“Okay,” Danny nodded. “A souvenir shop, it is.” She made no comment on his attitude about Terry Town because, honestly, she felt the same way. She had been here long enough to know that the locals didn’t mean any harm, but their blank faces and monotone voices were still unnerving. Raymond really hit the nail on the head when he said he was ‘getting looks like he was going to die soon.’ She had gotten the same impression when she first arrived in this place.

[color=fff79a][b]“You usually stay a couple days in towns on the road?”[/b][/color] Raymond asked. [color=fff79a][b]“Or just when you’re too exhausted?”[/b][/color]

“No,” Danny said slowly, trying to think of a plausible excuse. ‘I like this town’ didn’t sound very believable at this point, but there was no way she could tell him the truth without sounding like a lunatic. “I was gonna keep going to the next town over, but something came up. I’m just staying here until everything… works itself out.” There. That wasn’t a half bad response. It was vague, but acceptable. She felt quite pleased with herself.

Danny then noticed a commotion on the side of the road. A group of townspeople were gathered in a ring, staring down at the ground. They were murmuring to each other incoherently. Danny slowed to a stop, watching the strange event from a distance. Okay, this was strange; even more so than usual. The locals never took interest in [i]anything[/i], so what had they found that actually caught their attention? She glanced at Raymond, “Maybe there’s a street fight. Want to go check it out?”