“what if we don’t want to go on no stinking picnic? “ thelma asked.
the queen of sheba got out of the back seat of the general’s jeep. she took the picnic basket tied with the big green bow with her, and walked up to thelma with it.
“look at all these nice goodies.” the queen of sheba said, “are you sure you don’t want to come with us on our picnic?”
“i can’t see no stinking goodies,” thelma answered. “if you don’t untie the basket.”
“that makes sense,” the queen of sheba agreed. she tugged on the big green bow and it turned into a snake and dropped off the basket into the dirt.
the snake wiggled toward slim and his horse. slim didn’t like being on a horse. he had never liked horses, which was one reason he had run away from his old pappy’s farm …
the horse saw the snake and reared up… slim tried to stay on it…
thelma and sophie and the queen of sheba and the general and goliath and jesse james and stonewall jackson all started laughing…
and singing joshua fought the battle of jericho and the battle hymn of the republic…
slim woke up.
he was lying on the motel bed with his clothes on. sunlight filtered under the blind on the window.
he checked his watch . it was quarter to eight. he got up and peeked around the blind on the window and looked outside, at the parking lot at the rear of the motel.
there was one car parked there - a long black shiny limousine.
slim knew right away it must belong to the general.
was the general in it himself? he let the blind fall back into place.
there was a bathroom down the hall and it was empty. slim brushed his teeth and splashed some water on his face and straightened his clothes out. he didn’t bother to shave. he figured he might get a shave at a barbers before meeting the general.
he went down to the front desk but there was nobody there. he left the room key on the desk and went outside, out front where he had parked the night before.
he blinked in the sunlight. his car was the only one he saw. the clerk’s wife - what did she say her name was? - was leaning back on the hood of it and puffing on a cigarette.
“good morning, sunshine,” she greeted him. “you are right on time.”
“i try to be,” slim told her. he took his car keys out of his pocket. “we might as well get going.”
“we might as well.” thelma - that was her name - tossed her cigarette away and pushed herself off the hood of the car.
“you are not going anywhere,” slim heard a voice behind him.
he turned and it was the old man - the desk clerk - and he had a shotgun in his hand.
a rusty looking shotgun, but a shotgun all the same.
“you tramp,” the old man shouted, “where do you think you are going?”
thelma did not look at all frightened, or even surprised. “come on, pop, don’t be so darned ornery. i asked this gentleman for a ride into town, that’s all.”
“i’ll give you a ride into town. the town on the other side of the river jordan.”
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