Travel-stained, drained, battered, but not beaten,

DeLorean planted her hands on her hips and stared back at that little asshat Rory.

Once she had recovered from laughing at his "yoga" goats.

Such crazy looking, almost prehistoric, certainly primitive and diabolical, and yet oddly comical creatures, those mini goats. His full-sized goats were lurking suspiciously, and DeLorean knew not to ever turn her back on a goat. She envied them their climbing and head-butting skills. In fact,

source: "These tree-climbing goats spread seeds by spitting"

---

if she had horns, she might sneak up on Rory and punt him off his yoga rock next time she caught sight of him there. That smug, secretive, skinny but scarily strong, neurotic little pipsqueak.

"I have been on the road for days," she reminded him. "I have stood here for hours in the wilderness, and still you do not invite me in long enough to sit at table," emphasizing that singularly Catholic phrase, freighted with meaning, "and carry on a civilized conversation. Your mama taught you better than that."

Once again, Rory's gaze seemed to be fixed on her torso. He was so skinny and lean, and she had gone stout, the way farm-raised women of German lineage were known to do. "Quit that," she snapped.

He blinked and met her indignant stare. "What?"

"Looking at me like I'm a hippo!"

"Women." He turned his back and started walking to the trailer. She followed. His dog looked at her over its shoulder, wagging, apparently eager to show her the way home. Wait. Not that Lenna's little metal trailer in the desert was "home." Clearly, DeLorean was low on food and blood sugar and warm fuzzies.

At the trailer he unlocked the door and held it open for her. She cast a furtive glance back at the big shed full of crazy mechanical monsters on wheels, then squinted at Rory, then preceded him into the trailer. She had glimpsed it before, but this time her eyes made a rapid scan for signs of Lenna. Where was she, anyway?

A potted cactus with toy animals stalking the rim: now that was proof of Lenna having been here. She never outgrew toys. In a faded frame, there was Marlin, the old ginger tom, and--inexplicably--a dinosaur perched on the frame, reaching for the dried flowers in a nearby vase. That Lenna! A goofy porcelain cat was in the mix, and DeLorean recognized it as Polish Pottery.

---

Turning her head, she spotted a postcard on the fridge. Lenna had a thing for rhinos and dinosaurs. The old black and white photo of the little girl with the rhino struck something in DeLorean,

source
some chord that vibrated in DeLorean's soul and connected her by some invisible strand to Lenna's heart. Maybe it was just DNA. If you stretched the DNA in one cell all the way out, it would be about 2m long and all the DNA in all your cells put together would be about twice the diameter of the Solar System. She remembered that from a BBC Science Focus magazine.

source

Rory was a distant cousin,

a few removes from that genetic strand linking DeLorean to Lenna, her mom, and their mother, her grandmother. Rory was not someone she would visit if not for the invisible DNA they had in common. The fact of being alone in a trailer in the middle of nowhere with weird cousin Rory suddenly made her feel short of breath. Her heart started pounding. DeLorean had never fainted in all her life, nor suffered a panic attack, but she just might, if she thought of how far she had come from Dwayne and how near she put herself to a certifiable lunatic.

No landline. No internet. No way anyone would find her here, or even think to look for her here.

Finally, she pulled in a deep breath, let it out rather too loudly, and faced the always-startling blue eyes of her deranged but (thank God) distant cousin.

Day 606: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: hippo

This is an ongoing freewrite,

inspired in part by @Felt.buzz and his clever series using the daily prompts. This began with a woman on the run who sneaked into the kitchen of some bachelor roommates, cleaned up, cooked dinner, and hoped to ingratiate herself and get an invitation to stay for a while. At the end of all this, I'll revisit that first freewrite and see if it can be salvaged and threaded into this story (her first stop on the way to Arizona) or just leave it behind.

The toys (and photos of them) are mine. Hands off! Not sharing 'em because my daughter LOST MY BABY HIPPO, I kid you not. I sent it with her to college as a reminder of dear old Mum, and it never came back. She lost my Schleich hippo!! (Yes. I could buy another one. But not the same model! Mine dates back to 2008; it's no longer online unless I find an old one on ebay. No, my missing baby hippo is not pictured below:

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Thank you for reading!

Part One: She Came in through the Kitchen Window - Day 577: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: window

Part Two: "You Little Tart" - Day 585: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: tart

Part Three: Day 588: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: rodeo
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-588-5-minute-freewrite-friday-prompt-rodeo

Part Four: Mom's Cousin Lenna the Tart - Part 3 or 4 -Day 591: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: Rule

Part Five: Mom's Cousin Lenna the Lunatic

Part Six: Mom's Cousin Lenna, Part Six-ish - Day 595: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: trot

Part Seven: Batter My Heart - Mom's Cousin Lenna, Part 7 - Day 598 :5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: Batter

Part Eight: Mom's cousin Lenna + Rory, Part 8, Day 599: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: yoga

Part Nine: Mom's Cousin Lenna, Part 9 - Day 602: 5 Minute Freewrite: Prompt: show me the way home

Part Ten: Mom's Cousin Lenna - Day 605: 5 Minute Freewrite: Prompt: moving to the city

Part Eleven: Mom's Cousin Lenna - Day 606: 5 Minute Freewrite Prompt: nap

Part Twelve: Mom's Cousin Lenna - Day 607: Prompt: Hippo

Check Out The @FreeWriteHouse Prompt Of The Day By @MarianneWest

• Look For The 5-Min #FreeWrite Daily Prompt On @MarianneWest’s Blog