New Husband. Old One Gone novel · Chapter 7 of 32

Chapter 7: The Bench

"Show me," I said.

Corey looked up from the shed doorway.

"Show you what?"

"Where it happened."

It was an hour north in Sawyer's truck, with Corey in the back seat and the cane across his knees.

Past Jacksonville the highway ran along the edge of the base, pine woods and chain-link and signs that said the government would shoot you.

At a quarter to eleven Corey said, "Here. Pull off here."

Sawyer pulled onto the shoulder.

There was a gravel turnout and a locked gate, and beyond it a sand road ran off white into the trees.

"It's about a half mile in," Corey said. "Past the gate. There's a curve where the road drops to the ditch. You can see the top of it from the fence."

We got out.

The night smelled like pine sap and the swamp.

Corey walked to the fence and hooked his fingers in the chain-link.

I stood next to him.

Through the trees, a long way off, the white road bent left and disappeared.

"That's it," he said.

"He was singing," Corey said. "Before. Jesse. In the cab. Some country song, the wrong words."

My throat closed.

"He always got the words wrong," I said.

"Yes, ma'am. He said his sister taught him wrong on purpose."

I laughed. It came out like a sob.

Corey kept his eyes on the bend.

"After, I couldn't get my strap undone. The buckle was under me. I kept yelling his name. I could hear the engine still running and the radio, and some lady on the radio asking what our position was."

He took a breath.

"I could hear her too. The lieutenant. Out on the sand. She kept saying, 'Oh God, oh God, oh God.' She never once said his name."

His fingers were white on the fence.

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