Blood Games

    With such sudden violence that Abilene flinched, Finley hurled the package down. It smacked the pavement, wieners blasting apart, juice and pink mush exploding from the wrapper. She stared down at the mess. Then her face turned scarlet and crumpled, eyes squeezing shut, mouth stretching as if invisible fingers wrenched her lips. Abilene leaped up. She rushed to Finley, bursting into tears herself as she hugged her stricken friend.

    Some time later, she realized that Cora had her arms around them both. Then Vivian was with them, embracing them, crying. They all were crying. Huddled together, hot arms around quaking backs, faces dripping sweat and tears as they gasped and sobbed and sniffled and whimpered and blubbered.

    ‘Sounds… like a fuckin’ barnyard,’ Finley cracked after a while.

    Abilene laughed once and choked. Her face was tight against the side of Finley’s head. She eased back. Finley’s hair, sticking to her itchy wet cheek, pulled away. She met the girl’s eyes and saw such misery there that she murmured, ‘Aw, Fin,’ and stroked her face with both hands and kissed her eyes.

    ‘Break it up, you guys,’ Cora whispered. She rubbed the back of Abilene’s head, kissed her ear, pressed her lips briefly against Finley’s cheek, then backed away.

    ‘Gettin’ awful smoochy around here,’ Finley muttered.

    ‘Don’t worry,’ Vivian said, her voice high and shaky. ‘I’m not about to…'

    With a quick turn of her head, Finley kissed her full on the lips. Vivian didn’t pull away. As she caressed Finley’s hair, Abilene pressed her mouth to Vivian’s wet cheek. It slid, and Vivian’s lips were there against hers, soft and comforting.

    ‘Come up for air, guys,’ Finley said.

    They parted. Abilene gave Finley a gentle punch on the shoulder. She felt exhausted, drained.

    Everyone stood around, sniffing and sighing, wiping sweat and tears and slobber from their faces.

    The pack of hot dogs, dashed at Finley’s feet, had been trampled flat.

    Cora was the first to start picking up clothes and towels and shoes that they had set out on the pavement to dry. The rest of them joined in.

    It’s something to do, Abilene thought.

    Before we do what?

    The clothes she gathered were stiff and dry. She took off her filthy, damp blouse, used one of the towels to rub herself dry, then put on the blouse she’d worn yesterday. She was about to button it when she noticed her wadded bra under the waistband of her skirt. She’d forgotten about putting the bra there. She tugged it out. The bunched fabric had been pressed tight against her low belly, leaving the skin marked with a pattern of seams and folds and wrinkles. She loosened the belt of her skirt and slipped a hand under the waistband.

    Rubbing the irritated skin, she watched Finley change blouses. Yesterday’s looked the same as the one she removed, but its tan fabric wasn’t dark with moisture and didn’t have blood all over it from her cut hand.

    Though Vivian’s white knit shirt and shorts were filthy, she didn’t change.

    Neither did Cora. They were both busy carrying things to the car.

    Abilene buttoned her blouse, then slipped off her moccasins and sat on the pavement and pulled on her socks and sneakers.

    She picked up the moccasins, some scattered garments and towels, and took them to the car. Cora, inside, dumped them behind the back seat.

    ‘Is that it?’ Cora asked.

    Abilene thought of Helen’s shoes at the edge of the outside hot pool. She decided not to mention them.

    Vivian came along with her arms full. ‘Nothing else.’ Abilene took the load from her and handed it in to Cora.

    She handed out their purses. ‘You want your camera, Finley?’

    ‘What are we doing?’

    ‘What do you think? Getting away from this damn place.’

    ‘I’d better take it, then.’

    Cora crawled out with the video camera and gave it to Finley. Vivian let the door drop shut.

    ‘Maybe we’ll be able to hitch a ride,’ Cora said, ‘once we get down to the main road.’

    ‘Are we just going to leave her?’ Abilene asked.

    ‘We can’t take her with us,’ Vivian said.

    ‘We could bring her outside. It doesn’t seem right to leave her down there.’

    ‘It’s a crime scene,’ Cora said. ‘We might screw up evidence for the cops if we move her.’

    She was right. And Abilene felt too dazed and weary to care much one way or the other.

    They were silent for a while as they walked past the front of the lodge and headed down the long driveway toward the road.

    Then Finley said, ‘Do you think Batty had anything to do with it? He knew where Helen was.’

    None of the ‘he, she, it’ business.

    ‘He couldn’t control where the blood dropped,’ Cora said.

    ‘Pretty damn weird,’ Abilene said, ‘how the cat led us to her. It had to be Amos. Almost as if Batty sent it along… like a guide, or something.’

    Cora shook her head. ‘It smelled the blood, that’s all.’

    ‘Fuckin’ beast,’ Finley said.

    ‘I hope we didn’t shut it up in there with her,’ Vivian said.

    ‘It' was long gone,’ Cora told her.

    ‘Are you sure?’

    ‘I’m not sure of a damn thing,’ she muttered. ‘You wanta go back and check?’

    ‘You don’t have to get huffy.’