Egg approached the gray sedan, eyes locked on the driver, with his hands stuffed into his hip pockets. The shaggy blonde guy was surveying the damage to his hood and the busted headlight. Egg waltzed right up beside the guy and stuck his hand out in front of him.

   "Looks like you got off easy, friend. Mine's a total loss," he said, nodding to the mini-van.

    The blonde guy stood and took the offered hand into his own. He looked to the wreckage of the van and its tail of twisted metal and nodded.

   "What happened, exactly?" the man queried.

    "Goddamn coyote ran out into the road and when I tried to spare its life, the blind **** behind me forgot how to work his brake pedal. Name's Danny, by the way," Egg offered up freely.

   "Toby."

   "Nice to meet ya friend. You wouldn't happen to be headed north would ya?"

   "Actually, I have a miss... an interview that I'm headed to."

    "Well, I'd be obliged if you could give me and my associate," Egg pointed to Frau, "a ride as far north as you possibly could. I'd give you proper compensation, of course. Tryin to get to my poor mother's funeral in Detroit."

   "How much we talkin in compensation friend? Because, as it happens, I'm headed to Detroit myself."

    "How does five hundred sound?" Egg asked as he could see the fire of desperation rage in the man's eyes. 

   "Up front. No offense, but I just don't wanna get screwed."

    Egg smiled and pulled out a fat roll of bills. He turned away from the guy and peeled of five bills. He turned and handed them to the guy with a smile, all the while thinking of the many different ways he could dispose of this ****. 

   "Give me a second to grab a few important things," and as an afterthought, "and my associate."

    Egg jogged back to where Frau was standing and nervously watching the police mill about the scene.

   "Ok, got us a ride with Wright's new bitchboy. Your name is Steve, I'm Danny. Got it?"

    Frau nodded.

   "Now grab my things and let's get moving. I wanna be as far from here as possible when the police find out that the van actually belongs to the sack of **** they pulled from the Buick."

    Toby had already climbed behind the wheel and was waiting when Egg and Frau approached. Egg motioned for Frau to get into the back seat and he slid gracefully into the driver seat. Frau was happy that he'd be able to stretch ut and sleep and Egg had someone to keep his mind occupied until Detroit. He lay right down and bunched the sweater up under his head again. His head ached like a bitch.

   Egg slammed the door closed and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

   "Do you mind?" he asked holding them up so Toby could see what he was referring to.

    "Nah, go ahead," came the reply.

   Egg lit his smoke and settled back in his seat. He watched the police and paramedics scrambled about accident scene, putting up ribons of yellow tape, directing traffic, and administering to the less seriously wounded that the ambulances left behind. He smiled, knowing that this was going to go down in his archives as another famous "Egg's narrow escape". The smoke from his cigarette added an eerie effect to the picture in his window. This was the perfect close to another unexpected chapter in Egg's life. Now he could focus on Detroit.