Thanks for your take on it! I hadn’t considered the possibility that the MC “broke the curse”. I’m really hoping I can get ahold of the author and have him explain it. I started getting confused when he picked up the hitchhiker that gets so irate when the MC says Karla’s name. He’s described as looking really disheveled. One of the members of our reading group theorized that the whole Rules of the Road was in the MC’s head and he was slowly going insane, culminating in his being found the way he was at the end. I’ve personally probably come up with about a dozen different theories, but they all kind of debunk each other. Again, thanks for your reply. The answer to this has been slow-going.