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into a black long-sleeved shirt and dark jeans. Only his face was
visible, but he stood in the shade of a cypress tree, hidden behind
the trunk. Watching the windows. Watching the lights, watching
for Erin.
Nothing happened for a long while. He drank, working on
finishing the bottle. People came through the store every few
minutes, often using their credit cards to buy gas at the pump.
Busy, busy, even out here, in the middle of nowhere. He moved
around to the side of the store, gazing up at the windows. He
recognized the flickering blue glow of a television. The four of
them, watching TV, acting like a happy family. Or maybe the kids
were already in bed, tired from the carnival, tired from the bike
ride. Maybe it was just Erin and the gray-haired man snuggling on
the couch, kissing and touching each other while Meg Ryan or
Julia Roberts fell in love on the screen.
Everything hurt and he was tired and his stomach kept churning.
He could have walked up the stairs and kicked the door in, could
have killed them half a dozen times already, and he wanted to get
it over with, but there were people in the store. Cars in the lot.
He’d pushed his own car forward with the engine off to a spot
beneath a tree at the rear of the store, out of sight from passing
cars. He wanted to aim the Glock and pull the trigger, wanted to
watch them die, but he also wanted to lie down and go to sleep
because he’d never been more tired in his life and when he woke
up he wanted to find Erin beside him and think to himself that she
had never left him.
Later, he spotted her profile at the window, saw her smiling as she
turned away and knew she was thinking about the gray-haired
man. Thinking about sex and the Bible says Those who gave
themselves over to fornication and strange flesh are set forth for an
example and suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.