Bones

reason I’m here is because I feel sorry for you, okay? And guess what the first thing you’re going to do when you’ve got my money?”

Silence.

“Take a guess, retard.”

Silence.

Simone tosses her hair, holds the bag in both hands. “The first thing you’re going to do-and you’re going to do it soon-is take every penny I give you and shove it up your nose or shoot it totally into your veins. Maybe we’ll both be lucky and you’ll totally O.D. What do you think, honey? Wouldn’t that be a good solution for everyone?”

Huck doesn’t answer.

The ocean rolls.

I wonder if he’s sweating. Moe Reed is. Milo is. Dark circles have spread under the armholes of Aaron Fox’s white-on-white silk shirt.

My scalp is sodden, my mouth is dry.

Another wave comes in, a big one, crashing.

Simone says, “Just do it, Travis. Like Nike says. O.D. yourself and put everyone out of their misery.”

“Why’d you do it, Simone?”

She laughs. “Why did I fuck you? Good question, Brain-Dead.”

“Why’d you kill them?”

Simone doesn’t confess, nor does she deny. She appears to glance past Huck, as if expecting company.

The four of us tense.

Moments pass.

Huck says, “All of them. Kelvin. How did you get yourself to that point?”

Simone’s laughter is sudden, shrill, unsettling. “You know how neat I am, honey. Comes a time, dirt has to go.”

Huck doesn’t speak. Maybe stunned. Or smart enough-with enough experience as a therapy patient-to use the silence.

Simone swings the bag. Arches her back, appears to be flaunting whatever chest she has.

Aaron Fox says, “She never stops. First time I met her, she was all sex.”

Simone says, “Catching up’s been fun, stud, but let’s just do this.”

Huck doesn’t answer. Simone appears distracted by the ocean. “Now you’re a dickbrain dumbie, too?”

Silence.

Fox says, “Say something, dude, keep her stringing along.” His jaw is tight and all his insouciance is gone and I catch a sense of what he was like working homicide.

Simone steps closer to Huck, just out of arm’s reach. A steady button-camera says Huck remains still.

He hasn’t budged since we planted him on the sand.

“Just like that,” he says.

“Like what?”

“You pay me, you’re free of sin.”

“Sin?” says Simone. “What the fuck is that?”

“Sixth Commandment.”

“What’s-oh, thou shalt not yadda yadda yadda.”

“All for money,” says Huck, with sympathy in his voice.

“Nothing sweeter.”

“It was more than that,” says Huck. “You’re jealous of Kelvin. Always were.”

“Jealous,” she says, as if the word is foreign.

“He’s got talent. You’ve got issues.”

Simone stares into the camera. Her chest heaves. She smiles. “You know what my issue is, Travis? Being here with a dickbrain like you so I can give you money so you can go shoot it up your arm or jam it in your nose. So cut the talk-you always wanted to talk.”

“You were nice to me so you could set me up.”

“Nice to you?”

“Pretending.”

“Sweetie,” she says, “you are so set-up-able.”

“So you could clean house.”

“Sweep, mop, polish,” she singsongs.

“Your dad gave you everything, Simone. You could have everything without killing them.”

“Really?” she says. “Everything for me and nothing for her? You are retarded.”

“There’s enough to go around, Simone.”

Simone thrusts the bag at him. “Take it and shut the fuck up.”

She grows smaller in the camera’s eye. Huck has retreated a foot or so.

“Take it!”

Milo slants forward.

Moe Reed mutters, “Go, go, go.”

Huck says, “All because you wanted the gold for yourself.”

Simone smirks. “I’ve got the gold. Loser.”

“A kid, Simone. You hugged and kissed him and played with his hair. You hugged Nadine. Now they’re gooks?”

“They were always gooks-”

“You kissed them.”

Simone laughs. “Like in the Mafia-The Godfather. You get kissed before you get blown away.”

“Was it easy, Simone? Did you look in their eyes-did you look in Kelvin’s eyes?”

Simone laughs louder. “What’s the big deal? Everyone dies the same.”

“Keep talking,” says Milo.

Huck says, “You looked into his eyes.”

“The eyes change,” says Simone, and her own orbs illustrate by taking on a dreamy look. “It’s like watching the light go out. There’s nothing like it.” Arching her back again. “I watched the light go out in her eyes and I came.”

Milo pumps a fist. “Got her!”

She drops the bag on the sand. “Here’s what you want. Have a bad life.”

The camera doesn’t falter.

“What, you think I’m punking you, loser? C’mere, look.”

“What did you do with them, Simone?”

“Ate ’em,” says Simone. “With fava beans and Chianti… what did we do? We jammed dynamite up their asses-who cares? Take this and crawl like the maggot you are.”

She bends toward the bag, inserts her hand, comes up with a bound wad of bills.

Tosses it.

Huck doesn’t budge. The money lands on the sand.

Simone stares at it. “What?”

“It’s fine,” says Huck. “Leave it and go.”

Simone studies him.

“Leave it and go,” Huck repeats. “Have whatever life you think you deserve.”

“What’s that, a curse, some kind of hex?” says Simone. “From you, a curse is a blessing.”

She turns to leave. Stops, rotates. Jams her hand into the bag and comes up with something that isn’t money.

Long and thin; she holds it aloft.

“Oh, shit,” said Fox, as she charges Huck.

The camera captures her eyes, hot and frigid simultaneously. The blandness of her face as she thrusts the knife.