It took Lori a long time to finish treating John’s wounds. What seemed like a long time, anyway. I got tired standing up and holding the flashlight at arm’s length, so I sat cross-legged on the grungy floor and propped my elbows on my knees and held it that way. Once I heard a skittering at the big open fireplace and swung the beam over there, and Lori said real sharp, “For God’s sake, put that light back here.” I didn’t blame her for yelling. She couldn’t see in the dark.
While she was taking John’s temperature I went and picked up a couple of the candles that were on the fireplace hearth. I’d forgotten about them until I flashed the light over that way. I lit the wicks with some matches from my purse and set the candles on folding chairs, one at either end of the couch. The flames gave off plenty of light. Softer, too; the flash glare had started to hurt my eyes.
John’s temperature was one degree above normal. Lori said that wasn’t bad, after him being in the lake and in wet clothes all night. She gave him some aspirins and told him to take more every few hours. Then she unwrapped a nutrition bar she’d bought, made him eat it and drink more water. Then she laid out her husband’s clothes and said, “You can get into these when we’re gone. There’s an extra shirt in case one gets bloody.”
“I owe you,” John said. “Both of you.”
“You don’t owe me a thing.”
“Me neither,” I said.
“Yeah I do, and I can’t repay you. And I still have to ask one more favor, Lori.”
“I know. Transportation.”
“I can’t walk away from here.”
“You can’t drive, either. I’m not about to steal a car for you. That leaves me and my Toyota.”
“I wish it could be some other way.”
“So do I. I’ll do it, but not right away. For one thing, I have to take Trisha home—”
“I can get home on my own,” I said.
“No, not from way over here. And if I don’t go home myself pretty soon, he’ll figure something’s up. My husband, I mean. The last thing we need is for him to come looking.”
John said, “If he lays a hand on you again—”
“Never mind that. Thing is, I won’t be able to get back out again today without making him suspicious. Besides, you need to rest, build up strength. One night in this dump ought to be okay.”
“How soon tomorrow?”
“Before noon sometime.”
“You sure you can get out in the morning?”
“Pretty sure. I’ll think up some kind of excuse.”
I asked John, “Where’ll you go that’s safe?”
“As far from here as possible.”
“And then what? After you’re healed, I mean.”
“You don’t want to know. Neither of you.”
“But—”
“No buts. Once I’m gone I’m out of your lives for good.”
“We’re supposed to just forget you?”
“That’s right. Forget you ever met me.”
“I’ll never forget you, John. Never.”
He was quiet while Lori and I got ready to leave. Then he said a funny thing, like we were already gone and he was talking to himself. He said, “The only ones who care... they’re the ones you can hurt the most.”
Earle Banner
Nucooee point lodge.
Yeah. Oh yeah.
I was about three hundred yards back, just coming through a curve, when the little Jap car turned off. I braked and geared down, so when I rolled past the overgrown driveway I was doing less than twenty-five and I could see her plowing through grass and weeds to get around the chain barrier. I didn’t see no other car, but you could’ve hidden a fuckin’ house trailer back there behind the trees.
I drove on a ways until I found a spot where I could turn around. Then I come back and pulled off onto the verge just down from the driveway. Her and Brian’s kid, nobody else? Couldn’t get enough dick, so now she’s after pussy too, teenage pussy? But I didn’t think that was it. Not Lori, she was no AC-DC. Had to be they were meeting somebody at the lodge. One guy, maybe more — a goddamn orgy. Just thinking about it, the top of my head felt like it was gonna come off.
What I ached to do was go over there, catch them at it, beat the crap out of her and anybody else got in my way. If I’d had my .38 with me I might’ve done it. But I didn’t have no idea how many guys was over there, who they were, how tough they were. Those two bitches might be taking on half a dozen, for all I knew. Without an equalizer, maybe I’d be the one to get stomped and wouldn’t she love to see that?
Maybe I oughta go home, get the piece, and come back.
No. Take too long. And I still wouldn’t know how many there was until I got in there and I didn’t like the idea of using the gun unless I had to, not on anybody except Lori. Shit, it wasn’t the guy’s fault. Tail gets waved in a man’s face, he grabs for it — you can’t expect no different from a guy. Wasn’t even the kid’s fault. Teenager looking for kicks... all them teenage kids fuck like bunnies nowadays, the more the merrier. Lori’d set the whole thing up, most likely. Yeah. Set up an orgy, more the merrier for her, too. Kicks galore.
I’ll give her kicks. Give her some kicks she’ll never forget.
I sat there a while longer, steaming. A couple of cars whooshed by, and it come to me that one of ’em could’ve been a sheriff’s deputy or highway patrolman. Better get out of here before a cop did come along and stop and ask what I was doing. I jammed her into gear, rolled out past the lodge entrance. Couldn’t see nothing at all back there. Hid the Jap car and got inside somehow... humping in there on the floor with rats and spiders for an audience. Pictures that put in my head made me want to puke. I couldn’t remember ever being this crazy mad before.
By the time I got back to Pomo I needed a shot real bad. I stopped at Luccetti’s and a good thing wasn’t nobody I knew in there, because I was in no mood for talk. I knocked back three straight shots of Bushmills, but they didn’t do nothin’ except sharpen the edge. Hell with sitting here paying tavern prices when I had a jug of the same at home. I slammed out of there, drove to the house, and put the Ford away inside the garage. If she saw I was home she might not come in right away, and I wanted her to walk right in. Oh, yeah, walk right in, baby, see what Earle’s got waiting for you.
In the house I dragged the jug out and poured some into a glass and knocked it back. I started to pour another, then I thought, What the hell I need a glass for? I threw it against a wall and took the next one straight from the neck. Like a man. Like a husband with a lying, cheating mare in heat for a wife.
I carried the bottle into the front room, sat in my chair, and worked on it. Lot of time passed and I got drunk, all right, but not too drunk because I didn’t want to pass out.
Clock on the mantel bonged out four times. Four o’clock. Out there couple of hours now, fuck and suck and Christ knew what else. I got up and staggered over and grabbed the clock. Lori’s clock, bought it at some garage sale, never liked that pissant clock. I threw it down and stomped on it. Stomped it flat. Felt good, real good, so I went back to the bedroom and stomped her clock radio, stomped her jewelry case, stomped her music box, stomped some other crap of hers, and all of it felt fine because the whole time it was her getting stomped, her face, her body, bust her up into little pieces scattered all over the floor.