Sociopaths In Love Read Online Free PDF

and Erica thought, "Here it comes. She'll ask him to put it
out."
    The waitress pulled up at the edge of the
table and reached for the plates. "Can I get these out of the way
for you?"
    "Please. Thanks," Walt said.
    The waitress took the plates and headed
away.
    Erica reached for the smokes and said,
"Well, shit . . ."
    It felt weird smoking in the restaurant.
Like she'd entered some other dimension. She had felt that way when
Walt had the gun trained on Granny. It had seemed like Granny was
dead and alive at the same time. Erica thought there was a theory
for that but she couldn't remember what it was. The theory.
     
     
    By the time they left it felt like the
darkness had gained solidity. They hadn't paid the check. Sitting
next to Walt in the car, feeling a near giddy sense of revelation,
Erica couldn't remember if the waitress had even left a check on
the table.
    A thought occurred to her.
She almost mentioned it to him. That he'd somehow arranged
everything and the waitress was just playing a role. Like he knew
her. Like maybe he went to Mama Gravy's all the time. Kept a tab
and always tipped well or something. But that wouldn't explain the
smoking. The restaurant was far from full but it wasn't that large
and there was a good handful of people in there. She normally got
coughed at and scornful looks if she smoked too close to a door. No
way they could have both gotten away with that unless what he said
was at least partially true. That is, she thought there had to
be something there.
    "It's a good feeling, isn't it?" Walt took
the car up the exit ramp and back onto the mostly empty
highway.
    She let herself smile. "It is." And she
again thought of some kind of spell. Something that might wear off.
Tried not to think about it. For some reason, thinking about that
made her think about that other thing. That love thing. The
possibilities swam through her head. Mainly this: She had no idea
what she wanted to do. For the last couple of years, she'd been so
resigned she had stopped wanting anything. Until earlier today, she
guessed, if asked what she wanted most in this world, it would have
been for her Granny to get better.
    Or die.
    That was a terrible thought.
    But true.
    It was behind her now. It didn't really
matter. Granny was dead. And she was free.
    She lit a cigarette, full of nervous
excitement. "So, if I can do whatever the hell I want and you can
do whatever the hell you want, why didn't you just heal Granny? You
know, like make it so she could talk and get up and take care of
herself while we were gone?"
    He lit a cigarette of his
own. "It doesn't work that way. You can really only do what you
want to do. Sometimes, that's contingent upon another person's
reaction. More often, it's contingent upon their lack of reaction. You
can't heal people. You can make people do things with you but you
can't really make them do things for you. Although that would be
something really special if we could have our own private armies.
In your Granny's case, it doesn't really matter. I wasn't lying
when I said she'd been dead a long time. I think you were just in
denial."
    Erica didn't want to think about Granny
anymore. The night smells flooded the car. She thought about these
boys they were going to go see. Walt had said they shared this
quality of doing what they wanted. She looked out the open window
and didn't see a single light anywhere. She wasn't sure exactly
why, but her elation was replaced by fear or something very close
to it.

 
    Meeting Friends
     
    The boys were only about a half hour away. A
few minutes after leaving the restaurant, it started misting. Walt
turned the windshield wipers on and made a comment about how shitty
they were. Erica apologized but didn't really feel that bad about
it.
    "Hope this shit stops soon," Walt said.
    "I like it."
    "Don't like driving in it."
    "Want me to drive?"
    "Nah. We're almost there."
    "These people . . . are they good
friends?"
    Walt rubbed his stubbly chin with the