Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
I yawned again, confused, and lifted my hand, trying to cast the beam of light from my phone upward.
Out of the corner of my eye, something flew.
I ducked.
The flying thing did a turn in flight and came right fucking at me.
I screamed as I threw myself to the ground and, swear to God on my life, felt it go inches above my head.
Right beside the bed, I yanked on the thin blanket I kept by my feet because it was too warm to cover myself completely with it and covered my head as I blinked up and tried to look for what I was pretty sure was a bat because a fucking bird couldn’t be that fast.
Could it? Could one have snuck in while I’d opened and closed the door? Wouldn’t I have noticed? There was a screen on the window, so it couldn’t have gotten in through there.
I crawled toward the wall where the light switch was on my hands and knees. “What the hell?” I liked to think I said but was pretty sure I shrieked as I lifted my hand just enough to feel the switch and flip it, the overhead lights illuminating the living room.
Confirming my worst nightmare.
Yeah, it was a fucking bat swooping.
“What the fuck!” I pressed my back even more against the wall.
What kind of bullshit was this?
Had I been sleeping in this damn room with it every night? Had he been landing on my face? Pooping on me? What did bat poop even look like? I’d seen some dark shapes on the floor, but I’d assumed they were mud off my shoes.
The bat dropped in height as it flew . . . and it came right toward me again, or at least it looked like it did.
Later on, I’d be disappointed in myself, but then again it was a goddamn bat, and I screamed.
And after that, I’d be even more disappointed in myself for the fact I crawled down the stairs on my hands and knees, but I did it. Only after grabbing my keys and shoving them into my shirt. Fuck this!
And in a way that pretty much summed up my life, I opened the door outside and ran out in my socks, tank top, and underwear—totally and completely unprepared—and saw another bat fly right in front of my face, aiming back up toward the endless, dark sky . . . where it belonged.
I still ducked anyway.
I might have screamed again, and I was pretty sure I yelled, “Fuck off!” but I wasn’t positive.
What I was positive of was yelping my way over the gravel, holding my cell phone in one hand as a flashlight, clutching the blanket over my head but under my chin, and pretty much diving into my car the second I was close enough.
I was sweating, big-time. The shower I’d taken had gone to fucking hell. But what else was I supposed to do? Not sweat? There was a goddamn bat in the garage apartment!
It took way too long for me to stop panting, and I had to wipe my armpits with the corner of the blanket after locking the doors.
I needed some water.
More than that, I had to do something. I had more than a week left here. It wasn’t like the bat was going to open the door and let itself out.
Shit, shit, shit.
It was either do something or do nothing . . . and for now, the only thing I was going to do was sleep in my car because there was no way in hell I was going back in there. Not for water. Not for a bed. I’d pee in an old water bottle if I had to. Bats were nocturnal, weren’t they? God, I needed internet.
I shivered and tucked the blanket under my chin tighter.
Had Mom and I ever had bats at our house? Did she take care of them on her own? I wondered.
What in the hell had I gotten myself into?
Chapter Eight
On the day of our planned trip, I rolled up to the store and found Clara standing beside her car—a new Ford Explorer—and talking to a man a lot taller than her while Jackie stood off to the other side, messing with her phone.
It took me a moment to realize why his light brown skin and build seemed kind of familiar.
It was Johnny. Amos’s uncle.
Pulling in to park on the other side, I finally spotted the Subaru parked behind the store. I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat before getting out.
“. . . it’s fine. Just bring me the money tomorrow,” Clara said in that soft, steady voice of hers.
“Can’t tell you how much I appreciate it, Clara,” Amos’s uncle replied. I could see he was smiling at her, this sweet, easy one.
Jackie glanced over her shoulder and smiled tightly. “Hi, Ora.”