Walk the Darkness Down by Daniel Magariel

Author:Daniel Magariel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

ELEVEN

As usual, Les calls Marlene from Lutz’s when he picks up his truck the next morning. He helped the two girls down to the lobby to wait for the ambulance, left Monk and Hoover holed up in the suite, sweating the emergency vehicles. He went looking for China, found him grinding away at a blackjack table. He made the decision then to take the long cab ride to the boatyard alone and he exited the casino with first light in the sky.

He charges his cell phone in the truck, leaves a message for Marlene.

Hey. Just back. En route home.

To support the lie, he throws on his filthy fishing clothes and shaves in the bathroom before driving to the apartment. Entering the complex, he sees Marlene’s car parked a few buildings away from their own. Then, looking closer, he notices her figure slumped down in the front seat, watching. His exhaustion sinks to hopelessness. It’s been their habit so long, this distance they inflict on each other, and he knows it started with him. He parks in front of their building, climbs the perimeter stairwell, one hand holding a trash bag, the other heaving himself up by the rail.

He’s still awake when she walks through the front door an hour later.

On the couch, washed in daylight from the blinds he raised, hair wet from the shower.

You’re awake? she says, falling back into the door. Why are you still awake?

I saw you in your car when I pulled up.

She steps forward slowly, sits on the arm of the sofa.

Do you want a divorce? he asks.

I don’t know. Do you?

He’s too tired to consider what he scarcely meant to ask.

Do you want to take a vacation? he says.

What about work?

Steering column needs fixing. And I saw a nor’easter coming up next week.

I don’t want to take a vacation.

He nods, exhausted. He hasn’t rested in going on thirty-six hours.

Can we talk about it over dinner?

He gestures to the coffee table, her name scrawled on another envelope.

She opens the note: Good for one free bedroom door. Love, Leslie.

OK, she says.

Les sleeps terribly.

He wakes with a shiver in his bones, an ache he fears might hollow him out. His eyes opening to a view of their bedroom, to the empty space beside Marlene, on their white sheets a glow from the snow-covered skylight. When he drifts back down, the image of the girl from the casino rises. She murmurs weakly into his ear.

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