Page 41 (2/2)

"You knohat sucks?" Bob said He had re to unlace his boots "How old’s your daughter? I alanted to have kids Why didn’t I do that?"

"I don’t know, Bob" Wolgast raised the Springfield "Get up and face ering the bloody tear on his neck Another spasm shook him, but the expression on his face was pleasurable, allow He arched his back like a cat, his eyes heavy-lidded with pleasure

"Whoa, that’s good," Bob said "That’s reallysoast said

"Hey, wait!" With a start, Bob opened his eyes; he held out his hands "Hang on a second here!"

"I’ger

• • •

The winter ended in rain For days and days the rain poured down, filling the woods, swelling the river and lake, washing ahat remained of the road

He’d burned the body just as Bob had instructed, dousing it with gasoline and, when the fla the ashes with laundry bleach and burying it all beneath ahe searched the snowmobile The containers strapped to the fraas cans, all e from the handlebars he found Bob’s wallet A driver’s license with Bob’s picture and a Spokane address, the usual credit cards, a few dollars in cash, a library card There was also a photograph, shot in a studio: Bob in a holiday sweater, posed with a pretty blond woirl in tights and a green velvet dress and an infant in paja fiercely, even the baby On the back of the photograph ritten, in a feminine hand, "Timothy’s first Christmas" Why had Bob said he’d never had children? Had he been forced to watch them die, an experience so painful that his ast buried the wallet on the hillside,the spot with a cross he fashioned froether with twine It didn’t seeast waited for others to coe only to perform the most necessary chores, and only in the daytifield with hilove coine over and let it run, to keep the battery charged Bob had said so about California Was it still safe there? Was any place safe? He wanted to ask A? Do they knohere we are? He had no map to show her where California was Instead he took her up to the roof of the lodge one evening, just after sunset See that ridge? he said, pointing to the south Followhappens to

But the months passed, and still they were alone The rains ended, and Wolgast stepped fro to the taste and sed Birdsong swelled the trees; he looked toward the lake and saw open water where before had been a solid disk of ice A sweet green haze dressed the air, and at the base of the lodge, a line of crocuses was pushing fro itself apart, yet here was the gift of spring, spring in the mountains Froast didn’t even knohat month it was Was it April or May? But he had no calendar, and the battery in his watch, unworn since autu in his chair by the door with the Springfield in his hand, he dreamed of Lila Part of hi love, and yet it did not see Monopoly The drea-the area beyond the place where the two of theions of a stage Wolgast was gripped by the irrational fear that what they were doing would hurt the baby "We have to stop," he told her urgently "This is dangerous" But she seemed not to hear him He rolled the dice and moved his piece to find he had landed on the square with the i his whistle "Go to jail, Brad," Lila said, and laughed "Go directly to jail" Then she stood and began taking off her clothes "It’s all right," she said, "you can kiss me if you want Bob won’t mind" "Why won’t he mind?" Brad asked "Because he’s dead," Lila said "We’re all dead"

He aith a start, sensing he wasn’t alone He turned in his chair and saw A the s that looked toward the lake In the glow of the woodstove, he watched as she lifted a hand and touched the glass He rose

"Aht, iast’s mind seeht and held a picture of Aht, her mouth open wide to release its cry of terror A rush of wind shook the cabin, and then, with a concussive thuast felt himself lifted off the floor and hurled back across the room

One second later, or five, or ten: tiast found hiainst the far wall Glass was everywhere, a thousand pieces of it on the floor, their edges twinkling like shattered stars in the alien light that bathed the roo the horizon to the west

"Amy!"

He went to where she lay on the floor

"Are you burned? Are you cut?"

"I can’t see, I can’t see!" She was thrashing violently, waving her arlass gli all over her, affixed to the skin of her face and ar her T-shirt as he leaned over her and tried to calm her

"Please, Amy, hold still! Let me look to see if you’re hurt"

She relaxed in his arlass away There were no cuts anywhere The blood, he realized, was his own Where was it co shard, curved like a sciroin He pulled; the glass exited cleanly, without pain Three inches of glass in his leg Why hadn’t he felt it? The adrenaline? But as soon as he thought this, the pain arrived, a late train roaring into the station Motes of light dappled his vision; a wave of nausea surged through him

"I can’t see, Brad! Where are you!"

"I’ony Could you bleed to death from a cut like that? "Try to open your eyes"

"I can’t! It hurts!"

Flash burns, he thought Flash burns on the retina, fro into the heart of the blast Not Portland or Saleht west A stray nuke, he thought, but whose? And how many more were there? What could it acco; it was just one uishment He realized that he’d allowed himself to think, when he’d stepped out into the sun and tasted spring, that the worst was behind theht How foolish he’d been

He carried Alass in theover the sink had so, and quickly tied it around his wounded leg A her palms to her eyes The skin of her face and arht pink, already beginning to peel

"I know it hurts," he told her, "but you have to open thelass in there" He had a flashlight on the table, ready to scan her eyes the moment she opened them An ambush, but what else could he do?

She shook her head, pulling away from him

"Amy, you have to I need you to be brave Please"

Another le, but at last she relented She let him pull her hands away and opened her eyes, the thinnest crack, before closing theht!" she cried "It hurts!"