Read The Attraction for Free Online Page B

word.
    “That’s frat-boy talk for absolutely.”
    “Ha. Well, you get out here, kiddies, and life smacks you like you’re the bug and it’s the windshield. Ass first, and you got about two seconds to dodge.”
    “So what’s this town like? Nada?”
    “Naga. It’s a little town. You’d hate it, rich boy,” Ely said. “Jesus H, why even talk to you about it? You’ll never go there. Look,” Ely said, pointing toward a rise to the left—a long flat corrugated metal roof canopied gas pumps that looked like they were out of the 1920s. Behind it, a long rectangular building with a curved metal roof and three big signs with various versions of: SEE THE ATTRACTION! DON’T GO HOME WITHOUT SEEING THE ATTRACTION! THE UNSPEAKABLE UNKNOWABLE MYSTERY! IT’S THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD AND THE SECOND WONDER OF THE NEW WORLD! 75 CENTS ADMISSION! BUY INDIAN BLANKETS! GET COFFEE! GAS IS CHEAP! COFFEE’S CHEAPER!
    “Wow. It’s where I wanted to go,” Bronwyn said. “It’s the Unspeakable Mystery place.”
    “They sound a little desperate,” Josh said.
    “I usually never stop here,” Ely said.
    “Why’s that?” Josh asked.
    “That thing they got. That attraction. Gives me the creeps.”
    Ely slowed the truck, and it groaned and rattled a bit. He turned the wheel to the left, crossing the empty highway, then turned the wheel to the right, taking the truck onto the gravel service road.
    6
    When he dropped them off near the pumps, Ely said, “Now, if you ever get lost out here, find your way over to Naga, and look for end of the paved road and the silvery light from the hubcaps in the sun and ZZ Top blasting from the back. You’re welcome to see my place and check out Naga. It’s a cool town, but probably not as sophisticated as you two. You kids be careful on the road. Lots of nuts out there.”
    7
    The Brakedown Palace and Sundries was the biggest thing for miles—mainly because there was nothing around it. Bronwyn went in to buy some more cigarettes, and Josh went around by the garage bays to look for the boss.
    A big man, the size of a bear and with a growl not far from one, rose out of a grease pit in the back. He had sun-baked copper skin that had begun to go from tan to alligator hide. “Whatja want?”
    “Our car’s got a flat. Just back a little ways. Down the road.”
    The man’s eyes were almost like fish-eyes, nearly perfectly round. A nose like a hammer and big lips that held an unlit cigarette between them. He wore a black bandanna tied around his head, and an enormous white T-shirt clung tight to his barrel-chest and potbelly. His hips were wide, and his stained jeans looked like they were homemade. On his feet, boots with steel tips at the toes. He was exactly what Bronwyn would call “a real character.”
    “Hell, kid, I’m busy. You need a tow? It’ll be twenty minutes at best.”
    “Okay,” Josh said.
    “Fifty bucks.”
    “Fifty? It’s just a couple miles away. Fifty bucks?”
    “Take it or leave it.”
    “I don’t know. I just don’t know. Fifty? Doesn’t that seem a little absurd?”
    The man shrugged, and then wiped some grease-sweat off his brow. “There’s another gas station, twenty-five miles up. You want to go there, I ain’t stoppin’ you.”
    8
    After a discussion with Bronwyn, the fee was paid, the tow truck went out, and soon enough, Tammy, Griff, and Ziggy showed up, looking as if they had been drained of all energy, with the car hooked like a mackerel to the back of the truck.
    The big guy was named Charlie Goodrow, and after introducing himself around, he told them that they could each have a Coke on him.
    “Fifty bucks worth of Coke,” Josh said.
    The sun was moving westward too fast, and someone finally asked Goodrow how long it might take for the tire change. Charlie Goodrow laughed and said, “Go wander the shop. I’ll have it down in twenty minutes. Or less. I’ll check your brakes, too. Free of charge.”
    “Fifty bucks worth of checking