The Darkest Evening of the Year

night, he drives thirty-six miles on winding roads through rural territory before she says, “There. Let’s do it.”
    An old one-story clapboard house, the only residence in sight, sits behind a well-tended lawn. No lamps brighten any window.
    The headlights reveal two birdbaths in the yard, three garden gnomes, and a miniature windmill. On the front porch are a pair of bentwood rocking chairs.
    Harrow proceeds almost a quarter of a mile past the place until, prior to a bridge, he comes to a narrow dirt lane that slants off the blacktop. He follows this dusty track down to the base of the bridge and parks near the river, where sluggish black water purls in the moonlight.
    Perhaps this short path serves fishermen who cast for bass from the bank. If so, none is currently present. This is an hour made more for arsonists than for anglers.
    From the two-lane county road above, the Mercedes cannot be seen here at the river. Although few motorists, if any, are likely to be abroad at this hour, precautions must be taken.
    Harrow retrieves the two-gallon utility can from the luggage space behind the seats.
    He does not ask her if she has remembered to bring matches. She always carries them.
    Cicadas serenade one another, and toads croak with satisfaction each time they devour a cicada.
    Harrow considers going overland to the house, across meadows and through a copse of oaks. But they will gain no advantage by taking the arduous route.
    The target house is only a quarter-mile away. Along the county road are tall grasses, gnarls of brush, and a few trees, always one kind of cover or another to which they can retreat the moment they glimpse distant headlights or hear the faraway growl of an engine.
    They ascend from the riverbank to the paved road.
    The gasoline chuckles in the can, and his nylon jacket produces soft whistling noises when one part of it rubs against another.
    Moongirl makes no sound whatsoever. She walks without a single footfall that he can hear.
    Then she says, “Do you wonder why?”
    “Why what?”
    “The burning.”
    “No.”
    “You never wonder,” she presses.
    “No. It’s what you want.”
    “That’s good enough for you.”
    “Yes.”
    The early-autumn stars are as icy as those of winter, and it seems to him that now, as in all seasons, the sky is not deep but dead, flat, and frozen.
    She says, “You know what’s the worst thing?”
    “Tell me.”
    “Boredom.”
    “Yes.”
    “It turns you outward.”
    “Yes.”
    “But toward what?”
    “Tell me,” he says.
    “Nothing’s out there.”
    “Nothing you want.”
    “Just nothing,” she corrects.
    Her madness fascinates Harrow, and he is never bored in her company. Originally, he had thought they would be done with each other in a month or two; but they have been seven months together.
    “It’s terrifying,” she says.
    “What?”
    “Boredom.”
    “Yes,” he says sincerely.
    “Terrifying.”
    “Gotta stay busy.”
    He shifts the heavy gasoline can from his right hand to his left.
    “Pisses me off,” she says.
    “What does?”
    “Being terrified.”
    “Stay busy,” he repeats.
    “All I’ve got is me.”
    “And me,” he reminds her.
    She does not confirm that he is essential to her defenses against boredom.
    They have covered half the distance to the clapboard house.
    A winking light moves across the frozen stars, but it is nothing more than an airliner, too high to be heard, bound for an exotic port that at least some perceptive passengers will discover is identical to the place from which they departed.

 
    Chapter
8
    H aving moved the Expedition from Lottie’s driveway to her own carport next door, Amy opened the tailgate, and Nickie leaped out into the night.
    Amy remembered coming out of the Brockman house and finding the tailgate open, Jimmy trying to run away and the diligent dog herding him toward home.
    He must have freed Nickie with the expectation that they would escape together. Having endured four months with Carl Brockman as its master, any other dog might have led the boy in flight.
    As Nickie landed on the driveway, Amy snatched up the red leash, but the dog had no intention of running off. She led Amy around the vehicle, into the backyard. Without any of the usual canine ritual, Nickie squatted to pee.
    Because Amy had two golden retrievers of her own—Fred and Ethel—and because often she kept rescue dogs for at least a night or two before transporting them to foster homes, she assumed that