Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (free ebook reader for pc txt) 📕

ride down dark, empty, country roads surrounded by forests and pastures, the weight of all the things they each had to say crushed the air into a lip sealing silence until they dropped Janice off safely at home.

#Sarah#

The passing trees were black silhouettes that flew by in the wind as Sarah drove David toward the cliffs.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sarah asked. David's silence didn't offer much to work with. "We could always wait until morning to get your car, David." Turning her face to meet his, Sarah clamped her jaw as she was met only by the back of his head.

"Just bring me to my car," David said to the glass window beside him. She knew something was on his mind and it turned in her stomach like a lightbulb sandwich.

"You're not thinking about telling her, are you?" Sarah asked.

"Of course not. Are you?"

"No. Just wondering why you're being so quiet." She waited only to be answered by the puddles that her tires splashed through along the way. The silence grew even more overbearing as the moonlight twinkled across the surface of Moss Lake and they continued onto the bumpy dirt roads that engulfed them deep in the woods.

"What the hell is it?" Sarah asked with a burning determination.

"Really, Sarah?" David asked. "Janice?"

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"You know what I mean," he said. "Why would you write her name down? After everything she's been through, especially knowing-"

"You better watch it, David!" She stopped him mid-sentence, aiming her finger square in his face. "I don't know where you're coming up with this shit, but you're wrong," she said sternly. "I didn't write her name."

"Looked like a girl's handwriting to me," he said.

Sarah's anger exploded into her words. "First of all, I'm a woman. If you want a girl, keep hitting up Janice and see what that gets you."

"I knew it," David said. "So, you're angry with her?"

"I already told you, if you'd listen. I wrote someone else's name," she said, furious that he wouldn't listen to her.

"God. Can I just go back and change mine to Sarah?" David's obvious attempt at bringing the argument back down to playful remarks had no effect on her.

"Go ahead. I'm the only one that has nothing t-" Sarah stopped herself. It seems everyone does.

"Then who?” David asked. “Whose name did you write? Was it mine?"

"I don't want to say," she said, focusing through the darkness.

"It was. I knew it."

"Dammit, David. What the hell?" Sarah paused for a moment. "Fine. You really want to know?" She could feel David's silent attention weigh in the side of her face as she hesitated. "I wrote Tony."

David's face scrunched more spitefully than before. "Tony? But why?"

Sarah ignored his question. "A girl's handwriting,” she said. “You know, Terry isn't the most masculine of guys." She paused for a second. "And neither are you, to be honest."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" David said loudly in a higher pitch, seemingly proving her point.

"Quit being so critical." She could feel a light smile stretching across her cheek. "I didn't say it was a bad thing," Sarah said with some amusement.

"I still say that was a girl's handwriting and y'all were the only two there."

"God, David." She shook her head as she gave the steering wheel a light smack. "It's still not obvious to you who wrote it?"

"You're saying you know who it was?"

"Think about it, David." She waited for him to process it for himself.

"You're not honestly suggesting that Jan wrote her own name, are you?"

"Oh. Of course not, David. Poor, little, innocent Janice never puts herself in a position to get attention." Sarah dropped the sarcasm like a mic to fall on David's head. "Really, David."

"Well, I don't buy it. Even if she did, maybe she didn't want to accuse anyone else." David's state of denial swept through the car, leaving the mood in the same shape as the washed-out roads littered with remnants of the storm.

"Careful we don't get stuck," David said as they passed a downed tree that had been dragged from the muddy dirt road.

"They sure did a bang-up job clearing it all." Sarah injected her words between the holes and cut limbs that she dodged and straddled along the bumpy drive.

"It's only been a day or so," he said, still denying her so much as a glance.

After a long, slow trip up the mountain, David's car finally came into view. It sat abandoned, alone in the dark. The gloomy woodland surroundings held a silent stillness tonight. While it should have been a welcome respite from the turmoil of the night before, Sarah felt as though they just didn't belong.

"Hurry and see if it starts," she told him, anxiously sliding her hands up and down the steering wheel. "I don't want to be here any longer than I have to."

"Don't go anywhere until I get it cranked," he said, cautiously opening her passenger door to creep toward his car.

It didn't take long for him to give it a quick start and pull up beside her with his window down. "I'm going to head to the house. Let me know if you learn anything new," he shouted before driving down the dark, deserted hill until his lights disappeared into the void below.

Sarah made a careful three point turn on the mud-soaked gravel, mindful of the treacherous drop-off that she narrowly avoided. Turned around and ready to return to civilization, she stopped for a moment. Finally, she was all alone. She turned off the ignition and stepped out of the car slowly, removing her shoes and socks as she walked the damp earth toward the edge of the road. The lights of the town glowed brightly below and she could feel the cold rocks embedded within the dirt that stuck to her feet. Here, she could become one with the abysmal black sky that filled the ridges and valleys with cascading shadows cast by the bright moon. It felt just like the deepest corners of her own dark caves that she held deep within.