Page 22 of Marked

“On the bright side?—”

“There is no bright side,” Noah grumped as I flicked the light switch on, thankful when it worked. At least my parents had kept it connected to the community's solar grid, though from the looks of it, that was the only thing they’d done.

“The dust bunnies may kill us before the Russians ever get the chance.”

“Not funny.” He wiped a hand down his face. “This is a fucking disaster.”

The next few seconds happened so fast I didn’t have time to react. When an angry female voice called out, “This is what happens when you run away from home. You should’ve stayed gone,” Noah took us both to the floor, his body covering the entirety of mine with his Glock aimed at the doorway.

“Jesus Christ, Jill. You should’ve made some noise.”

“Mr. Benson?” I tried to wiggle my way out from underneath Noah.

“Yeah, Pip,” he responded. “How’s about you tell that man of yours to stand down. There’s a bunch of us out here who want to give you some love.”

“Pip?” Noah chuckled.

“Shut up and get off me.”

He started to lift up then stopped as soon as his wide eyes met mine. “It’s too cold outside for them to be naked, right?”

“Guess we’re about to find out.”

“Fuck.”

Of the half a dozen or so residents who showed up to welcome me home, it was Dave and Jill Benson who I worried the most about facing. Beth’s parents had been as close to family as my own back then, yet grief drove us apart.

The memory of Jill’s anguished voice, when she found me at Beth’s grave site, still haunted me.

“You could’ve stopped her,” she seethed, tears mixing with raindrops as they streamed down her face; a face almost identical to the one we’d finally laid to rest the day before.

“I wish that were true. God, I wish that were true.”

“If you’d said something?—”

“She would’ve found another way,” I interrupted.

Beth had always been a free spirit, who did what she wanted and to hell with the consequences. Her antics weren’t usually dangerous, more mischievous in nature, so most people had given up on trying to tame her wild side, including myself. When she decided to meet up with someone she’d met online though, we fought. I accused her of being reckless and she laughed in my face. Then right before she stormed from the room, I uttered three words which changed my life forever.

“Hey. You okay?” Noah’s voice penetrated my stroll down memory lane, snapping me back to the present.

“I’m good.”

He frowned, but didn’t call me out on the obvious lie. Instead, he burrowed a little deeper into my heart as his hand caressed my lower back and he said much louder than I expected, “I can make them all go away.”

There were a variety of responses from the lookie-loos who’d gathered outside, ranging from huffs of outrage to snickers of amusement.

“Try it, young man,” Annie McDoogle barked, crossingher arms over her chest, “and you’ll be shoveling pig shit until the cows come home.”

“That’s the second time I’ve been threatened with that particular task since we’ve been here. I think I’ll pass,” Noah mused.

“Smart boy.” She grinned, her lopsided dentures on full display.

I’d once tried to explain the purpose of using an adhesive to keep her false teeth in place. The only thing it earned me was a swat on the behind and a lecture about respecting my elders. From that moment on, I decided if she wanted to let them fall out of her head, it was her prerogative to do so.

“Let’s do this,” I resigned.

Leaving the comfort of Noah’s touch behind, I was overwhelmed by a different sense of peace when I reached the bottom of the steps. Years of resentment had clouded my memories, but as I was passed around from person to person, I recalled with heartbreaking awareness why it had been so difficult to leave.

---