Page 15
Story: You Like It Darker
Now that his drinking days are over, Danny doesn’t sleep in even on the weekends.
Sunday morning he’s up at six-thirty, eats a bowl of cereal, and turns on the KSNB Morning Report at seven.
The big story is a nine-car pileup on I-70 west of Wilson.
Nothing about a body being discovered behind an abandoned gas station.
He’s about to turn the TV off when the Sunday morning anchor, who probably needs to show ID to get a beer in a bar, says, “This just in.
We have a report that a body has been discovered buried behind an empty building in the small town of Gunnel, not far from the Nebraska state line.
Police have closed off a county road just north of town and the site is under investigation.
We’ll update this story on our website and on the evening news.”
Danny goes to the station’s website several times as the morning progresses, also the website of KAAS out of Salina.
At quarter of noon the KAAS website adds a forty-second clip of police cars blocking the entrance to County Road F.
There’s one other addition to the story he saw on the morning newscast: the body is said to be that of a woman.
Which isn’t news to Danny.
He goes across the trailer park to see Becky.
He gets a nice hug from her daughter, a nine-year-old cutie named Darla Jean.
Becky asks if he wants to go out and get a bag of burgers at Snack Shack.
“You can take my car,” she says.
“I want to go, too!” Darla Jean says.
“All right,” Becky says, “but you go and change your shirt first.
That one’s all smutty.”
“She doesn’t need to change,” Danny says.
“I’ll just drive through.”
They get the burgers, plus fries and limeades, and eat in the shade behind Becky’s trailer.
It’s nice there.
Becky has a jacaranda tree that she has to water all the time.
Because, she says, “This kind of flora don’t belong in Kansas.” She asks if there’s something on his mind, because she twice has to repeat things she’s told him.
“Either that or you’re going senile.”
“Just thinking about what I’ve got on for next week,” he says.
“You sure you’re not thinking about Margie?”
“Talked to her yesterday,” Danny says.
“She thinks her boyfriend’s gonna pop the question.”
“Are you still carrying a torch for her? Is that it?”
Danny laughs.
“Not likely.”
“Danny!” Darla Jean shouts.
“Watch me do a double somersault!”
So he does.
Table of Contents
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