Lexicon

nothing but a lot of uneventful driving.
    His eyes were closing when there was a flat bang and the car lurched. “What,” he said, thinking pursuit, death. Eliot steered the car onto the shoulder. Dust billowed.
    “A flat,” said Eliot. He popped open the door. Wil sat for a moment before remembering the promise of fresh air and heaving himself from the seat. His knees popped violently. The air was like fire, but at least it was moving. He strode around the car, swinging his arms. “Oh, yeah,” he said. It felt good to do something.
    Eliot dragged a spare tire from the trunk. Wil shielded his eyes to study the landscape. There was nothing. Just a vast canyon of air. His eyes grew restless for something to latch on to.
    He heard Eliot grunting. “Need a hand?”
    Eliot glanced at him, his face flushed. “They’re rusted on.”
    “The lug nuts?”
    “Doesn’t matter. We can drive on it.” Eliot stood.
    “Did you pull hard enough?”
    “Yes,” said Eliot. “I pulled hard enough.”
    “Give me a try.”
    Eliot rolled the tire back to the trunk. “Forget it.”
    “For fuck’s sake. I’m not useless.”
    “This isn’t one of those games where everybody gets a turn. Get in the car.”
    “I will be two fucking minutes.”
    “Get in the car.”
    “No.”
    Eliot looked at him expressionlessly. “Fine.” He tossed Wil the wrench.
    Wil pulled off his T-shirt and knelt before the jacked-up wheel. There was a lot of rust here. He wiggled the wrench onto the top nut and tested it.
    “Well?” said Eliot.
    He swiped his arm across his forehead. “Just warming up.”
    “We have a time issue.”
    “Jesus, you don’t even think I can change a tire.” He strained against the wrench. “I can do this.”
    Some time passed. “Okay,” Eliot said. “Enough.”
    “I’ve almost got it.”
    “You haven’t. You’re just wasting time.”
    He strained. Something went
crack
.
    “You’re going to strip it.”
    The lug nut squealed. He forced it through a revolution, and then it got easy. He unscrewed the nut and dropped it to the ground. He had a tremendous urge to glance at Eliot’s face and couldn’t resist it.
    “Congratulations,” said Eliot. “Unfortunately, there are three more.”
    He braced his foot against the tire well. “You
want
me to be useless. You love being in control of everything while I stumble around with no idea what I’m doing.”
    “No, that’s the opposite of what I want. What I want is to get to Broken Hill as soon as possible, and for you to make a net positive contribution to that goal.”
    He released the wrench and bent to inspect the next lug nut. It looked very corroded. He hefted the wrench and began to bang at it.
    “This has moved into farce,” Eliot said. “Get into the car.”
    The lug nut spat rust. He got the wrench around it and forced it around. “That’s two.”
    “Great,” said Eliot.
    “You need to loosen up,” Wil said. “You seriously need to take a fucking breath and consider that you’re not the only guy who can do everything.”
    “Did you tell me to loosen up?”
    He wiggled the wrench onto the third nut. “Is that funny for some reason?”
    “When I experience base physiological needs for food, water, air, sleep, and sex, I follow protocols in order to satisfy them without experiencing desire. Yes, it’s funny.”
    “You fucking what?”
    “It’s required to maintain a defense against compromise. Desire is weakness. I’m sure I explained this.”
    “Well, that sounds awesome. That sounds like a terrific life you have there, Eliot.” The nut loosened. “Got you!” he said.
    “You want to see what happens when desire overpowers discipline? Get in the car. We’ll be there in about two hours.”
    “And you didn’t stop it.” The final lug nut was so rusted he had trouble getting the wrench around it. “You and your protocols weren’t good enough to save my town.” He found traction and pulled. “Watch me budge this lug nut, despite my complete lack of discipline.” His muscles burned. Sweat coursed down his back.
    “Stop that. You’re going to pull the whole car off the jack.”
    “And what about
Brontë
? Twenty years and you never made a move, did you? I bet you never even held her hand.”
    “Get in the car.”
    He grunted but the nut was immovable. He released the wrench, panting. “You know I’m right.”
    “You’re not right,” Eliot said. “You’ve been wrong about everything you’ve opened your