Hide and Seek

"Clan?"

"We'll be here. You know the way all right? You can find the way back

to the car?"

"I'm already there.

I put my flashlight beam on the staircase for her and watched her run

up the stairs and disappear around the corner through the kitchen. A

moment later we heard the front door open and then slam shut again.

The house was silent.

"I'm sorry, Steve. I mean it."

"It's okay. I... care for her too."

We stood there together listening, hoping for sounds behind the wall.

Woman sounds. Alive sounds.

There weren't any.

It seemed as though a longtime passed. But in the rational part of me!

know it wasn't longa tall It was the standing there that made it seem

so, listening to our heartbeats pulse down into something a little more

like normal, staring into the dark corners of the room, everywhere

seeing Casey.

But Kim was as good as her word. In a while we heard the car start up

outside and two long blasts on the horn. They sounded very far away to

me.

"What are we going to do?" whispered Steve.

"What do you want to do?"

He stared at me a moment and then bared his teeth, the best

approximation of a smile he could manage at the time. I gave him one

back that had to be just as bad. My guess is we looked like a couple

of wolves in feral display.

"I'm not going to like waiting," he said.

"Neither am I."

"It's a half hour into town."

P "Twenty minutes if you push it. So what do you think? "I think we

should have a look inside." "I was hoping you'd say that." He

shrugged. "I know you were. I'd been very much hoping I didn't." We

went through the stuff on the floor.