Frost

Chapter Six

"𝙸'𝙻𝙻 𝙱𝙴 𝙰 𝚂𝙴𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙳. 𝚆𝙰𝙸𝚃 𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴," said Terrence evenly, his face tomato-red and slicked with sweat. He popped open the driver's-side door, stepped out into the cold, cursed loudly, and then shut it behind him. Scarlet watched him trudge off toward the turnpike looking for—well, she didn't know exactly. She figured a station guard was waiting in one of the toll booths, the ones with the 𝙺𝙴𝙴𝙿 𝙼𝙾𝚅𝙸𝙽𝙶! signs stencilled to their frames. The posts kept shaking aggressively the closer Terrence made it to the booths. Good thing they didn't fling off and slap him in the head, Scarlet thought. You wouldn't want a head injury in the middle of a pandemic. That wouldn't be good at all.

  The road ran through a thicket, a couple levels lower than the road itself, sloping off into thin tree lines on either side. Scarlet imagined a bear would come wandering out any moment, then remembered what her father had told her on a trip up to Alberta: "Bears don't come out in the winter. They're shy and need their beauty sleep." She wasn't sure how much of that was true, but it did make her feel at ease. In that moment she pondered the idea that her father had told her this because maybe one day she might have wanted to pick up the rifle and hunt deer. The ones with the white spots. God knew that was his dream. But the truth was, Scarlet couldn't do it even if she wanted to; the guns had always made her uncomfortable, not because of what they could do but because of the sound they made. There had been a time where Tommy had to give up testing his guns in the back of their house on Robert Avenue. Why? Because all Scarlet could hear for the next hour and a half was a shrill ringing noise. Thinking back on it, Scarlet found the memory amusing. Or maybe it was the person with whom she shared the memory that she found amusing. Who knew?

  "He lost his best friend," Rachel said, glassy-eyed. She took a puff from her cigarette before continuing, "An avalanche. They never found Jeremy's body, searched three days before throwin' in the towel." She let out a silent laugh and glanced at the rear-view mirror, smiling. "Terrence used to be so calm, so . . . gentle before that. I went to his friend's funeral—well, it was to commemorate all the marines who lost their lives, but I know Terrence only brought me for Jeremy's sake. Those two were inseparable. And can you believe it, he started crying the next few days. Wouldn't even leave the house for some damn milk. Grief is a powerful thing, Scarlet. And I know you think he's a dick, but he's just angry he couldn't have done something. Something to save his fellow squadmates. Terrence actually used to go hunting with your father, God rest his soul, up in the far north. The far, far north. He wanted to skin a bear and bring home venison, had an obsession with it. Then Tommy . . . God, I'm so sorry." She let out a forceful cough.

  Scarlet meekly nodded at her. Of course, she already knew that Terrence was a Navy-man, loved to use guns and go shooting whenever he had the chance. It was almost all the man knew from what she could tell. Thinking about this, she shifted in her seat and unstrapped the safety belt. Sitting in the same place for so long made her intensely uncomfortable. She just needed some room to stretch her legs, even her arms. And in a vehicle as large as that, it would prove quite simple. "I'm sorry about his friend . . . I know how hard it is to lose someone," Scarlet said.

  Vanessa had been sitting next to her, eyes to the ceiling and half-asleep. Or, perhaps, she was half-awake, thought Scarlet. And maybe she could hear everything they were saying, not that it would matter. Scarlet turned around to check on Abigail and saw that she was fast asleep on her left side, right at the back of the SUV, her book grasped in hand. Darla was right next to her, curled in a ball and probably dreaming of all the different types of food back home. Ones that she wouldn't see the light for a long, long time.

  All Vanessa packed was a pack of munchies; everything else had been consumed not long before they left the house. Scarlet had remembered this when a discomfiting sound grumbled in her stomach.