the glue business. Homer and Elmer. That's us, a couple of nice all-American kids. Clean-cut. Not like those dropouts ya read about in the paper. Now for you guys, I'm gonna give you names. You with the red hair, you're Mertle. And you, weasel face, you're Gertrude. Mert ‘n' Gert, that's you. A couple of little girls. Now, since I like to travel, we're gonna go for a long ride."

Red felt numb, he sat in a sweat and shook uncontrollably. He side-eyed Jack and saw that his pal was much the same: ashen, teeth chattering.

A beaming smirk on his face, a lock of black hair falling across his forehead, Elmer sang along to the radio, "Zoom, zoom, the man who shot Liberty Valance! He shot Liberty Valance!" Later,"So, from my personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you! Yah, yah!" The teens passed a pint of Southern Comfort between them, shared a pack of Kools.

Red stared out the window, at the car's pale-green metallic finish, a tranquil color, similar to the sea in Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Its calmness called to him like Bali Ha'i. He began to pray, a string of Hail Marys, one running into the next, "...Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death..." He lost track of time.

Homer made a display of his finger on the trigger, pointed the gun right up to Red's forehead, scanned over to Jack. Then, with a flick of