“It’ll probably collapse right when we reach the center,” Tean said.“So there’s no chance for us to escape.”
“I’m pretty fast,” Jem said without looking back.“I might make it.”
“You won’t,” Tean told him.“A rafter will fall on you and pin you.”
“Shit.Well, okay.I guess if a rafter falls on me.”He stepped around a plow that had been left to rust in the waist-high grass.“What happens then?”
“Well, if we’re lucky, there’s a freak lightning strike.”
“That thing would go up in a snap,” Jem said.
“Exactly.And then we’ll have two to three minutes of agony.And then we’ll be dead.”
“But we’ll be dead together.That’s pretty cool.”
“Well, it’s not cool so much as it is extremely painful.”
“What happens if there isn’t a freak lightning strike?”
“I suppose we’d die more slowly.It could take days or weeks depending on our injuries.”
“Weeks?”Jem stomped down on a patch of nettles.“Fuck that.”
“It could definitely take weeks.If it rains.Or snows.And we can keep ourselves alive with water.”
“Or we have to drink our own pee.”Jem perked up.“That would be badass.”
“No, that would be disgusting.”
“But we’d be alive.”
“But only to prolong our suffering.And eventually, we’d die anyway.And some billionaire will probably buy this place.And they’ll set up a fracking operation.And that’s how we’ll spend eternity, as silent witnesses to some asshole raping the earth so we can continue to rely on petroleum products that will keep the same people wealthy and in power until, presumably, we destroy ourselves either by poisoning the planet to an unlivable degree or in some kind of world war or nuclear winter.”
Jem nodded.He looked like he was taking this all in.And then he stopped, hands on hips, and considered the barn.“You know what would be friggin’ awesome?”
“If we didn’t rape the planet?”
“This place would make a kick-ass Cracker Barrel.And then we could be ghosts.And we could haunt the shit out of people, but in a fun way.Like, what’s that game with the little wooden thingies?”
Tean thought he might be losing control of this conversation.“Uh, peg solitaire?”
“Yeah.We could really fuck up some games of peg solitaire.”
“Right, but there’s no such thing as ghosts—”
“And we could eat as much of those cheesy potatoes as we wanted.”
“I don’t think ghosts eat.”
“And they’ve got that candy that can break your teeth.”Jem nodded like this had somehow decided it.“Okay, cool.I’m down.Let’s do it.”
“Well, it’s not so much a ‘do it’ situation as a ‘have it be done to you’ situation, mostly with the barn collapsing on us.”
“I know, babe.But you’ve got to be proactive with shit like this.”
And with that bewildering explanation, he set off toward the barn again.
The smell of dry rot was stronger as they neared the structure.At one point, the plank walls had probably been painted red, but all that was left were pale strips curling away from the wood.The gable doors were held shut with a massive drop bar, but a judas door was partially ajar.Above, the loft doors and windows were open.A crow perched on an empty frame, turning in place as it watched Tean and Jem, obviously trying to decide what to do.
