‘I walked three hours in the wrong direction before I realized. And I only realized ‘cause the sun started to come up and I could finally see.’
‘I still can’t imagine you being able to walk along the creek right now, let alone the river.’
It had been raining. Not the type of rain that you grab your umbrella and head to your local coffee shop to order earl gray and sip it out of soggy paper while saying, ‘It sure is coming down! But we need it. Been in a drought too long!’
It was raining in a way you didn’t need. Power had been out for two weeks, and counting. No power meant no water, had to buy bottled at the store. Paying for water is absurd.
All the furniture had been raised from the ground floor of homes in fear of flooding. And to make matters worse, wind speeds were breaking records and therefore breaking branches.
Trees were blocking off streets that had no other outlet until someone could get out there to chop it up and roll it aside.
The days were dark, but nothing compared to the thickness of the black of night.
The sheets of rain drowned out any whispers, let alone screams.
The isolation left us confused whether to leave the doors unlocked, or flick the deadbolt.
‘You have to take into account that I haven’t slept for days.’
‘Would it have mattered if you did?’
‘It wasn’t the booze that pushed me over the shoulder.’
‘Right.’
‘Anyway, after I passed my truck for the second time I noticed someone had been there. Back window smashed in, and that couldn’t have happened in the crash.’
‘Was probably a fallen branch.’
‘Branches don’t clear away scattered glass from the edges.’
‘What’re you suggesting?’
‘I’m suggesting someone else was out walking the creek in the middle of the night.’
Logan had no business blaming his flying off a cliff in the middle of a storm on lack of sleep when I could smell the Mickey's on his breath. But I respected that he was sticking to the story, even though no one else was around. Jake and I met eyes and he raised a brow.
‘You tell the rangers?’
‘Well I was gonna call them the next morning and tell them about my truck, figured no one would be able to get out there to tow it anyway.’
‘But?’
‘But they were down on the other end of the creek with headlamps when I got there. Two of ‘em.’
‘Headlamps in the morning?’
‘Obviously they were out all night, numbnuts. They were soaked too and it hadn’t rained for a couple hours.’
Jake leaned against the shovel he had been using. They came over to help clear out the runoff in front of my place, but Logan had mostly just worked his vocal cords. But I like the chatter, hadn’t talked to anyone for days. I leaned down and tucked my pants deeper into my boots, my feet were getting cold and the story was making me impatient.
‘Well? What’d they say when they saw you?’
‘They got edgy when they saw me coming, couldn’t tell who I was, so I called out. Then they stopped walking and waited for me. Told them about my truck and they said they’d call it in. Then we climbed back up to the road and they gave me a lift home.’
‘What’d they say about someone being in your truck?’
‘Nothing.’
‘You get your truck back?’
‘Still down at the yard.’
‘Are they investigating?’
‘They said they don’t know what they’d be investigating. Nothing was taken.’
‘They just broke your window and left it then? You aren’t making a good case for yourself.’
‘Well I couldn’t tell them someone took my machete.’
‘You had a fucking machete in your truck?’
‘I wouldn’t normally, but with all this foliage!’
Logan kicked his feet through the branches and leaves littering the gutter we were standing in.
‘Why didn’t you take the damn thing with you when you left the truck?’
‘At first I thought I did, until I didn’t have it.’
‘How much of this do you remember?’
‘All of it.’
Jake and I look at each other before turning back to Logan, who put his hands on his hips.
‘Almost all of it.. It’s a little foggy from the crash until I turned around.’
‘So for the three hours you were walking in the wrong direction.’
‘Jesus Christ, Logan.’
‘Don’t use the Lord’s name in vain!’
‘Take.’ I said.
‘Take what?’
‘Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.’
‘Whatever.’
Jake picked up the shovel and got to work again. It was getting dark and without saying it out loud we didn’t feel so comfortable being out.
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