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It was nearly full dark before Lilah came back into the house. She ignored Benny completely and went to the table and continued with the process of cleaning her gun as if nothing had happened. Nix locked the door and pulled the curtains over the window.
They built a small fire in the stove. They made and ate some food. They drank water from their canteens.
They slowly went crazy from waiting.
Lilah and Nix barely spoke to Benny. At first he felt bad about that, but as the evening wore on he began to resent them for it. An hour crawled by. Outside crickets pulsed in the grass, and a dry wind began to disturb the treetops.
They listened to it as they ate more of the beans and rice. Nix was the cook, and she added some onions, garlic, and spices from Brother David’s meager stores. Lilah could cook, but no one alive wanted to eat what she prepared; Benny could cook too, but he had no sense for seasoning. To him spices began and ended with salt and hot sauce.
Another half hour limped by them. Lilah gathered up every knife in the way station and began cleaning them. She placed them in a neat row.
“Are we just going to sit here?” Benny griped as he glared across the table at Lilah.
Nix gave him a cold look and flapped her hand. “There’s the door. No one’s forcing you to stay here.”
“Very funny.”
Lilah kicked the table very hard. “Nix is right. You are welcome to leave if you think you can do something useful.”
“Maybe I should.”
“Maybe you should,” Lilah agreed, getting in his face.
“Maybe you should,” Benny fired back. “We probably wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for you.”
Lilah looked totally perplexed. “What?”
“Oh, come on. You think this is all Chong’s fault, and maybe a lot of it is, but he wouldn’t even have come along on this dumb camping trip if it wasn’t for how he felt.”
Lilah blinked in surprise. “What?”
“You heard me. If you weren’t here, then there’s no way Chong would have come along. He’d be home safe.”
“Benny!” warned Nix, but Lilah cut in.
“Me? Why? What do I have to do with what he does?”
“Because he’s head-over-freaking-heels in love with you, Lilah. How can you be so freaking observant and not know—”
“Benny!” Nix jumped to her feet. “Cut it out.”
Shut up! snarled his inner voice. Benny ignored both warnings. “It’s the truth.”
Lilah stared at him with a mixture of confusion and anger. “You should shut up.”
He pointed a finger at her. “And you should open your damn eyes, Lilah. He’s been mooning over you since you moved in with him. He can’t take his eyes off you.”
“Shut up!”
“You talked with him back on the road. I’ll bet he told you how he feels and you just threw it back in his face.”
“Shut up!” Lilah yelled.
“Are you denying it? Didn’t he say anything back there?”
“Go away.”
