Page 70

He was on his feet in a second and heading for the door. The train continued to run.

“Aren’t you going to turn off—”

But he was already running down the stairs. “Stay on the porch!” Annie shouted.

She slid off her chair and considered, briefly, turning off the train, or at least easing back the throttle to slow it down, but it had been running nonstop for a couple of hours without a problem and Charlie would likely be back up here shortly, so she left it alone.

Annie came down the stairs, not at a gallop like Charlie, but one careful step at a time. It had become so dark, so quickly, that she flicked on the front hall lights before she joined Charlie, who had left the front door wide open and was standing at the top of the porch steps, gazing into the dark sky. The wind was picking up and there were flickers of light in the creases of the clouds.

“Lightning!” he cried with excitement, pointing.

And five seconds later, a thunderous clap loud enough to make them both jump.

“Thatwas close!” Annie said.

As if turned on by a switch, rain instantly came pelting down. Charlie took half a step back under the porch roof to keep from getting wet.

More lightning and another crack of thunder. Annie slipped her arm around Charlie’s shoulder and pulled him close.

“Look!” Charlie said.

He was pointing not at the sky, but down toward the road. It was Daniel’s wife, Dolores, who’d spurned Annie’s attempt at neighborliness that first day. She was walking down the driveway of their home toward the road, arms hanging down at her side, seemingly oblivious to the rain. She crossed the road without looking, not that there was ever much traffic, butstill, Annie thought. Dolores moved as if in a trance, reminding Annie of Charlie during his rare episodes of sleepwalking.

“She’s getting soaked,” Annie said.

“She’s looking right at us,” Charlie said.

Dolores continued her robotic walk, her arms hanging motionless at her side. The rain had plastered her gray hair to her skull.

There was another bolt of lightning and an almost simultaneous crack of thunder that felt more like an earthquake. Behind her, Annie had a sense the front hall lights had gone off. The storm had kicked out the electricity.

“Mrs. Patten!” Annie cried as the woman got closer. “Is something wrong?”

Dolores’s black pants and a gray button-up sweater that she had rolled up to her elbows were as soaked as if she had just come outof a pool, but she gave no indication that the rain was causing her any discomfort. She stopped about ten feet from the bottom of the porch steps.

“Come up here, get out of the rain!” Annie said.

She seemed not to hear. She looked at Charlie, then at Annie, and began to speak.

“What were you thinking?” she asked.

“I’m sorry?” Annie said.

“What were you thinking?”

“Please, get out of the rain.”

There was another flash, more thunder. Dolores did not move.

“For fuck’s sake,” Annie said under her breath, and stepped out from under the cover of the porch and closed the distance between herself and Dolores, the rain continuing to pelt down, drenching her almost instantly.

“What were youthinking?” the woman asked again, her voice pitched higher this time.

Annie put her arms around her, said, “Let’s get you home.” But Dolores twisted away from her, and this time raised her right arm and aimed it at Charlie, extending an accusing finger at him.

“What wereyouthinking?” she asked.

As thunder continued to rumble, Annie again tried to coax Dolores to turn around.