"Maybe we should've taken that left turn at Albuquerque," mused Gojyo, puzzling over the map.

"First of all," said Hakkai with his typical infinite patience, "we're nowhere near Albuquerque. Second of all, you're holding the map upside down." He took the map from Gojyo and rearranged it, spread out on Jeep's hood. "This is where we are--right here."

"Right here" was hot, dry, flat and dusty, with very little population that they'd seen so far and even less vegetation. Allegedly there were mountains in the extreme distance, but other than that they may have been traveling across the world's largest pancake.

"Where are we, anyway?" asked Goku. "I'm hungry."

"We're in South Dakota." Hakkai tapped a finger on the map near the state's eastern border. "We should be near Mitchell soon---that looks like a fairly large town."

Everyone perked up visibly at the phrase "fairly large town." The last stop they'd made had been a town that seemed to be populated more by free-roaming chickens than people.

"Will there be food there?" Goku asked hopefully.

"I should hope so," Hakkai said. "Sanzo, are you ready to go?"

Sanzo was standing near the edge of the road, staring sullenly at the deserted interstate. On hearing Hakkai's voice, he flung his cigarette butt away and rejoined his companions, plunking down in the front passenger seat and folding his arms resolutely. Moments later, the dusty roadside where they'd stopped was behind them as they hurtled westward along I-90.

Unfortunately, they were further from Mitchell than they thought. Taking pity on Gojyo after his ceaseless pestering, Hakkai handed him the map, but Gojyo's navigational skills proved to be sorely wanting, as they took an unwanted detour in search of food and lodging that wasted several hours. Nightfall--and beyond--found them with no dinner and no place to sleep.

It was finally decided that they should find somewhere safe to pull over and at least sleep for a while, and finally a rest area hove into view. After a hasty raid on the vending machines, four young men and one little white dragon slipped into the picnic area, with its artificially over-watered trees and shrubs, and flopped down, exhausted, around a picnic table.

Some time later, after the moon had risen and everyone was sound asleep, Jeep's stomach rumbled unhappily and he awoke. Carefully, so as not to disturb Hakkai, Jeep bounded down to the ground and started poking around in search of something else to eat. The stale granola bar he'd eaten earlier had not done much to fortify him. There had to be something edible somewhere--after all, he could eat anything the humans could, and quite a few things they couldn't.

Jeep nibbled on some of the available leaves, but they didn't taste very good. He was nosing hopefully through the grass, and was seriously considering eating some of it, when a slight commotion caught his attention. It came from near the paved road nearby, and Jeep flapped quietly over to investigate.

A horrid stench assaulted his tender dragon nostrils, and he nearly choked; there was a road-killed rabbit stretched out on the pavement, hidden from view by a line of shrubbery. The commotion had come from a large crow, who had chased off another crow, and was now picking daintily at the rabbit. On sensing Jeep nearby, the crow stopped eating and glared. Black bird and white dragon locked gazes for a few moments; then the crow decided this odd creature was harmless, and returned to his meal.

In the way that all animals can communicate, Jeep told the crow he was hungry. The crow told Jeep, rather brusquely, that there was a large place with all the food anyone could want not far away--he made no offer to share the rabbit. Just a bit farther, the crow told him, and there is a place with all the seeds and grasses and delicious kernels of plump, tasty corn anyone could possibly ever hope to find. Travel away from the rising sun, and you'll find it. You can't possibly miss it. Then, apparently either having a change of heart or having eaten his fill, the crow flew away, leaving Jeep with what remained of the rabbit.

Jeep thought for a moment, and then lifted off and pointed west.

The night sky was just starting to get the strange, shabby grayness that precedes sunrise when Hakkai awoke. He was cold. He shivered slightly, and then realized why he was cold--Jeep was not curled next to him, as he usually was.

Within minutes, they were all awake and searching for Jeep. Before too long, it became obvious that Jeep wasn't anywhere nearby.

"That's just great!" Gojyo spat. "How the hell are we gonna get out of here without Jeep? It's too far to walk."

Hakkai eyed a Winnebago in the rest area parking lot. "We could ask those nice people if we could ride with them," he said.

Three hours later, they were standing in the early morning sunlight on a sidewalk in downtown Mitchell, waiting for the light to change so they could cross the street. The family with the Winnebago had been happy to give them a lift, but it had come at a steep price. While it was true that Goku proved to be expert at amusing the three noisy and active children, Gojyo, Sanzo and Hakkai (who, although he tried not to show it, was worried sick about Jeep) were thoroughly sick to death of country-and-western music, stale Cheetos and Oreos, and lukewarm soft drinks.

Now, jangled and jumpy with too much sugar and too little sleep, they faced a short walk to something mysterious that the people who'd given them a ride had insisted they see. "Oh, the Corn Palace, yeah; you go to Mitchell, you gotta go to the Corn Palace, yeah," the family had said. Repeatedly.

The town seemed small and unremarkable, and as it was a weekday, there weren't too many people around. There was an old-fashioned drugstore on the main street, with a neon sign that had to be at least half a century old, and another shop's sign promised "3000 Boots." The small grocery store had yielded enough food for the rest of the day; Goku's backpack was thankfully full of provisions again. And there was still no sign of Jeep.

"What the hell is a Corn Palace, anyway?" Gojyo wanted to know as they crossed the street. "Izzat anything like a cornhole?"

Half a block later, he had his answer. Suddenly they stood before an immense building, filling an entire block and 5 stories high, with its exterior coated with murals. Extravagant spires and minarets pointed insouciantly skyward; they were the tallest objects for miles, and in fact if the four companions hadn't been so damn tired, they would have noticed them sooner.

Tiny birds swooped to and fro among the murals, perching precariously on them as they pecked away at the grains that formed the artwork. The murals were incredible in and of themselves; the realization that they were made of ears of corn sawed in half, and other grains, was even more stunning.

Gojyo's mouth hung open, and his cigarette dropped to the pavement. "Holy shit," he said, his eyes dilating slightly, as if he truly were having a religious experience.

"Oh," said Hakkai in a small voice. "It's, um... it's very... er..."

"It's covered with food!" yelled Goku.

"And I thought Nikko was gaudy and overdone," Sanzo said.

Open-mouthed, craning their necks skyward, they moved slowly along the sidewalk. The building never seemed to end. Each sweeping, panoramic corn-covered vista gave way to the next, even more fantastic. It was almost too much to take in.

A sudden noise, like a loud, wet slap, startled them all, even making Goku squawk in surprise. "Hey, it's Jeep!" he yelled.

Hakkai spun around--the slap had come from behind him--to see his little dragon friend lying limply on the pavement. "Oh no! Jeep!" Hakkai gasped, relieved and panicked at the same time. He gathered Jeep up in his arms and hustled to a sheltered area, under the big marquee by the building's front entrance.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Gojyo asked, lighting a new cigarette.

"I hope so," Hakkai said, supporting Jeep's drooping head in his hand. "I think he's just dazed or something. Maybe he got too much sun."

Jeep opened his ruby eyes and blinked. "Kyuuuu..." he said weakly. His tummy was rounded and bloated, there were tiny crumbs of corn kernels around his muzzle, and Hakkai could have sworn that Jeep was smiling ever so slightly.

"Looks like he's been piggin' out on corn," the ever-observant Gojyo said.

"He was just hungry," said Goku. "Like me. Will you be all right, Jeep?" He cautiously reached to scratch Jeep between the eyes, which Jeep seemed to appreciate.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Hakkai said. He hefted the sated dragon to rest against his chest, with Jeep's head and neck trailing over one shoulder. "We'll just have to pamper him for a while."

"You're treating him like he's some sort of spoiled rotten little poodle," Sanzo snapped.

"Aw, c'mon, Sanzo, he deserves it," said Goku. "He spends a lot of time carrying us around--maybe we should carry him around for a while. Hey, can we go inside? Maybe there's more cool stuff inside."

This page was created September 21, 2003. Last updated September 23, 2003.