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Chapter

2

OUTSIDE, ROGERS DREW a slow breath and then let it go, watching the chilly vapor materialize momentarily and then vanish just as quickly He stood there for a few seconds getting his bearings In so out of the wo a world you didn’t know existed a moment before

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bsp; His gaze went froht to left Then to the sky Choppers were not out of the question, he thought Not for this

Not for him

But there was no one waiting for him

It could be the passage of time Three decades People died, memories faded

Or it could be that they really thought he was dead

Their mistake

Then he settled on the screwed-up release date

If they were co, it would be tomorrow

Thank God for stupid court clerks

Following the directions given on his discharge papers, he walked to the bus stop It was four rusted posts with a shingled roof and a wooden seat worn down by decades of people waiting for a ride to so he took the packet of parole materials fro next to the enclosure He had no intention of attending any parole hearings He had places to go that were far away from here

He touched the spot on the left side of his head, halfway between the occipital bone and the laer over the sutural bones to the parietal bones and finally to the sagittal suture They were inificant elements of the brain

He had once thought that what had been added there was a ticking time bomb

Now he siht of it as him

He let his hand drop to his side as he watched the bus pull up to the curb The doors opened and he cliave his ticket to the driver, and walked to the back

A cascade of smells enveloped him, mostly of the fried-food and unwashed-bodies variety Everyone on the bus watched hihtly around their purses Men watched him with defensive looks and fists ready Children simply stared wide-eyed

He just had that effect on people, he supposed

He sat in the very rear, where the stench froht have overwhelmed someone who had not smelled far worse

Rogers had smelled far worse

In seats catty-corner across the aisle froe The girl was in the aisle seat Her boyfriend was huge, about six-six and all ers walk back here,each other’s ues

When the bus pulled off, they separated lips and the ers looked back until the azed back too and smiled

“Did you just get out?” she asked

Rogers looked down at his clothes It occurred to hi prison Perhaps the correctional syste shoes that were too small so the ex-cons couldn’t outrun anybody And maybe the bus stop was known to folks around here as the “prisoners’ stop” That would explain the looks he’d been given

Rogers never thought to return her smile, but he did nod in answer to her query

“How long were you in for?”

In answer, Rogers held up all ten fingers

She gave hi ti slender and bare li him an admirable view of pale skin

They rode for nearly an hour, the distance froh-heeled shoe dangled enticingly off the woman’s foot

Rogers never once looked away

When they pulled into the bus depot it was dark Nearly everyone got off Rogers was last because he liked it that way