Outside, it still drizzled.Athena shifted about, uncomfortable in damp clothes. A blue glimmer came through ruffled chintz, a drowned sort of daylight that made the flowers on the curtains seem to crawl. Knowing she approached nervous collapse, she blinked at the acid-gray horror of the morning. Without comprehension, she watched Pam cheat at solitaire, then glanced at the broken window again. Her eyes felt tight.Pam put the two of spades on the ace. She’d been playing at that table since before there’d been light enough to see the blunted deck. Her hair had dried plastered to her face, and her movements seemed both jerky and slow, like an old film run in a faulty projector. Every so often she’d mumble something about the rain being a good thing for the woods and all.“It’s light enough to leave.”“There sure ain’t no gun here.” Pam kept playing.“When we get home, I can take care of your cut cheek better.”“I told Lonny, I said to him, ‘What happened to that gun?’ an’ he asks me what do I want with a gun anyhow, but I told him, ‘I’m scared out here by myself an’ you not home alla time.’ So then he gets mad an’ says…”
