Hide and Seek

acceptance of me that hadn't been present at first, a knowledge that I

was there for the duration. He was verging on the genuine. The gaudy

Hawaiian shirt seemed slightly out of place now.

"I thought you said nobody lived there."

"Nobody does."

He shrugged. "I saw a light."

I turned around. The house was too far behind us now. All I saw was

darkness.

"Where?"

"Upstairs. The second floor, I guess."

"That's impossible."

He shrugged again.

"I saw a light," he said.

I was drinking beers with Rafferty in the Caribou after work the

following day. So I asked him. Rafferty collects a lot of scuttlebutt

at the station.

"Is anybody in the Crouch place now?"

"You kidding?"

"No."

"Not that I heard of."

"That's what I thought."

"Why? You want to rent or something?"

His grin was slightly feral. Rafferty remembered the Crouch place as

well as I did.

"We drove by last night. Steven said he thought he saw a light."

"Where?"

"In a second-floor window."

"He didn't see shit."

It came out pretty hostile. There was some resentment, I thought, of

my relationship with these people. Maybe he was a little jealous. He'd

seen Casey. And maybe he was already thinking what I was not- not yet-

that they represented a way out of Dead River. They'd met Rafferty but

had shown no interest. I hadn't pushed the matter. There was me and

Casey and Steven and Kim. Two boys, two girls. Rafferty was not

included.

"If anybody was out there, I'd know. They'd have to come by for gas

now and then. Your friend was mistaken."