𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚕 (𝚊𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚗 𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚕)

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚒𝚡

for the next few weeks, arvin watched the preacher's every move. he'd thought about bringing calypso along, but had decided that it was best for her not to have to see that, especially considering what she'd already been through. he simply told her what he was doing, but that it wasn't safe for her to come along and that was that. she didn't try to argue. she was smart enough to know why. 

so arvin stalked the preacher alone, and he didn't like what he saw. whenever teagarden finished working on his sermons, evelyn reaster would bike over to the church. he would take his flashy white sports car and drive them out to the same clearing in the woods where arvin and calypso had spotted him with lenora, though they hadn't known at the time. what teagarden did with the reaster girl made arvin sick to his stomach, thinking about how that girl was too young to say yes and too gullible to say no and how the twisted preacher had done the same to his lenora. once they were done, the reaster girl biked away, and teagarden sniffed her panties before discarding them in the grass beside his parked car.

next, arvin watched him from the window of his house. he came home after fucking the reaster girl and collapsed in a chair as his wife baked him a cake. when it came out of the oven, he beckoned her over. she slipped off her bathrobe to reveal a pretty white nightgown, and knelt down in front of him. he took her head in his hand and began forcing it up and down on his cock, ignoring her gagging sounds. arvin couldn't bear to watch much more. his blood boiled as the poor woman's head was pushed down onto teagarden's dick again and again, clearly wanting to be let up but not wanting to disappoint him. unable to see a woman treated that way any longer, he crept back to his car and drove home. 

when he arrived at the house, calypso was fast asleep in the bedroom. she'd left a bowl of soup and a slice of bread on the bedside table, and she was curled up in one of his t-shirts on her side of the bed. he watched the way her plump lips parted to let out the slightest of snores, and found himself mesmerized by how peaceful she looked. she had such an expressive face; there was always some sort of emotion splayed across her features. but when she slept, she was completely relaxed. arvin's heart ached as he realized how much he'd come to care about her in the past months. he'd been in love with her for awhile, but he hadn't said it yet. the moment he realized that he loved her was when he walked into emma's room to ask if she needed anything on the day of lenora's funeral, but calypso was already there, holding emma's hand as she cried herself to sleep.

arvin knew what he had to do, but he knew he couldn't bring her with him. it was too dangerous. calypso had bigger dreams than most people in coal creek. most girls would be content to marry a mediocre lumberjack and live out their days in a ramshackle cabin tending to their children, but she wanted more. she'd told him a few times of how she dreamed of living in a big city like chicago or cincinnati, or even new york. she had a beat-up postcard of los angeles in her backpack, and often talked longingly about celebrities like ava gardner and marilyn monroe. arvin's future was empty anyway; he was going to lay asphalt until his back gave out. but he was convinced that calypso had greater things ahead of her, and he wasn't about to take that away.

his heart began to ache, and he was forced to look away from her peacefully sleeping form. he went out into the barn to find uncle earskell, who was indeed smoking a cigarette and staring off into the distance. arvin lit one of his own and sat down next to the brooding man. he wanted to be able to say goodbye to earskell and emma, but he knew that they were better off not knowing anything in case the law came looking for him.

"uncle," he said, tears threatening to spill, "you have to be good to grandma. you know that she ain't hardly been out of her bed since the funeral?"

"yeah," said earskell blankly.

"grandma needs you," said arvin, thankful for the darkness of the musty old barn. "all right?"

earskell nodded, and arvin went back inside. he wrote a quick letter to emma and began to pack up his things. he threw a couple of his clothes into a rucksack, collected what little money he had, and slipped on a denim jacket. he had just loaded his father's luger when he heard calypso shift to the right.