Read Online In The Forest Of Harm by Sallie Bissell - Free Book Online

felt bad about the whole thing. He’d taken Lena out to an expensive Thai restaurant to make up for it. Later, when they’d made love, he took extra care to make her feel good, but he’d had to keep his eyes open. Every time they closed, all he could see was Mary.
    â€œI saved you a seat,” he said aloud now to the empty store, using their old line from high school. Back then he’d believed that he and Mary would go on forever, saving each other seats until the hearse arrived to take one or both of them to the grave.
    â€œToo bad you took a different bus,” he muttered as he walked back to the counter. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to hold the scent of her in his memory as long as he could. When he opened his eyes he scowled at the folded-up newspaper and tried to refocus on his puzzle. He needed a seven-letter word for “member of a nudist sect.” He had just begun to write in “adahist” when the cowbell rang again.
    â€œHey, Jonathan!” Billy Swimmer, the skinny man who’d been shilling for photographs at the Demon’s Den, stood in the doorway, his Sioux headdress tucked under his arm. “How goes it at Little Jerk Off?”
    â€œFine, Billy,” Jonathan replied, scarcely looking up from his puzzle. He figured Billy must have spotted Mary and her friends as they drove past the Den. Like most inhabitants of small towns, Billy Swimmer could smell gossip in the air much like a mule could sense a coming storm. Now he was up here to sniff out whatever juicy tidbits Mary might have left behind. Jonathan concentrated on his crossword as Billy strolled over and hopped up on the counter.
    â€œYou haven’t heard of anybody needin’ help doing anything, have you? Nobody wants to have their picture taken and I still need a couple of hundred bucks to get my fiddle out of hock.”
    Jonathan looked up reluctantly from the paper. “Zell Crisp was in here saying you owe him a couple of hundred bucks, too.”
    â€œWell, yeah,” admitted Billy with a helpless, snaggletoothed smile.
    Jonathan shook his head. “Sorry. If I hear of anything I’ll let you know.”
    â€œSay, wasn’t that Mary Crow I saw drivin’ up here in that red BMW?” Billy now revealed his true subject of interest, plucking a speck of dirt off one of the white pin-feathers at the base of the headdress.
    â€œYep.”
    â€œIs she coming back?” he asked just above a whisper, forgetting his feathers and staring at Jonathan with intense dark eyes.
    Jonathan shook his head and peered at 14-Down. A six-letter word for “offspring of two gametes.” “Nope. She’s just going camping with some friends. They’re going to Atagahi.”
    â€œOh.” Billy stopped short, disappointed. His brows pulled together in a frown. “Are you sure?”
    â€œThat’s what she said. They loaded up on cigarettes and candy bars and took a whiz in the john. That sounds like women going camping to me.”
    â€œWell, hell, Jonathan. I don’t see why she’d come up here just for that.”
    â€œThis is her home, Billy. Why shouldn’t she come here?”
    â€œTo go camping? They got plenty of campsites down in Georgia.”
    Jonathan looked up from his puzzle. “Leave it alone, Billy,” he warned, his voice soft.
    â€œI’m sorry. It’s just a shame, everything that happened with you and her . . .” Billy’s words trailed off awkwardly.
    â€œYeah.” Jonathan began to print
z-y-g-o-t-e
upwards from
adahist
. “It is.” He repressed a sigh. Everything Billy said was true, but what could he do about it? Mary was a hotshot DA in Atlanta. He ran the Little Jump Off General Store.
    The cowbell jingled again. Jonathan glanced up, hoping that Mary had forgotten something, but a man he’d never seen before filled the doorway. The stranger wore hunting boots and carried both