42097609460

He felt the rage well up inside him. Now, he thought. It was time.
When he reached for the gas cans, he saw four of them. He closed
one eye and it was back to two. He stumbled as he took a step and
jerked forward, off balance, swaying as he tried to grab the corner
of the wall to keep from falling. He missed and fell, landing hard,
his head hitting the gravel. Sparks and stars, shooting pains. It
was hard to breathe. Tried to stand up and fell again. He rolled
over onto his back, staring up at the stars.
He wasn’t drunk because he never got drunk, but something was
wrong. Twinkling lights were whirling round and round, caught
in an accelerating tornado. He squeezed his eyes shut, but the
spinning got worse. He rolled to his side and vomited onto the
gravel. Someone must have slipped him drugs because he’d
barely had anything to drink all day and he’d never been sick like
this.
He reached out blindly for the garbage can. He grabbed the lid
and tried to use it for balance, but he pulled too hard. The lid
clattered off and a bag of garbage spilled out, making an unholy
racket.
Upstairs, Katie flinched at the sound of something crashing. She
was lost in her dream, and it took a moment for her eyes to flutter
open. Groggy, she listened but wasn’t sure why, wasn’t sure
whether she’d dreamed the sound or not. But there was nothing.
She leaned back, giving way to sleep again, and the dream picked
up from where it left off. She was at the carnival, on the Ferris
wheel, but it was no longer Kristen sitting beside her.
It was Jo.
Kevin was finally able to struggle to his feet and stay upright. He
couldn’t figure out what was happening to him, why he couldn’t
keep his balance. He concentrated on catching his breath, in and
out, in and out. He spotted the cans of gas and stepped toward
them, almost falling again.