Chapter 10
After his little chat with Brian, Brendan clomped noisily up the
basement stairs. He could hear Sonny
snoring on the couch, still sound asleep.
Brendan smirked at his friend and, plucking a feather from the pillow
that was tucked beneath Sonny’s greasy head, ran it lightly over Sonny’s nose. In his sleep, Sonny’s nose wrinkled and
twitched, and his hand came clumsily up to scratch it, knocking over the
half-full beer can resting on his stomach.
As the beer soaked through his shirt, Sonny woke up.
“What the hell’s goin’ on here?” he slurred, looking around with
half-closed eyes. He spotted Brendan,
snickering from a few feet away, and jerked himself up into a sitting
position. “What the hell was that for,
Graves?” he demanded, glaring at Brendan, who just laughed.
“Well, I gotta get going, dude.
The wife’ll be home soon, and she’ll get suspicious if I’m not there
before she is,” Brendan said. “See ya.”
Sonny didn’t respond, just scowled, as Brendan left.
***
Brendan was already back in Atlanta on his way home when he
realized he had left his jacket in Sonny’s basement. “Damnit,” he cursed aloud. “I’m gonna have to go back for it.” Leighanne would surely notice if her
husband’s jacket was not hanging on the hook where it usually was and would ask
what had happened to it. After all, she
had seen him put it on before he left.
Not wanting any suspicion as to where he had been from his wife,
Brendan jerked his car around in a U-turn and headed back towards Sonny’s
house, hoping he still had enough time to get the jacket and be home before
Leighanne was.
***
Leighanne sat at a red light, examining her freshly manicured
nails. She suddenly heard the
screeching of car tires and looked up to see a silver BMW pull a U-turn on the
road in front of her and head back in the other direction.
That’s Brian, she realized, watching the car speed
away from her. She squinted, watching
as his car got smaller and smaller in the distance. Where was he going?
As the light changed to green, Leighanne decided to follow him and
practically gunned her engine, hurrying to catch up to him. Why
is he going this way? she wondered, perplexed. This road leads out of town.
Her confusion increased as she followed him all the way out of
Atlanta and into the rural area just outside of the city. Never taking her eyes off his car, she drove
on, just far enough away from him to still be able to see his car but not be
recognized when he looked into his rearview mirror.
Her mouth opened in surprise as he suddenly made a left turn,
pulling into the driveway of a small house sitting all alone in a field. She had no idea who lived there or why Brian
was going there. And it puzzled her.
***
Brendan climbed out of his car, slammed the door, and hurried into
Sonny’s house.
“Forgot my jacket,” he said quickly to Sonny, who looked at him in
surprise, as he burst in. He ran down
to the basement, taking the steps two at a time, and grabbed his jacket from
the coffee table, not even bothering to make a mean comment to Brian, who also
stared up at him in surprise.
“Uh… Brendan?” Sonny called, as Brendan hurried back
upstairs.
“What?” Brendan asked, coming into the living room.
Sonny pointed out the window.
“Ain’t that Littrell’s… I mean… yer wife?”
Brendan looked through the open window blinds to see a familiar
car pulling over to the side of the road, just outside Sonny’s house. In the driver’s seat, he could see
Leighanne, staring right at the house.
“Oh my God,” Brendan moaned.
“She must of followed me! Shit,
Sonny, what am I gonna do?! Help me!”
“How?”
“Uh…” Brendan thought fast.
“I know! You got gas, don’t you?”
“Gas?” Sonny asked. “Not no
more, I don’t. I got me some Beano
for-“
“Not that kind of gas!
I mean gasoline, you idiot!” Brendan yelled. “Do you have gasoline?”
“Gasoline? Oh, sure. I got some out back in the shed,” Sonny
replied.
“Go get some, quick. I’ll
just tell Leighanne I was out of gas and stopped here for help,” Brendan said,
pleased at his lie.
As Sonny scrambled out the back door, Brendan went out the front.
“Leigh! Boy, am I glad to
see you!”
“Brian?” Leighanne asked, looking around in confusion. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I was just about out of gas and stopped here to see if this
man had any. Thank the Lord he
does. He’s goin’ to get me some now,”
Brendan lied.
“What are you doing all the way out here though?” she asked.
“Uh… well, I can’t tell you, honey. It… it has to do with a surprise I have
planned for you. Yeah, that’s it. A surprise.”
He flashed her an innocent smile.
“A surprise? What kind of
surprise?” Leighanne asked, not looking as if she totally bought it.
“Well, I can’t tell you that, silly,” Brendan replied. “Then it wouldn’t be a surprise!”
She smiled, rolling her eyes.
“Well, fine then. It better be
good though, mister.”
Brendan smiled back, relaxing.
She fell for it.
***
