Five Quarterly Summer 2014

“It’s gonna be okay,” he told her. He imagined what this would be like later. Sitting there alone with Dave in a jail cell, a pathetic scene he wanted no part of.

Dave knelt before her with the gun resting atop his other knee. “You’ll moren likely find your way outta this. Just do what we say and show us where the money is. Lil detour’s all.” # They started into the woods toward a place called Aunt Jessie Dunk’s. Roy led the way with Osie’s weight braced across his shoulders. Dave was twenty yards behind, the barrel of the gun trained on them. They went down the logging road until they reached the valley where the creek ran, surrounded by a laurel thicket. Their route was there, and Roy followed it. He closed his eyes and pictured Jamie, younger, holding tightly to his hand as they walked. He looked up at the stars. The Milky Way arched high overhead, Orion at its center lifting his shield.

“Always thought Orion was a lot smarter than us.”

Osie looked at him. “What?”

“Well,” he said, “just look at him. He sticks to it, year after year. Never changes. Always knows exactly where he is. Where he’s going.” He paused. “I’m sorry this happened. It wasn’t right. I was just scared.”

Osie just stared at him, and her eyes were black and filled with hate or something else that made them burn. After a moment he turned back toward the path and walked on.

They came out of the woods into a pasture. The horizon met the ground in a damp corduroy. Cow paths and foundations divided the parcels of land into squares. Some house or half-standing arrangement of concrete and tin was visible beneath the trees in the southeast corner, two stories with a basement, and within the foundation, the front door was burned from a fire. The place was half-demolished with windows long ago smashed, some part of the roof collapsed. The yard was covered with tufts of grass, strewn with trash, rusty beer cans and used condoms.

“In there?” Roy asked.

“Yeah,” Osie said.

15