Page 12 (2/2)

He yapped twice Hular wild aniet off this road

We’d acquired Butch after his prior oas killed, and ere astonished to learn he could co special about hiate what his other talents ht be This certainly wasn’t the time

Never one to miss an opportunity, Butch sca, unsteady breath, and then pulled ’s hood If I believed in omens, ere off to a hell of a start

Chance went to the trunk and wrapped his hands in rags used to wipe off the oil dipstick Before we left Laredo, Chuch—our ht him how and threatened to beat him if he didn’t look after this car properly So far Chance was doing fine

Wordlessly, he reached under the chassis and towed the carcass to the side of the road Without a shovel, that was really all we could do, but I appreciated the kindness Otherwise, that poor dog would be splattered all over the road when the next car cah

Even if we did have digging tools in the car for so around My intestines coiled into knots over the idea of losing the light out there, within a stone’s throw of those dark trees The whorls on the bark rese, skeletal limbs stirred in the breeze in a way I simply couldn’t like

There was a reason I hated these trees I’d hid a them while my mother died

While Chance took care of the dead dog, I gave Butch a drink and tried to reassure hi brown eyes glistened hat I’d call a skeptical light as I hopped back in the Mustang Chance joined us shortly, working the manual transmission with a dexterity I couldn’t help but admire

“What a welcome” He shook his head

“Tell n that I knew read WELCOME TO KILMER, HOME OF THE RED DEVILS AND THE WORLD’S BEST PEACH PIE

“Think anyone will recognize you?”

I shook hts It was bizarre The road into town hadn’t changed at all Ma’s Kitchen, an old white clapboard restaurant, still sat just outside the city liiven a face-lift—fresh paint and new lines in the tiny parking lot—but the general store, the dry cleaner’s, the Kilmer bank, and a coffee shop still occupied it The naed, but otherwise, the town seemed just as I’d left it

If we stayed on this street, ind up in the town square, where the old courthouse reigned like an aging duchess who refused to admit her day had passed The clock on the tower hadn’t worked since before I iven the faded air, that they’d come into the money to fix it since The “historical” district simply contained the oldest houses; most hadn’t been restored

But Kilmer retained a certain turn-of-the-century charm, if you didn’t knohat lurked beneath its exterior I recognized Federal-inspired houses with their rectangular structure and sliled freely with Georgian homes with hipped roofs and quoins

Most of those neighborhoods exuded a genteel aura of decay The streets hadn’t been paved in a long ti teeth frolect, and Chance had to turn smartly to avoid the deep potholes

“It seems sadder,” I said at last “Smaller”

“Well, you’re older now” To his credit, he didn’t say I was bigger That would’ve earned him a slap upside the head

Anyway, I wasn’t bigger I still needed to lose a few pounds, but I’d been pretty chunky at eighteen when I clias station-cued a lift from a farmer headed into Brunswick I’d known buses ran froet a discount ticket and I rode all night The next ot off in Atlanta with just a backpack and a few dollars in my pocket

My chest felt tight, re day The owner had felt sorry for me, I think, but I loved that job I rented a roohouse, and I was happier than I’d ever been in Kilo under With no friends and little money in the bank, my life took a turn for the worse I’d left Atlanta with only enough s went south from there

But I didn’t want to think about that

By the tiether soht different jobs in half asThere was nothing like running froh I never made it People always seemed to suss out that I wasn’t quite like them

It was ift I didn’t want My mother’s death stayed with me in the fored object There was a name for what I did Most people called it psychometry; I called it a curse

For years, I tried to forget

When Chance ca But I wouldn’t think about that, either Sometimes the past needed to stay buried; it was the only way you couldit up, because that too was the only way

For my mother’s sake, I had to deal hat’d happened in Kilht to our house and burnt the place with her trapped inside I’d discover why Maybe then the dreaht, the town looked so quiet, almost peaceful, but to me, it hid a fetid air Corruption fed in the stillness, like a pretty corpse that, when split open, spilled out a host of ots