Deke showed up in the Omni at ten to three, and if he’d been any slower I’d have freaked out on him. Damn I needed a smoke. Deke swung it on to third-gear road and we made the bends slow while we burned one down.

We was only halfway through our Marlboros and high as the church steeple when we pulled into Kwik, so we just sat and smoked. That’s when I seen her coming up the walk from down on River.

I about shit when I seen her. You don’t expect to catch a thing like that walking round a hill-jack town like this. Pale as a ghost and wearing black all over, from her lips to her nails to her big-ass shit-stompin boots. She had a fucking strap on her throat with nails poking through. She seen me staring, but I couldn’t quit.

She stared back, buddy, right into me. Right into my fucking eyes, and made my heart go bang, bang, bang, till she strutted on by. I said, “Holy Fuck, Deke! Did you see that?” But Deke never sees nothing.

I checked my mirror, flicked my butt, and went to see if she had a name.