Previously: Liz realized she still hadn't answered Tommy's original question.

********

"Oh, in answer to your question about whether anyone had given us directions to where we should go."

Tommy looked up quizzically into the rearview mirror at Liz who was speaking.

"I know it was a long time ago, you asked about that."

Tommy chuckled and nodded.

"So, Kai Zita, who we mentioned to you, gave us a mysterious message. Everything about her was anachronistic. She was clearly from a different time. It was strange to see her sitting in the rear seat of my modern 2010 Honda Fit.

"Our Native rescuer said, 'You will know you are near the end of one destination when you see a sign: a bear, cat, and dog.' Whatever that means. It sounds like an ad for my autobiographical allegory, Be Wee With Bea. I don't know what that has to do with anything."

"There's a turn-off from this highway leading to the Bear, Cat, and Dog Grille. We'll have to keep our eyes out for it."

Tommy had the solution to the puzzle. It was simple, no need to decode anything. Liz and Linda's laugh carried a tone of relief.

Linda had to know. "Is there some kind of garage there?"

"Why yes, there is. There's a car repair shop practically right beside the Grille. They should be able to fix you up fine."

Tommy remarked about the inactivity in the opposite lane leading east out of Billings. He reassured them he would stay as long as needed.

Liz looked at Linda as she said, "We found out the trafficking is quite active in big cities like Billings."

Linda added more horrifying information when she said, "Any event, where many men gather, creates a great opportunity for this traffic activity. So, possibly the food festival would call for an increasing request for children, teens, and women."

They could tell Tommy was stunned. "I...I had no idea about any of this."
detailed in her recent studies of the situation, she read 'investigations have revealed the incidents of abductions escalate, anywhere men congregate in large groups."

"And where is the food festival scheduled to happen?... Billings!"

Linda did not stop there. "It creeped us out to think the room we reserved in the Hilton hotel might be right near a room used for trafficking."

A bewildered Tommy inquired why they thought their hotel might be used for trafficking?

"Among the list of reported names of hotels and motels is the Hilton. Survivors have named places like the Hilton, Marriott, Roosevelt Inn, Days Inn among a few."

Linda was sure she knew the answer, but asked the question. "Where is your food thing being held in Billings?"

"The Food Festival is being held at the Marriott." Tommy was disgusted." So, these hotels and motels are financially benefitting from all of this. I wonder if the authorities know what's going on?"

"Of course they do. This leads high up on the echelon of power and finance." Liz was emphatic when she said, "Tell me the clerks haven't figured out why certain rooms are reserved and frequented by a particular group of people. There's a lot of money to be gained, enough to buy blindness, deception, and silence."

A grave lull ensued.

The ladies detected a refreshing lightness in Tommy. "We are heading west toward Billings, but not alone, unprotected, or without guidance."

He explained how the spirit keeper of the direction west is called Mudjekee, Chief of the Spirit Keepers who brings autumn's cool breezes. They help us to go within ourselves, which I think we certainly have done here. Heading west has created more than one change in our lives. It has been quite a roller coaster ride.

"We've been helped to look at our strengths and weaknesses. It is a time to prepare for renewal. I think we are slowly accepting Mudjekee's invitation."

"That's essentially what Kai Zita was talking about. She said we would find our way." Sitting up, eyebrows raised, checking in with Linda, she continued. "We thought she was talking about finding the turnoff to the garage that you told us about, but now I think she was talking about our lives, having more confidence and self-care."

Linda dipped her head, signaling a similar realization.

Liz shared her realization, when they returned home, they would not be the same people. This was not much of a vacation as vacations go, but it certainly stretched them on many levels.

Liz said, "Neither of us would have ever entertained the idea of rescuing teens being held captive. How scary.

"Terror for the girls minimizes any fear experienced by us. When we heard their individual stories of darkness, it took us to a new level of reality."

Liz told them of her counseling a few women, also victims of abduction, who had stories of treachery. She knew these delightful teens had an endless, arduous journey to recovery.

"Onto a more captivating subject. If our Honda Fit hadn't permanently stalled, I don't believe Linda would have known her value to my survival, such a good friend, there when we had to get the bars off the window. That strong, determined woman ignored the pain of the rusty metal cutting into her hands, committed to freeing those girls.

"She was the wise one to find the milk crates, vital for the girls to safely step down from the window. Furthermore, I never would have been able to get her out of a swamp, like she did me.

"I would have brutally, and futilely, attempted to pull the lower section of my friend's leg from the locking suction of the stubborn mud. She somehow figured out how to make a fulcrum.

"Linda built up the height of found fallen logs she'd dragged across the ever beckoning muck. This procedure lifted my thigh, step by step, until the mud could no longer maintain its hold and had to succumb to the battle. To secure our footing, my inventive companion made a soft bed-like surface of evergreens."

Linda, flushed with the praise, changed the topic.

"Tommy, does this beautiful blanket we're sitting on and hopefully haven't messed up too much, have a story?"