The Drought Read Online Free PDF

banter was calming for Nathan; whatever had happened in the marsh didn’t seem real. Still, when he heard the engine of Stan’s wrecker coming down River Road he felt himself relax even more. He gestured down the slope. “Come here, I want to show you something.”
    Daniel followed him to the car, noticing for the first time the squad car was lying across another car at the bottom of the embankment. “Holy shit, you hit this son-of-a-bitch?” Daniel rapped on the trunk of the Mercury. His hand made a solid thud. “These old cars are solid metal. You’re lucky you didn’t do more damage.”
    “Thanks, I’ll keep all that in mind next time I careen into something at the bottom of a ditch.”
    Daniel toed the black duffel bag, sitting on the slope. “What’s this?”
    Nathan looked over. “Shit I forgot all about that. I was on my way back down to get it when I thought I caught sight of Nute hanging back in the fog.”
    Squinting his eyes, Daniel appeared to search the fog covered marsh. “Nute?”
    “Yeah,” Nathan waved it off. “I’ve been chasing shadows all morning.”
    Daniel looked down at the bag. “You haven’t opened it yet? Could be a bomb.”
    The words were spoken with a straight face but Nathan didn’t acknowledge them. “I imagine the worst that’s in there is a bunch of snakes.”
    Familiar with Nathan’s fear, Daniel grinned. “Snakes?”
    “Yeah, one slid across the back seat when I took it out.”
    Still grinning, Daniel said, “Hell, sweetheart, you’re having a dandy morning. You gonna open it?”
    Nathan looked down, thought about the snake and said, “No, you go ahead.”
    Daniel, his hand on the zipper, said, “One last chance, finders’ keepers.”
    “Just open it.”
    Daniel pulled open the zipper, jerked back as if burned and fell on his ass.
    Nathan jumped back expecting a swarm of snakes to come flowing out of the bag.
    Daniel laughed.
    “Asshole.”
    Wiping his eyes, he said, “I’m not laughing at you, Jesus H. Christ, look in the bag.”
    Nathan tentatively approached the bag and looked inside. “Holy mother of God.” He squatted down, reached inside and pulled out a damp package of one hundred-dollar bills. The bag was full of them.
    Daniel reached past Nathan and grabbed two packets from the bag. “Let me just touch ’em.” He rubbed them across his face, groaning in ecstasy.
    Shaking his head, Nathan asked, “How much do you think is in there?
    Daniel grinned. “Enough to make two men very happy.”
    There was a hot gleam in Daniel’s eyes and Nathan understood immediately what he was implying. They could split the money straight down the middle and no one would know anything. Except the owner of the car. But he’s dead isn’t he, Nathan? You don’t need a body to know that. No one fires six rounds into thin air and leaves a duffel bag full of cash in an abandoned car. Take the money. You found it, it’s yours. Finders’ keepers, remember?
    Daniel didn’t say a word. He held the two packets of $100s, one in each hand, a feverish gleam still in his eyes. This was their moment. Nathan could decide both of their futures with a simple yes. He was still staring at the money trying to decide which way his life was going to go when he heard a deep voice say, “Holy shit, look at all that money!”
    Stan, the driver of the wrecker, was standing slightly above them on the slope, his brown hair sticking up in tuffs, his shirt hanging out of a pair of dirty jeans and his mouth was hanging wide open in disbelief. The moment had passed. Nathan dropped his packet back into the bag.
    The last tendrils of fog danced and swirled around them, an alluring illusion—a flirtatious woman flicking her skirt, flashing a bit of thigh—but in the end simply a tease offering no promises. The rain was not coming. Above them, the sun burned through the remaining mist, climbed higher into the sky, and reclaimed its place of honor over the town of Reserve.
     

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