Chapter 32
I bring my emergency relish outside in a ramekin and then sit down to eat my burger, and find that it’s gone.
“I put it back on the top shelf of the grill to keep it warm,” says Austin, and I notice that his plate is missing too. He waited to eat.
“Thanks,” I say.
He returns with both plates a second later, then looks out over the water as he takes a bite.
There’s a distinctive crack of thunder off in the distance, and then Austin counts down with three fingers, then two, then one—points up just as the sky splits with lightning, landing like a meteor in the sand.
“Whoa,” says Harrison. “How … how did you do that, man?”
I pick up the burger, but then remember what comes next—if everything goes how it has.
Doorbell rings. Birdie barks.
I jump up, my knee knocking the table and making everything on it rattle. “I got it.”
Just as last night, I tear open the door and then look into Johnny’s beautiful, awful face.
“Go,” I say. “Forever. Go.”
“I—”
“I don’t care. Go.”
“I’m sorr—”
“You’re sorry about Babe, blah, blah, blah, we know, now get the hell out of here.”
He presses his lips into a firm line, then lifts his jean jacket up over his head and runs back out into the rain.
I shut the door. Lock it. Turn off the hall light.
I come back to the table, and Sammie stares at me. Then, like she can read my thoughts, and I’ve never been certain she can’t, her eyes flash wide.
“Sammie, don’t—”
But she’s gone.
I hear the front door open, the screen door creak, and her footsteps on the porch. We can’t hear what she shouts, but her voice carries over the house and onto the porch.
I look at Harrison, who gives me a resigned smile.
“It was him, wasn’t it?”