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there, he sat down in between them, the bottle between his legs.
It was then he decided to sort some things out, to try and figure out why he was
so goddamn enraged.
The most obvious fact was that this was the two-year anniversary of their deaths.
The grief and anger had never really relented since he had received the call at home to
come to the hospital and identify the bodies. The grief, he knew, would have to subside
on its own. It would never go away completely. He didn t expect, didn t even really want,
that to happen. The grief was like a memory. To remove the grief, he would have to take
away all the memories of them. He didn t want that. Memories were the only things he
had left.
The rage, though. That was something different altogether. It was something he
hadn t expected and, once upon him, couldn t figure out how to get rid of. Entangling
himself in hostile relationships with virtually everyone he knew didn t seem to do the
trick. That merely rendered him isolated and friendless. It wasn t just the world he was
mad at. It was Eileen, too. If she had been more alert, maybe, or a better driver, then none
of it would have happened. He knew that was ludicrous, of course, but knowing it didn t
stop the feelings and the thoughts rushing through his head. Knowing it almost made it
worse, turning the whole situation into some all-consuming paradox.
God was at fault too, naturally. Elijah had never been a very religious person but
he wouldn t have considered himself an atheist until that day. A god that would kill a
beautiful, successful woman in the prime of her life and an innocent child wasn t a god
worth believing in. A god that would force him to suffer as much as he had after their
deaths was a god that was better off dead.
Completely drunk at this point and watching the thunderheads gather up their
black dresses of grief and march toward the graveyard, he realized there was a new
dimension to his anger and he finally figured it out.
Maya was cheating on him.
The signs were there, he had merely refused to acknowledge them. But now that
he did, now that he told himself she was cheating on him, the pieces fell into place.
It started with the way she was acting this morning. How she had told him affairs
happened. It wasn t even the way she said it,  It happens, it was the way she completely
broke down after he had told her he wasn t cheating on her. Like, after her suspicions
were denied, she was the guilty one. It would be completely like Maya to fuck someone to
get even with him.
Then Elijah remembered something else. Actually, it was someone else. All last
week, about the same time everything became blue again, Elijah had seen the same man
coming from the direction of their apartment building. In a small town like Moston, it
wasn t unusual to see the same faces over and over again, but he hadn t seen this man
until last week and he never saw him at any other time.
Elijah remembered touching Maya this morning and how unresponsive she was.
Well, he thought. There s only one way to prove it.
With that, he stood up, guzzled down the rest of the bourbon, pulled some
flowers away from a neighboring grave and put them into the empty bottle, setting it
down in between the graves as a small reminder he was there.
On his way back into town he drove straight through the storm. By the time he
reached the apartment the storm had subsided and the air around him resonated with the
ozone blue of sun trying to break through dark clouds. He did the best parking job he
could muster, nearly popping the tire as the car flew up onto the curb. It didn t matter. He
didn t plan on being there for very long anyway.
He knew what he expected to find and, at this point, a scary thought, it was
almost what he wanted to find. He wondered if they would actually be fucking or maybe
Maya was now feeling guilty and blowing the guy off. Whoever the creep was, Elijah felt
certain he would try and get a little something from her before saying his goodbye.
Elijah threw open the door from the street and bounded up the stairs.
Would they even bother locking the doors?
He had his key ready but, turning the knob, discovered he didn t even need it.
Hell, the anticipation of getting caught had to be half the thrill of it.
One could not see the front door from the bed. It was one of the small touches
that made the apartment feel a little less like an efficiency.
Elijah grabbed the aluminum Louisville Slugger he kept propped against the door
in case of intruders. It had never really occurred to him before that was probably the worst
place he could have kept it if anyone wanted to break in. It would be like arming the
criminal. Of course, there was a gun in the bedside table. He anticipated Maya going for
that if he didn t act quickly enough. Elijah hated guns. He had no intention of trying to go
after it himself.
As he rounded the corner, his mind took a quick snapshot of what was happening
on the bed before he moved in to put a stop to it.
Maya was lying back, her eyes closed, her ass supported by the edge of the bed.
Her sundress was pushed up to her waist and there was a man s head between her legs,
his hands wrapped around her hips, one of her legs thrown over his right shoulder.
Elijah moved in quickly, taking a firm grip on the bat s friction tape and hoisting
it above his head. Maya must have heard him. She opened her mouth, trying to say
something, but it wouldn t come out before the bat smashed across the man s upper back,
the fat of it landing on his left shoulder, the very tip of it connecting with Maya s right
leg.
The man let out a pitiful groan as he fell to the floor, struggling to turn over onto
his back and identify his assailant. Elijah was on him, pressing the bat down against his
throat so he couldn t yell. He needed this to be as subdued as possible because this wasn t
the end. The more he thought about it, the more gruesome he wanted it to be.
 Everyone needs to shut the fuck up, Elijah said calmly.  If anyone decides to
cry out or yell for help then I m swinging the bat again. And this time I ll hit something
more vital.
 Eli&  Maya said.
Elijah put more weight on the bat and watched the man s face turn purple.
 I think you should be quiet, Maya, he said.  Now, we re all going down to the
car. If we pass anyone and you try and say something to them, I ll beat you both to death
before any help can arrive. When we get down to the car, you are going to get in the
driver s seat, Maya. Do you understand that?
She nodded her head.
 Good, Elijah said.  Loverboy here is going to get in the passenger seat and I m
going to sit in back. We re driving to Keifer Road, where it meets Salton Lane. Do you
know where that is, Maya?
 She nodded her head again. Her mouth was pulled tight and she was trembling,
exactly what Elijah wanted to see. Her hands were gripped tight over her knee, already
swollen and purple.
 Do you think you re going to have trouble walking? Elijah asked her.
She nodded her head.
 If you fall down, then I m taking this bat through loverboy s head, do you
understand?
She nodded.
 Are you going to fall down?
She shook her head.
 Good. Let s go. Maya, you first. Loverboy second.
Elijah pulled the bat away from the guy s neck and stood up, backing away from [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]