can’t have it any more, piss on it so no one else will want it either. Illogical, but ah so satisfying. The new, easier atmosphere at home fit into that reading, as well. The almost palpable sense of relief Donna radiated. She had turned the shadow man out, and the shadow man had hit back at her husband with the anonymous note.
Last question: Did it make any difference?
He took the note out of his jacket pocket again and turned it over and over in his hands, not unfolding it. He watched the red Frisbee float across the sky and wondered what the hell he was going to do.
“What the Christ is that?” Joe Camber asked.
Each word came out spaced, almost inflectionless. He stood in the doorway, looking at his wife. Charity was setting his place. She and Brett had already eaten. Joe had come in with a truckful of odds and ends, had begun to drive into the garage, and had seen what was waiting for him.
“It’s a chainfall,” she said. She had sent Brett over to play with his buddy Dave Bergeron for the evening. She didn’t want him around if this went badly. “Brett said you wanted one. A Jörgen chainfall, he said.”
Joe crossed the room. He was a thin man with a scrawny-strong physique, a big blade nose, and a quiet, agile way of walking. Now his green felt hat was tipped back on his head to show his receding hairline. There was a smudge of grease on his forehead. There was beer on his breath. His brown eyes were small and hard. He was a man who didn’t like surprises.
“You talk to me, Charity,” he said.
“Sit down. Your supper will get cold.”
His arm shot out like a piston. Hard fingers bit into her arm. “What the fuck are you up to? Talk to me, I said.”
“Don’t curse at me, Joe Camber.” He was hurting her badly, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing it in her face or in her eyes. He was like a beast in many ways, and although this had excited her when she was young, it excited her no longer. She had recognized over the course of their years together that she could sometimes gain the upper hand just by seeming brave. Not always, but sometimes.
“You tell me what the fuck you been up to, Charity!”
“Sit down and eat,” she said quietly, “and I will.”
He sat down and she brought his plate. There was a sirloin steak on it.
“Since when can we afford to eat like the Rockefellers?” he asked. “You got some pretty tall explaining to do, I’d say.”
She brought his coffee and a split baked potato. “Can’t you use the chainfall?”
“Never said I couldn’t use it. But I damn well can’t afford it.” He began to eat, his eyes never leaving her. He wouldn’t hit her now, she knew. This was her chance, while he was still relatively sober. If he was going to hit her, it would be after he came back from Gary Pervier’s, sloshing with vodka and filled with wounded male pride.
Charity sat down across from him and said, “I won the lottery.”
His jaws halted and then began moving again. He forked steak into his mouth. “Sure,” he said. “And tomorrow ole Cujo out there’s gonna shit a mess of gold buttons.” He pointed his fork at the dog, who was pacing restlessly up and down the porch. Brett didn’t like to take him over to the Bergerons’ because they had rabbits in a hutch and they drove Cujo wild.
Charity reached into her apron pocket, took out her copy of the prize claim form that the agent had filled out, and handed it across the table to Joe.
Camber flattened the paper out with one blunt-fingered hand and stared it up and down. His eyes centered on the figure. “Five—” He began, and then shut his mouth with a snap.
Charity watched him, saying nothing. He didn’t smile. He didn’t come around the table and kiss her. For a man with his turn of mind, she thought bitterly, good fortune only meant that something was lying in wait.
He looked up at last. “You won five thousand dollars?”
“Less taxes, ayuh.”
“How long you been playing the lottery?”
“I buy a fifty-center every week . . . and you don’t dare dun me about it, either, Joe Camber, with all the beer you buy.”
“Watch your mouth, Charity,” he said. His eyes were unblinking, brilliant blue. “Just watch your mouth, or it