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And despite herself, Viv turned the key so the heat and the radio—still talking about Tracy Waters—went off Lifted her chin and pushed open the driver’s-side door Stepped out into the cold

She hunched deeper into her nylon coat and started across the parking lot She earing jeans and a pair of navy blue sneakers hite laces, the soles too thin for the cold and damp The rain wet her hair, and the wind pushed it out of place She walked across the lot toward the door that said OFFICE

Inside the office, Johnny was standing behind the counter, zipping up his coat over his big stomach He’d probably seen her froh there was a clock on the wall behind him

“Fiveher own coat Her stoo home

But where was home? Fell wasn’t home Neither was Illinois, where she was born When she left hoht with her mother, she’d supposedly been headed to New York to beco else in her life to that point, had been a part she was playing, a story She had no idea how to becoed her h What Viv had wanted, o

So she’d gone And she’d ended up here Fell would have to be home for now

“Mrs Bailey is in roouests “She already made a liquor run, so expect a phone call anytime”

“Great,” Viv said Mrs Bailey came to the Sun Down to drink, probably because if she did it at hoet in some kind of trouble She made drunken phone calls to the front desk to ot about “Anyone else?”

“The couple on their way to Florida checked out,” Johnny said “We’ve had two prank phone calls, both heavy breathing Stupid teenagers And I wrote a note to Janice about the door to nu with it It keeps blowing open in the wind, even when I lock it”

“It always does that,” Viv said “You told Janice about it a week ago” Janice was the motel’s owner, and Viv hadn’t seen her in weeks Months, maybe She didn’t come to the motel if she didn’t have to, and she certainly didn’t coht She left Vivian’s paychecks in an envelope on the desk, and all communication was handled with notes Even the motel’s owner didn’t spend time here if she could help it

“Well, she should fix the door,” Johnny said “I ht? I locked it”

“Sure,” Viv said “It’s strange”

She was used to this No one else orked at the s she saw only happened in theshift employees had no idea

“Hopefully no one else will check in,” Johnny said, pulling the hood of his jacket over his head “Hopefully it’ll be quiet”

It’s never quiet, Viv thought, but she said, “Yes, hopefully”

Viv watched him walk out of the office, listened to his car start up and drive away Johnny was thirty-six and lived with hisTV before going to bed A guy who had nevera relatively nor A life in which he never thought about Tracy Waters, except to vaguely recall her name from the radio