day. Karen and her kitchen staff were in the kitchen preparing homemade sausage from the hog Danny had slaughtered a few days before. They’d serve it with eggs and pancakes and oatmeal as the compound’s residents began trickling in for breakfast in the coming couple of hours.
For now, though, Hannah and Mark had the dining room to themselves.
Hannah sat at a table in the back of the room. It was universal symbolism for “leave us alone, we want our privacy.” Just in case someone came in for breakfast and decided to stop to chat.
Mark went to the kitchen and came back with two cups of coffee. Black as the night for him and non-dairy creamer and sugar for Hannah.
Hannah had been trying to give up creamer of late, because it had all gone stale in the years since Saris 7 collided with the earth. But the previous few days had been trying for her. And she had something important to discuss with her husband. Something she knew wouldn’t be well received. This was not a day to drink bitter black coffee. This was a day when she needed all the comforts she could muster.
Even something as insignificant as coffee creamer would help a bit. Not much, maybe. But on a day like this one every little thing would help.
Mark sat down and looked not unlike a condemned man meeting with his priest for his last absolution. Hannah felt bad for him.
He looked her in the eyes and sighed.
“Let’s get this over with. How much should I worry?”
She got the sense they weren’t talking about the same thing. Something in his eyes, or perhaps the tone of his voice. She’d gotten very good at reading him in the almost ten years they’d been together.
“Honey, what do you think this is all about?”
He blurted out the words without filtering them.
“I know what this is. It’s about Joel. You’ve fallen in love with the bastard and you’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell me.”
Tears suddenly welled up in Hannah’s eyes and she reached out for him. He held her, suddenly sorry for the harshness of his words. He still loved this woman with everything he had, even as she was getting ready to break his heart.
But she surprised him.
“Oh, baby. I have some very real fears. And some potentially bad news. But it has absolutely nothing to do with Joel. Nothing whatsoever. You’re my one and only love, and you always will be.”
-12-
The three of them were sullen, almost somber, as they approached the compound in the F-150 pickup. They rode in the cab this time, all three of them, although it wasn’t designed to hold three grown men.
Bryan Too, being the smallest of the three, sat on the console between the two front seats.
It was padded but not comfortable, meant to lean elbows on during long road trips. Not the bony ass of a man.
Especially on the bumpy dirt roads traversing the thick forests north and east of Junction, Texas.
“Hey, slow down a little, would you?”
He’d muttered the words after his head hit the ceiling of the cab the third time. Bryan seemed to be going out of his way to find the biggest holes he could find, then going through them at top speed.
Actually, it only appeared that way to Bryan Too.
The truth was, Bryan was driving on autopilot, barely even aware of the road in front of him. It took a second comment, this time from Brad, to slow him down a bit.
“Slow down, Bryan, you’re gonna break the damn axle. And I don’t feel like walking back.”
That was it. The entire trip back to the compound, those were the only two sentences muttered.
There was no point in further conversation, nor any appetite for it. For each man was lost in his own thoughts.
Bryan pulled up to the
For now, though, Hannah and Mark had the dining room to themselves.
Hannah sat at a table in the back of the room. It was universal symbolism for “leave us alone, we want our privacy.” Just in case someone came in for breakfast and decided to stop to chat.
Mark went to the kitchen and came back with two cups of coffee. Black as the night for him and non-dairy creamer and sugar for Hannah.
Hannah had been trying to give up creamer of late, because it had all gone stale in the years since Saris 7 collided with the earth. But the previous few days had been trying for her. And she had something important to discuss with her husband. Something she knew wouldn’t be well received. This was not a day to drink bitter black coffee. This was a day when she needed all the comforts she could muster.
Even something as insignificant as coffee creamer would help a bit. Not much, maybe. But on a day like this one every little thing would help.
Mark sat down and looked not unlike a condemned man meeting with his priest for his last absolution. Hannah felt bad for him.
He looked her in the eyes and sighed.
“Let’s get this over with. How much should I worry?”
She got the sense they weren’t talking about the same thing. Something in his eyes, or perhaps the tone of his voice. She’d gotten very good at reading him in the almost ten years they’d been together.
“Honey, what do you think this is all about?”
He blurted out the words without filtering them.
“I know what this is. It’s about Joel. You’ve fallen in love with the bastard and you’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell me.”
Tears suddenly welled up in Hannah’s eyes and she reached out for him. He held her, suddenly sorry for the harshness of his words. He still loved this woman with everything he had, even as she was getting ready to break his heart.
But she surprised him.
“Oh, baby. I have some very real fears. And some potentially bad news. But it has absolutely nothing to do with Joel. Nothing whatsoever. You’re my one and only love, and you always will be.”
-12-
The three of them were sullen, almost somber, as they approached the compound in the F-150 pickup. They rode in the cab this time, all three of them, although it wasn’t designed to hold three grown men.
Bryan Too, being the smallest of the three, sat on the console between the two front seats.
It was padded but not comfortable, meant to lean elbows on during long road trips. Not the bony ass of a man.
Especially on the bumpy dirt roads traversing the thick forests north and east of Junction, Texas.
“Hey, slow down a little, would you?”
He’d muttered the words after his head hit the ceiling of the cab the third time. Bryan seemed to be going out of his way to find the biggest holes he could find, then going through them at top speed.
Actually, it only appeared that way to Bryan Too.
The truth was, Bryan was driving on autopilot, barely even aware of the road in front of him. It took a second comment, this time from Brad, to slow him down a bit.
“Slow down, Bryan, you’re gonna break the damn axle. And I don’t feel like walking back.”
That was it. The entire trip back to the compound, those were the only two sentences muttered.
There was no point in further conversation, nor any appetite for it. For each man was lost in his own thoughts.
Bryan pulled up to the
Similar Books
