Page 115 of Torch Songs

“Yup,” Tad said grimly. “Except you’re never sure if, say, the novelyou’rereading and the novelI’mreading are the same. For example, whydidBilly Joe McCallister jump off the Tallahatchie Bridge? Was his girlfriend pregnant? Did he have a crush on another boy—”

“Or girl,” Aaron added dryly.

“Sure, in your world,” Tad allowed graciously. “Or maybe people were just swimming and it was a thing, like in Massachusetts where everybody jumps off bridges. Maybe he wasn’tdead, maybe he just impressed his friends because hedidit, right? But you’ll never know, because you’ve got all that great imagery butno discussion as to what it means.”

“Ah,” Aaron said, but he said it soberly.

“Ah what?” Tad asked, wary.

“The filling in the gaps. You know, it happens even when you’re in the same house. Life gets busy, something big goes down, and by the time shit settles and it processes, you’re both in a slightly different place. You need some time to fill in the gaps. It’ll happen.”

“You sound very sure of yourself,” Tad said sourly, although Chris had said almost the same thing.

Aaron laughed softly. “You’re young,” he said. “Have faith.”

“If one more person tells me to—”

Aaron laughed some more, this time not so softly.

“Where are we going?” Tad asked, softening a little. For one thing, his relationship bullshit was not what this ride-along thing was about.

“This bar/sandwich place that just opened,” Aaron told him. “Gonna give them a welcome to Colton and introduce ourselves and give them my personal card in case weird shit happens. From what I understand, it’s supposed to be very grassroots hipster, with home-brewed IPAs. They’ve got the brewery set up in a building behind the bar itself. You’ll see. Anyway, there’s alcohol and there’s food, and there needs to be a friendly relationship with the po-po so it keeps being the sort of place that attracts the people who stay at the local B and Bs instead of the Motel 6 in Truckee.”

“You’ve got local B and Bs?” Tad asked, remembering the night he and Guthrie had spent in the hotel. April had been asked to sleep on the couch in Larx’s house, which meant Tad could let go of one of the rooms, but he and Guthrie had spent a sexed-out, euphoric night on one of the worst mattresses Tad had ever experienced.

“Yeah, but they’re more for the rich people who come up from the valley,” Aaron apologized. “Trust me, Larx and I can’t afford them either.”

Tad nodded, and one more piece of his new job fell into place. Like a lot of places with tourist appeal, Colton could soon become a place with “summer and winter people” and “townies.” That sort of place bred its own discontent, and now he knew what sort of tensions to look out for.

“Understood,” he said. “Bodega Bay had that sort of population.”

“Tourist and local?”

“Yeah.” Tad nodded, thinking bemusedly how sometimes the world spun you right where you belonged.

Caprica—the new bar—turned out to be a nice place. Like Aaron said, hipster, with polished stone floors and a menu that went with a few items, most of them with tags like “organic” and “grass fed” and “free range,” but a few appetizers that ran along the fried cheese, mushroom, or zucchini varietals. The people behind the bar were tatted and pierced; the girls had short hair, and the guys had manbuns, and generally, Tad enjoyed the vibe immensely. There was a live-music setup in the corner, although since it was afternoon—and a nice afternoon with great barn-style doors open to the sunshine both in the front and the back, the latter of which led to the brewery—they had music playing over a sound system barely loud enough to hear.

“Huh,” Tad said as they walked up to the bar.

“What?” Aaron glanced at him, after getting the attention of the man who appeared to be in charge. A tall, thin young man with a ring in his nose and one in his septum, he had what appeared to be stands of pine trees riding up his forearms, front and back, including his wrists, waved at them and finished his transaction with a young woman who looked like she was taking a break from a retail job and had eaten lunch at the bar.

“Fiddler and the Crabs,” Tad said, smiling.

“You like them?” the young man said, striding forward. “They’re sort of a hidden gem, you know? Like Blind Blake to the blues, or Tesla to hair bands.”

“I’m biased,” Tad said apologetically, and then, taking his cue from who he was with, he told the truth. “I’m dating their drummer.”

“Ohwow!” the bartender said. “Guthrie Woodson? You know him? That’s awesome! Do you think you could get him to come up and play?”

“Well, he’s cutting another album with Seth Arnold in the next couple weeks,” Tad said, not able to keep the pride from his voice, “but after that he’s moving up here. I’ll have him stop by. I know he loves to perform live.”

“Oh my God! Chiana!” He turned to a shorter young woman with buzz-cut bleached hair, an impressively muscled physique, and cascades of flowers on her bare shoulders, biceps, and forearms. “Did you hear that?Guthrie Woodsonis moving here—”

“And he’s cutting a new album with Seth Arnold!” the woman squeed. “Oh my God! Could you introduce us! Could you? Because that would beamazing. Oh wow. Corbin and I are, like,thebiggest fans, right, Cor? You just made ourmonth!”

Tad and Aaron laughed, and Aaron was the one who took over the conversation. “As soon as the boy’s up here and settled, you’ll be the first folks on our agenda,” he said, tipping his hat. “But in the meantime, let me introduce us. I’m your local sheriff—there’s a special election in a couple of weeks. I’m running unopposed, but I do appreciate a vote of confidence—but mostly I’d like you to know us by sight. This is Deputy Tad Hawkins, and since you’re a new business, and one that has alcohol, we wanted you to feelfreeto call us if things get out of hand. We don’t arrest people who don’t deserve it, but we want folks to feel safe in your establishment.” He winked. “You set up a real nice tone here,and my husband and I are looking forward to someplace to go besides the burger place and the pizza place. We want you to feel like we’re your friends and not someone you have to be afraid of, right?”

“So nice to meet you, Sheriff,” Chiana said, wiping her hands off so she could shake theirs. Corbin followed suit, and the two of them offered a free appetizer their chef was trying out, on the house.

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