Snow(16)

“Did you see the little girl?” he said. His breath tasted sour and his throat burned.

“Let’s not talk about them,” Kate said.

“Her face,” he went on anyway. “Did you see her face?”

“What was wrong with her face?”

It was just an empty socket, he wanted to say. It was just a fleshy concavity where a face should be.

“Never mind,” he said eventually.

The snow had let up by the time they crossed the field and emptied out into a deserted street. Before them, the desolate houses along the avenue rose up like sentries. Something about them made Todd think of medieval knights, long dead and their bodies turned to powder, with their hollowed armor like conch shells propped up against dungeon walls.

“Look,” Fred said, pointing down the street. “Fire.”

They all looked. Indeed, where the street opened up into a quaint little town square, random fires burned. Still, there were no electric lights on; even the stars were blotted out by the heavy cloud cover.

“We should try one of these houses for help,” Kate suggested. She was gazing up at the closest one, a rambling Aframe with windows like black pools of ice.

“I say we check out what started those fires,” Todd said.

“I agree,” seconded Fred. He, too, was looking at the houses, and there was a look of distrust evident in his eyes. “I’m getting the vibe that no one’s home around here, anyway.”

“That’s impossible.” Kate’s arm fell away from Todd’s back as she crossed the street and stood on the snowy sidewalk, looking up at one of the houses.

“Kate,” Todd called. “Come back, Kate.”

“Are you saying an entire block is away on vacation?” She sounded adamant. “You said it yourself, Fred—the power’s probably gone out in the storm. We should knock on some doors.”

“That’s probably true,” Fred responded, “but I don’t see any candles flickering in those windows, do you?”

A terrible image surfaced in Todd’s mind at that moment: all the residents of this quiet little hamlet watching them from the darkness of their homes, cloaked in black, their eyes like silver dollars. Or maybe they have no eyes at all. Maybe they have no faces.

“Maybe the place has been evacuated,” Fred added.

“For what reason?”

“I don’t know.”

“Get away from there, Kate,” Todd called to her again, unnerved.

It was his voice that seemed to reach her. She turned around and tromped back through the snow toward them. Her eyes hung longest on Todd. They were no longer the dazzling green they’d been back at the airport bar; they now seemed drained of color and looked like steel divots.

“Let’s keep moving,” Fred said, slinging an arm around Nan’s narrow shoulders. He administered a kiss to the top of her head and, pressed together as if one, they proceeded down the center of the street toward the fires burning in the town square.

“You’re scared,” Todd said, walking alongside Kate. She had not put her arm back around his waist. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I’m not ashamed. And I’m not scared, either.”

“Next thing you’ll tell me you’re not a liar.”

She folded her arms across her chest but Todd could see the stirrings of a smile beneath the surface of her lips. “I can’t believe this is happening. This is supposed to be Christmas. Happiest goddamn time of the year.”

“Do you have a cell phone? You should probably call your fiancé, let him know what’s going on.”

“Yeah, thanks.” She fished around in her purse for her cell phone. When she finally located it, she tried turning it on, to no avail. “Shit. Battery’s dead.”

Todd dug his own cell phone from his coat. “Here.”

“Thanks.” She accepted the phone but didn’t use it right away. “That guy we picked up—did that really happen?”

“Yes.”

“And the little girl? I mean, what the hell was that all about?”

“I don’t have a clue.”

“Christ. I’m not scared,” she said again, “but I do feel like I’m losing my mind.”

Todd smiled. “And that doesn’t scare you?”

“I’m a tough gal,” she said, shrugging. Suddenly she looked very pretty. “It takes a lot to scare me.”

Todd’s smile faltered. He was thinking of the little girl with no face.

“Shit,” Kate said, looking at Todd’s cell phone. “Take one guess what will make this evening even better.”

“No signal?”

“No signal.”

“Terrific.”

She handed him back the phone. “Right at this very moment, my fiancé’s parents are probably catching him up to speed on all the medication they’ve been on for the past year, and how my soon-to-be father-in-law has been wearing the same pair of socks all week to cut down on laundry. Miserable lot.”

“When’s the wedding?”

“We haven’t set a date yet.”

“How long have you been engaged?”

Kate laughed. “See, you’re hungry to do the math, right? If I say we got formally engaged over two years ago, you’ll smile and say something nice and benign, but inside you’ll be thinking, ‘Man, this chick’s crazy if she thinks this guy is ever going to seal the deal.’”