Grady is surprised to find there is someone lying in his arms when the sun finally pierces his eyelids the next morning. He looks down at the top of Sharon’s head and smiles. They are both fully clothed and she is clutching his shirt tightly in her hand. He looks through the window at the sun and blinks. It is several moments before he realizes that there’s someone standing at the end of the bed.

“Good morning. Isn’t this a lovely sight?’

Tom’s eyes are so red and bloodshot that Grady has a moment to wonder if he is having some kind of internal hemorrhage. No, he could never be that lucky. Grady moves his body and his arm and he feels Sharon stir. She moans and yawns and slowly opens her eyes. She lets out a startled gasp once she sees Tom.

“Good morning, dear. Did you sleep well?”

Tom is dressed in a pair of tan shorts that look as if they have last been washed in the 1920s. His hair stands up on end. His eyes, in addition to being bloodshot, look bruised. He has stubble all along his face and under his chin. The smell of him nearly knocks Grady back down. Grady wonders if alcohol actually oozes from his pores at this point. How can anyone still be standing when they are that drunk, Grady wonders.

“It’s not what you think, Tom.”

“Shut-up, freak. I’m trying to have a conversation with my wife. I missed you last night, dear. Did you sleep well?”

Sharon makes a noise like someone just stepped on her foot. Her hand goes to her throat and Grady can see her temple throbbing in rhythm with her heart. He doesn’t see the aura of death around her but he has to wonder if she may actually be the one headed for a cerebral hemorrhage. Her mouth opens but she seems unable to speak.

“Very elegant speech, dear. How was she, freak? She used to be pretty good but that was a long time ago.”

“I wouldn’t talk that way, Tom.”

“Going to hit me?”

“Yes.”

Grady stares directly into those bloodshot eyes. Tom makes an attempt to stare him down. Tom wants to see if he means it. Tom seems to be swaying in a breeze that Grady cannot feel. Tom’s eyes don’t seem to want to cooperate with him and they swivel away from Grady’s.

“You can have her, freak. She hasn’t been any good to me in years.”

Sharon makes another strangling noise and Grady reaches out and squeezes her hand. She starts to get up but Grady squeezes her hand harder and she stays. Tom continues to sway and stare at them. Almost absently he reaches into his back waistband and removes a pistol.

“Can you see the aura around yourself, freak? What happens when you’re the one close to dying.”

“No, Tom, I can’t. I don’t know what happens when I die.”

“I could solve that mystery for you, if you’d like. I think I’d be within my right what with you sleeping with my wife.”

“We didn’t have sex, Tom.”

“Shut-up, Sharon. Now I am talking to the freak. The two of you are very rude. It isn’t about sex. It’s about this freak and his bullshit ideas and his bullshit claims about death and sins. He’s a liar, Sharon. He lies and you fell right into his arms.”

Tom’s eyes suddenly shift to Sharon. Grady eyes the gun which his wavering in time with the breeze that apparently only Tom can feel. The barrel points at Grady’s face and then the floor and then Sharon. Grady slowly reaches out to his left and finds a water glass he had put on the table sometime yesterday. The glass is smooth and cool beneath his fingers and he thinks the glass is heavy enough to cause some damage. He watches the gun waver and move and dip and hover and then move again.

“Why do you do these things to me, Sharon? You just make me hurt you.”

“You don’t care about me, Tom. You never have. All you’ve ever cared about was the money. You don’t even want to keep this house.”

“Who in their right mind would want to keep this monstrosity? It’s a fucking joke, is what it is. Who builds a house the size of an airplane hangar in the middle of the fucking desert? Just your crazy old-coot of a great-grandfather. This place is an aberration. It’s a sin against the Outback itself.”

Grady throws the glass. He watches as sunlight glints off the smooth exterior. Things seem to slow down for Grady. It’s as though he is watching the glass move in slow motion. Tom’s attention is focused entirely on his wife. As he talks about the house he looks around the room as though the room itself could stand as a representative of the entire house.

The glass sails through the air. Droplets of water tumble from the tumbling glass. Grady can see sunlight reflected in each drop. Tom is still staring at his wife. It is only the instant before it hits that Tom realizes something is hurtling toward his face. His eyes open in surprise and then the bottom of the glass hits him directly above his right eye. There is a surprisingly satisfying “thunk” noise and blood erupts in a fountain from above his eye and down into his eye.

Grady is up in a flash. He swings his legs over the bed and is charging at Tom before the glass can even fall from his face and hit the floor. The gun lifts up and points at the ceiling and there is a deafening noise, blinding flash and piercing scream as the bullet buries itself into the ornate ceiling. Fine white dust from the plaster in the ceiling tumbles down to the carpet and joins the glass that now lies at Tom’s feet.

Grady reaches Tom. Grady grabs the hand with the gun and he finds it barely able to struggle against his effort. He shoves his weight against Tom and Tom stumbles backward with one hand up against his bleeding forehead and the other flailing in the air. Tom actually leaves his feet and sails backward. His body slams into the door way and his head makes a sickening noise as it collides with the doorframe. He lets out a sound like a wounded animal and hits the floor.

Grady holds the gun at his side. It is a small revolver. He doesn’t know a huge amount about guns but he figures it’s a twenty-two. He knows this kind of bullet would probably have entered his body and tumbled around inside his chest for a while tearing it to pieces. He feels intense anger building in him. He points the gun at Tom for just a moment and then he swings the cylinder open and dumps the bullets onto the floor.

Tom is breathing loud enough to echo through the hallway. It sounds like a bellows to Grady. He is making strange mewling noises as well. Blood runs freely from between his fingers. Blood is running into the carpet and into his shirt. His chest rises and falls.

“Sharon, you may want to call an ambulance for him. He’s probably going to need stitches in his forehead and maybe the back of his head. Plus, he may have a concussion. He’s stinking drunk enough for them to believe he fell.”

Grady kneels down and forces himself into the cloud of stinking air that clings to Tom worse than any death-cloud has stuck to anyone he has met before. The man is positively pickled. He smells the copper smell of blood as well. He forces himself to within inches of Tom’s face. Tom mewls louder and even though his eyes are closed Grady knows that Tom can tell how close he is.

“Tom, you’re going to tell the paramedics that you fell. Is that clear?”

Tom just mewls. Grady reaches out and slaps his hand across the bleeding face. It isn’t a hard slap but Tom lets out a cry as though Grady has just stabbed him.

“Do you hear me, Tom?”

“Yes.”

“Was I clear?”

“Yes.”

“If you don’t tell them that you fell, and I hear about it, I will be sure to stick around here until you get back from the hospital. You won’t want me to do that, do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Grady nods and stands up. He turns around and sees that Sharon is now standing next to the bed. Her clothes are rumbled and her feet are bare. Her hair is a bit of a mess but he cannot remember seeing anything so beautiful in a long time.

“Go make the call, Sharon. He’ll be all right. Head injuries bleed a lot. I think the fight’s been taken out of him.”

Sharon does not hesitate. She nods and walks past Grady. As she does she stops and suddenly kisses him. It is a fast kiss and it hits more to the right of his lips than on them but he appreciates it anyway. He watches her as she runs down the hall.

Tom doesn’t speak. He continues to make mewling noises and mutters things under his breath. Grady sighs and sits down on the edge of the bed and watches Tom bleed and mewl. He waits for the paramedics to come. When they finally do and cart Tom away Grady swears he can hear the entire house sigh with relief.