I left the truck running while I grabbed a spare key to Grace’s room, then dragged her in, flopping her on the bed. One quick perimeter, closet, and under-the-bed check later, she was ready to go night-night, so far out of it that she was practically in another state.
The desert wind whipped a stubby mesquite outside, and the branches scratched the window.
Grace froze, her eyes wide.
“It’s okay. Just the wind.” I’d known how to tell the difference between corpses at the door and scratchy tree branches when I was ten.
“Don’t leave me.” Grace’s voice took on the high pitch of hysteria as she took off her shirt to reveal a cream-colored bra. She wore her curves well, and if it weren’t for the alcohol, it would be an offer worth taking.
“Sorry, but we both need sleep. Some other night?”
She lurched forward, seizing my arm so her fingernails cut into me. “What if it something comes? Stay. I won’t tell anyone.”
I closed my eyes as she continued to strip, turned away, then ran to grab a trash can. Given how much liquor she’d drunk, her stomach would stage a revolt eventually.
When I returned with the can, Grace had passed out, her arm falling off the bed. One breast peeked from under the covers, a flash of white flesh and dark nipple. I’d heard chainsaws quieter than her snoring. I left her there, locking the door behind me. I needed to hit the bar in Eaton. Find some company to take out the fire Grace lit in me.
But I couldn’t drive away, any more than I could stay in her room. Taking a box of rock salt, I reapplied her barrier, then pushed through the brush, adding salt to both side windows. Grace was safe.
I could go home and sleep in a bed, but she’d asked me to stay.
God help me, I wanted to.
After returning the spare key to the office, I went back to the truck and unrolled my bamboo mat in the truck bed along with the foil blanket I kept for emergencies. With my coat pulled down over me, I closed my eyes and dozed.
Through the night, I startled awake from time to time, certain I’d heard something moving. Each time, I got out and searched the brush, and each time, climbed back into the truck without so much as a desert hare to show for it.
Grace’s door stayed closed, and so I remained until the sun came up.
I woke with my cell phone ringing and a crick in my back that made it hard to breathe, rolled over, and unlocked my phone. “Brynner Carson speaking.”
“Brynner, where is my translator? I’ve been trying to reach her all morning.” Director Bismuth’s crisp New England accent shook the cobwebs from my brain.
The whole truth included several inconvenient situations for Grace. “She’s asleep in her room.”
She hissed into the phone, “Your aunt tells me you drove Ms. Roberts back to her motel after an incident, and that you didn’t come home. What exactly were you thinking, spending the night with her? What have I told you about work women?”
I threw back my head in frustration, and a burst of pain from muscles I didn’t know I had rewarded me, breaking any illusion of patience I had. “Look, I drove Grace back to keep her from driving. And turned her down when she asked me to stay.”
She paused for a moment. “Lies are unbecoming of you, Brynner. You are known for many things, but restraint is not one of them. Your father would never have acted in such a manner. When are you going to live up to his legacy?”
Stunned, almost unable to answer, I whispered, “I’ll try to wake her up.” With my muscles aching, I rolled out of the truck bed and banged on her door so hard the windows rattled.
After a couple of minutes, Grace surfaced, withering under the dawn sunlight like a vampire. She had a bedspread wrapped around her and dark circles under her eyes. “What do you want?”
I held out the phone. “You to answer your phone. It’s Director Bismuth.” I didn’t wait for her answer. I ran to the truck and drove, but not back to my aunt and uncle’s house.
Instead, I headed to the cemetery, looking for the only person who might ever have understood how I felt.
The Bentonville cemetery stretched out into the desert, carefully clipped prickly pears and cacti providing green among the brown. I knew where