Chapter 5: Splinter

At midnight I gave up on the loft bed and went downstairs.

I told myself I wanted water.

The shop lights were on, and I could hear a plane going over cedar.

Gabe stood at the long bench with his back to me and his sleeves pushed past his elbows.

Under the lamp the board in front of him was the color of honey.

He drew the plane down the length of it, and a curl of wood fell off the edge and landed on the floor.

I watched him do it three times.

His forearms moved, and the muscle in his shoulder moved under the canvas shirt.

I stopped watching on the fourth.

"You're up," he said, without turning around.

"How did you know?"

"The stairs creak on the fourth step."

"You didn't build them better?"

"They're older than the shop." He set the plane down. "Can't sleep?"

"Mindy waited by my car today."

His hands went still on the bench.

"What did she want?"

"She told me not to stay here." I leaned on the doorframe. "She said not to trust you either."

He took a long time to turn around.

His face was the same as always, steady and tired, and I could not read anything on it.

"She says a lot of things," he said.

"Is she wrong?"

"I don't want to lie to you tonight," he said. "So I'm going to say I'd rather not answer."

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