When he finished they sat in silence, both of them gazing straight ahead out the front windshield of the truck. She didn't get the feeling he needed—or wanted—a verbal response from her, and she couldn't think of anything to say anyway. She could still hear the echo of his words in her mind, the slow but measured way he had recited the monologue, the sadness and the shock of Ophelia's death made palpable even through his awkward Texas drawl.

Cam had turned the truck's headlights off when he pulled up, and she had forgotten to put the outside lights on, so her house was only the outline of a shadow against the glow of moonlight. It had been her home for almost a year now. It was the first and only place she had seen after refusing to let her rental agent show her anything else. It was move in ready, came with furniture, and cheap. She had no other needs or wants, simply a place to disappear inside of at the end of each school day, a door to close behind her, a bed to sleep in. It had taken about a week for her to start noticing the musty smell that permeated the place, the stale scent of cigarette smoke mixed with old carpeting and probably mold.

Outside the concert of crickets and now frogs performed in full, keening and chirping away. The noise helped to dispel the awkwardness of the lull between them, at least for her; no sense in interrupting the hue and cry of the busy night with their own empty chatter.

At last, however, the memory of Cam's face as he had recited the monologue pushed her to reach a hand out and lay it gently on his arm; he was stripped down to a cotton undershirt after their previous exertions, and the cloth felt soft and warm to the touch.

"Thank you," she said. He nodded and took her hand in his, then pulled her closer to him.

"Cam," she whispered, but he clamped her mouth with his hand and then buried his nose in her hair. She sighed and leaned her head against his chest and let him hold her for as long as he needed to.

***

At last he had released her, giving her hair a final pull and her lips one last kiss, and she had climbed out of his truck, stopping to look through the passenger side window at this strange, handsome boy.

"Goodnight," she said, her voice barely audible through the dryness of her throat. The night had quieted down with the approach of dawn, the frogs and the crickets tucking each other into bed and slipping into their daytime dreams.

"I'll see you soon Miss Park," he said, starting his truck back up.

"Yes," she said, nodding for emphasis, but he was already looking over his shoulder to back up from her driveway. She unlocked her front door and went inside.

Two sensations met her upon her entrance. The first was the smell and feeling of a home that had been cleaned, and she remembered how thorough Kyle had been in mopping up after her fall the morning before. But it was more than that, it was as though a breath of fresh, sunlit air had blown through her stuffy, closed-up house, blowing away the dust and the shadows and the dank, uncertain piles of neglect that had accumulated around her. He kept showing up at her door, this man, and when he did he always left her house better than he had found it. The thought, the feeling of it, gave her a pleasant, purring tightening in her chest; it had been too long since she had felt so ... taken care of.

The second sensation, however, soon overtook the first, and she felt the grip of panic as she realized she had yet to actually book a flight back home, never mind figure out how she was going to get to the airport in San Antonio, a good two hour drive away without traffic. Her long, lust-filled night of sweat and sex had made it very easy to forget.

She whipped out her cell phone and bought the first ticket back to Newark that popped up: an extravagantly priced red eye, though at least it only required one layover. As soon as she saw the receipt appear in her email inbox she struggled to her feet, shuffled into her bedroom, and flopped onto her bed. She briefly registered the trill of a songbird announcing the break of day before sleep overtook her.

***

The insistent ring of the doorbell accompanied by frantic pounding woke her up as abruptly as a cold bucket of ice water.

"Kyle?" she whispered. Then, "Cam?"

She scrambled from her bed, untangling herself from her bedclothes. She flung herself toward the front door and opened it, willing her eyes to unstick themselves from their bleary sleepiness.

"Miss Terri?" she said in amazement. Madysen's mom stood on her doorstep, a fist resting on one hip and her foot tapping an impatient beat.

"Miss Park!" she said in evident relief. "We have to go if you're going to catch your flight! It will be rush hour by the time we get there."

"My flight?" she repeated blankly.

"Don't tell me you didn't book your ticket yet?" Madysen's mother put a hand to her forehead in consternation. "Oh honey, I don't know if you can still get on that flight."

"Shit!" she cried out, the memory of the last 24 hours finally catching up with her. She looked at her watch and gasped. She had slept for a good 12 hours straight.

"My flight! I'm going to miss my flight!" She staggered back into her living room and sat down onto her sofa in shock and disbelief. "I'm such an idiot! I slept right through the whole day!"

Madysen's mother stepped inside and shut the door behind her.

"I knew something was up when you didn't answer the doorbell," she said, shaking her head. "Have you packed yet?"

"Wait what?" she replied, looking up at Madysen's mom in dawning confusion. "How did you know I have a flight tonight?"

"It's the only one that was available, so what else were you doing to do, drive?" Miss Terri replied, shrugging her shoulders. She glanced at her watch. "Please tell me you packed. We really need to get going hun."

"I—well no, I overslept, I mean, why are you here?" She hoped she didn't sound too rude, but a combination of sleepiness and utter bewilderment was making normal conversation a challenge.

"I'm here to drive you to the airport silly!" Terri shot back over her shoulder. She was already halfway to the bedroom. "We need to get you packed sweetpea, and I mean now."

The sound of drawers being yanked open finally pulled her to her feet. She followed Madysen's mom into her bedroom, where she found a suitcase already spread open on her bed and filling up quickly with clothes plucked from her bureau and yanked from her closet. For one surreal moment she almost began laughing hysterically as she thought of Melvin going through the same exact drawers only two—or was it three now?—days earlier.

"But Miss Terri—"

"Oh Terri hun, call me Terri," Madysen's mom interrupted, then breezed past her and into the bathroom.

"You're staying with your mama right?" Miss Terri called out from the bathroom, the tile walls amplifying her voice. "You aren't going to need shampoo and such?"

She froze at this. She seriously hadn't thought that far in advance. Of course she would have to stay with her sister. Her sister who didn't even know that she was about to arrive at Newark airport within the next 16 hours, assuming she didn't miss her flight.

"Shit," she whispered. The thought of having to stay with her sister made her feel cornered and frantic.

"What's that hun?" Miss Terri was back in the bedroom now, tossing a travel bag of toiletries into the suitcase. She put both hands on her hips, pursed her lips, and studied the opened suitcase as though trying to divine its secrets.

"Now what else?" Miss Terri mused aloud, tapping her foot. "Pajamas, shirts, shorts and jeans, socks and shoes, underwear and bras, a couple dresses and a cardigan, toothbrush and deoderant. Oh!"

She spun around and, after a lightning search, grabbed a hairbrush and added it to the pile.

"There we are, all packed!" she announced in satisfaction. She heaved the suitcase shut, zipped it closed, grabbed the handle, and began hauling it away.

"Don't forget your charger and your purse with your driver's license hun," Miss Terri called out from the living room, and then she heard the sound of Madysen's mom going out the front door with her packed suitcase, presumably to stow it away in the trunk of her car.

What the hell had just happened?

Miss Terri reappeared in the doorway to her bedroom.

"Well?" she said. "We'd best be on our way now hun."

"But—" she stuttered in reply, and then stopped. Then tried again. "But ..."

"But what Miss Park?" Madysen's mom asked slowly, a look of concern on her face now. "Is everything alright? Is there something we've forgotten? Do you need to pack up your laptop? If you do don't forget the charger. You don't want to get stuck having to buy a new one, it's ridiculous how much they charge you for one of those things. They know if you're buying it you're probably desperate and ready to pay about anything. Do you have any medications you need to take with you?"

"But how did you know? Why are you here to take me to the airport?" she blurted out at last.

Miss Terri shook her head and tutted.

"Oh that, did he not tell you I was coming?" she said. "That man, that is just like him. Kyle Walker called me up at the crack of dawn, asked me to drive you to the airport tonight. He told me what's what with your car, and figured you must be in a tight spot. Said he would offer to do it himself but they've been having some real problems with coyotes at the ranch, a pair of them tore into part of his herd last night. Really did some damage."

"Mr. Walker called you?" she repeated in a daze. "Mr. Walker asked you to take me to the airport?"

She realized she probably sounded like an imbecile, but then again, she kind of felt like one at the moment.

"Why yes hun, how else you going to get there? We weren't going to let Melvin take you, that's for sure." Miss Terri cocked her head at her. "You okay sweetheart? You don't look so good."

"It's just—" she paused, unsure of what to say next. "It's just I need a shower. Like badly. Really badly."