Old Friends

There’s a hole in one of the window boards. Wow, the wind must have sucked out that knot in the wood, the one that looked kinda like a bearded guy’s face. The stairwell is so dark, the hole stabs him …

Claudia doesn’t know how long she’s slept or what time it is. She yawns, stretches cramped limbs. Her right leg gives a massive twang and begins to spasm, sending her sliding off Hal’s lap onto the floor. She catches herself …

“Hey, Kim,” says Roi.

“Ye-ees?” says Roi’s partner, turning his head slowly, muzzle of the gun turning with his eyes, and the barrel aims downward, but not by much. He’s watching the shadows among the trees as he turns. It’s …

It’s amazing what you can find in an old barn if you take a few minutes to poke around. Hand scythes, bag balm, a handful of ancient eggshell-white electric fence insulators, a litter of kittens, a mysterious apparatus that looks …

Slogging through marshland is nothing new. He’d done that a million-and-fucking-one times with his dad, to rescue a heifer lost in a water meadow when the creek rose, or finding whatever remote corner of whatever remote field a momma mare …

“Hey, Estelle, how the hell–” the tourist-looking guy asks. His sandy brown hair is short and neat and graying at the temples. “Next rest stop, can I take another look at her? Dr. Caleb Greene. I’m the local vet, sort …