Marlee slid out of the booth, alarmed.
“Are you joking?”
“Not at all,” Garrett said, scanning the aisle. “I saw it; I’ll take care of it.”
Ty and Marlee exchanged looks. Ty moved to the door.
“Setting fire to it, whatever it is,” Marlee said, “isn’t going to solve things.”
“There’s something not right here, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”
Marlee grimaced in disgust.
“What are you talking about?”
“It kept showing up.”
“You just think it showed up.”
Garrett looped around the far endcap.
“I have to go back.”
“Do you?” Marlee asked, skeptically.
“Listen, I’ll be careful.” Garrett picked up a red plastic jug and tested its heft. “It’s just a couple gallons. I’m not going to set off a prairie fire, or whatever. I’m not an idiot, despite how this all sounds. I’m not.”
“I’m not selling you the gas.”
Marlee crossed her arms.
“Ty. Lock it.”
Ty took her mop handle and wedged it diagonally between the doorframe and the pushbar, keeping it from opening. She reached into the chest pocket of her green bib overalls and pulled out her phone, holding it up so Garrett could see what it was.
“The county sheriff is on speed dial. You’re staying here until he gets here if it comes to that.”
“Keep this up,” Marlee said, standing next to Ty, “you’re gonna get someone besides yourself hurt.”
Garrett looked at Marlee, incredulous. His eyes narrowed.
“You two both know too much. You know there’s something out there.”
Marlee glared back.
“I know you saw something.”
“Then you know I have to go back.”
“No.”
“How do you not see that what happened to me requires me to do something?!”
Marlee rolled her eyes.
“Oh, come on.”
Garrett scowled.
“You don’t understand. You’d spend your whole life getting away from a place like that, too.”
Marlee looked past Garrett. Her eye followed the line of shelves sagging with age. Pointing to the ancient faux-wood paneling. Beneath ceiling tiles discolored over years by various roof leaks.
“Maybe I do.”
“Then you know what I have to do.”
“I’m not selling you gas.”
“Are you serious?” He gestured to the rest of the store. “Are you too busy with all your other customers? This dump?”
Garrett waited for a reaction, but Ty and Marlee remained impassive.
“This is ridiculous. You get that, right?”
Ty shook her head.
“Nope.”
“You don’t know anything about this place,” Marlee said, her tone sharper than before.
Ty looked at Marlee, surprised.
“Say you burn it,” Marlee continued, “Then what?”
Garrett blinked.
“Then it’s gone.”
“It already is.”
Marlee let her last words hang in the air, riding the last of the afternoon’s sunbeams.
Garrett studied the gas can.
“This is different.”
“How?” Marlee asked.
Garrett turned the gas can over in his hands, as if searching for an answer.
“Because…”
Marlee waited.
Garrett looked toward the windows and beyond to Highway 212, weather-scarred and bleached to a flinty gray.
“I don’t know.”
From behind the counter came a melodic ding.
Ty glanced at the console.
“You’re charged up.”
Garrett looked at the canister one more time, considered Marlee for a moment, and then dropped it back onto its shelf.
“So now what?”
Ty looked at Marlee.
Marlee nodded.
Ty pulled the mop from the door and stepped away, clearing the path.
“You’re all set to go.”
Garrett looked from Ty to Marlee and back again. He opened his mouth once, twice, as if to say something.
Finding nothing, he gave up and slunk out the door to reunite with his car.
Marlee joined Ty next to the counter. Together, they watched the electric vehicle back up and creep toward where the turnoff met the highway.
The car sat there without signaling. Waiting.
The last of the setting sun was swallowed by the building storm. Heat lightning pulsed inside the blue-black clouds, pulled featureless against the coming front.
The car started forward, and then turned west into the weather.
Ty exhaled noisily. She turned to Marlee, eyes wide.
“Whew.”
“Yeah,” Marlee said, chuckling, eyebrows raised.
Ty reached across the counter and flipped the lights on. The unflattering fluorescents were blinding, but only for a moment. One with a bad ballast over the soda fountain kept strobing erratically.
“You sure you still want to leave this?”
Marlee went to the door and watched the EV’s taillights disappear into the distance.
“Hell yes. There’s a big world out there.”
Ty smiled.
“Three weeks.”
“Three weeks.”
Marlee looked around the store.
“Don’t change everything while I’m gone.”