Jerkwater by Jamie Zerndt

Author:Jamie Zerndt [Zerndt, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781072842477
Published: 2019-07-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve:

Douglas

Douglas sat in the Scamp trying to sketch Jenna’s face, but his hands were trembling from working on the steps. It happened some days after working at the shop, too, all that clenching and squeezing of big dumb things made it nearly impossible for him to manage the thinness of a simple pencil. And so, after barely managing an eye, he gave up and laid down on the bunk. He could hear someone out on the lake fishing, an old boat groaning and creaking its way across the water like a rusty echo. Someone cracked open a can of something and Douglas found himself imagining the lake drained of water, how deep the center of it would be, then, over time, covering over with ryegrass, reincarnating itself as a field, the fish turning to wildflowers, the docks all lying down like so many bones littering a vibrant grave. Would it feel different being down there? Would you somehow still feel the water around you? Would you find yourself having trouble breathing? Douglas closed his eyes and listened to the lake, all that dark life going on just under the surface. It was like a neighbor you could hear but only ever saw passing glimpses of.

As he drifted off to sleep, Douglas could see Jenna’s mouth, the way her lip sometimes curled when she smiled. His father’s death was there the night he’d slept with her. It was there in the room, and then it was inside Douglas, and then it was inside Jenna. Douglas didn’t quite know how to explain that, creepy as it sounded, but he knew it was true just the same.

Later, a knock at the door woke Douglas from a dream he was having where Seven had become human. Human Seven had become a big drinker and basically lived at the bar and never stopped talking about the Packers.

“Douglas, honey, you in there?”

His mom poked her head in, her eyes averted like maybe she expected him to be naked. Or worse. She did the same thing whenever she came into his bedroom though he’d never given her any reason to do so. “Can I talk to you in the house for a second? Whenever you’re done out here, of course.”

Douglas slid his notebook under the covers and hopped down from the bunk. “Is something wrong?”

“No, I just want to talk for a bit.”

As they walked up to the house, Douglas found himself piecing his dream back together. Jenna had been at the bar talking to Human Seven and was laughing at all his stupid jokes. And Seven would laugh, too, his big horse-teeth angling out of his mouth as he did. Douglas had just sat there at the bar watching how she put her hand on Human Seven’s thigh and kept looked down there, like she was checking to see if that area was horse or human-like. Human Seven had been wearing this thick leather necklace which, once he’d had his fill of whiskey, Jenna had

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