“But we’ll never know unless we try,” Nancy said. “Will we?”
Ryan ate some of the chicken and with the second bottle of beer began to relax. But as he relaxed he became aware of something happening. Nancy sat next to him, facing him, a brown knee almost touching his chair. She would hold a piece of chicken in both hands and take little bites as she watched him. She would sip her wine and look at him over the rim of the glass. She would move her hair from her eye and let it fall back again. They ate in silence and he let it work on him. Sitting low in the chair and now lighting a cigarette, aware of the dark-haired girl close to him, giving him the business, and Ryan said to himself: You are being set up.
He was being offered the bait, shown what it would be like. He had been taken up on a high mountain by Ann-Margret and was being shown all the kingdoms of the world, all that could be his. While off from them, across clean tile, the underwater lights of the swimming pool glowed in the dusk.
How do you get that sure of yourself? Ryan thought.
And then he thought, She makes it look easy.
She’ll do it one time and get fifty grand and never know it’s hard.
He could break into a place and Leon Woody could break into a place and all kinds of other guys could break into places, most of the guys pretty dumb or strung out, but that didn’t mean she could do it. It wasn’t like throwing rocks and running, it wasn’t a game; it was real and maybe she could do it without clutching up, but how did she know until she had done it and found out what it was like? That’s what got him. If it was so easy, what did she need him for? Like he was some stiff she was hiring to do the heavy work. Like she could do it, but she didn’t want to strain herself and get a hernia.
Ryan said, “If you were going to break into a place, how would you do it?”
Nancy thought a moment. “I’d try the door first.”
“What if somebody’s home?”
“Oh, I thought you meant the lodge.”
“Anyplace, if you wanted to break in.”
“I guess,” Nancy said, “I’d still try the door.” She smiled a little. “Very quietly.”
“What if it’s locked?”
“Then I’d try a window.”
“And if the windows are locked.”
“I don’t know; I guess I’d break one.”
“You know how to do that?”
“Hey, but in the summer you wouldn’t have to,” Nancy said. “You could just cut a hole in the screen.”
“If there’s a window open.”
She sat up. “Let’s do it. Break into somebody’s house.”
“What for? There’s no reason.”
“For fun.”
And Leon Woody said, “Like, man, a game?” And he said to Leon Woody, riding along in the carpet cleaning truck, “Yeah, sort of a game.”
Ryan said, “Have you ever done it?”
Nancy shook her head. “Not really.”
“What do you mean, not really? You either have or you haven’t.”
“I’ve looked through people’s houses when they weren’t home.”
“And you think it’s fun.”
“Uh-huh, don’t you?”
And Leon Woody said, “Do you know what you get if you lose the game?” And he said to Leon Woody, “That’s part of it. The risk.”
“How do you know if you have the nerve?” Ryan said to her.
“Oh, come on.” Nancy reached toward the umbrella table for a cigarette. “What’s so hard about sneaking into a house?”
There.
Ryan waited. He watched her light the cigarette and exhale smoke to blow out the match. He waited until she looked at him and then he said, “Do you want to try it?”
“No rocks tonight,” Ryan said. “Okay?”
“No rocks,” Nancy said. “I’ve decided if there aren’t any lights on, no one’s home. It’s dark enough but it’s too early for people to be in bed.”
“Maybe they’re on the porch.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Of course where the lights are
“I guess most people do.”
“So we’ll have to go up close and take a look.”
She was at ease, Ryan could feel that. He couldn’t imagine her not at ease. But she still could be faking it. It was still talking and not doing and there were a few miles of nerve between the two.
“Which house?” Ryan said.
“I was thinking that dark one.”
“Let’s go.”
He would remember, after, that he’d said it. She didn’t have to plead with him or push him. She stood relaxed, watching him, and when he said, “Let’s go,” she smiled-he would remember that too-and followed him across the beach, up into the tree darkness that closed in on the houses, out of the trees and across a front lawn and up the steps to the porch of the house that showed no lights, doing it now and not fooling around, hoping he was shaking her up a little.
Ryan pushed the doorbell.
“What do you say if someone comes?” Her voice was calm, above a whisper.
“We ask if they know where the Morrisons live.”
“What if that’s their name?”
He rang the bell again and waited, giving them enough time to come down if they were upstairs in bed. He waited another moment, putting it off, then opened the screen and tried the door. The knob turned in his hand.
“I told you it wasn’t hard,” Nancy said. She started past him into the house.
“Wait till I look.”
He went in, through the darkness to the back of the house, to the kitchen, where he looked out the window and saw the rear end of the car in the garage. He moved back through the house.
Nancy was sitting on the porch rail smoking a cigarette. He took it from her to throw it away, but he saw the way she was looking at him and he took a drag on the cigarette and handed it back to her.
“Well?”
“They’re close by. They won’t be gone long.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know. Okay?”
She shrugged, standing up. He saw the movement and maybe a faint smile, though in the dark he wasn’t sure of the smile. She came down the steps after him and they crossed the lawn to the beach.
“If the car’s there,” Ryan said, “they’re not far away.”
“I’ve been thinking, Jackie. If we go in where we know they’re not home, what’s the fun?”
Ryan stared at her and he heard Leon Woody say, “You go in when they’re
He kept looking at her until she was about to say something, until he said, “Come on,” and they went up from the beach into the trees again, moving in on the house closest to them that showed lights, running hunch- shouldered-the same way they had gone in to throw the rocks-keeping to the trees and bushes and deep shadows until they were next to the house and could edge up to a window and look in.
“Playing cards,” Ryan said.
“Gin. She just went down and he’s mad.”
“Come on.”
