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I felt heartbreak rush through Faye as she considered my request, and I realized shein a deep breath, she stood and shuffled to a sideboard, barely recognizable under the weight of clutter

"I only kept one," she said, her voice saturated with sadness "I burned the others and kept the only one I could stomach to look at" She pulled a Polaroid out of a crippled drawer but kept her gaze averted "Not that I look at it It’s just, the others were so ured this way, if the police ever needed evidence as to what that man did to that boy, I’d have it"

Her words caused my heart to contract in dread and apprehension She held out the picture, and I took it with a shaking hand, turned toward the light, braced lanced down

Maybe it was my diet of coffee and more coffee Maybe it was the fifteen days without sleep Maybe it was the odor that hung like a heavy fog aroundit difficult to breathe Whatever it was, I took one look at that picture and the world slipped out from under me and disappeared

21

I chose the road less traveled Now I’m lost

--T-SHIRT

I pulled Misery to a stop in front ofat half past three, my eyes so swollen, I could barely drive home Faye had revived me and offered me some water after I blacked out Blacked out! I’d actually fainted when I saw that picture The same picture I now clutched to ain Not that it e had been emblazoned onto my corneas, and I knew I’d never be able to un-see what had been seen

After stuht to erie draithout so lance

The ropes The cuts and bruises The shame I almost felt like that was the worst part of it How Earl see that picture He’d tied hi wounds that appeared to have been healing I recognized Reyes instantly despite the blindfold, hishis shoulders and arms, his full mouth He looked about sixteen in the picture, his face turned away, his lips pressed together in hue patches of black bruises arish cuts, so his arht of the picture made me cry, which was exactly what I did at Faye’s place I’d cried for over an hour We talked I cried some more I wondered what the other pictures were like, the ones Faye had burned that orse than the one I now had Sing hard, I forced the i Teresa Yost

With a good three hours to dawn, I decided to take a shower and put so boots, since I was probably going to do soet to Pecos If I tiht, I could arrive at sunrise and set out on ht"

"Right?"

"No, you’re right, turn left"

"Cookie, really?" I asked into the phone Yost’s property was proving ht, even with Cookie on Google Maps back on her honal on uy was there, and for once, he ake I had to sneak around to Cookie’s silver Taurus and take it instead, a move that I informed her of when I called and woke her up at five thirty to let her know Naturally I explained how I’d been forced to take her car as a ploy to sneak pastback, I realized I could’ve waited until I actually got to Pecos to tell her I’d committed a felony in the pursuit of justice, since I really hadn’t needed her help until I actually arrived in Pecos over an hour later But waking her up was fun And I needed to think about so other than the picture that had been scorched into y even after her shower "No right, just left"