Coyote blue

sidewalk and stand on his hind legs as Coyote talked to him. Maybe he had been a little hasty in thinking Calliope nuts for talking to her kitchen pals. They probably thought he had shifty eyes as well.
    After a few moments of talking and chattering Coyote threw his head back and laughed, then left the prairie dog in the street and came to where Sam was sitting.
    "You've got to hear this one," Coyote said. "This farmer has a pig with a wooden leg -"
    "Hey," Sam interrupted. "Does he know where the road goes?"
    "Oh, yeah. But this is a really good joke. You see -"
    "Coyote!" Sam shouted.
    Coyote looked hurt. "You're nasty. No wonder he doesn't trust you. He says that he saw an orange sports car go by a while ago. He says that there's a repair place down the road."
    "Tell him thanks," Sam said. Coyote headed back toward the prairie dog. Sam dug into his windbreaker for his cigarettes and found a chocolate mint he had taken from the hotel room pillow the night before. "Wait," Sam called. He ran to Coyote's side. The prairie dog bolted under the sidewalk. "Let me talk to him."
    Sam bent down and placed the mint in the dirt by the sidewalk. "Look, we really appreciate your help."
    The prairie dog didn't answer. "I'm not a bad guy once you get to know me," Sam said. He waited, wondering what exactly he was waiting for. After a minute he started feeling really stupid. "Okay then, have a nice day."
    He went back to where Coyote stood looking at a sign on the saloon door. No Indians or Dogs Allowed.
    Coyote said, "What do they have against dogs?"
    "What about the Indians part?"
    Coyote shrugged.
    "It pisses me off." Sam yanked the sign off the door and threw it into the street.
    "Good, you're still alive. Let's go." Coyote turned and headed for the car.
    "I'll drive," Sam said.
    Coyote threw the keys over his shoulder. Sam snatched them out of the air. As they pulled away the prairie dog dashed into the street and grabbed the mint thinking, That pig joke works every time.
    ~* * *~
    They drove for twenty minutes, bouncing the big Lincoln over ruts and rocks, and pushing it through washed-out, wind-eroded terrain where the road was reduced to the mere suggestion of tire tracks. The cellular phone rang twice more, but they did not answer it. Sam was suspecting that, once again, Coyote was playing some sort of trick when he spotted the corrugated steel building sticking up out of the desert. The building consisted of one story, roughly the size of a two-car garage. The steel walls were striped with rust and pulling away from the frame in places. The area around the building was littered with abandoned vehicles, some dating back fifty years. Above the doorway, a ragged hole that had been cut with a torch, hung an elegantly hand-lettered sign that read, Satori Japanese Auto Repair . In the doorway stood a slightly built Oriental man in saffron robes, grinning as they pulled up. Calliope's Z was parked in front.
    Sam stopped the car and got out. The Oriental man folded his hands and bowed. Sam nodded in return and approached the man. "Do you know where the girl is that was driving that car?"
    "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" the monk said.
    Sam said, "Excuse me?"
    The monk ran to Sam and jumped up, screaming in Sam's face, "Don't think. Act!"
    Thinking he was being attacked, Sam raised his arms to cover his face and inadvertently hit the monk in the mouth with his elbow, knocking the little man to the ground.
    The monk looked up at Sam and smiled. "That was the right answer." His teeth were red with blood.
    "I'm sorry," Sam said, offering his hand to help the monk up. "I didn't know what you were doing."
    The monk waved Sam away, climbed to his feet, and began to dust himself off. "The first step to knowledge is not knowing. The girl is inside with the Master."
    "Thanks," Sam said. He motioned for Coyote to follow and went into the building. It was one room, dimly lit from the doorway and by sunlight filtering through the gaps in the walls. Around the edges, workbenches were stacked with greasy car parts and tools. In the center of the room, on a grass mat, Calliope sat with another monk, this one ancient, drinking tea from tiny cups. She looked up and saw Sam, then without a word ran into his arms.
    "I lost him, Sam. The car started making this horrible noise and I had to pull off the highway. Lonnie took Grubb and he's gone."
    Sam held her and patted her head, telling her it would be okay, not really believing it, but