Free Rot by Gary Brandner

from the table and made it to the door before Mrs. Simms. The horn honked again.
    Mrs. Simms peered past him. “That looks like Marianne’s car.”
    “I’ll go see,” Kyle said.
    “Tell her to come in and have something to eat.”
    The horn blared again, impatiently, as he went out the door and trotted across the lawn to the car.
    The window on the driver’s side was rolled down. When he reached the car Marianne peered up at him crookedly from the driver’s seat. The sweet perfume brought tears to his eyes. Her breath carried a heavy odor of mint that did not quite mask the sour smell.
    “Hi, lover. Glad to see me?”
    “What are you doing here?”
    “I’m back to see you. Just like I promised. Want to go for a ride?”
    “I can’t. I-I’m eating dinner.”
    “Oh, yes you can. I think you’d better. Never forget that you owe me.”
    Kyle looked back over his shoulder. At the kitchen window he could see the shadow of Mrs. Simms’s head and shoulders.
    “Where do you want to go?”
    “Elkhorn City.”
    “Good God, why?”
    “I have business there.”
    “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
    “Nobody asked what you think.”
    It was time, he decided, to stop being a wuss. This girl could cause him a lot of trouble, sure, but sometime he had to put a stop to this blackmail. It might as well be now.
    “I’m not going.”
    Her eyes narrowed for a moment, then she spoke again in a parody of a little girl’s pleading voice. “Please, Kyle, I need you to do the driving. I’m strong enough, but I’m not so well coordinated since … the other night.”
    “No. Forget it. I’m out of this.”
    “You don’t want me to make trouble for you.”
    “Do what you want.”
    “Kyle, I
have
to do this,” she said. “Help me just this one time and I’ll leave you alone.”
    He pushed himself back from the car and looked off to the west where the last glow of the sunset was fading. The sun would still be shining back in California. What wouldn’t he give to be there right now? If he refused to drive Marianne tonight he had no doubt she would tell everybody her version of what happened in Elkhorn City and afterward. Though he did not think he committed an actual crime, there would still be inquiries and explanations required. The whole thing could drag on keeping him here for months. On the other hand, if he could take on this one last odious task, drive the girl fifteen miles to do whatever she felt had to be done, he would be free.
    “Okay,” he said finally.
    Marianne smiled at him. He looked away. She hoisted herself awkwardly over the center pedestal and gear shift while he got in behind the wheel. With Mrs. Simms watching from the window, he backed the little car around and gunned it out to the highway, turning there toward Elkhorn City.
    “Where, exactly, do you want to go?” he asked as they sped over the dark, deserted highway.
    “I’ll tell you when we get there.”
    Kyle drove leaning to his left, toward the open window, drawing in as much of the sweet night air as he could.
    After a minute he said, “What’s your business that’s so important?”
    “You’ll see.”
    The cold hand of dread squeezed his kidney area, but he was too far into this now to turn back. He kept repeating silently to himself,
This is the last of her, the last, the last …
    The night was clear and scented with blossoms as Kyle tooled the Mustang into Elkhorn City. The young people of the town strolled the streets in small groups laughing, flirting, having fun. Kyle envied them so much he ached.
    “Turn here.”
    He followed Marianne’s directions and left the main street, named, as they all were in the Midwest, “Main Street.” They drove beneath big old shade trees, past houses with people sitting on the porches talking, smoking, enjoying the night. Everything normal. Everything nice.
    Another turn, and another, and they were on the edge of town. They passed an auto wrecking yard, an abandoned railroad