Nobody Looks That Young Here by Daniel Perry

Author:Daniel Perry
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771832526
Publisher: Guernica Editions
Published: 2018-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

BRIAN’S ARM IS across my chest when his watch alarm starts beeping. I’m soaked in sweat, and I didn’t even sleep in the bag, just on it. We unzipped all the windows before passing out, but two guys and fourteen beers do this to a tent. It reeks. With my head pounding, I lift his wrist and crawl to the door. I open the flap and squirm out then walk barefoot on the grass toward the house. I open the screen door gently to temper its squeal, remembering that Jessie and Stella disappeared into the house after just one drink and might still be asleep. But as I enter through the laundry room I hear the shower running. I turn into the kitchen. Stella sits at the table flipping pages in a magazine.

“I got her a towel,” she says. “A yellow one. From the hall closet. Is that okay?”

“It’s fine.”

She doesn’t look up from the magazine.

“We’ll go once she’s out.”

“Go where?” I ask.

“Hank’s leaving with the twins this morning, for the Lake.” She glances side-to-side, as though we’re being watched. “We’ll have breakfast at Don’s to wait him out, then I’ll drop Jessie off.”

“Hank’s leaving her home alone?”

Stella rolls her eyes.

“It was supposed to be a trust exercise ... but yeah.”

The judge had also ordered counselling.

“But it was him who hit her, right?” I ask.

Stella nods.

“Why?”

She shakes her head.

“You wouldn’t believe me, and I can’t tell you anyway.” She fumbles in her purse for her car keys. “You guys hungry?” she asks. “I’ll drive you back after.”

From the bathroom, the shower sound stops. In my mind I see Jessie take the towel from the rack. She dries her feet first and steps over the tub’s edge now, wrapping the towel under her armpits, lifting out the wet hair that gets squeezed against her shoulders and letting it fall. Yellow’s not her colour. She should take the towel off again.

“Mike?” Stella asks.

“Yeah,” I say, back to reality. “Sounds good.”

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