at my bottom lip and I could feel her own lips turn into a smile.
'Good luck
'Good luck to you, sport.'
'You really think it's crazy?'
'No more than usual.'
'I like you Clan Thomas. Even if you do have two first names.'
'Fond of you too, Case.'
Kim whispered, 'You ready?'
I took a deep breath, inhaling Casey's scent as she moved away from
me.
Fora moment the three of them shifted in a pack, a human shell game.
There were ropes dangling against my leg. It was batty. I closed my
eyes.
'Ready.'
I started counting.
I listened to the footsteps clatter on the hardwood floor. Someone
went upstairs. Maybe two people did, or one person moving double-time
to confuse me. I couldn't be sure. Somebody
moved softly into the kitchen. And I remembered from my childhood how
hard it was to follow the sound of footfalls through the drone of your
own voice counting, echoing inside you.
Twenty-nine. Thirty.
All at once I had the maddening urge to giggle. I resisted it.
Forty. Forty-one.
I felt a tightening in my bladder that wasn't entirely beer.
Upstairs I heard shifting, scraping.
I remembered the softness of the kiss, the playful biting.
I kept counting.
' I
SEVOfTF
The darkness went molecular on me, filled with spots of light.
I squinted my eyes shut. They wanted to open. My face muscles
wouldn't let them. A dim widening amber color began to burn at the
core of my vision.
I was a whole lot better at this, I thought, as a kid.
I was leaning on the windowpane, dizzy as a fresh-water sailor.
'Ninety-eight. Ninety-nine. One hundred.'
I opened my eyes.
I was wildly out of focus, blinking out toward the high grass and
trees. And then I did focus.
Out there in the grass, something blinked back at me.
I jumped.
It was as though I'd been leaning on a hot plate Neck, arms, back and
shoulders jerked back involuntarily. My arms slammed shut like traps.
My mouth made a little wet popping sound as the jaw dropped open.
It was unexpected as a cobra in the upstairs bathroom. The brain takes
a clout from the nervous system. And it's a moment before you start
working again, before the gears mesh, and you can see what you saw.
I looked again.
Two eyes, not twenty feet away. Unmistakable. Shifting and glowing in
the moonlight.
I saw them clearly for a moment, and then they dropped away, lower
into the dense grass, and disappeared. I kept watching. Seconds later
I saw a line of movement through the grass and followed it for about
ten feet or so before that disappeared too. It was moving in the
direction of the trees. Roughly, toward the car.
Whatever it was, I knew it wasn't human. The eyes had been too small
and spaced too closely together.
So what was it, then? Raccoon? Possum?
Dog?
Please, no dogs, I thought.
A pussycat would be nice.
It was gone, though. And I had this damn fool game to play. I decided
tentatively on raccoon. Then I realized I'd forgotten something.
'Coming!' I yelled. 'Here I come.'
I omitted the traditional 'ready or not.' You could only go so far.
I reviewed what little I'd heard. One or maybe two of them were
upstairs. One had gone into the kitchen. Off the kitchen there was a
back door and the door to the cellar, so whoever had gone that way
could have used either one of them. I did not relish exploring either
the cellar or the woodshed without benefit of flashlight, so I hoped
whoever had gone that way would feel the same. If it was Casey, I was
probably in trouble. But I decided to leave that possibility for
last.
I had to go slowly. Halfway up it got very dark, then brighter as I
approached the landing. There was a window in the door leading out to
the widow's walk, and a beam of moonlight shining through. It was the
only illumination.
Where to hide?
I knew where I'd go.
I'd take the widow's walk.
Not because it was a particularly good place to hide it wasn't but
because it was nice out there. The most accommodating place the house
had to offer. So, if I wasn't too heavily into the game in the first
place, at least I'd have a good easy spot to sit it out.
I'll wondered if any of the others would think that way.
Sure. Steven would.
'
He was sitting just outside the door, sipping a beer. He glanced at me
and smiled.
