The Reckless Oath We Made by Bryn Greenwood

Author:Bryn Greenwood
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 33

Zee

I wondered if the push-ups Gentry did while I was sleeping were part of becoming worthy of me.

“Are you seriously doing calisthenics?” I said, when I woke up around midnight.

“’Tis not my custom to sleep at night.”

I couldn’t complain about it, because he was being quiet. Pant. Push. Pant. Push. Then he switched to sit-ups, and I fell back to sleep. I woke up later to this feeling that people were fighting. The sound of people arguing traveled the way no other noise did, but even when you couldn’t hear it, you could feel it, like static electricity from a thunderstorm.

“Gentry?” I said, but he wasn’t there.

I got out of bed and went to the door, not thinking about shoes or pants. With the door open, I could hear the sound of men raising their voices. Gentry was standing at the end of the hallway, to the side of the window that looked out over the front yard. When I went to him, I was groggy, and my arm bumped against his chest. He stepped back and let the curtain flutter closed.

“Sorry.” I backed up to give him more space, but he stepped forward, so that my arm touched his chest again. Then he put his left hand on my waist, in this very particular way that would have made me laugh in a different situation. Like I was a piece of equipment with a handle there.

He lifted the edge of the curtain, so we could look out. In the front yard, there was an old Lincoln Continental parked behind Gentry’s truck. A guy I didn’t know was leaning against the driver’s door, looking at his phone. Another guy with a beard was standing next to Gentry’s truck, arguing with Dane. The dog paced back and forth at the end of his chain.

I couldn’t make out what they were arguing about, but the guy raised his hand, gesturing to Gentry’s truck. Then he pointed his finger at Dane, almost in his face. Dane shook his head. They went through that a few times, the way meth heads do. Repeating the same gestures and accusations.

Finally the bearded guy smacked his hand on the hood of Gentry’s truck. The dog let out a low woof. Dane went on shaking his head. A minute later, the two strangers got into the Lincoln and backed down the driveway toward the road. Dane walked across the yard toward the trailer parked in the woods. Then it was just the dog standing by himself under the light of the single bulb that hung off the side of the barn.

I didn’t hear Uncle Alva stirring downstairs, so I guessed that was a regular enough occurrence that it didn’t disturb him. Gentry and I went back to the bedroom, but I was too awake to go back to bed. That was the effect arguments had on me. I went to the window and looked out at the side yard. From there I could see a light on in the trailer, but nothing else.

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