She turned down a gravel road with a mohawk of leaves in the middle. The ride was bumpy and louder than the smooth street—popping rocks, wetness sucking at the tires. She stopped the car once they got to the edge of the bridge. There was a wide-bowl clearing under the sky. The landscaping lights leading to the bridge shone like little spaceships across the leafy black. Tallie smoothed her skirt after getting out of the car. She went in the backseat for the cake, which Emmett insisted on carrying. He also insisted on putting her car keys in his pocket, so she did him one better and gave him her lip gloss, too, so she could leave her purse in the trunk. He slipped it into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, and Tallie wished she had that on a short video loop the same way she’d wanted one of him shaking the cigarette from the soft pack.
“Li usually has a big screen set up outside with a movie playing on it. Last year it was Psycho,” Tallie said after punching in the gate code. Her heels crunched up the wooden steps of the bridge. Emmett was right behind her, and she reached for his hand.
The quiet that ribboned through the darkness was slowly eclipsed as they got closer. Floody creek water gurgled over rocks below. Peppy chatter and music from the house rose like a heat shimmer, getting louder as they crossed the bridge out there alone. Emmett was fetching in that suit. Tallie imagined the two of them stopping, Emmett taking her in his arms, kissing her neck, her mouth, gently putting her earlobe between his teeth. She held the vision of him wet on the metal bridge over the river against the man in that suit next to her on the wooden bridge. Two completely different bridges, two completely different men. Two jagged, mysterious halves of a whole. The zapping was back—her heart, her body, her blood—like a mad scientist’s creation humming with life and green lightning.
“Ta-daa!” she said, motioning her free hand toward Lionel’s house. Gray stone, glass, and more gray stone and more glass sprawled out and up and over in front of them. A small rolling knot of costumed people hung on the hill to their left, next to a bricked fire pit. A pumpkin-carving station was set up not far from that, and another, bigger crowd spilled into the yard, down the rocky pathway leading to more gardens. No one seemed to mind the mud. Orange and purple lanterns floated atop the infinity pool. One woman wearing not much more than glitter stood near the edge of it with gigantic angel wings sprouting from her shoulder blades, casting two wing shadows on the glowy water. A movie Tallie loved was playing on the large projection screen. She pointed and turned to Emmett.
“Donnie Darko.”
“Aha. And wow, damn,” he said, fully taking in the scene before looking at her.
“It’s extra.”
“I feel underdressed.”
“No. You’re perfect.”
They walked across the patio, Tallie saying hello and waving to the people she recognized. She spotted Zora, dressed in full Athena-goddess-of-wisdom regalia, standing by one of the tall glass doors, drinking champagne from a flute. Zora, looking every bit the former Miss Kentucky she was, wore two armfuls of chattering gold bangle bracelets and a thin gold headband of leaves. Her black curls hung loose and wild around her face, over her bare brown shoulders. When she saw Tallie, she smiled and put both hands in the air.
“Lulaaah!” Zora squealed.
“Zoraaaa!” Tallie squealed back, going to her and hugging her. “Aren’t you cold?”
“We must suffer for beauty, girlfriend. And who, oh, who, is this? Emmett?” Zora asked, looking at him.
“I see you’ve talked to my mother. Yes, Zora, this is my friend Emmett. Emmett, this is my beautiful and lovely sister-in-law, Zora.”
“Nice to meet you,” Emmett said, putting out his hand once Tallie and Zora finished hugging.
“Girl, now, you know Judith texted me everything. A pleasure to meet you, Emmett. Any friend of Tallulah’s is more than welcome here,” Zora said, ignoring his hand and hugging him instead. Zora was putting her flirty, sweet voice on top of her slightly slurred and starry champagne voice.
“Where’s Li? He wouldn’t tell me his costume. I brought his favorite cake,” Tallie said, scanning the crowd behind her and what little she could see inside.
“Oh, you’ll see him in there! And you’re—” She squinted at Tallie’s FBI badge; Emmett’s, too. “Mulder and Scully! Cute!” she said, waving at people behind them: an Elvis, two people dressed as panda bears, and a zookeeper followed by a person in a peacock costume plumed with blue, purple, and black feathers.