Unknown

Daddy_s strip search

CHAPTER ONE

Hum swung the Olds onto the exit road. He touched the brakes and slowed to a sedate thirty-five miles an hour. Sulky Lo hadn't been paying much attention. But when Hum found himself on a two-lane, high-crown road behind a hay-laden farm truck, Lo sat up straight and looked around. She wasn't very happy.

"Hey, wait a sec," she whined. "Where we going?"

"Pisky."

"Pisky? Is that really the name of a town?"

"Uh-huh. Pisky. It's just eight miles down this road." Hum glanced at his watch. Two-thirty.

On a warm spring day. In rural Arkansas. According to the map, the town was large enough to support a public school. And with luck, the school would be discharging its student body for the day just as the big Olds turned onto Main Street.

"Dad, can I ask you a stupid question?"

"Ask away."

"What possible reason could you have for going to dumb, loathsome impossibly ordinary Pisky, Arkansas? Can you answer that or is it too stupid for you?"

"Lo? Shut up. Don't make a big deal out of this. There's probably an ice cream shop in Pisky. You can have a Coke or a banana split."