"You are an odd duck, I'll give you that," said Christine. "Quite imaginative, but odd." She patted Julia on the leg and hiccuped. Two burly men with large bare tattooed arms stared at the occupants of the car as they walked toward a dilapidated building that seemed bursting with activity.

"Maybe we lock the doors while we wait," said Miller and he reached over Christine to hit the door lock button. After several minutes Tom returned red in the face. Julia unlocked the car doors and Tom hastily got in.

"He wasn't there, but we best get going," said Tom. "There are some unfriendly dudes in that place." He handed a flask up to the front seat. "But here, I snaked this." Julia and Christine eagerly opened it and took a swig.

"To the weekend," said Christine toasting the air and hiccuping again.

"We'd better leave now," said Miller. They looked up at to see a mean-looking toothless man at the entrance of the building scanning the parking lot. His beady eyes landed on the car just as two even larger men joined him.

"I'm trying, I'm trying," said Julia hastily punching letters on the ratty keyboard attached to the odd black box sitting on the dashboard held together with mismatched bolts and some duct tape. A few red lights came on. The little device vibrated some and it emitted a puff of black smoke dirtying the windshield.

"Is it broken?" asked Miller anxiously staring at the men now walking down the stairs towards the car. One of them held a crowbar.

"Oh relax," said Tom taking a nip off the flask. "Julia's got this figured out."

"Try the pool dear," said Christine, with a giggle. "Perhaps he is taking a swim tonight." Julia glanced up at the approaching thugs frantically pushing more buttons on the machine until finally, yellow and green lights began to flash and, to the astonishment of the men standing outside the boxing ring, the shabby Toyota disappeared in a blue puff of smoke.

The car landed with a jolt beside a nice-looking neighborhood pool. A group of teens playing cards on the deck looked up, but otherwise, no one seemed to notice. Miller grabbed the flask from Tom. "I'm all for time travel and sci-fi fantasy, but that was a really odd experience," he said and took a swig. Christine opened the car windows to let out the nervous energy.

Tom craned his neck scanning the people lazily floating in the pool on a cool Friday evening. "Why did you think he would even be in this series?" he asked.

"He won't be able to resist writing here given the prompt," said Julia similarly scanning the subdued crowd. Two girls got out to the pool with a smug look on their faces.

"What are you knuckleheads doing in my book?" asked John. Julia jumped. John was leaning with his elbows on the open driver's side window. John was greeted with a series of 'hellos' and smiles from the group. "And why is Christine hiccuping?"

"We had to pry her away from Baz and Joe of course," said Tom. "Now get in so we can see what this vehicle can really do."

"Julia said our first stop is Pamplona, but we all get to visit our favorite book tonight," said Christine.

John hopped in the back. Tom handed him the flask and they were off in a puff of blue smoke.