Page 34 of Trick or Stalk

I start the truck.

I don't know her name. Or who she is. That bothers me more than it should.

I pull out of the parking lot and take the road leading away from town.

The GPS tells me to turn right.

I go straight.

I'm driving around, learning the town. That's all.

Wilder and I just moved here. I should know what's around us. Which roads connect and where they lead. What's nearby.

A perfectly reasonable explanation for what I’m doing.

A narrow road catches my attention.

I turn onto it.

Trees crowd both sides the farther I go.

Then, through an opening between them, I see the large Victorian.

My foot eases off the gas.

Interesting.

The house looks different in daylight.

Bigger.

Older.

Beautiful, I suppose, if you're into that kind of thing.

I’m more interested in who lives inside it.

I keep driving.

There's no reason to stop.

She's probably not even home.

And I have shit to do.

I glance in the rearview mirror.

The house disappears behind the trees.

My eyes move back to the windshield.

At least now I know another way to get there.

“You bought the wrong thing.” Wilder holds up the fill valve.

“The guy at the hardware store said it was universal.”

Wilder turns the box around. “Oh.”