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Seventy-Six
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House of Sighs Seventy-Five:
SEVENTY-FIVE:Radio“Report back, two-four.”The handset sat on its hook, DC cable swinging in an arc, ticking the dash.Static crunched. “You there, Liz?”The voice on the radio belonged to Bridget Sargent. Bridget was overweight and loving, her messy hair tamed by bands and pencils. She greeted Liz every morning by tapping her garish fingernails against the window of her cubicle. Bridget was their Lead Fleet Correspondent. She alerted employees to changed traffic conditions and radioed drivers concerning route punctuality. Liz knew this was why Bridget was calling. A commuter must have tired of waiting for the bus to arrive and called the transit hotline to file a complaint. It was Bridget’s duty to find out the reason for the delay.Liz imagined her co-worker’s plump face washed in the lights from her switchboard, could almost hear fingernails drumming against the desk. Brow furrowed, the first twinge of concern.A wasp slammed against the windshield and splattered.The bus
House of Sighs Seventy-Four
SEVENTY-FOURArthritis throbbed as Wes Frost sifted feed among the chickens. The birds looked up at him between their frantic pecking with absent, dispassionate eyes.Food, those black peepers said. Nothing else. Food.He rounded up their eggs, placed them in a basket and whisked them inside. He returned with a butcher’s knife.The Rottweiler growled and barked at the end of its chain, furthered its arc in the dirt as it skidded back and forth. “Shut up, dog,” he said.Wes set his eye on one of the fatter hens and upended her. A single brown feather lodged under the collar of his shirt. He stretched her neck against the cinderblock and envied the bird its simple thoughts, its lack of fear.Severed the head. Set the bird to run blind. Watched it fall.Wes plucked it bare.He cleaned his hands in the upstairs bathroom, whilst listening to the record playing down the hall. Wes looked at himself in the mirror, drew a single feather from his collar and set it beside his razor.Down
House of Sighs Seventy-Three
SEVENTY-THREEIt wasn’t a well-traveled road they pummeled down; the stretch grew more treacherous with each proceeding turn. As though to spite danger, their speed didn’t decrease—if anything, the odometer climbed. Yes, the 243 to town had strayed far from its route and wound deep into the valley.Within the bus, Jack bit his thumb, a habit he’d had since school, biting his nails down to the quick as he waited for a teacher to ask him questions he didn’t know the answers to. Not much had changed since then; there were few solutions within reach now, either.Peter saw the oncoming car. Perhaps his prayers had been answered. He swore to himself that he would get out of this alive and trusted his God to shield him. Sitting there in the heat, he knew that when the time came to run, there would be a fleet of angels protecting him. Their strong, white wings would be his armor.His mother’s voice in his ear. I’m proud of you, she said, breath thick with the stench of liquor. This is a te
House of Sighs Seventy-Two
SEVENTY-TWOThe bus came to a stop.Jack pulled himself up off the floor. This is it, the voice in his head told him. He poised himself to run.Sarah wanted to grab this hot-headed young man and hold him. She pitied him for his machismo. They weren’t going to survive if one of them made a martyr of themselves. With every death, the group would come more unhinged. They were welded together now by tragedy, and a risk by one was a risk to all. Why can’t he see that? she wondered. Oh, Bill, please make him stop.The bus shifted into reverse. “What the fuck?” Jack said.Michael glanced up at the ceiling escape hatch, which was open a crack to allow airflow into the bus. He imagined himself getting up and forcing it open the rest of the way, but he was frozen in place. Terrified. The driver was alert now. Were he to attempt escape there would be the eventual bang! And in a flash his entire history would be wiped clean, all the problems, hopes and dreams that stitched him together—ripped
House of Sighs Seventy-One
SEVENTY-ONEAnd that light was brilliantly white, warm. Trees unclasped their knots, peeling away on either side of the windshield as they entered a wide-open space.Hands fell from ears and eyes opened. The passengers took in their surroundings.They were in a large yard. In front and to the left stood a huge, decrepit shed, a pickup truck parked next to it. The bus drew closer to a house flanked by faded Christmas cutouts. The property sat in the middle of this clearing, and beyond it, Sarah noted trees standing guard, the flash of a clothesline. The words slipped out of her: “No neighbors.”Julia stepped away from the window. Dread filled her. “This is it,” she said. “This is it this is it. This is it.”She’s about to kill us.Diana went to her sister and eased her into their original seat, and whilst the grip on her arm remained relaxed, her shouts to shut the hell up were nothing short of intense.“YOU ALL BE QUIET!” the driver said. She glared them all. Her shoulders rose
House of Sighs Seventy:
SEVENTY:HomeSarah watched the peak of the house grow taller through the windshield. Jack stepped up next to her and whispered, “Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen fast.”She didn’t reply, just continued staring. Never in her life had she known what it felt like to be paralyzed, rooted to the spot with fear. Did terror numb her body or was her body numbing itself to the terror? Sarah didn’t know. And perhaps she didn’t want to, either.The bus rolled over crunching earth.Julia apologized to her sister, who now rubbed her back and held her close. “It’s okay. It’s a-a-all right. Once she s-stops the bus s-she’ll let us off.”Diana shut her eyes.Astoria, Oregon. Her mother’s funeral.She opened them. There was still the dark house out there, so she pinched her eyes again—that same reflex was the one that said yank your hand out from under the water for fear of being scolded; distrust that man walking behind you on the empty street. Pure elemental instinct. Survive wh
House of Sighs Sixty-Nine
SIXTY-NINEThey parked in the middle of the front yard. Positioned at the intersection between house, shed, and driveway. Nothing moved except for the thick towers of clouds upon clouds above them.Inside the bus, the passengers watched their driver stand and look through the windshield. Searching.Sarah and Diana poised for action. Jack took Julia’s pen and gripped it tight, ready to stab.The engine ticked.Liz’s eyes moved from the shed she associated with her brother to her home. Stillness there. She leaned forward and took the gun from its place on the seat cover.The fan blades spun a final time, and then came to a grating halt.Jack didn’t breathe. Couldn’t. She’ll open the door, he predicted, taking pride in his calculation, and when she does, we’ll pounce. But we have to wait until she’s down the first step.Catch the cunt on uneven ground.Liz flicked the door release switch. It clattered open. Heat rolled into the cabin, up over her exposed legs, drafted through her
House of Sighs Sixty-Eight
SIXTY-EIGHTIt was bright outside, just like it must have been in the beginning. Born again. Peter felt grateful. So scared he almost forgot what he was running for or towards. No direction. Every direction. The important thing was just to run. He was born to do this, not to write. His pounding feet against the dust were the only poetic rhythms in his life now. He trusted the light around him.
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