Page 92 of Call Off the Dark

Helen turned back to Agnes, wide-eyed, and Agnes widened her eyes too.

“Sorry,” Agnes said quickly. “I don’t know why I said that. It was just the way you said it. It made me feel like whoever it was deserved to die.”

Helen smiled softly, but she could tell Agnes was about to start asking questions she didn’t want to answer. “I’m sorry,” Helen said as she felt tears gathering and tried to blink them back. “I guess I don’t really want to talk about any of this anymore.” A single tear escaped, and she wiped at her face. “Maybe we could just sit here together for a little bit?”

“Sure, of course,” Agnes said, and she settled back on the bench.

The two women sat there in the early afternoon breeze for over an hour, talking every now and then, but mostly just breathing the brisk, earthy aroma of the autumn woodlands. Helen drew comfort from having Agnes near, and it gave her a chance to think more clearly, and as she did, an idea dawned on her.

When Helen turned to Agnes, a spark of light was coming alive in her again. “Agnes, I need a favor.”

Agnes leaned forward, nodding. Of course, anything.

“Do you think you could get back here sooner rather than later?”

“Yeah, if you need me to. I could probably come in the next few days.”

“Okay then,” Helen said. “There’s something I want you to do for me when you get home.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

In the dark kitchen, Helen sat at the empty table, waiting.

It took over two hours before she heard the truck and then another minute before the front door opened and Wade and Isaac entered, dirty from a day’s work. They stopped when they saw her there.

“I didn’t make any food today,” Helen said.

“You didn’t make any food today?” Wade said.

“I didn’t make any food today,” she repeated.

Wade’s jaw clenched. He was hungry. “You didn’t make any food today.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t make any food today.”

“Jesus,” Isaac said. “How many times are you two going to say that?”

“I was planning on saying it as many times as he did,” Helen said.

“What am I supposed to eat?” Wade asked.

“That’s my question to you,” she said. “I told you I need to go into town for more supplies, and you told me I couldn’t use the truck.”

Wade stormed out of the room.

Isaac picked up the rags by the front door. As he wiped his boots with them, he looked at Helen circumspectly. “You don’t have any food in the garden?”

“I do. But there are worms in the garden.”

“What do you mean? Like an infestation?”

“No, just regular old garden worms.”

He tossed the rags on the floor by the door and crossed to the kitchen sink to wash his hands. When he reached for the hand towel, he whispered, “It’s going to be hard to drug him if you don’t give him food.”

Helen sighed. He was right.

Isaac set the towel on the counter and turned to face Helen. “There’s still food in the cellar.”