![]() ![]() I can't believe you're really doing this." Is that what it's called? Yeah, the pasture. "You might say I came the back way," Kyle said. "Did you walk here?" Stan asked, not sure why this was the first question that came out. "My disguise." He tossed the wig to Stan, who caught it clumsily, feeling as if he was touching some recently deceased little animal. "I thought you would get a kick out of this," Kyle said, and he reached up to pull the wig off, revealing damp red curls. He was wearing a leather jacket, despite the heat, and his chubby cheeks were bright red. "What the hell?" Kyle's hair was black and shaggy. "Kyle?" Stan said when he recognized Kyle's smirk, that fake confidence. There was a man standing on the other side of the bed, behind the staked cucumber shoots. He turned back to his vegetable bed and shouted when he saw that he wasn't alone. Stan used to go with them, but he'd lost his patience for church. The two of them escorted Carol to church every Sunday, and Karen wouldn't be back until late afternoon, carrying whatever McCormick family junk Carol had insisted she take home this time. Karen had gone to town that morning to meet Kenny. They lived ten minutes from the nearest neighbor, half an hour outside of South Park. He stood and turned, scanning their expansive property for the source of this feeling that he was being watched. He paused and took his hands from the soil when he felt a chill, despite the sweat that had soaked down the back of his neck. On a Sunday afternoon in mid-June, he was transferring the tomato plant seedlings to the raised bed where they grew all their vegetables. Falling asleep with the windows open made Stan nervous, and he spent the first few weeks of the summer sleeping poorly, feeling as if something was outside, nearby, waiting to strike. She actually found it comforting: the smell of night air and the singing of the bugs, the curtains wafting in the air. ![]() It was hot that summer, and Stan let Karen talk him into sleeping with the bedroom windows open. Thanks very much to julads for beta reading, and for encouraging me along the way! ![]()
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