Evan Arden 01 Otherwise Alone Read Free Page B

I wonder if she thinks they’re all dead and she’s saying a little prayer for them or something.  I decide to take the moment to get a little distance.
    “ I’m going outside for a few,” I tell her.  I need to hook the alarm back up to the truck, which means first running out to the point where she tripped it up and set it off.  “I’ll be right back.”
    Not sure why I feel the need to tell her that.
    “It’s getting dark,” she says softly as she looks out the window.
    I don’t reply because it’s such an obvious observation.   Will she tell me I’m tall next?   After picking up my rifle, I head out and Odin follows at my heels.  He sniffs the ground as he keeps pace with my jog.  Once I reach the general area, I follow her footprints in the dry groun d until I come to the thin, detached wire and twist the metal part of it back together.  
    Odin and I run back to the truck and clip the whole thing to the truck’s battery.  I walk slowly around the house using the scope on the horizon but see nothing of interest .  I refill Odin ’s water dish, feed him , and head inside again.   I leave the front door open, which I do most nights .  It doesn’t have an actual lock on it anyway, and i t works particularly well this evening since the fan is on and it creates a nice cross-breeze.
    Lia is still sitting in the same spot, tearing the label from her water bottle.   I look her over, wondering what’s going through her head.  I can make a lot of logical guesses, but there are still too many parameters.  She could be thinking of her mother, the asshole who ditched her, or what she is going to do now.
    “I assume you are stay ing here tonight,” I say.  I don’t know if I’m answering the question she is pondering or not, but it still has to be something on her mind.   Besides, I feel resigned to letting her stay.
    “Oh, no, no , ” she says with a shake of her head.  “I couldn’t impose…”
    I want to laugh, but she probably wouldn’t appreciate the humor.  I go with straightforward instead.
    “There really aren’t a lot of options,” I point out to her.  “It’s late. I’m tired and going to bed.  You can stay or you can go, whatever you want obv iously, but I wouldn’t go anywhere until tomorrow.”
    “I guess you’re right,” she admits.  Her fingers twist around each other on top of the table.
    I stand slowly and start collecting the dishes and fill the sink up with water.
    “Oh!” she suddenly cries out.  “Let me do that!”
    She’s beside me a second later, apparently planning on washing the dishes herself.  I consider for a moment, and then take a step back.
    “By all means.”   I’m curious to see if she really intends to do it or if she is just trying to be polite.  Her hands go into the sudsy water , and she begins to scrub.  There aren’t many, and she’s done quickly and efficiently.  When she places the last dish in the drying rack , I realize I’ve been watching her the entire time.
    Slowly, I pull the towel from my shoulder and hand it over to her.  She mumbles a thank you as she takes it and quickly dries her hands.  She looks around the tiny kitchen area and finds the little loop used to hold towels and threads the drying cloth through it before looking back to me.
    For a long moment, I only look at her and try to figure her out.  Some things are obvious – she’s running from someone.  Maybe he dumped her on the side of the road and maybe she ran off, but she’s trying to get away from him.  That much is clear.  On impulse, I check out her ring finger.  No ring, but there’s a clear mark around the skin – she’s worn one until recently.
    Interesting.
    Is it lying in the dust out there in the road or hidden away in a little pocket of the backpack she left lying next to the still open front door ?   I tilt my head to one side and feel the brush of the fan’s wind against my neck.  I need to turn it – and the generator –