The Distance by Sam Sisavath

Author:Sam Sisavath [Sisavath, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-13T06:00:00+00:00

There were two figures huddled near the front wall, staying away from the patches of moonlight that shone through the windows. The smaller of the two glanced over as Keo moved across the store toward them, but the bigger one was still as a statue. Keo found out why when he reached them and shook Brick awake.

The Black Tider opened his eyes. “Huh?”

“Go into the back room and keep an eye on Lara,” Keo said. “If she wakes up, come get me.”

Brick got up to leave.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Keo said.

Brick nodded before heading into the back room.

“He’s going to fall asleep, you know that,” Rose said when Keo slid into Brick’s old spot, to the left of the door and away from the broken window on the other side.

“Yeah, I know,” Keo said. “Maybe he’ll give me thirty minutes.”

“You’ll be lucky to get ten.”

“Ten’s good.”

Keo placed his rifle next to him and took a bag of beef jerky out of his pocket, when he heard a hoooooo from outside.

“Owl?” Keo said.

“Yeah. It showed up about thirty minutes ago and hasn’t left,” Rose said. “Why?”

“Some cultures believe owls are bad luck. Especially when someone in the house is sick or on their deathbed.”

“Is Lara…”

“No,” Keo said before she could finish. “She’ll be fine.”

He took out a piece of jerky and offered the bag to Rose.

She grabbed a couple of sticks. “Where’d you get these?”

“From the same Bucky Lara got the shotgun and vest from.”

“Cool.” Rose chewed loudly. “Better than anything I’ve eaten in years.”

“That’s because you’re hungry.”

“Yeah, that too.”

Hoooooo from outside.

“So she killed some guy and took his stuff?” Rose asked. “Including his bike?”

“Their bike. The one she took off on ran out of gas. Luckily another one came along. There are now two missing Buckies somewhere out there.”

“She took them both out by herself?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.”

Keo smiled. “She has been doing this for a while, you know.”

“I know,” Rose said. “You grow up fast, or you don’t grow up at all these days.”

He looked over at the kid. He still didn’t really know how old she was. It was hard to tell age these days. Like she said, you grew up fast or you didn’t at all these days.

“I’ve heard about a lot of the things she’s done, what she’s capable of,” Rose was saying as she nibbled on another stick of jerky. “I didn’t know taking out a pair of Buckies for their stuff was one of them. She’s awesome.”

Keo grinned. “She has her moments.”

They sat quietly after that, eating jerky and listening to the crickets from the woods around them. Keo passed the bag over to Rose again, and the teen took out another stick. The store was mostly dark with splashes of moonlight shining across different spots. It was almost pitch black outside, a combination of no artificial lights and the awning over the gas pumps providing extra cover.

And there was the lone owl, hooting all by itself out there. Keo wondered if it was waiting for something, maybe a friend or a mate.

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