been cleaved off near the base of the pale and wrinkled sacks that hung just below.
“You sure this is far enough, Earl? I mean, if someone finds him, we….”
Earl grunted in disgust and rubbed his stomach as he looked over the body.
“Ain’t like nobody’s gonna smell him or nothing. Not as cold as it’s been. And Hell… you see them tracks. This time tomorrow and it’s gonna be picked clean. We come back in a week’s time, gather what’s left of the bones, and nobody will be none the wiser.”
“Sure died hard, didn’t he? Glad we still got the bitch, though….”
Earl ignored the grin that spread across his brother’s face and began freeing the tarp from the weight of the corpse. It’d been nearly forty minutes since he’d had an opportunity to relieve himself and his bladder felt as if he were about to pass shards of ice; he wanted nothing more than to be done with the work at hand, back in the truck, and heading toward the warmth and comfort of home. Mama would have a fire crackling in the hearth, hot coffee, and maybe even soup if they were lucky: she tended to reward the boys when they’d been exceptionally good and, in Earl’s mind, going out on a night like this counted as above and beyond. Maybe she’d even let him have a go at the woman after his numb skin had a chance to thaw.
“How much life you reckon she got left in her? She’s been lookin’ pale lately. Probably have to find another before long.”
The sound of Daryl’s prattling buzzed in Earl’s head like an annoying gnat that had become lodged somewhere between his eardrum and skull. Each syllable caused him to inwardly cringe as his muscles tensed in response: couldn’t the fool ever just shut the fuck up? Even for a minute?
“Hope the next one’s just as pretty. And brunette. I loves me some brunettes….”
Earl took a deep breath as he rolled the tarp back up and tried mentally counting to ten. A wind had picked up and between its chill and the barely suppressed urge to beat the mortal fuck out of his little brother, he’d begun to tremble. The quivering caused his already stressed bladder to tingle and ache, as if the flow were building pressure within his body and would soon burst free.
“Remember that one brunette, Earl? Had the tattoo of the little stick figure and lawnmower right above her bush? ‘Bout the cutest damn thing I ever did see. Wonder if Mama would let me draw one of them on the next one?
Earl would be damned if he was going to stand out there in the cold and piss himself like his sorry excuse for a brother had. . Kicking the tarp to the side, he unzipped his fly and closed his eyes as the warm liquid surged out. The entire lower half of his body felt as though a great weight had been lifted from it and he sighed; tendrils of steam rose from the now-wet corpse at his feet and, with the urgency of his bladder relieved, his aggravation with Daryl also receded and he could think clearly again. Though he hated to admit it, his brother was right: the girl back at the house was fading fast and wouldn’t last much longer.
SCENE FOUR
The cold bit through the slick vinyl of Mona’s parka and crept through the layers of batting and her sweatshirt. She and Matt had tried walking for a while with their arms draped across one another, but the futile attempt at sharing body heat had been awkward; they tended to fall out of step and had staggered along the road like a pair of drunkards weaving home from a bar. Despite the freezing weather which numbed their noses and lips, both of them had worked up a sweat beneath their clothes as the grade had grown progressively steeper. The last thing they needed was for one of them to fall: the loose powder would sneak its way down into their clothes, melt against their warmer bodies, and plunge their internal temperature to the point that even the icy drifts would feel warm in comparison. So they shuffled forward, shoulder to shoulder instead, each one hunched over in an attempt to keep the wind from peppering their faces with flurries.
“H-humans should r-really consider hibernation.”
Mona’s teeth chattered as she spoke, infusing her words with a slight vibrato. She tried to smile but her skin felt as if it had been pulled like plastic wrap against her skull; her flushed cheeks stung and the corners of her mouth felt as if they were about to crack open.
“Hang in there, baby. Someone’s bound to come along sooner or later.”
Matt tried to make his tone sound light and cheerful, but a fear had gripped his insides with a hand colder than the frosted guard rails that lines the edge of the hill. He wasn’t exactly scared of dying; he’d come to grips with his own mortality long ago and harbored no illusions about the frailty of life. But the thought of Mona lying in a snowbank with blue lips and ice encrusted eyelashes kept haunting his vision. In her, he’d found the perfect partner: she was beautiful in her own quirky way and always made him feel like a nervous schoolboy eagerly awaiting his first kiss. She was the only person, in fact, who he had ever truly cared about. Everyone else in the world was simply looking out for themselves; they would stab you in the back with a smile and then dance a jig on your grave if given half a chance. They were devious and self centered and could barely be considered human at all. But Mona… she was like an angel who’d been sent to help guide him along his chosen path. She touched him in ways he’d never realized he could be touched, both literally and figuratively. She was the one person who knew all of his secrets, every nook and cranny of his mind… and life without her would be unbearable. He’d been down that road before: it was full of brambles and briars that raked at the soul, traps and snares… but with his woman by his side, those obstacles bowed like servants to a greater power.
“How long do you think it’s been, Matty?”
“Nine, ten miles maybe. You tried the cell lately?”
She nodded her head, causing the fur-lined hood of the parka to bounce with the movement.
“N-no signal. Not out here in Bumfuck… you sure do know how to plan a honeymoon, babe.”
He glanced at her to see if she were truly angry with him, but her eyes twinkled beneath the shadows of her hood like a pair of jewels.
“Only the best for my wife.”
They walked in silence for a while, listening to the rhythm of each other breathing and the shuffle of their footsteps. The snow seemed to muffle everything, to make it sound as if it wasn’t quite real. It was all too easy to imagine that this was nothing more than a dream: that one of them would wake up to the drone of the heater and the lull of tires rolling over pavement. However, the wind would occasionally gust and the needles of pain it jabbed into exposed skin were enough to drive home the reality of the situation.
“I’m so tired, Matty. So tired….” Mona’s voice was barely a whisper. “I feel like I could just lay down right here and go to sleep.”
Fear clenched Matt’s heart and he whipped his head toward his new wife. She’d begun stumbling, her heels kicking up these little eruptions of snow as her knees buckled. His own calves felt as if the muscles had turned into overcooked noodles and spasms formed hard little knots in his thighs.
“Don’t you do it, Mona, you hear me? Don’t you lay down on me, girl.”
“I don’t regret anything, you know. I just want you to know that, Matt. In case… in case anything should…”
“Don’t talk like that! You’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna be okay. We’ve been in tougher situations than this, right? Remember Rock Hill? Remember Townsend? Just hang in there, babe.”
Panic fluttered Matt’s heart and blood surged through his veins, causing his temples to throb with a whooshing so loud that it drowned out nearly all other noises. Even his own voice sounded as if it were being heard by a fetus within the womb.
“I’ll carry you, baby. Want me to carry you for a while? I’ll do it.”
He saw Mona’s trembling lips move, but her voice was as lost as if he were watching a silent film.
“Come on, piggy back, baby. I can do it, really I can.”
Tears shimmered in his eyes and he felt their warmth trickle down his cheeks. Mona shook her head and everything within Matt felt as hollow as the chocolate bunny he’d surprised her with last Easter. He couldn’t let her give up, couldn’t allow her to leave him….
Through his veil of tears, it almost looked as Mona had begun to glow softly. As if Heaven were shining down through the darkness and calling his angel home. She tripped over her own feet and fell to her knees in the middle of the road.
