Читать книгу The Arsonist's Song Has Nothing to Do With Fire - Allison Titus - Страница 13

The cab was gone by the time Viv reached the front door; she should’ve asked the driver to wait—who knew how this would go, she thought, looking up and down the street. Large yards flocked large houses; long driveways held surplus cars. It was hardly September, but the neighbors had installed a fiberglass deer mid-prance in their hedge. She counted to fifty by twos and rang again, and this time the door opened and a woman leaned out, squinting around in surveillance. The woman’s face was the wide, blank hull of a ship frantic for mooring, her eyes prodded by dark pockets of no good sleep.

“I’m Vivian,” she said, in case the woman didn’t remember. “You’re—”

“Helen, of course, of course,” the woman said. “Come in.”

Vivian followed her down the shotgun hall to a dining room where Helen refilled her glass, and asked Vivian if she’d like a drink and, if so, would she get another glass from the kitchen.

“Upstairs, straight back, top shelf over the stove, you can’t miss it,” she said.

Vivian started up the stairs, wondering what she’d gotten herself into. She’d found the ad in the classifieds, where would-be brides auctioned off their dresses like new. And here she was, because somehow, she’d allowed herself to come all this way—eight hours by train, out of the station before sunup only to break down near Nashville; coffee machine out of order; a lukewarm beer and stale sandwich for lunch; piles of cattle out the window, laundry lines flagged with shirts; then, closer to the city, the junkyards, the underpasses tagged with names like Retro Fit and Halo—without knowing what was going on.

The stove gleamed silver and untouched and the refrigerator shined blank, no postcards under magnets. A bowl in the sink. She stalled in the kitchen for a few minutes, the first pulse of dread swelling up, thinking what was she doing there, why had she come—

For a few minutes she just stood there, admiring the bell white geometry of the floor tiles and taking down a glass.