The Long Dark by Billy Farmer (best book club books for discussion .txt) 📗

happy. You know that, don’t you, William, honey?” In reality, I knew my mom was wrangling longhorns with Earl long before dad died of lung cancer. She told me that crap because she felt guilty for marrying trucker Earl a long two weeks after dad passed away.

“Yeah, Mom, and that Earl… he sure is a good guy. I hope you’re happy with him.” Actually, I hoped they enjoyed the trailer park they live in back in Indiana. Ol’ Earl got his second OWI and lost his CDL because of it. Soon after, he got the diabetes and lost a foot. Good thing I can keep a level head about stuff like that. Actually, fuck them and double fuck Marlboros. I didn’t leave Indiana because I loved my life there.

Irrational tangent aside, or maybe not, we can’t read people’s minds. For all I knew, Tom might’ve thought, as he chumped on lunch lady, Fat fuck, where the hell are you going? Remember the time I went to the pharmacy to pick up your prescription for the crabs you got off that skanky hooker because you were too embarrassed to do it yourself? The least you could do is go shoot up some of the gray monsters eating the paralyzed chick in the kitchen. Hell, shoot me so I don’t eat her. Go out fighting, you pussy.

The idiocy of my thoughts struck me funny – to the point of actually laughing out loud. All eyes were on me. Jesus, I was going crazy.

Avery thought my outward showing of madness meant it was time for conversation. He said something, but I was preoccupied trying to think up something that might justify my untimely bout of mirth.

“Huh?” I said.

He looked annoyed having to repeat himself. “Should we at least talk about what happened?”

Not knowing what to say, I shrugged my shoulders.

“No one cares what those things are?” He persisted.

He wasn’t going to give it a break. Besides, Sam and I needed to clear the air. “Alright, let’s talk about it.”

Sam was reading off the same queue card as me. “Well, son, it’s pretty damn simple for me. We just up and left Tom, without carin a fuck about it.”

“That wasn’t Tom, Sam. And you know it.”

“We didn’t even try, ‘ough. We just left him ‘ere ta fend for hisself.”

Titouan gave me a look. I shook my head. I then turned to Sam, and in a sullen tone, I said, “I just know that—"

Sam raised both arms and pointed at Titouan and me. “What, you and ‘at little sonofabitch over ‘ere in cahoots with one ‘nother now?”

“Come on. Stop it, man,” I said.

“It’s bullshit, what it is – pure damn bullshit.”

“Sam,” Titouan said.

Oh shit, I thought. Please don’t talk, Titouan. Not now.

He continued in an as controlled and respectful tone as I had ever heard from him. “What Tom did back there… wasn’t normal. Something happened to him. You have to know that. You have, too,” he said, his voice trailing off.

“What Titouan is trying to get at is they ate the woman in the kitchen,” Avery said, with a slight tremble to his voice.

“God,” Tish said, and I seconded.

“I might be an ignorant ass from Eastern Kentucky, but I done know what happened back ‘ere.  But ‘at don’t mean I can’t feel like shit for not least tryin.” He tugged a few times at his mustache, refusing to make eye contact with anyone during his moment of contemplation. After several absent tugs, he continued, “I heard the same damn things you’ins did. I lost a friend—we all did back ere-- but if what we all seen and heard was real, and I’m pretty damn sure it was, we all lost a hella lot more ’an ‘at. Things are bad. Real bad.”

***

My legs were freezing. Needing to get some blood circulating, I walked over to the small window that faced the direction of Barrow High School. With the combination of the full moon and the snow mercifully tapering off to just a few flakes here and there, I could see a decent distance up and down the barren street that ran parallel to the maintenance building. “We’ll be able to see where we’re going now.”

“That means those things will be able to see us, too,” Titouan said.

“What do we do, then?” I asked. “We can’t stay in here forever.”

“Wait for the authorities to show up and hope whatever those things were back there don’t find us.”

“Ain’t heard a single siren or nothin ta lead me ta think ‘ere is any authorities. We own our own, fellers,” Sam said.

“Somebody is doing a lot of shooting. Who you think is doing that?”

“Lotta guns in Barrow, Tit.”

Titouan bristled at being called Tit, but remained even tempered, for him anyway. “I think it’s a little too early to say things have gone completely to shit.”

Sam chuckled. “Yeah, ‘em monsters back ‘ere are pretty normal.”

Getting back on point, before Sam and Titouan could further escalate their tensions, I said, “The point is, we can’t defend ourselves. If those Grays come looking to do the same thing they did back there at that house, we’ll be near powerless to stop them. That’s just the truth.”

“Grays, huh?” Sam asked.

I nodded. I wasn’t feeling very imaginative with my naming conventions. They were gray. Why not.

“We’re safe in here for the moment,” Tish said, stone-faced and cold.

I sighed heavily. “If someone wants in that door bad enough, it won’t be much of an issue for him. We have the rifle, but it’ll be of little use if all of them try to get in here.”

Making eye contact this time, and with more vigor, Tish said, “But they’re not here now. We know they’re out there. Why chance it?”

“I say we sleep on it, son. We safe for the time bein.”

“Sleep? How in the fuck are we going to sleep in here?” Titouan said.

“Close our damn eyes. How else,” Sam said, with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Anyone besides Titouan disagree?” I asked. No one