Free Wide Blue Yonder by Jean Thompson Page A

world flew by in bits and streaks. Its colors were melting. The glass was rolled up. On the other side of it things zoomed toward him, then away. “I bet it’s been a while since you rode in a car, huh, Harvey? Can you even remember the last time?”
    His stomach flipped up and down. The last time you. He had glasses on his nose. How did that happen? He missed the Weather. Had he remembered to turn the talking down? Daddy said it was the last time he was going to put up with that sort of nonsense. He was a bigboy now, old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. Local Forecast squeezed his eyes shut. He heard the calming voice of Beige Woman, talking about all the Weather that was happening in places a long ways away. The Weather was one thing that was nobody’s fault.
    Except for Global Warming. He gave a little hot-and-cold shiver. All this while he had tried not to think about it. He forgot what he did wrong but it was bad. He told Mamma he was sorry.Mamma said Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil. Mamma’s hands were afflicted. She rubbed them with salve but the skin stayed cracked and raw. When she washed his face her hands scratched him. The salve smelled like glue and mothballs. Global Warming was what happened when your feet did evil. He had sinned and fallen short. Whatever he had done, was it bad enough to burn up the whole world? The smell was horrible. He could feel his stomach rising up his throat.
    “Harvey? Do you need to stop?”
    She came around and opened up his door and he put his head out and spat up a little on the pavement. “Oh dear,” said Yoo Hoo. “Maybe this was just too much too soon. Here, take this and rinse out your mouth.”
    With the car stopped he felt better. He leaned back so his head was in the cold and his feet in the hot. “I was going to take you to McDonald’s but I don’t know what that would do for your stomach.”
    “Supersize it!”
    She laughed and said she guessed he watched enough television to know about McDonald’s. Was he sure he felt up for it?
    “Quarterpounderwithcheese!”
    Local Forecast and Yoo Hoo sat in the car, eating out of paper bags. They had big wet paper cups full of ice and pop. Everything was so good. His mouth couldn’t get enough. He licked the salt from his fingers. Yoo Hoo said Slow down, don’t make yourself sick again. But she was laughing, she was in a good mood. He scrabbled around in the bottom of the bag. All gone. He belched.
    “I usually don’t eat junk food. You won’t tell on me, will you, Harvey?” He was supposed to say something, either yes or no. But the only thing that came out of him was another belch. Pretty soon he was going to have to pee. Where were they anyway? It was full of trees he didn’t know.
    “Most days I just eat at the register. A salad or something. It gets so busy. Then I go home and I’m too tired to fix anything decent. Josie’s hardly ever there anymore. I pour a glass of wine and fall asleep in front of the TV. Not much of a life, is it?”
    Trees and cold air whooshing up from the innards of the car. He liked the car. It was big and smooth and the seats were the color of vanilla. If you had the right kind of car, you didn’t have to worry so much about Global Warming. You just drove somewhere cooler.
    “All I do is try and keep one step ahead so the business doesn’t go down the tubes. I’ve seen it happen. You don’t stay sharp, you’re history. So everything’s haggle and push and pinch. I have to remind myself the whole rat race was my big idea. Nobody said I had to run an import business. I feel like Alec Guinness at the end of The
Bridge on the River Kwai,
do you know that movie? After he’s tried to stop his own army from blowing up the bridge, and he slaps his hand to his forehead and says, ‘What have I done?’”
    Local Forecast really really really had to pee. He opened the car door and ran into the trees. The trees were all too