Desert Heat

Joa

“Mother, what in the world are you doing?” Joa

“Cleaning the cupboards,” Eleanor replied. “You know as well as I do that the ladies from the church are going to be all over this house for the next few days, and I don’t believe this kitchen has been properly cleaned in years.”

The phone rang just then and Je

“Who was that?” Joa

“I du

“Don’t pay any attention to the phone,” Eleanor said. “It’s been ringing all day. Come over here now, Je

Je

“Where are you going?” Eleanor asked after her.

“I think I’ll go to bed,” Joa

SEVENTEEN

Still cradling Clayton’s unexpected package as well as her purse, Joa

To be fair, the rules of the game were somehow changing, and Eleanor had yet to figure it out. In the past, right or wrong, Joa

Like coming to terms with this room, for in-stance. Twice now, she had raced through it as though the space was full of demons. Now, she needed to find a way to stand here and look around at the familiar furniture, seeing it as a stranger might and trying to decide if it was, indeed, still the same place it had been two days earlier. Now, with Andy gone and the rest of the world conspiring to rob her of his memory, she wondered if there would ever again be a time when she could be comfortable in this room. Or would she forever feel as alien in this place as she did in this instant?

Walking haltingly, like someone uncertain of footing on rough terrain, she made her way to the bed and sat down on the edge of it. Gingerly she began unwrapping the layers of faded pillow case surrounding the gun until at last a Colt.44, naked and deadly, lay in her hand. Remembering Molly Rhodes’s voluminous aprons, Joa

But Clayton Rhodes wasn’t thinking about either rattlesnakes or coyotes when he gave the gun to Joa

For a few moments it was almost as though Joa

Joa

In remembering D. H. Lathrop’s lessons, Joa

Resolutely, she stood up and tried to think of something else. Clayton was right. She would have to practice in order to regain some of her former proficiency, and that wouldn’t be tonight. Probably not in the next few days, either. In the meantime, she needed a safe place to keep the weapon, a place where Je

Kicking off her shoes, Joa

Exploring the drawer with her fingers, she drew out a small address book. It was Andy’s-she recognized it instantly-but she was surprised to find it there. He usually kept it with him, and she would have expected it to be with the packet of personal effects she had been given in the hospital.

She put the gun and the extra ammunition in the drawer in place of the address book, closed the top of the desk, locked it, and put the key in the pocket of her jeans. Then, taking the book with her, she started to return to the bed.

On the way, a piece of paper slipped out from between the leaves and fluttered to the floor. Joa

Ritz Carlton logo emblazoned across the top. In the upper right-hand corner the date was listed as September 10.

Dear Andy,

I’ve been thinking about your offer. It’s hard to get to be my age and realize you’ve been a first-class asshole all your life. Thanks for giving me a chance to make the world a better place, if not for me, than maybe for my kids and yours.

There are a few things I need to straighten out before I can leave here. When I get those cleared up, I can meet you in Nogales or Tijuana, wherever, and we’ll go to York then. Together we ought to be able to make it stick. I guess I don’t need to tell you that if anybody finds out about this I’m a dead man. And so are you.

Be careful, Lefty

Joa