Twyla gives him a look, a look like you're disgusting, but keep going, and cracks a grin. "Trent Kay Jr., does everything in your life gotta revolve around horses?" She's scolding him but she's being sweet about it. No woman wants to be compared to a horseโthere's nothing sexy about it, but at the same time, she knows that's high praises coming from someone like him. So she snickers, offers him a sarcastic curtsy, then turns around, put-putting out of his trailer like a model anyway. Of course, he brushes right past her, not noticing when she's actually trying.
She does him the favor of locking up his trailer for him even though the metal of the lever handle hot to the touch. Damn, she is done with hot weather for good! Get her on the next plane to Alaska. After a few seconds, she hops down the stairs. "I'm comin', I'm comin'."
The path to the watering hole is less a path than it is a rough sketch of where to go. Twyla, who's lived at the trailer park for almost two hands, could probably get to the water with her eyes closed. First, you walk past the junkyard, wave to Terrance if he's over there scrapping cars. You know you're going the right direction when you get a whiff of burgers on the grill; that's Mowgli's Resto and Rest Stop to the east. Eventually, you'll come across a tree lineโthe outside of Two River Park. Venture in and you'll find one of the two rivers; one of them is closed off to preserve fish and algae and all that good stuff. The other one is a free-for-all.
All within a ten minute walk.
Twyla's really feeling it in her wedged flip flops, but she's staying strong. When she wants to distract herself from discomfort, she'll pick on someone else. Lovingly, of course.
"I can't believe all you got in your trailer's eggs and soda. It's a miracle how you got to your big age," she says, arms up daintily to keep her balance as she trudges through loose logs and fallen branches. Two River Park's got a nice enough trail but it's not well kept, especially this time of year, and double-especially since before you know it, the hoteliers and whoever else moving in to the area are gonna want to tear it all down anyway.
"You're lucky you got me, is all I'm sayin'."
One more step and Twyla's in front of theโ
The watering hole is bone dry; a 16-foot-deep, crater of what once was. Twyla takes off her sunglasses, her lip quivering. "It wasn't like this last month. No way it's dried up this fast." She squints her eyes at something in the distance, at the center of the watering hole. It's an old well. A breeze blows tumbleweeds past it.
"I swam across this whole thing before and I don't remember ever seein' no well. Are they gonna build somethin' here?"