She was hungry, but she didn’t feel like cooking. It was too hot to cook. She grabbed her purse and went out to her car. She drove down to KFC and got dinner for her and Kendra.
The wind made traffic lights bob and sway. Trees and bushes bowed to its strength as Anna drove home. Her car was buffeted on the road by the hot, suffocating gusts.
Back in the trailer, she put her purchase on the counter.
Kendra stirred on the couch and slowly sat up, rubbing one eye with a knuckle.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Anna said. “I just bought dinner. Kentucky Fried Chicken sound good?”
“Yeah. How was work, Mommy?”
“It was good. How was your day?”
“Okay. I slept a lot. My finger hurt real bad, so I took the pills, and they make me sleepy.”
“I know they do. How’s your finger?”
“It hurts again.”
“Well, let’s eat and maybe you’ll feel a little better. Have you eaten today?”
“I had a peanut butter sammich.”
Anna took the two dinners out of their bags and removed the plastic covers, then put them on the table. “Dinner is served.”
Kendra got up and shuffled to the table. “You gonna dance tonight?”
“Oh, yeah, I have to after missing two nights.”
“You’re gonna let me stay here, aren’t ya?” Kendra said. “I mean, I didn’t even go get the mail today, and I’ve – “
”I noticed that, and I appreciate it. Yes, I’ll let you stay here tonight.”
“Thank you, Mommy.”
They ate without speaking for a while, but not in silence. The wind battered the trailer and branches creaked overhead.
“Did Marc come over today?” Anna said.
“Uh, Marc? Yeah. Marc came over today. He brought Conan to see Dexter. They, uh, they went, uh, outside together.”
“Something the matter?”
“No. Why?”
“I don’t know, you just don’t seem… too sure of yourself all of a sudden.”
“I-I’m sure of myself. Whatta you mean?” Kendra frowned a little.
“Well, don’t get upset.”
Kendra relaxed a little. Her frown receded. “I’m relaxed, I’m not upset.”
Anna smiled. It was that crush again. Kendra got ruffled every time Marc came up in the conversation.
Suddenly she flashed on the photograph of Kendra smiling with Steven Regent’s cock in her mouth. She took a deep breath.
“Kendra,” she said hesitantly.
“What?”
“We… we need to talk.”
The blade sliding into his gut… twisting in his insides…
“About what?” Kendra said.
Anna put her elbows on the table and joined her hands under her chin.
… all that blood… on her hands and arms… on her face and in her hair… splattering everywhere as she stabbed him… and stabbed him… and stabbed him…
“Mommy? You don’t look so good all of a sudden.”
Anna didn’t feel so good.
“Excuse me,” she said as she left the table. She went into the bathroom, closed the door, got down on her knees at the toilet, and vomited.
Reznick sat up straight in the recliner with a sharp cry, his fingers digging into the vinyl upholstery of the armrests, his body drenched in sweat. His T-shirt clung to him and his shorts were so wet, they felt soiled.
He lifted his hands, palms up, and inspected them. They were not wearing blood-soaked work gloves.
It took him several seconds to realize that he’d been sleeping and having a nightmare.
He reached for the glass of vodka on the lamp table, but it was empty except for a little water left over in the bottom from melted ice cubes.
Reznick straightened up the recliner and stood, went to the kitchen for more vodka. But the bottle stood on the counter, empty. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the bottle, trying to remember finishing it off. He could not.
He put the empty glass on the counter, grabbed his keys and wallet off the table, and left the trailer. He got in his car and drove down to the Handi-Spot market again, where he took a bottle off the shelf. Then he grabbed a second bottle. He thought about it a moment. He put both bottles back on the shelf and instead chose a liter of vodka.
He’d lost that feeling he’d had earlier, that wonderful buoyant feeling, that mind-numbing sensation that liquor bestowed. He wanted it back.
Reznick paid for his purchase and left the store.
A banner advertising Coca-Cola was stretched overhead in the parking lot and it snapped and fluttered in the scorching wind. The wind engulfed him like the fiery breath of a dragon. He got in the car and drove back to the trailer park, his mouth watering for another drink.
Sherry and Lissa shared a joint at the bar. Sherry already felt good, having just had Lissa give her a fix from her kit. She was trying to stretch them out, though. She didn’t want to be a junky. She was going to fight it, to wean herself off it. Her most recent dose had been a smaller one. The pot helped.
“You heard the news, didn’t you?” Sherry said. “The news about Arnie Garvis?”
“No, what news?”
Sherry told her what she’d heard on the radio that morning.
Lissa’s eyes widened a little. “No shit? Then David was right. They really did fake a death.”
“Yep. And now I’m scared shitless. Andy says I’m just paranoid, but I don’t think so.”
“About what? I don’t know what you mean.”
“About them coming back for us. We’re the only ones who know how Arnie really died.”
“Oh, yeah. But… well… if they were gonna kill us, don’t you think they would’ve done it that night? When they came to get Arnie? That makes more sense to me.”
“Yeah,” Andy said as he came into the kitchen. “Now that makes sense. If they was gonna kill ya, they woulda done it that night. You think they give a shit about you? Nobody’s gonna believe anything you say. They don’t care about you. You don’t worry them a bit. So will ya quit worryin’ about it, for cryin’ out loud?”
Andy went to the refrigerator and got a beer, popped it open, and drank.
“Well, I can’t help it,” Sherry said. “It worries me.”
“I’m gonna get started with this,” Andy said.
“Okay, Lissa, you ready to go?” She stood and turned to him. “We’re goin’ to the movies. We’ll be back in a couple hours.”
“I won’t be done by then.”
“Yeah, I know, but that’s when we’ll be back.”
“Okay.”
The wind whistled around the corners of the trailer like some kind of howling beast. The trailer shuddered against it.
“You don’t mind if we take your car, do you?” Sherry said. “You got air conditioning, I don’t.”
Lissa said, “No, I don’t mind. I’d prefer it.”
Sherry went to Andy and gave him a warm kiss. “See you later. You be careful with that shit, okay?”
“Hey, I’m always careful,” he said. “I can’t make any money off that shit if I’m dead.”
The girls got their purses, left the trailer, and went out into the suffocatingly hot, windy evening.
Josh Garner punched in Steven Regent’s cell phone number for the twentieth time that day. Once again, he received Regent’s recorded voice, asking him to leave a message.