This Thing Between Us: A Novel by Gus Moreno

This Thing Between Us: A Novel by Gus Moreno

Author:Gus Moreno [Moreno, Gus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374722838
Google: ixoQEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2021-10-11T23:00:00+00:00


* * *

At the hardware store I paced the aisles, shovel in one hand, my phone in the other, waiting for a page to load with instructions on how to dig into frozen ground.

“Got an outdoor project?” one of the clerks said, and the muscles in his jaw clenched when he caught sight of my face, how red my eyes must have been. I let the tears fall, not bothering to wipe my nose either.

“The dog?” he said, his voice shaved off a level. “You’re the one that stray followed around, right?”

Talking, trying to make words, it would have undone me, then and there. Air was passing through the protein fibers that were keeping me together, like the seams were coming apart. I couldn’t open my mouth and hoped a nod would be enough for him not to probe the subject anymore.

The clerk cleared his throat. “You’re gonna need a cart.”

He left and came back with the cart and a different shovel, one with a point at the end. I followed him through the store as he threw in a bag of rock salt, charcoal, matches, lighter fluid, a tarp, two pieces of sheet metal, and heat-proof gloves. He rang up the cost and went over the steps I would need to follow like he was sharing a recipe. I was still holding the shovel I had picked out. He told me I could leave it on the counter, and I did, grateful for the direction. He could have directed me back to Chicago and I would have gone.

“Got any creeks near you? Lake, rivers?”

“Forest,” I said.

“Don’t bury near the house. You could call the gas company and they’d mark out your lines. Might take a day or two.”

I shook my head.

“Closer to the forest, the better.”

“Wait,” I said, lifting my head. “You guys carry potted trees by any chance?”



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