The Cold Kiss (3 page)

4

Syl insisted on paying for the gas, and we didn’t try to stop him. While he was inside, Sara and I waited in the car and I listened to her talk about all the things we could do with the five hundred dollars. It was nice to see her happy, but the money wouldn’t last nearly as long as she thought it would. Before we knew it, we’d be right back where we started.

“You know what I’m going to do when I turn twenty-one?”

“Get drunk?”

The second the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. I looked at Sara, but she didn’t seem to care, even though on some level I knew I’d struck a nerve.

I tried to apologize, but she cut me off.

“I’m going to get a job in one of the casinos dealing blackjack,” she said. “You hear those stories about big winners leaving their dealers thousand-dollar tips. Can you imagine?”

“That’d be nice,” I said. “But you still have a few years to go.”

“You do it then. You’d make a good dealer.”

“I can’t work in a casino.”

“Why not? You’re old enough.”

“Background checks.”

“They do those?”

I laughed. “With that kind of money flying around?”

“Oh.” Sara was quiet for a minute, then she shrugged and said, “I guess you’re right, but I’m still going to do it when the time comes.”

We kept talking about what we were going to do once we got to Reno, then we saw Syl come out of the diner and cross the parking lot toward the car.

I watched him come.

Sara noticed and said, “Will you stop worrying.”

I told her I’d try.

Once Syl got close, Sara got out and moved the passenger seat forward and started to climb into the back.

Syl stopped her.

“I’ll take the back,” he said. “This is your car.”

“For five hundred dollars, I think you can ride up front.”

Syl refused again, and this time Sara didn’t press. I didn’t blame her. Nearly everything we owned was packed into the backseat. It would’ve been a tight fit, even for her. Syl somehow made it work, but it wasn’t easy for him.

“You gonna be okay back there?” I asked.

“Like a baby in the womb,” Syl said. “Snug and warm.”

Sara got in and closed the door. She turned back toward Syl. “If you change your mind, just say something. I’ve got short legs.”

“I appreciate it, sweetheart, but I’ll be fine.”

Sara looked at me and shrugged.

“We ready?” I asked.

They both said we were, so I put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway.

At first, the roads didn’t seem that bad. The snow had settled in patches along the sides, but the center was clear and we made pretty good time. All around us, thin snakes of snow slid across the asphalt then dissolved under the car as we passed.

No one said much.

I heard Syl adjust something behind me and I looked back at him in the mirror. He shifted a couple bags around then coughed and said, “You two don’t travel light, do you?”

“Everything we got is back there,” Sara said.

“Everything?”

“Everything worth keeping.”

Syl was quiet for a moment, then he said, “Are you two running away from something or toward something?”

“What do you mean?”

Syl coughed again. “You packed everything you owned into your car then set off across the country. It seems to me you’re either running away from something or toward something. I’m asking which one.”

“Both, I guess,” Sara said. “We’re getting married.”

“Is that so?”

“Just as soon as we’re settled.” She looked at me and smiled. “Isn’t that right?”

I said it was.

“How do your parents feel about that?”

Sara laughed. “Mine aren’t too happy, but they’ll deal with it.” She motioned toward me. “Nate’s folks are dead.”

“Both of them?”

“They died when I was a kid,” I said. “I grew up in and out of foster homes with my little brother.”

“What does he think?”

I shook my head. “He’s gone, too.”

“He died a few years ago in a car accident,” Sara said. “Nate was driving.”

I looked at her and started to say something, but my throat felt thick and I couldn’t find the words. I rarely talked about what happened to my brother, and never with strangers. For her to throw it out in such a casual way stopped me cold.

I stared at her, but she was turned toward Syl and didn’t notice. When she did finally look at me, she smiled and touched my arm and said, “It was tough.”

“Sorry to hear it,” Syl said. “What was his name?”

I cleared my throat. “Vincent.”

“Is that how you got that scar? The accident?”

“No,” I said. “That was something different.”

“Looks like a big deal. Does it hurt?”

“Not all the time.”

I think Syl was waiting for me to go on, but I didn’t, and no one said anything else for a long time.

When the silence got to be too much, Sara said, “How about you, Syl. Are you married?”

“Never found the right woman. Thought I did once, but I was wrong.”

“Things didn’t work out?”

Syl smiled. “They sure didn’t.”

“That’s too bad.”

Syl coughed, hard, then winced.

“You okay?” Sara asked.

He nodded. “It’ll pass.”

“We can try to find a doctor if you’d like.”

“No, thank you. I’d rather hear about your parents. What’d they say when you told them you were getting married?”

I laughed, couldn’t help it.

Sara slapped my arm, then looked back at Syl. “It was a lot to take in all at once,” she said. “I’m their firstborn, so it was hard for them to let go. And they’re kind of religious.”

“
Kind
of?” I said.

“Okay, very religious,” Sara said. “They’re both recovering alcoholics.”

“I can see where that might be a problem.”

“It’s fine, whatever they want to believe, I have my own opinions.”

“They didn’t rub off on you?”

Sara shook her head. “I was older when they started all that stuff, so it wasn’t like I grew up in church.” She paused. “I never really bought into it.”

“That must’ve upset them.”

“A lot of things I’ve done upset them.”

“Like getting married.”

Sara smiled. “That’s one.”

“I think they were more upset about becoming grandparents than about us getting married,” I said.

“You’re pregnant?”

Sara looked at me and frowned. “We weren’t supposed to tell anyone.”

“Don’t worry,” Syl said. “I can keep a secret.”

“It’s not the reason we’re getting married, you know.”

“That’s good.”

“I didn’t want to tell anyone about the baby because it’s bad luck to say anything this early.”

Syl made a dismissive sound. “There’s no such thing as bad luck. Things either go your way or they don’t.” He coughed then cleared his throat. “In the end, you get what’s coming to you. All that matters is how you deal with it.”

“Play the cards you’re dealt.”

“That’s right.”

“Sara believes in luck.”

“Some people do,” Syl said. “My experience tells me different.”

“What experience is that?” Sara asked. “What exactly do you do?”

“For a living?”

“Yeah,” she said. “How do you make enough money to pay five hundred dollars for a ride to Omaha?”

Syl shook his head and smiled. “Truth is, I don’t, but these are special circumstances.” He seemed to think for a minute, then said, “I guess you can say I settle disputes for a living.”

“What kind of disputes?”

“Whatever’s asked of me.”

“Is it boring?” Sara asked.

“Can be.”

We let the subject drop and a couple minutes pass, then Sara looked back at Syl and said, “What about us running into each other out here? That was luck, wasn’t it?

“Depends on how you look at it.”

“I look at it like we’re five hundred dollars richer, and you have a ride to Omaha.”

Syl laughed. “You might have me on that one. And who knows, maybe you’re right. Maybe it does all come down to luck, good and bad. I don’t know for sure, one way or the other.”

His voice sounded tired, and he coughed again. This time it came from deep in his chest and shook his entire body.

When he stopped, Sara said, “Syl, are you sure about not seeing a doctor?”

“Positive.” He took a white handkerchief from his pocket and wiped at his mouth, then he leaned back against one of the black garbage bags we’d used to pack Sara’s clothes. “I think I just need some rest. If you don’t mind, I’m going to try and get some sleep.”

“All right,” Sara said. “But if you change your mind about the doctor—”

“I’ll let you know.”

Sara watched him settle in, then she turned and looked at me. I saw the concern in her eyes.

After a few minutes, I looked at Syl in the mirror and saw his eyes were closed. I thought he was asleep, but then he spoke.

“Nate, did you tell anyone about this trip?”

“What do you mean?”

“Does anyone know where you’re going?”

“Not really,” I said. “A few people know we’re getting married, but not when or where. I figured we’d tell them afterward.”

“What about your cousin in Reno?”

“We planned on surprising him.”

“How about you, Sara? Your parents know you’re out here?”

She shook her head. “It’s our secret.”

“Why do you want to know?” I asked.

Syl didn’t answer, and when I looked back at him in the mirror, his eyes were closed.

When I was positive he was asleep, I touched Sara’s leg and motioned toward the backseat. “He’s out.”

She turned to look. “He must’ve been exhausted.”

“Let’s hope he sleeps the entire way. Talk about easy money.”

“Don’t you think he needs a doctor?”

“He says he doesn’t.”

Sara paused. “You don’t think he has something contagious, do you?”

I hadn’t thought about it until just then, and the idea stopped me for a moment. Then I decided it didn’t make any difference. If he was contagious, it was too late to do anything about it now.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Just don’t kiss him.”

Sara rolled her eyes and mouthed the word “gross.”

I smiled then reached over and squeezed her leg. She put her hand on mine then leaned back and closed her eyes. Her skin was soft and warm, and after a while, she was asleep.

I drove on in silence and snowfall.

5

We’d gone almost seventy miles when it became clear we weren’t going to make it to Omaha. The road was completely covered and the falling snow shattered in the headlights, making it impossible to see. I had to slow down to school zone speeds to make sure I didn’t take us into one of the drainage ditches running alongside the highway.

It’d been almost twenty miles since I’d seen another car, and I felt a sense of emptiness that I couldn’t shake.

We were completely alone.

At one point we passed under a single streetlight glowing yellow on the side of the road. I had no idea why it was out there in the middle of nothing. There were no houses or crossroads, just that one lonely light covered in a swarm of snow.

Occasionally, I’d see huge drifts off to the side. After the third or fourth one, it occurred to me that there could be cars buried under them, possibly with people inside.

The thought was enough to make me sit up and focus on my driving and the road ahead. If I didn’t pay attention, and we went off the road and got stuck, we could die.

Sara and Syl were both asleep. I leaned forward and turned on the radio for background noise, but we were too far out and there was no signal. I searched the dial and finally found a static-filled voice talking about the weather and the coming storm.

It was the last thing I wanted to hear.

If I needed to know how bad the storm was, all I had to do was look around. If it was worse than what I saw outside the car, I didn’t want to know.

I turned the radio off.

A few more miles slid by, then I saw a sign for a motel up ahead. I thought it might be a good place to stop and wait. There was no telling what else we’d find out here, or how much farther we’d be able to go in the storm.

It was time to take what we could get.

I glanced up at Syl in the mirror, and at first I thought his eyes were open, staring at me. It was hard to tell in the dark, and I watched him until I was sure they were closed.

When I looked back, the road had curved.

I turned the wheel, sharp, and felt the back end of the car slip sideways into a snowdrift. I spun the wheel the other way and the car fishtailed from side to side, then straightened and we were back on the road.

My heart was beating heavy in my chest, and once I was sure we were safe, I did my best to calm down.

Sara opened her eyes.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

She sat up, slow, then leaned forward and looked out at the dark sky swirling above us like smoke in a jar.

“This looks really bad.”

“We’re okay,” I said. “Just slow moving.”

I could feel my hands shake, and I squeezed the steering wheel as tight as I could to keep them steady.

In the backseat, Syl made a choking sound and I glanced up at him in the rearview. Even in the near-dark of the car, his skin shone pale and wet.

Sara turned around and said, “Syl, are you okay?”

No answer.

“I think he’s still asleep,” I said.

Sara stared at him then unbuckled her seat belt and climbed up on her knees and reached into the back.

“What are you doing?”

She didn’t answer me.

I looked over and saw her holding her hand against his forehead.

“Don’t touch him,” I said.

“Nate, he’s burning up.”

I reached over and put my hand on her hip and tried to pull her away from him. I didn’t have the leverage to do much, but Sara got the hint and let herself be pulled.

“We need to stop somewhere,” she said. “He needs a doctor.”

“He said he didn’t want one.”

“I know what he said, but I think he’s really sick. I mean, really sick.”

I looked back at him again.

His skin was so white it looked blue.

She was probably right.

“I saw a sign for a motel up here somewhere.”

“As long as there’s a phone.”

We hadn’t passed anything resembling civilization in over twenty miles, and I didn’t have a lot of hope for the motel. If we’d been on the main interstate it would’ve been easy to find a phone, even a hospital. But we weren’t. This road was a long, two-lane scar cut through fields and farmland. There was nothing out here but us.

Sara got up on her seat again and reached into the back and shook Syl’s shoulder. “Syl?”

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to wake him up.”

“Why?”

“Because I think he should be awake.”

I tried to keep my eyes on the road, but I kept looking back to see if he’d wake up. He didn’t, and each time he inhaled, a muddy wet wheeze sounded from somewhere deep in his chest.

I was starting to worry.

Sara shook him again, over and over, calling his name each time. Eventually his eyes opened. When they did, they were distant and unfocused, not really seeing.

He mumbled something, but I missed it.

“We’re going to find you a doctor,” Sara said. “Do you understand?”

“She’s here, isn’t she?”

“Who?”

He tried to sit up, but Sara stopped him.

“Where is she?”

“Who are you talking about?” Sara asked.

“Lilith, she’s here.”

Sara looked at me.

I shrugged.

She sat back in the passenger seat then turned toward me and tried to smile. “Well, at least he’s awake.”

I looked in the mirror and for a second, Syl’s eyes cleared and he tried to sit up. It didn’t work, and he struggled for breath. The sound rolled out of him like a scream, and when he spoke next, his voice was harsh and strained.

“You have my money.”

“We’re going to find a doctor, Syl. You’ll be okay.”

“No doctor.”

“It’s not a choice,” Sara said. “You’re burning up and you sound—”

“I said no fucking doctor!”

He coughed hard, and I could hear the pain underneath. When he spoke again, it was through clenched teeth.

“We have to keep going,” he said. “She’s following us. She knows I’m out here.”

“Who?”

“The whore.”

I could tell he was fading again, so I said, “Who’s following us?”

Syl ignored me. “You can’t have it. I won’t let you take it.”

“Take what?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”

Syl closed his eyes, didn’t answer.

I looked at Sara. “What the hell is he talking about?”

“No idea,” she said. “He’s delirious.”

I stopped looking back and focused on the road. I could still hear him breathing and mumbling about liars and money. Every now and then he’d raise his voice and accuse us of being thieves.

I wanted to tell him that he could have his money back, and he could walk the rest of the way to Omaha, for all I cared, but of course I didn’t.

As far as I was concerned, we’d earned that money.

Every cent of it.

Sara tried to keep Syl awake, but after a while she gave up and sat back in her seat. “We have to pull over somewhere, Nate.”

“I know it.”

“We need a phone.”

“I know it,” I said. “That motel is supposed to be up here somewhere.”

I noticed she was shaking and I put my hand on her leg and squeezed. “It’s okay.”

“Jesus, Nate, what if he dies back there?”

“He’s not going to die.”

I wanted to keep her mind off Syl, so I reached between the seats for the road atlas then held it out to her. “See if you can tell where we are. Maybe there’s something listed.”

She took the atlas and turned on the overhead light. The glare made it hard to see the road, and I leaned forward against the steering wheel.

“Did we pass Norrisville?”

I told her we had, a long time ago.

She read off a few other towns, and eventually we figured out where we were.

It wasn’t good.

We had another thirty miles to the next major turnoff and another twenty from there to the interstate. At the speed we were going, it would take hours.

I hoped the sign for the motel had been right.

“Oh my God, Nate.”

“There’s nothing we can do,” I said. “Let’s just let him sleep.”

Sara looked back at him for a long time, then turned and stared at the road ahead and didn’t say a word.

The highway was nearly invisible behind the snow, and I was beginning to think the sign for the motel was wrong, or that we’d passed it in the storm, when I saw headlights flash along the side of the road.

Sara saw them, too, and she sat up fast.

“What’s that?”

I wasn’t sure.

The headlights flashed again, then we saw a car turn and disappear behind what looked like a small house. When we got closer, I saw several small buildings, all wood, and all spread out around a parking lot. It looked like a motel, but there were no lights in any of the windows and the neon sign out front was black.

I felt my stomach sink.

“I think it’s closed.”

“There was a car,” Sara said. “Someone’s there.”

I slowed down and felt the tires spin against the snow, then I turned into the parking lot.

I could see the outline of a palm tree above the motel’s sign. The neon letters under the tree were blacked out but big enough so that I could still read them in the dark:
THE OASIS INN
.

There was a main office behind the sign, and I pulled in and stopped across from the front door. A line of buildings stretched out in two directions from the main parking lot. Beyond them, just past the range of my headlights, I saw the storm-faded shapes of playground swings and slides.

“Are they open?” Sara asked.

I told her I didn’t know.

No lights were on, but there was a soft amber glow coming through the windows. Someone was inside.

“I’m going to knock,” I said.

Sara looked back at Syl. “Just hurry, okay?”

When I got out of the car, the wind hit hard and sucked the air out of me. I kept my head down and kicked through the snow toward the front door.

There was a covered walkway out front that ran the length of the building. Once I got under it, I looked back and saw Sara leaning over her seat and holding her hand against Syl’s forehead.

I didn’t like to see her touching him.

Contagious or not, I wanted him out of my car as soon as possible. It wasn’t the kindest attitude, but right then, I didn’t care.

What Syl needed was a hospital.

Once we found one, he’d be someone else’s problem. Maybe they could track down Lilith, whoever she was, and get her to come and take him home.

Either way, it wouldn’t be my problem.

The five hundred dollars he paid us was great, but there were limits to what I’d do for money.