volume one IN THE D U D L E Y C L A R K - Ohio Vine Tours

His tongue, squiggling inside his mouth, ties into a knot.
He removes his knuckles from the door’s cool surface.
A concrete cloud casts a mighty shadow.
Then the worst thing in the world that could possibly happen
happens—the door to the B THRO M opens.
So ferociously focused on 28/RR had he been that he had not
thought to see if the little room was occupied.
Taken by surprise, his eyes bulge and his head jerks away from
28/RR—that slab of wood that stalls his pilgrim’s progress—to
stare slack-jawed at the man who has opened the little door at the
end of the hall, who has exited from said room, having switched
off its sad, solitary light, and who now drips water onto the
crusty, red runner they both share.
Of course, it is none other than the occupant of 28/RR.
Of course.
His head is wrapped in the same cool towel, or one like it, as
is his body below the armpits—those same, cool towels that had
so piqued Roy’s curiosity, covered as they are with little Cowboys
on horses chasing little Indians on horses.
The occupant of 28/RR is every bit as surprised by the sight
of Roy standing before his door as Roy is surprised by the sight of
the occupant of 28/RR posed before the door of the B THRO M.
To Roy, as to the occupant of 28/RR—both positioned in
the same hall, both gawking at the distant other, one damp from
outdoor downpour, the other moist from indoor ablutions, the
walls deadening sound from the so-called real world—it seems as
if a lifetime passes, several in fact. Whole generations come and
go. Old species long familiar become extinct. Stars rotate faster
and faster, their pinlights creating blurry trails. The building
tumbles down around them, a new interstate passes through,
automobiles flash past, their colors smudged with speed. Trees
drop nuts that thrive, shoot up into trees that drop nuts that
thrive and shoot up into trees. Days pass faster and faster, the
sun bouncing up and down like an incandescent pumpkin on a
spring.
It is a situation from which no one can emerge the victor.
1 ROY ROGERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY