“Later, dude,” Ted said, walking away. He decided then and there, he wouldn’t come back.
Luna was crouched by the door, listening to the entire exchange. When Ted was out of earshot, Owen told Luna the coast was clear, and Luna unlocked her door.
Owen entered with the two cups of coffee stacked on top of each other. He passed her the cup silently. The warmth between her hands took some of the edge off her overall queasiness.
Owen remembered the banana and placed it on Luna’s desk.
“You’re a saint,” she said.
“Your exit plan has commenced,” Owen said.
He was referring to Luna’s relationship extraction.
“Huh?” Luna said. “What are you saying?”
Her brain was ready to loop everything back to Scarlet’s threat. Was she supposed to run, to leave school? Was this the end of the half-decent life she’d carved out for herself?
“With Ted. Just pull the trigger, will you? I’m tired of seeing his Neanderthal forehead.”
Luna reached for Owen’s phone, which she’d shoved between the mattress and box spring. She checked it one more time for a new text. The battery was almost dead. She might have a reprieve of another few hours if she played her cards right. But what was the point?
“You left this here.”
“Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Owen said, noting the absence of messages. “Scarlet is MIA. A and B woke me up this morning looking for her.”
“She didn’t go back to her room?” Luna asked.
“No. I’m sure she’s with a guy. She can’t survive without male attention. She goes fucking crazy.”
“She texted you last night,” Luna said.
“I don’t see any texts.”
“I deleted them.”
“Why? What did they say?”
“Remember the hate-mail thing?” Luna said.
“Yeah.”
“She said she wanted to tell you something about it. She wanted you to meet her someplace.”
“Did Scarlet say where?”
“Someplace called Black Budd?”
“What the fuck’s that?” Owen asked.
“I thought you’d know. Like an in-joke or something. But she was drunk. So was I.”
“Black bud. Are you sure you’re remembering that right?”
“Yes. Two Ds. I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
Luna was ready, she thought, to come clean on every last thing. But first she needed to vomit. Luna reached her trash can just in time. Owen had been through this with her before. She liked to be sick alone. She didn’t want anyone holding her hair or rubbing her back. Owen took Luna’s water bottle and filled it at the end of the hall. When he returned to her room, she was barely conscious on the floor next to her bed. He managed to wake her enough to relocate her to the bed. He emptied the trash can and put her water bottle on her nightstand.
“Luna, you awake?” he asked, sitting on the edge of her bed.
“Yes,” she mumbled, eyes closed, curled up in a ball.
“Hydrate. Sleep. We can talk tomorrow.”
That morning, 911 dispatch got a call from a pay phone in the town of Deerkill.
“There’s a girl who might be missing named Scarlet. You’ll find her near Black Oak Bluff. She said she was going to hike there.”
“May I ask who is calling?” the operator said.
The line went dead.
October 12, 2019
Owen and his mother regarded the wall of urns. At first he wasn’t going to get one, since the plan was to scatter the ashes, but it felt weird keeping the remains of his wife in a cardboard box for any duration. Owen thought Irene would want something simple, but each urn seemed more ornate than the last. She probably would have preferred the box. He honestly didn’t know. They’d never had that conversation.
“I’m surprised she wanted to be cremated,” said Vera. “She didn’t seem the type.”
“What’s the type?” Owen asked.
“Agnostics, cynics, people who want their remains transported to inconvenient locations, and the poor,” said Vera.
“You’ve given this a lot of thought,” said Owen.
“She’s a woman of means, is all I’m saying. Doesn’t her family have a mausoleum somewhere?”
“No. And her mother was cremated. That’s all I have to go on.”
Vera’s cellphone chirped in her pocket. She quickly pulled it out and answered. She spoke in a barely audible whisper, even though she and Owen were the only two people in the room. “Hello. Oh, good. Okay, dear. See you soon.”