The Matriarch Read Online Free PDF Page B

it onto his belt. He sees that Lester looks worried too. He grabs a flashlight, the big one.
    Cassidy gets up. “Frank, there’s no need—”
    Frank flings the back door open. “Come out here with me, Cassidy. I need you to holler for your dog.”
    Cassidy walks out into the yard. “I told you, Louie won’t go far.”
    Frank is still, staring out into the blackness. His hand is on his holstered gun. “You don’t feel it?” he asks.
    “What?”
    He tries to think. Nothing comes. Nothing sensible, anyway. A feeling though. Frank has been trying to choke down this feeling ever since the quake. Something heavy. Dark. A presence.
    “I don’t know … what it is,” Frank says quietly.

    I hear Dott and Lester coming along behind us. The night’s warm but visibility is poor as clouds veil the moon.
    Frank stands well out into the yard with the flashlight in his hand. “Yell for Louie,” he orders me. And I do. But no Louie.
    “Come on over here, Louie boy,” I call out again. No Louie. I’m beginning to worry. Maybe my puppy is more adventurous than I thought. Frank trains his light on the nearby fence line, moving it back and forth.
    “You think he’d take off for the barn?” Frank asks. I don’t think so, but I start walking toward it anyway. I yell for Louie every few steps, my anxiety growing. I see something up ahead—points of light reflecting back at us. The lights divide into twos as we draw closer.
    “Sweet baby Jesus,” Frank says, and I realize what we’re looking at.
Eyes.
Several pairs of glowing, disembodied eyes shine out at us.
    “Go slow now,” Lester says. “They’re coyotes.”
    “No,” Frank states. “There are no coyotes in the Diablo Valley.”
    “Coyotes,” Dott murmurs. “Lester’s right.”
    “What did I just tell you people?” Frank whispers. “There are no coyotes in the Diablo Valley. Not for fifteen years at least. Animal Control had a campaign back then. Got rid of every last one. But … I don’t know what these critters are.”
    “They coulda come back, Boss,” Lester says.
    We all stop about twenty feet away from those eyes, and I can make out vague shapes. I see that one pair of eyes is different from the others. It belongs to Louie. Three coyotes or maybe small wolves are crouched on the ground. They surround the puppy who stands motionless in their midst.
    Frank sweeps the light slowly across the animals. It doesn’t seem to bother the coyotes, or Louie. Everyone, man and animal alike, seem to be studying the other. I don’t call to Louie now; I don’t want to upset this delicate balance.
    Georgie nickers from the barn, and the coyotes rise as one. It’s as if Georgie has given them a signal. I see Frank draw his gun.
    “No, Frank,” I say. “You might hit Louie. They’re going to leave anyway.”
    “How do you know?” Frank asks.
    “Just a feeling,” I say.
    “Females,” Lester whispers. “They’re all females.”
    I can just make out the set of flaccid teats that hang under each belly.
    “All mothers,” Dott says softly. “Maybe they’ve lost their cubs somehow.”
    Like silent dreaming robots, the coyotes turn toward Louie and pad past him. They pick up speed, trot to the fence, and leap it easily. They’re gone.
    “Louie,” I call in a low voice, and the puppy seems to wake from a standing sleep. Tail wagging, he trots over to me.

    Carla Russo lies on her side, turned away from Dante. A nice time, she’s thinking, at Frank’s. He’s a dear, that man. And it’s a real pleasure to see Cassidy again. He’s turned into such a fine handsome lad. He seems taken with Charlotte, but that might turn into quite a disappointment for him if Charlotte and Shelly are what she thinks they are. But sisters? Do sisters indulge in that sort of gross, homosexual behavior? Carla doesn’t want to concern herself with such disgusting speculation.
    She sucks at her teeth and thinks she might get up and brush them once again. Those figs are so