e winding dark road was lit up by the headlights of the truck. e moon illuminated the mountainous backdrop, shimmering along part of the Wind River. It was all a dark blur around me. Everything had been a blur since I got here. I was seated in the front while Charlotte sat quietly in the back. No one had said a word since we got in the vehicle. I knew Calvin wanted to ask what Joe did to piss me o but he stayed quiet instead. He pulled into a gravel driveway. From what I could see by the glow of a dim porch light, Charlotte took good care of her property. e nicely pruned shrubbery, colorful ower beds, and array of trees all distracted from how dumpy the actual house looked
—clearly a xer-upper that hadn’t been xed up. “I’m gonna help get her inside,” he said to me. I didn’t say anything.
Calvin walked Charlotte up the sidewalk. His hand hovered by the small of her back. She stumbled a little, but he was careful to keep her upright. At the door, she struggled with the keys and ended up dropping them. Calvin bent down, scooped them up, and unlocked the door. e house slowly lit up as they made their way from one room to the next.
Something about their dynamic was strange. It was clear Charlotte was in love with Calvin, but was Calvin in love with her?
e outlines of their bodies came back into view through the large living room window. Charlotte’s body leaned into Calvin’s and his arms wrapped
around her. en they disappeared again. Another light icked on, then o .
Something must have happened between them at some point.
I looked at my cell phone. I had one bar of service but just as I typed in my password, the bar went away, replaced with the words No Service. Of course. I just wanted to check some emails but I couldn’t even do that. At the start of the trip, I liked the isolation. But now, I didn’t know how to feel about it. Ten minutes had passed since Calvin went inside with Charlotte. Just as I placed my hand on the steering wheel to blare the horn, he exited the house, gently closing the front door behind him. He jogged back to the truck and hopped in.
“Sorry that took so long.” Calvin slid the key into the ignition and started it up. “She was pretty drunk, and I wanted to make sure she was all right. I’ve never seen her like that.” e vehicle backed out smoothly onto the main road.
“It’s ne. Is she okay?”
“Yeah. I got her some water and Tylenol and put her to bed.” Calvin stepped on the gas gently.
I didn’t say anything. Instead, I stared out the passenger window at nothing.
It was all a dark blur.
A few minutes down the road, he spoke. “What did Joe say to you?”
I glanced over at him. “It doesn’t matter. I told you, it was just a misunderstanding.”
Even though it was dark, I could see his jaw tighten. He swallowed so hard that his Adam’s apple visibly rose and fell. Calvin shook his head.
“I knew I shouldn’t have brought him around you.” “What’s that supposed to mean? Did he do something?” His eyes were tight just like his jaw now.
I knew I was stepping over a line that Calvin didn’t want to cross but I needed to know. Was Joe dangerous? Was I safe at that ranch? I looked at my phone again. No service.
“I really don’t want to talk about Joe,” he said rmly.
My eyes lingered on him. He focused on his driving as if he were studying
for a test. It was far too much concentration for driving on an empty country
road in the middle of the night. His hands gripped the steering wheel a little too tightly. I hadn’t noticed how large and strong his hands were before. e knuckles on his right hand were an angry red from hitting his brother. I knew something was o with Joe. He was like a peach whose pit had been eaten out by insects, still supple and appealing on the outside, but no substance left on the inside. How Calvin acted around him—tense, anxious, worried— con rmed my suspicions. What had Joe done? And why was Calvin keeping it from me?
