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She peeked up at the clock again, certain that this would be the
longest five hours of her life.
38
Damn!” Kevin kept saying. “Damn!” He’d been driving for hours.
He’d stopped to buy four bottles of vodka at the ABC store. One
of them was half gone, and as he drove he saw two of everything
unless he squinted, keeping one eye closed.
He was searching for bicycles. Four of them, including one with
baskets. He might as well have been looking for a specific piece of
plankton in the ocean. Up one road and down the next, as the
afternoon wound down and dusk settled in. He looked from left
to right and back again. He knew where she lived, knew he would
eventually find her at home. But in the meantime the gray-haired
man was out there with Erin, laughing at him, saying, I’m so much
better than Kevin, baby.
He screamed curses in the car, pounding on the steering wheel.
He flipped the safety on the Glock from the off to the on position
and back again, imagining Erin kissing him, his arm around her
waist. Remembering how happy she’d looked, thinking she had
tricked her husband. Cheated on him. Moaned and murmured
beneath her lover while he panted atop her.
He could barely see, fighting the blurriness with one eye. A car
came up behind him on the neighborhood streets, tailgating for a
while, then flashing his lights. Kevin slowed the car and pulled
over, fingering the gun. He hated rude people, people who
thought they owned the road. Bang.
Dusk turned the streets into shadowy mazes, making it difficult to
see the spindly outlines of bicycles. When he drove past the gravel
road for the second time, he decided on impulse to turn around
and visit her house again, just in case. He stopped just out of sight