TWO

"Pull over!" cried Leila.

Randy cut to the right immediately and braked the car. The sky pulsed its way to a pearly predawn.

"Back up along the shoulder."

He nodded and shifted into reverse.

"Those people? We could just walk back—"

"I want to look at them more closely before we get out."

"Okay," he said as they crept backward.

She turned and regarded the battered gray vehicle. There -were two figures seated within it Both seemed to be white-haired, but the light was still tricky. Both seemed to be watching her.

"In a moment, the door on the driver's side will open," she said softly.

The door on the driver's side opened.

"Now the other."

The other door opened.

"The old man was driving, the old woman a passenger ..."

An old man and an old woman stepped out and moved forward, leaving the doors open behind them. They wore ragged wraparound garments held in place with sashes.

"Stop," she said. "Let's get out and go back and help them. Their distributor cap has come loose." "A part of your vision?" "No," she said.

She opened the door, got out and headed back. He did the same. His first impression, as he approached, was that the man was too old to be driving. Stoop-shouldered, he leaned against his car. His free hand trembled slightly; it was dry and spotted, clawlike. His face was heavily lined, his eyebrows as white as his hair. Then the eyes caught Randy and held him— green, almost flashing. There was an awareness there at which he would not have guessed from three meters farther back. Randy smiled at him, but the man showed no reaction.

Leila, in the meantime, had approached the old woman and was speaking with her in a language Randy did not recognize.

"If I could take a look under the hood," Randy suggested, "I might be of some help."