“There’s a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingale is singing
And the white moon beams.
“There’s a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true,
Till the day when I’ll be going down
That long, long trail with you.”
“Feeling good, ain’t they?”
“Too good to suit me.”
“So you don’t let them get hold of that wheel, Miss. They’ll be all right.”
“I hope so. I’ve got no business out with a pair of drunks, I know that. But what could I do? I told them I wouldn’t go with them, but then they started to go off by themselves.”
“They’d break their necks.”
“That’s it. So I drove myself. It was all I knew to do.”
“It keeps you guessing, sometimes, to know what to do. One sixty for the gas. Is the oil O.K.?”
“I think so.”
“Thanks, Miss. Goodnight.”
She got in, and took the wheel again, and me and the Greek kept on singing, and we went on. It was all part of the play. I had to be drunk, because that other time had cured me of this idea we could pull a perfect murder. This was going to be such a lousy murder it wouldn’t even be a murder. It was going to be just a regular road accident, with guys drunk, and booze in the car, and all the rest of it. Of course, when I started to put it down, the Greek had to have some too, so he was just like I wanted him. We stopped for gas so there would be a witness that she was sober, and didn’t want to be with us anyhow, because she was driving, and it wouldn’t do for her to be drunk. Before that, we had had a piece of luck. Just before we closed up, about nine o’clock, a guy stopped by for something to eat, and stood there in the road and watched us when we shoved off. He saw the whole show. He saw me try to start, and stall a couple of times. He heard the argument between me and Cora, about how I was too drunk to drive. He saw her get out, and heard her say she wasn’t going. He saw me try to drive off, just me and the Greek. He saw her when she made us get out, and switched the seats, so I was behind, and the Greek up front, and then he saw her take the wheel and do the driving herself. His name was Jeff Parker and he raised rabbits at Encino. Cora got his card when she said she might try rabbits in the lunchroom, to see how they’d go. We knew right where to find him, whenever we’d need him.
Me and the Greek sang Mother Machree, and Smile, Smile, Smile, and Down by the Old Mill Stream, and pretty soon we came to this sign that said To Malibu Beach. She turned off there. By rights, she ought to have kept on like she was going. There’s two main roads that lead up the coast. One, about ten miles inland, was the one we were on. The other, right alongside the ocean, was off to our left. At Ventura they meet, and follow the sea right on up to Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and wherever you’re going. But the idea was, she had never seen Malibu Beach, where the movie stars live, and she wanted to cut over on this road to the ocean, so she could drop down a couple of miles and look at it, and then turn around and keep right on up to Santa Barbara. The real idea was that this connection is about the worst piece of road in Los Angeles County, and an accident there wouldn’t surprise anybody, not even a cop. It’s dark, and has no traffic on it hardly, and no houses or anything, and suited us for what we had to do.
The Greek never noticed anything for a while. We passed a little summer colony that they call Malibu Lake up in the hills, and there was a dance going on at the clubhouse, with couples out on the lake in canoes. I yelled at them. So did the Greek. “Give a one f’me.” It didn’t make much difference, but it was one more mark on our trail, if somebody took the trouble to find it.
We started up the first long up-grade, into the mountains. There were three miles of it. I had told her how to run it. Most of the time she was in second. That was partly because there were sharp curves every fifty feet, and the car would lose speed so quick going around them that she would have to shift up to second to keep going. But it was partly because the motor had to heat. Everything had to check up. We had to have plenty to tell.
And then, when he looked out and saw how dark it was, and what a hell of a looking country those mountains were, with no light, or house, or filling station, or anything else in sight, the Greek came to life and started an argument.
“Hold on, hold on. Turn around. By golly, we off the road.”
“No we’re not. I know where I am. It takes us to Malibu Beach. Don’t you remember? I told you I wanted to see it.”
“You go slow.”
“I’m going slow.”
“You go plenty slow. Maybe all get killed.”
We got to the top and started into the down-grade. She cut the motor. They heat fast for a few minutes, when the fan stops. Down at the bottom she started the motor again. I looked at the temp gauge. It was 200. She started into the next up-grade and the temp gauge kept climbing.
“Yes sir, yes sir.”
It was our signal. It was one of those dumb things a guy can say any time, and nobody will pay any attention to it. She pulled off to one side. Under us was a drop so deep you couldn’t see the bottom of it. It must have been 500 feet.
“I think I’ll let it cool off a bit.”
“By golly, you bet. Frank, look a that. Look what it says.”
“Whassit say?”
“Two hundred a five. Would be boiling in minute.”
“Letta boil.”
I picked up the wrench. I had it between my feet. But just then, way up the grade, I saw the lights of a car. I had to stall. I had to stall for a minute, until that car went by.
“C’me on, Nick. Sing’s a song.”
He looked out on those bad lands, but he didn’t seem to feel like singing. Then he opened the door and got out. We could hear him back there, sick. That was where he was when the car went by. I looked at the number to burn it in my brain. Then I burst out laughing. She looked back at me.
“ ’S all right. Give them something to remember. Both guys alive when they went by.”
“Did you get the number?”
“2R-58-01.”
“2R-58-01. 2R-58-01. All right. I’ve got it too.”
“O.K.”
He came around from behind, and looked like he felt better. “You hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“When you laugh. Is a echo. Is a fine echo.”
He tossed off a high note. It wasn’t any song, just a high note, like on a Caruso record. He cut if off quick and listened. Sure enough, here it came back, clear as anything, and stopped, just like he had.
“Is a sound like me?”
“Jus’ like you, kid. Jussa same ol’ toot.”
“By golly. Is swell.”
He stood there for five minutes, tossing off high notes and listening to them come back. It was the first time he ever heard what his voice sounded like. He was as pleased as a gorilla that seen his face in the mirror. She kept looking at me. We had to get busy. I began to act sore. “Wot th’ hell? You think we got noth’n t’ do but lis’n at you yod’l at y’self all night? C’me on, get in. Le’s get going.”
“It’s getting late, Nick,”
“Hokay, hokay.”
He got in, but shoved his face out to the window and let go one. I braced my feet, and while he still had his chin on the window sill I brought down the wrench. His head cracked, and I felt it crush. He crumpled up and curled on the seat like a cat on a sofa. It seemed a year before he was still. Then Cora, she gave a funny kind of gulp that ended in a moan. Because here came the echo of his voice. It took the high note, like he did, and swelled, and stopped, and waited.