Page 30 of Going Home in the Dark

Currently, the space was empty. They roamed back and forth, voices echoing off the concrete walls and ceiling as they strove to talk away the veils that concealed details of their previous descent into this room when they were teenagers.

Okay, here’s the thing: Dialogue tags that identify speakers can be annoying in a long exchange of short statements between more than two characters, especially when it isn’t that important to know exactly who said what. Consequently, though it will present a knotty problem for the narrator of the audiobook, dialogue identifiers have been omitted from the following give-and-take. The reader is free to employ his or her imagination as to who said what to whom.

“Back in the day, we didn’t have a lock-release gun.”

“We didn’t need one. The door was unlocked.”

“You remember that for sure?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Me too. I think so.”

“But why?”

“You mean, why was it unlocked?”

“I mean, I wonder ...”

“Wonder what?”

“Why did we come here in the first place?”

“You mean, back then.”

“Uh-huh. Back then.”

“Yeah, you don’t just stumble into a church basement.”

“Not by mistake.”

“Not unless you’re drunk.”

“We weren’t drunk.”

“I know we weren’t drunk.”

“So then why?”

“We must have found a clue that brought us here.”

“What clue?”

“Damn if I know.”

“Hey.”

“What? What is it?”

“Something’s coming back to me. I think ...”

“What? Spit it out, amigo.”

“I think we were secretly following someone.”

“You mean, someone who came here?”

“None of us had a driver’s license then. Or a car.”

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