"I got cut." Don't move. There's glass everywhere."Pam tried not to grin. She wasn't going anywhere, as long as Mom didn't go anywhere, either.She ste...ped carefully over the broken glass on the floor and took Pam's hand. She washed away the blood with warm water."It looks like a small cut. I'll get a bandage," she said.Pam pressed her finger on the cut, where a little blood was still leaking out. Mom opened the closet by the bathroom and got a bandage from the box on the shelf. She put it on. I touched a spot on the console and it opened as an old comp slid up and out. I took it as I pulled into the huge shopping complex. I parked in the very back as I slipped the comp into my jacket and then got out.I saw their vehicles as I walked towards the buildings. I touched a remote and dropped it in a recycle slot at the building entrance. Once I was inside I headed for the ranch store I always went to before I shopped. I pulled the comp while walking and entered a restricted access. When she needed some easy pain, she'd go with one of the dangerous ones. She knew which buttons to press to get what she wanted. Sometimes it was difficult to judge. If she pushed him – or occasionally her – too far she'd end up in a med-tube, which was no good at all. That fixed everything so she didn't hurt. She needed the easy pain as a distraction. If the johns were hurting her, then she wasn't hurting herself, so she didn't get into trouble.The brothel wasn't perfect, but it wasn't as bad. July 18, 1847We restarted our journey to Oregon, refreshed by the break in the trip and the good water and grass we had enjoyed for the last three days. After about an hour of travel we left the oasis where Fort Bridger was located and returned to the dry tundra of the Great Northern Desert. Soon afterwards we started to enter a landscape that seemed out of a science fiction movie.The land began to change from scrubby growth to a land dotted by cones, craters, springs, geysers, and waterfalls..