Dark August by Katie Tallo

Author:Katie Tallo [Tallo, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062948045
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

27

Todd

LEVI IS LICKING HER NOSE. AUGUSTA PUSHES THE DOG’S FACE away from hers and gazes down the long hallway that leads toward the kitchen. The dog circles then stretches out in the entryway to the living room on the cool hardwood floor. He stares at her. Her view of rock bottom is made more poignant by the sound of Rose’s clock. Each tick accentuating her old lady existence. Each tock echoing into the emptiness of the big old house. A boozy sadness washes over her. A tidal wave thick with futility. With wasted days spent driving the countryside in a rusty Buick with a geriatric dog as her sole companion.

Gus eases herself up off the floor and crawls to the kitchen. Head throbbing as the blood begins to flow to her extremities. Three cups of coffee and a bowl of dry Honeycomb later, the fog slowly lifts.

Faint recollections flit across her lemon brain.

Lashey. He came to the house.

Oh shit. Did she kiss him? She couldn’t have.

Nah. Touched him inappropriately?

Maybe she dreamed it. Yeah, just a dream.

Augusta cups her forehead in her hands and takes a deep breath.

She drags herself upstairs. Takes off her clothes, leaving them in a pile on the bathroom floor, and stands under a cool shower. Letting the past wash into her pores.

* * *

Shannon is standing her ground. The line at the cash is ten deep. She won’t budge. To make matters worse, it’s the express cash. Everyone wants to get out of there fast. Impatience pushes them forward. They check watches and sigh loudly. It’s so embarrassing. Gus is red-faced. She buries herself in a People magazine from the rack. Maybe they won’t think she’s with the obnoxious woman arguing with the cashier. Gus moves closer to the man next to her. Trying to insert herself into his life and out of her own. Trying to escape the drama that is Shannon.

Right here in black and white. It says I get twenty-five bonus air miles if I spend over thirty bucks.

Shannon holds up the coupon for everyone to see. The cashier is stone-faced. Red splotches on her neck, the only sign she’s rattled. Her voice is dronelike.

And like I said, ma’am, that total is before taxes and your before-tax total is $29.59, not thirty dollars.

Gus cringes. Shannon hates being called ma’am.

I’m done here. Get me the store manager.

The man behind them grabs his Wonder Bread and 2 percent milk off the conveyor belt and huffs over to another checkout, muttering to the rest of the line, Crazy person on the loose.

Shannon glares at the man. I heard that.

The cashier presses a button on the intercom phone and her voice blasts across the store’s PA system. Manager to cash one. Manager to the express cash.

Then the cashier slides Shannon’s groceries to the end of the counter and asks her to stand off to one side so she can help the other customers waiting in line. She says it like she’s a brain surgeon and Shannon is preventing her from performing lifesaving surgery.

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