Escape Attempt
Leaving Las Vegas proves harder than arriving. Even the parking garage fights back.
Getting out of Las Vegas turned out to be harder than getting in.
Bill won the argument on Fremont Street by the narrowest margin available, which is to say Bob stopped talking long enough for Bill to reach the car. From there it was a straight line to the airport. The first obstacle was the hotel parking garage.
The line for the exit ran the length of the level. Every car in it was waiting on one gate arm, and the gate arm was waiting on one ticket machine, and the ticket machine was waiting on a driver somewhere near the front who could not find his ticket. The garage ceiling was low, the arrows on the floor all pointed toward a single yellow sign reading exit, and nothing was moving toward it.
Bill leaned out of the driver's window, one arm extended toward the line of taillights ahead of him, and shouted at the car in front to move it already.
It was the loudest anyone has heard Bill speak. Bob, in the passenger seat, described it as the moment Bill finally understood Vegas, and he meant it as a compliment. Bill did not take it as one.
The line moved eleven minutes later. They made the flight with nine minutes to spare, which Bill logged in the notebook under a new heading.
By the time they pulled back into Rocky Rivers, both of them felt as though they had escaped something. Bill thinks they did, possibly barely. Bob thinks they left early. Larry was waiting on the front step when they got in and did not say how long he had been there.
All of Chapter 1: The Vegas Trip →