“What are we celebrating?” Reznick said.
“I’ve been working with this temp agency for months, now,” she said. “I did this job today, and they really like me there, so they want me to come in nine-to-five for a while, and it might – fingers crossed – it might turn into a permanent job.”
“Well, congratulations, Anna,” he said. “I’d toast your new job, but I – “
”Oh, you want a beer?” Anna said. “I’m sorry, I completely – how about you, Rose, you need another beer?”
“Uh, no beer for me, thanks,” Reznick said. “But I’ll take a soft drink, if you have one.”
She went inside and came back with a beer for herself, one for her sister, and a Pepsi for Reznick.
He cracked his can of Pepsi open and raised it in a toast. “To your new job, may it be permanent for as long as you want it.”
Anna and Rose touched their beer cans to his, and then they drank.
Reznick was glad she wasn’t wearing that perfume again tonight. He wouldn’t be able to stick around if she were. He ate and chatted with Anna and Rose. But he glanced now and then at Kendra, who stood over by the porch. She was always watching him, every time he glanced at her. And when he caught her at it, she did not look away. Even when he didn’t look at her, he could feel her eyes on him.
He thought of her in his trailer earlier that day – all that smooth, milky flesh exposed… that beautiful long blonde hair… that sultry face above those breasts like small melons. When was the last time he’d wanted a woman so much? He had to divert his thoughts before he got an erection.
“How would you like to do me a favor?” Anna said.
“What’s that?” Reznick said.
“I’m going to be leaving Kendra alone while I’m at work during the day. I don’t know what your schedule is like – if you come home for lunch, or how often you come home, if at all. But if you are at home, maybe you could look in on her and just make sure everything’s okay?”
“Oh, sure, I’d be glad to.”
“One more thing.” She leaned close and whispered, “In case you haven’t noticed, Kendra has quite a crush on you. I hope you’d never consider taking advantage of that. Because if you did, I’d kill you, understand?” She smiled. “And you wouldn’t even see it coming.” Then she backed up again, still smiling.
A smile slowly grew on Reznick’s face, then he laughed quietly. “Okay. That’s good to know. But I assure you, it never crossed my mind.”
She nodded. “Just so you know.”
Back in his trailer, he sat down at the computer again. He browsed through MILFParade.com. Lots of pictures and videos of women in their thirties and early forties, some simply posing nude, others having sex with the same two men over and over again – the same two men who were in the pictures he’d taken through the window in the backyard of the house on Jupiter Street.
As he browsed through the site, he found several pictures of Alicia Carey. She seemed to be quite popular on MILFParade.com. Sometimes she was nude and masturbating, and sometimes she was having sex with one of the two men who ran the site. There were even videos of Alicia, a few of which Reznick watched. She seemed to enjoy herself, to say the least. Reznick did not look forward to it, but he would have to show some of this to Mo Carey.
Throughout the site, there were ads for other sites – LovingCouples.com, YoungandLovely.com, and LustyLesbians.com, all apparently owned by the same company, Burning Lizard Amusements. He visited the other sites and went to their preview pages.
Then he saw it. The words “And coming soon” next to a link to something called Trailer Park Girls. Reznick clicked on the link.
A page opened up with a cartoon showing a buxom girl in a too-small halter top and short-shorts standing in front of a trailer. Below the picture were the words, “Real trailer parks. Real girls. Coming soon.”
Trailer parks, Reznick thought. Something about it set off an alarm in his head. He wasn’t sure why, but it did.
He clicked his mouse, then his fingers clattered over the keyboard. He had more work to do to prepare for tomorrow.
Anna called Calista Hoffman’s mother and explained her problem, asked if she’d be willing to pick Kendra up and take her to Vacation Bible School with Calista each day.
“You know, I wouldn’t mind at all,” Mrs. Hoffman said, “but Calista won’t be going anymore. As of tomorrow, she’s going down to Sacramento to spend the rest of the summer with her father. I’m really sorry.”
After ending the conversation, Anna told Kendra.
“Do you know of anyone else who might be able to come pick you up?” Anna said.
Kendra shook her head. “Nobody who drives by this way. And nobody who’d do it, probably. Calista’s really my only friend there.”
“Well, then, what do you want to do?”
Kendra thought for a while. Then she sighed and said, “Well, I guess I’ll just miss the rest of Vacation Bible School this summer.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Unless maybe Aunt Rose could do it.”
“Yeah, I suppose I could call her and ask. But it would be kind of a pain for her to come all the way over here and pick you up, take you to the church, then go home, come back to the church two hours later, pick you and bring you back over here.”
“That’s okay, Mommy. I don’t mind missing it. Really.”
“You’re sure, now.”
“I’m sure.” She gave Anna a big smile. “Don’t worry. Jesus will understand.”
Sherry sat bolt upright in bed, sweat dripping from her.
She’d heard a sound somewhere in the night.
Andy snored beside her.
Sherry listened hard, wondering what she’d heard.
“Andy?” she whispered. “Andy? I heard something.”
He did not stir, did not even budge.
She got up and stood beside the bed and realized she was shaking. It was hot in the trailer, but she was shivering as if she were freezing cold, sweating as if she were sweltering. She felt sick to her stomach.
She listened, but heard nothing.
Sherry walked down the hall, her body quaking, and went to the bathroom, where she hunkered down at the toilet and vomited. Afterward, she rinsed out her mouth, brushed her teeth, and left the bathroom. She went down the hall, then through the dark kitchen to the dark living room, where she turned on the light on the end table by the couch. She turned on the swamp cooler then. The VCR clock read 3:22. She found her kit on the couch. She fumbled with it, unzipped it, and removed the contents. Her hands were shaking so bad that it was difficult to prepare the stuff, but she somehow managed. She used her teeth as well as her right hand to tie on the tourniquet.
The needle trembled in her hand and she cried a little as she tried to steady her hand enough to inject herself. She sniffled and whimpered and finally drove the spike home. Then she sat back and let it flow through her.
The shakes subsided. The sweating stopped. She moaned a little as she melted into the couch, became a part of it.
“What’d I tell you about that shit, huh?”
She opened her eyes halfway. Andy stood before her, frowning down at her. He wore his boxers and had his hands on his hips, elbows out at his sides.
“I told you it would be a problem once you started that shit,” he said. “It’s one thing to do it for a day, but two, three days – that shit gets under your skin.”
She realized the needle was still in her arm, the tourniquet still on. She removed the needle, undid the tourniquet, put them back in her kit.
“I-I, I thought I heard something,” she said.
“You were having withdrawals, weren’t you?” he said. “Your side of the bed is soaking wet.”