in suits approaching the car. The man with the earrings cuts you out of your seatbelt; he gets out of the car, and he pulls you out after him. He is still yelling
RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN
You run. The man stays, waiting for the men in the suits. You do not know where you are going, but you have nothing with which to defend yourself, or the man with the kind eyes who was going to take you to Wisconsin. Behind you, you hear screaming, and gunshots.
Cars swerve to miss you, blaring their horns. It is starting to get dark, and you can feel rain on your face. This is not safe. Maybe the Jinn’s world is too dangerous for you.
You don’t care.
You wave your arms, and a dark sedan screeches to a stop in front of you. You cannot see the driver, blinded by his headlights, but you can hear him, first yelling curse words, then that you should get in. You run to the passenger’s door. A car zooms past you, and you press your body against the sedan as he passes, then pry the door open and get inside. Slam the door behind you, and you don’t have time to put on your seatbelt before the driver stomps on the accelerator. You grab onto the dash with one hand and secure your seatbelt with the other. The driver is going fast, and soon you pass the wreck of the car you were in before. You cannot see the man with the earrings, but there are bullet holes in the side of the car facing the highway. You hope the man is okay, but you can’t help but feel he isn’t.
“Jesus Christ,” the driver says, and you take a look at him for the first time. He is dark, and big, tall and broad. He has kind of a mean face, but you aren’t scared because the timbre of his voice shows genuine concern. “Are you okay?”
You can only shake your head.
“Do you need a doctor?” the driver asks. “I can take you to the hospital.”
“No. No, I—I must go north.”
“Are you sure?”
“The man’s sure, Shadow,” comes a voice from behind you, and you whip around in time to see another man, older, stretch up from the backseat. He looks at you, smiling in a way that is not entirely kind. “You’ve got a gift, kid, you know that?”
You don’t know what he’s talking about, but he makes you feel uncomfortable.
“You met that man back there, didn’t you? Sri Naya? Lots of earrings?”
You nod.
“He gave you something,” the older man says.
“No, he—”
“<i>Remover of obstacles</i>,” he says as if you never spoke. “You’re going to get what you’re after, now. No one can stop it.”
You drive with them to Wisconsin.
Shadow parks the car at the base of a large jut of rock. Atop the rock is the strangest house you’ve ever seen, a strange combination of architecture and sculpture. The House on the Rock, where Laura said you would find the Jinn.
Shadow and the older man get out of the car. You do, too. They are going inside the strange house, but you aren’t sure if you should go with them. Shadow seems nice enough, but the older man makes you uneasy.
“Are you coming?” Shadow asks.
Well? Will you [[go with them|House on the Rock]] or [[make your own way]]?All you know about stealing cars you’ve seen on television. Stealing is wrong, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Both of these thoughts swirl in your head as you walk down the highway back to town.
The first place you come to is a gas station. It’s more or less deserted; there is one car parked on the side of the building that you imagine belongs to the clerk inside, and another idling in front of a gas pump. It is abandoned, but running. You can’t believe your luck. You run to the idling car, and open the driver’s side door. Then all the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you hear a voice right behind you say, “That’s my car.”
You’re terrified, but then you remember that you still have your gun. But putting a gun in someone’s face, taking their car by force, that is something different than just sneaking into a running car and making off with it. Do you [[pull your gun out and take the car by force|pull out your gun]], or just [[turn around and apologize, pretend it was a mistake|This isn't my car!]]? You wrestle the snips from the tool kit. You open them as wide as they’ll go, and fit them around the hose. They’re not quite wide enough to completely sever the hose; it will take a couple scissoring chops to open the thing. You squeeze the snips’ handles with all your might, and a tear opens on the hose. You try to keep chopping, but some sort of foul-smelling liquid is gushing from the hole, and the second it hits the air, the smoke from under the cap billows. The smoke hits the liquid, and there is a low roar as it ignites. You jump back, shielding your face from the heat and the acrid, choking smoke. What now? You have nothing with which to stop the fire, and don’t cars on fire explode? You’ll never find the Jinn dead. You are starting to pray when you see the body of the cab bathed in blue and red light; you turn in time to see a police car pull over to the shoulder to join you. Praise Allah; a police officer has come to help you! The police officer, white and pudgy, hauls himself from the driver’s seat and opens his trunk to retrieve a fire extinguisher. You step back as the officer sprays thick, white foam over the cab’s engine, suffocating the fire. It stinks, and it’s a mess, but the fire is gone. Your heart sings with gratitude.
[[Thank the officer]]; [[thank him and shake his hand|shake the officer's hand]].Bracing yourself, you unscrew the cap. The cab emits another tendril of white smoke, but nothing else happens. You sigh and screw the cap back on.
Well, that was a dead end. You look at the pulsating hose; you could still cut that. Or you could admit that you have no idea what you’re doing. That leaves you three options. Which will it be: [[cut the hose|cutting the hose]], [[hitchhike|Hitchhike]], or [[walk back to town to steal a car|Steal Car]]? “Oh, thank you, sir,” you say.
The officer studies you for a moment, the fire extinguisher still in his hand.
“What are you doing out here?” he asks. “Car trouble?”
“Yes, the cab died, and when I tried to fix it…”
He nods. “Where are you headed?”
“Wisconsin,” you say. “North.”
“You’re a helluva long way from Wisconsin,” he says, and it’s like a punch to your gut.
“I must get there,” you say.
“I can call you a tow,” the officer says. “They’ll take your vehicle to a mechanic, see if it can be salvaged.”
“Yes, please,” you say, and the officer waits with you by the side of the road until the tow truck appears. He supervises the tow truck operator pulling the cab onto the truck’s great hook, and he waves as he drives off. You get in the truck’s passenger seat, and soon you are at the mechanic, watching as the grease-stained man examines the cab.
“Will it take long to fix?” you ask.
The mechanic frowns. “Lookin’ at prob’ly a week, plus maybe five hundred dollars.”
Your heart sinks. You need to get to House on the Rock <i>now</i> , and five hundred dollars is more than you possess. But you’re in town now, and you could steal a car, or hitchhike. You have a choice to make: will you [[steal a car|Steal Car]], or [[hitchhike|Hitchhike]]?“Oh, thank you, sir,” you say, and you reach to shake the officer’s hand.
You aren’t sure what’s happened, but suddenly you find yourself with your face pressed against the trunk of the police car, the full weight of the man on your back. He is yelling, and cuffing your hands, and not very much later, you are alone in a damp cell in the local jail. The iron bars are thick as your thumb, and quite strong. You’ll never find the Jinn now.
GAME OVER. [[Play again?|Start]]You follow Shadow and the older man into the strange house. It is like nothing you have ever seen before. Everywhere there is light and noise. Hanging from the ceiling and clustering the walls there are all sorts of things, everything anyone could imagine. Suits of armor, a huge dragon, musical instruments, dolls and dollhouses. Shadow and the older man are walking further into this bizarre labyrinth. You wonder what they are looking for.
You stop behind them as the three of you come into a room with an enormous carousel. Your eyes are playing tricks on you; it must be all the commotion, all the lights and noise, because you swear some of the people on the carousel change form. You run from the room. You hear Shadow calling after you, but it all fades into the background. You are running, and suddenly you are knocked from your feet. The shock of the collision makes your eyes flash black and blue; it takes you a moment to regain your vision. When you do, you find yourself still in the House on the Rock, flat on your ass in one of the hallways. In front of you, the man you collided with. He looks at you from behind his sunglasses. You feel like you’ve taken another blow to the head: it is the Jinn. He stands up, and offers you a hand.
“Ifrit,” you say, and the corner of his mouth turns up in a small, knowing smile.
“Hello, friend,” he says.
You cannot help it: you embrace him. For a moment he is frozen, but then his arms wrap around you. His voice is near to your ear and low, low enough for only you to hear.
“You came for me,” he says.
“How could I not?”
You wish never to end this embrace. Maybe you won’t have to. Your new life starts today.
END. [[Play again?|Start]] “Thank you,” you say, “but I think I will make my own way.”
Shadow nods. “Sure. Good luck.”
They go inside. You walk through the parking lot, thinking of your next move. You need to pray, but your prayer mat is back in the dead cab on the side of the road hundreds of miles away. Frustration burns in your chest, and you are about to shout to let some of it out when someone places a hand on your shoulder.
You spin around, adrenaline pulsing through you. You lose your breath as you take in a familiar face. It is the Jinn.
“Hello, my friend,” he says.
“I’ve been looking for you,” you say. You want to kiss him right here. You want to take hold of him and never let go.
He smiles, and takes your hand. “You have found me.”
He squeezes your hand, and you smile. Your quest is over. Your new life starts now.
END. [[Play again?|Start]]“Allah forgive me,” you say as you pull your gun out from your waistband. You point it ahead of you, straight in the face of the man whose car you’re stealing.
The barrel of the gun reflects in his sunglasses. It is the Jinn.
You drop the gun. It lands on the ground with a heavy <i>thunk</i>, but you don’t hear it.
“That isn’t necessary, my friend,” he says softly.
Tears wash over your face. “Please forgive me. I was only trying to get to you.”
He folds you in his arms. “You have.”
You burrow into this embrace, and slowly, the desperation you’ve felt all these long days leaves your heart. Everything is going to be alright. Your new life starts today.
END. [[Play again?|Start]] You force a hollow laugh. “This isn’t my car!” you say. You turn around to find a familiar face. The Jinn. You almost fall to your knees.
“You,” you say. “I’ve been looking for you.”
You expect him to ask why, but he does not. He bows his head. “I have somewhere I must be.”
“I will follow you! I will follow you anywhere. Forever, for always.”
He looks around. This is probably not a safe place to be. “Get in the car,” he says, and you do.
You are expecting him to get back on the interstate and drive to Wisconsin, but he does not. He drives just a few streets away, finally pulling into the driveway of a motel.
“Stay here,” he says, and goes inside. You sit in the passenger’s seat and wait. You are practically vibrating. You think of the frequency of God’s voice, and believe it is in that key.
The Jinn comes back. He gets in the car and drives you around to the back of the motel.
“Come with me,” he says, and you follow.
He takes you into a room. He closes the curtains and turns on a lamp. His skin is cast in gold tones; in his sunglasses you can see your own reflection. You wish that he would take them off, and just then he does. The flames in his eyes smolder. You take his hands, move toward him. You are breaths apart. You kiss him. He tastes like milk and honey.
The Jinn puts his hands on you. They are soft but competent, and you press yourself against his touch. His hands go up under your shirt, tickling your ribs in a way that makes you feel more alive. You have to stop kissing him for a minute while he takes your shirt off over your head, and it’s torture.
He moves you to the bed, lays you out beneath him. He looks at you for a long moment. You look into the fire and see all of time laid out, from the beginning of the world to eternity. In the end it just circles back. You will be in this moment more times than there are stars in the sky. He kisses you, your mouth, your neck, your chest. His head dips and his forehead presses to your chest, like he is praying. You wonder if he prays. You wonder if he asked for you.
Slowly, the two of you shed your clothes. They lay around the bed like a beetle’s shed skin. You are something new together, beneath him, with him inside you. Your new life did not begin when you met the Jinn. Your new life starts now.
You fall asleep in his arms.
END. [[Play again?|Start]]