by William Oday
A huge guard stood behind the cashier lady. He raked a flashlight over the people working inside the cage. “Secure the cashier windows!” Metal scraped and clanged as the other gates dropped and locked shut.
Donny banged on the bars with his good hand. “Hey! I need my money! Give me my money!”
The flashlight bounced to his face, blinding him again. “All transactions are temporarily suspended.”
Anger welled up in Donny’s chest. It wanted to come out and hurt someone. He pounded on the bars that separated him from his money. “Suspended, my ass! You owe me eighteen hundred dollars and I want it now!”
“Back away from the window, sir!” the guard ordered as his free hand went to the pistol holstered at his hip.
Donny couldn’t believe it. He’d won fair and square and the idiot was threatening to shoot him for wanting his money? If they thought he was leaving without it, they had another thing coming. Fury burned through his veins. He grabbed the bars with both hands and tried to tear them down. “Give me my money or I will get in there and break your skull in half!”
“Donny!” Zeke shouted, too late.
Someone grabbed him from behind and twisted an arm behind his back. Before he knew it, both arms were wrenched together and a zip tie was pulled tight around his wrists.
He got spun around and frog-marched away. Another guard was doing the same to Zeke. The guards dragged them to the exit and then threw them outside.
Donny tripped and didn’t have his hands free to catch himself. So he fell forward and hit the pavement face first. His face bounced off the hard surface and an already-loose tooth broke free in his mouth. Blood poured out of a busted lip as he rolled onto his back. He spat the tooth out along with a lot of blood. “I will kill you for this! I will kill you all!”
The guards didn’t hear because they’d already gone back inside and locked the door.
Donny strained to get his hands free but that only made the ties cut painfully into his wrists.
Zeke appeared at his side, hooked an arm under him and pulled him up. He used a pocket knife to cut him loose.
Donny stumbled to the side and Zeke grabbed him before he fell over. “You okay, man?”
Donny jerked away. “Let go of me!” He touched his lip and winced. He glared at the entrance to the casino. A hundred violent thoughts swirled in his mind.
Did they think he was gonna take this lying down? Did they honestly believe they could steal his money and that would be the end of it?
He spat out some blood, then swiped at more dribbling down his chin. He turned to Zeke and caught the confused look in the pale light.
There was nothing to be confused about.
It was simple, actually.
He grabbed Zeke by the collar and twisted his shirt up in a clenched fist. “We’re getting my money, one way or another.”
11
Samantha Bowman opened the rear door of the silver Crew Cab F150. Cade’s pride and joy, as he’d so often reminded her during his time away. It was a decade old but looked basically new. Objectively, she could see it was a nice vehicle, but that kind of thing never did much for her.
She wasn’t into cars. Her old Volvo was proof of that. That thing was showing its age. What had once been a glossy brown that she’d personally found quite pleasing had long ago faded into a dull beige. The hydraulic shocks that held the back hatch up died years ago. She used a dowel rod instead. They’d been meaning to fix it for years, but there was always a higher priority that ended up needing the money.
Besides, a dowel rod did the trick so the shocks didn’t technically need to be replaced.
Growing up without much money, she’d been forced to be thrifty by necessity. She’d lived in Durango, Colorado her entire forty-four years and had witnessed the sweeping changes roll through. Some for the better. It had been much poorer when she was young, but the influx of tourism and people had changed that over the years. Nearly twenty thousand people now called it home. Double what it was when she was born.
In some ways, it felt nothing like the small town she remembered from her youth. There’d never been rush hour traffic back then. The farmers markets never featured things like artisanal butter or limited run beer crafted at a local microbrewery.
She pulled out bags of groceries and set them on the driveway.
“Evening, Sam,” a voice said.
She went by Sam instead of Samantha. She’d endured a lot of teasing for having a boy’s name when she was young. But there had been no going back after she found out her mother named her after a cheesy sixties sitcom about a witch that was a housewife. Her mother’s favorite show of all time.
She’d gone by Sam ever since. The only one that called her Samantha with unerring regularity was her mother. And it still drove her crazy.
Sam turned to see Gary Hensley, the next door neighbor, waving from the front porch chair he habitually occupied ever since he retired a few years ago. He hadn’t retired by choice either, as he would tell anyone whether they asked or not. The post office in town had forced him into early retirement and he was still bitter about it.
“Need a hand with that?”
She smiled. As much as Durango had changed over the years, some things had stayed the same. Like knowing the neighbors and looking out for each other.
“Ethan was supposed to meet me out here to help, but it looks like that fell through.”
Gary shook his head as he marched over. He didn’t walk so much as march everywhere he went. He said it was on account of his years in the Marine Corps. He was fond of saying that he left the corps to become a civilian and make some real money, but the corps never left him. And then he became a career postal worker. So he never got rich, but the benefits were good.
He grabbed up all but one bag, a token gesture to indicate that while he believed in chivalry, he didn’t think women were any less capable of doing things.
Most things.
But they’d agreed not to talk about that again after getting into it the last time.
“Kids these days have their heads buried in those video games.” He said the last part like it was something no normal person could ever understand.
“Tell me about it,” she replied as she shut the door. She scooped up the remaining bag and headed for the front door of their split-level ranch style house. They’d followed the advice that every well-meaning friend and commission-seeking real estate agent advocated.
Buy the biggest house you can afford. Stretch a little if you have to. You’ll regret it later if you don’t.
And all those people were right until they weren’t. Until that housing crisis came along and the economy took a nose dive. Even after the talking head pundits on the news declared the economy recovered and America to be flourishing once again, their personal finances had never fully recovered.
Between the cost of living constantly climbing higher and construction in the local area slowing down, the last year hadn’t been easy. And that was before adding the cost of a retirement home for her mother. Her job as a fifth grade teacher at Riverview Elementary kept them insured but didn’t pay much. Which was why her husband had spent the last two months in Seattle working a lucrative short-term job to make ends meet. Neither of them were happy about it, but they’d survived and now he was coming home.
Finally.
She opened the front door and Dennis charged out, his tail wagging so hard it swung his rear back and forth. He was a sixty pound brindle Boxer that they’d adopted from a local rescue organization. He bounced around, licking her hands, begging for attention.
She stroked his head to calm him down because otherwise he’d go on like this forever. She stepped aside so Gary could go in with all the bags.
He smiled, “Please, after you.”
She considered for half a second making a thing of it. It was only reasonable that he should go first because he had most of the bags and he was helping her, after all. But then she decided against it. She was too tir
ed and besides, he was just being nice. She waved the dog inside and followed.
Apparently satisfied with her greeting, Dennis buzzed around Gary, sniffing at the grocery bags.
“Hey, big guy,” Gary said in the softer tone that she’d only ever heard him use with animals. “Keeping an eye on things, right?”
Dennis barked and circled around as they trod the well-worn path in the linoleum floor to the kitchen.
“You really should keep the door locked when you’re not home.”
How many times had her husband said the same thing? Especially after the recent spate of burglaries in the adjacent trailer park.
“Ethan’s home.”
Gary snorted. “A herd of elephants could trample through your living room and that kid wouldn’t hear.”
Samantha bristled for an instant. She had no problem pointing out every single one of her son’s flaws, but another person doing it was another matter entirely. It brought out the mama bear in her.
“Ethan! Ethan!” she yelled, to no avail. She didn’t have to go up the half-flight of stairs to his room to know why he wasn’t responding.
Gary set the bags on the laminated countertop, spreading them out and testing each to make sure none fell over. “Did you hear there’s been another break-in?”
Another?
How many was that in the last couple of months?
Three? Four?
“No. I’ve been a little out the loop since Cade’s been away.”
“Yep, the Donovans at the end of the street.”
The Donovans lived in the first house on Hidden Valley Circle and so were closest to the trailer park next door. Samantha didn’t like to make judgements about trailer parks and white trash and all that because there were plenty of trailer parks that were just fine and filled with good people.
But that particular one had been going down hill for a long time. She’d seen some questionable characters walking the streets after dark any number of times.
Gary scratched Dennis behind the ear and then started unpacking the bags, even though she hadn’t asked him to. “You folks ever get that DIY alarm system installed?”
“Haven’t gotten around to it yet. It’s on a long list of To Dos for Cade.”
“He’s supposed to be coming back any day now, right?”
She nodded as a little jolt of anticipation zapped her in the chest. Eight weeks was too long to be away. But like anyone else, they did what they had to do. “He’s coming back tonight.”
Gary plucked out a bottle of champagne, eyeing it before setting it on the counter.
Samantha saw him pull a face, but ignored it. Yes, she’d bought champagne to celebrate her husband coming home. She’d even bought a new black lace nightie. One that she was proud to say looked pretty damn good on her, despite the dreaded forty-five being right around the corner. Staying in shape had always been important to her. She walked Dennis several times a week and even got a spin class in most weekends. The exercise wasn’t the hard part.
The not gorging on chocolate was.
It was just so delicious and it always delivered.
Tonight was special. Her husband was coming home. Chocolate and champagne were definitely on the menu.
“Well,” Gary said as he stuffed the empty bags into one, “tell him I said welcome back and that I haven’t forgotten about my post-hole digger.”
Sam laughed out loud. Cade and Gary had a long history of borrowing tools back and forth. It was all good-natured and she was pretty sure they enjoyed having something loaned out just so they could mention it from time to time. “Thanks for the help, Gary.”
“No problem at all.” He snapped off a nod like a salute, gave a few more scratches to Dennis, and then headed for the front door.
She heard it shut and reached for her phone. Cade should be landing in San Francisco soon. Which meant he’d be on a flight to the local airport soon after and then in her arms not long after that.
Which reminded her, she needed a shower. Bad.
“Ethan!”
Still nothing.
Had Dennis been fed? She glanced at his food bowl but that wasn’t helpful because it was always spotless. His tongue left it cleaner than a dishwasher, not counting all the slobber germs.
God help that kid if he was bleary-eyed from playing video games and hadn’t finished his homework and fed the dog. She’d lock his gaming console up for a week and let him stew on it. But she’d deal with that headache in a minute. First, she wanted to text Cade.
Call me when you can. Love you.
He texted back.
Will do. Love you too.
He must’ve arrived early. Probably taxiing to the arrival gate. He was finally coming home.
She thought of what would be their first night together in forever and decided to add a teaser. He was going to be exhausted, but she was confident she could get him properly motivated.
Champagne and a sexy black nightie await. Hope you’re—
The kitchen and living room lights went dark.
12
Her fingers froze above the phone screen.
Had the main breaker tripped for some reason?
She looked out the kitchen window and saw that the neighbor’s two-story house opposite the backyard was also dark. And their house was never dark. They left every light on pretty much all the time, including the back patio floodlights. Floodlights that lit up both of their backyards like it was day. Cade had gone over to talk to them about it once or twice. They didn’t act like jerks. They’d apologized and it had gotten better for a week or two.
But then it went back to normal.
All the lights, all the time.
But now?
Their house was pitch black.
So it was another power outage. They’d had a couple last winter after big snow storms took out transmission lines.
But it was June so snow wasn’t the problem. It had been pretty windy that day so maybe that was it.
Whatever it was, hopefully the power would come back on soon. If not, she’d have to pull the portable generator out of the garage to keep the groceries from going bad. Fortunately, it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle because they already had a system for using it and Cade religiously checked it each season to ensure it would work when needed.
She finished the text.
—not too tired for the welcome I have in mind…
She considered not sending it, figuring it would come off sounding stupid and be more likely to make him laugh than get him hot under the collar.
Whatever. She missed his presence in their bed. The snuggles and his heat that seeped into her bones and made her fall right to sleep. And after eight long weeks, she also missed being intimate.
She hit send and was about to put down the phone when it bounced back as undelivered. She tried again and got the same result. Then she noticed that there was no network signal. She flicked on wifi and waited for it to connect to the house’s network.
Nothing.
But that made sense. The outage would’ve shut off the modem and router.
“Mom!” Ethan yelled as he slid into the kitchen. Socks on linoleum did that.
On the first night they stayed in the house, Cade had done a remarkable Tom Cruise in the movie Risky Business. Floor sliding, long sleeve shirt with the upturned collar, tightie whities, white socks, singing into a candlestick holder. The whole bit. And she’d laughed until her sides hurt.
“Mom, what happened to the electricity?” He shined his headlamp in her eyes and she waved it away.
“It’s just a power outage. Relax.”
“Just a power outage? Mom, Wyatt and I were about to kill the Platinum Astral Demigorgon! Do you have any idea how many XP that’s worth?”
She shook her head. She didn’t. She had no idea what XP were, much less how many killing a whatever he said was worth.
He paced back and forth, frantic with worry. Awkwardly long arms and legs making him vaguely tree like. At
fourteen years old, he’d sprouted like a weed but had yet to fill out any of that length. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. What if it didn’t save our progress? What if we have to start the Blood Scrolls quest over from the beginning?” He stopped and faced her. “What if we have to start the Blood Scrolls quest completely over?”
She shrugged. “You… have to start it over?”
“You don’t get it, mom. It took weeks for us to get this far. Weeks!” He threw his hands up.
“Ethan, pull it together. The power will be back on sooner or later. Whatever you were doing was probably saved. And if not, maybe think of it as good lesson that spending so many hours playing video games is just a waste of time.”
He glared at her and spun away to leave.
“Stop!”
He stopped.
“Have you fed Dennis?”
He grinned triumphantly. “Yes!” He turned to leave.
“Stop!”
He stopped.
“And your homework?”
“Yes.” Less certain this time.
“All of it?”
He turned back around, eyes glued to the floor. “I still need to study for the Geography test on Monday.”
“And you were playing video games instead? How many times have I told you—”
“I basically know it all already. I just need to review a couple things is all.”
“Unbelievable.” She pointed in the general direction of the stairs and his room. “Study! Now! And you’ve lost your Playstation for the weekend.”
“The whole weekend? That’s not fair!”
“Go! Now! Before I make it longer!”
He was about to protest further, but clamped his mouth shut and left. Not before shooting her a look though.
He’d perfected the look. The one that said so many things at once. I hate you. You’re so unfair. You’re an evil tyrant. I’m going to call Child Protective Services on you.
Yeah, that look.
He must’ve learned it from his big sister. At eighteen and fourteen, one was maybe starting to leave the irritatingly rebellious stage while the other was ramping up.