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Page 82
designed. She reacted with interest, trying not to let her preoccupation show. He lost her completely when he mentioned again his solar panels and electricity, but she gathered that they were what caused the lights to come on so swiftly and brightly. When he stopped speaking, she waited for a moment, then said, "Mike, I'm afraid I've lost track of the date."
He told her what it wasconfirming that it was 1995. She stared at him, unsure what to do.
He leaned across her and pulled a strap away from the door. He placed it over her chest and her lap, and she felt trappedtrapped in this box named Bronco, and trapped in her own imagination. For surely that's what it was. She could not be in the future.
But it explained so muchthe conveniences she had seen in Mike's cabin. Even this vehicle, for Mike put a key into a slot, turned it, and the thing made a growling soundnot unlike Abby's bird vision. It vibrated beneath her. Mike pulled a lever, and they started forward. Abby grabbed at the panel before her and one on the door.
They went along a gray, solid road that Abby had not noticed before. The speed they attained nearly at once seemed faster than any team of horses at a full gallop. She heard the sound of rushing wind outside, somehow oddly muted, and a soft whooshing from a breeze inside the strange carriage that cast a coolness over her despite the desert outside. Abby rode silently, drinking in all she saw, clutching at the handle on the door.

 
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