"I don't suppose you've got anything to cover the dog with?"
"As a matter of fact, there's a rug remnant in the back."
"Good. Great."
She started around to the rear - it would be a long trek, given the Hummer's size - then turned back. "Thank God it died before the little girl got back."
"Yes," I said. "Thank God."
ix
It wasn't far back to my cottage at the end of the lane, but getting there was a slow chug just the same. By the time I arrived, I had developed the ache in my hand that I thought of as Crutch Fist, and Gandalf's blood was stiffening on my shirt. There was a card tucked in between the screen and the jamb of the front door. I pulled it out. Below a smiling girl giving the Girl Scout salute was this message:
A FRIEND FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD CAME TO SEE YOU WITH NEWS OF DELICIOUS GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! ALTHOUGH SHE DIDN'T FIND YOU IN TODAY, Monica WILL CALL AGAIN! SEE YOU SOON!
Monica had dotted the i in her name with a smiley-face. I crumpled the card up and tossed it into the wastebasket as I limped to the shower. My shirt, jeans, and blood-spotted underwear I tossed into the trash. I never wanted to see them again.
x
My two- year-old Lexus was in the driveway, but I hadn't been behind the wheel of a vehicle since the day of my accident. A kid from the nearby juco ran errands for me three days a week. Kathi Green was also willing to swing by the closest supermarket if I asked her, or take me to Blockbuster before one of our little torture sessions (afterward I was always too wiped out). If you had told me I'd be driving again that fall, I would have laughed. It wasn't my bad leg; the very idea of driving put me in a cold sweat.
But not long after my shower, that's what I was doing: sliding behind the wheel, keying the ignition, and looking over my right shoulder as I backed down the driveway. I had taken four of the little pink Oxycontin pills instead of the usual two, and was gambling they'd get me to and from the Stop Shop near the intersection of East Hoyt and Eastshore Drive without freaking out or killing anyone.