Dark Rivers of the Heart

name. Doesn't fit."
        "I named him that so he'd have more confidence."
        "Isn't working," she said.
        Strange rock formations loomed, like temples to gods forgotten before human beings had been capable of conceiving the idea of time and counting the passage of days. They awed him, and she drove among them with great expertise, whipping left and right, down a long hill, onto a vast, dark flatness.
        "Never knew his real name," Spencer said.
        "Real name?"
        "Puppy name. Before the pound."
        "Wasn't Rocky."
        "Probably not."
        "What was it before Spencer?"
        "He was never named Spencer."
        "So you're clearheaded enough to be evasive."
        "Not really. Just habit. What's your name?"
        "Valerie Keene."
        "Liar."
        He went away for a while. When he came around again, there was still desert: sand and stone, scrub and tumbleweed, darkness pierced by headlights.
        "Valerie," he said.
        "Yeah?"
        "What's your real name?"
        "Bess."
        "Bess what?"
        "Bess Baer."
        "Spell it."
        "B-A-E-R."
        "Really?"'
        "Really. For now."
        "What's that mean?"
        "It means what it means."
        "It means that's your name now, after Valerie."
        "so?"
        "What was your name before Valerie?"
        "Hannah Rainey."
        "Oh, yeah," he said, realizing that he was firing on only four of six cylinders. "Before that?"
        "Gina Delucio."
        "Was that real?"
        "It felt real."
        "Is that the name you were born with?"
        "You mean my puppy name?"
        "Yeah. That your puppy name?"
        "Nobody's called me by my puppy name since before I was in the pound," she said.
        "You're very funny."
        "You like funny women?"
        "I must."
        " 'And then the funny woman,"
        " she said, as if reading from a printed page, " 'and the cowardly dog and the mysterious man rode off into the desert in search of their real names."
        "In search of a place to puke."
        "Oh, no."
        "Oh, yes.
        She applied the brakes, and he flung open the door.
        Later, when he woke, still riding through the dark desert, he said, "I have the most godawful taste in my mouth."
        "I don't doubt it."
        "What's your name?"
        "Bess."
        "Bullshit."
        "No, Baer. Bess Baer. What's your name?"
        "My faithful Indian sidekick calls me Kemosabe."
        "How do you feel?"
        "Like shit," he said.
        "Well, that's what 'Kemosabe' means."
        "Are we ever going to stop?"
        "Not while we have cloud cover."
        "What've clouds got to do with anything?"
        "Satellites," she said.
        "You are the strangest woman I've ever known."
        "Just wait."
        "How the hell did you find me?"
        "Maybe I'm psychic."
        "Are you psychic?"
        "No."
        He sighed and closed his eyes. He could almost imagine that he was on a merry-go-round. "I was supposed to find you.
        "Surprise."
        "I wanted to help you."
        "Thanks."
        He let go of his grip on the world of the waking. For a while all was silent and serene. Then he walked out of the darkness and opened the red door. There were rats in the catacombs.
        Roy did a crazy thing. Even as he was doing it, he was amazed at the risk he was taking.
        He decided that he should be himself in front of Eve Jammer. His real self. His deeply committed, compassionate, caring self that was never more than half revealed in the bland, bureaucratic functionary that he appeared to be to most people.
        Roy was willing to take risks with this stunning woman, because he sensed that her mind was as marvelous as her ravishing face and body.
        The woman within, so close to emotional and intellectual perfection, would understand him as no one else ever had.
        Over dinner, they had not found the key that would open the doors in their souls and let them merge, which was their destiny. As they were leaving the restaurant, Roy was concerned that their moment of opportunity would pass and that their destiny would be thwarted, so he tapped the power of Dr. Kevorkian, which he'd recently absorbed from the television in the Learjet. He found the courage to reveal his true heart to Eve and force the fulfillment of their