Moments later, when Oliver put his arm around her waist and swept her out the door, she barely had time for a quick glance back at poor Will, still standing there, watching her go. The look on his face told her the deed was as good as done. The fish had swum into the net, the bear’s paw had found its trap, and this little rabbit was now all hers.
Elga steered the patrol car off the country road and bounced it up the farm’s muddy driveway. She parked between a small flatbed truck and a shed. Getting out of the car, she paused to look around. Past the small farmhouse a yellow bicycle rested against the large barn. She walked up onto the farmhouse porch and, without knocking, went in. The rat scurried in behind her.
An old man wearing a priest’s cassock sat at the table, eating a bowl of soup. He paused for a moment to look up at Elga, then returned his attention to the soup. The rat crawled from behind Elga’s feet, jumped up onto a chair, hopped up onto the table, and started licking at the edges of the bowl.
“Tell him to stop that,” said the priest, raising his spoon in protest.
“You tell him, he’s your brother,” said Elga.
“Max, stop it,” said the priest, but the rat kept at the soup. The priest put down his spoon and watched as the rat steadily emptied the bowl, licking it clean.
“He was hungry.”
“I can see that. Where’s your Zoya?” said the priest, taking a green apple off the sideboard. “Curled up in her little love nest?”
“No. Zoya is dead.”
This stopped the priest halfway through his first bite. Thinking about what she’d said, he slowly resumed chewing. “What kind of dead?” he said.
Elga rubbed her face with her hands. “Dead dead. Does it matter? She’s dead to me.”
The priest nodded. “Right. So she is alive.”
Elga shrugged. “Only until I find her.”
“What did she do now?”
“Bah, what didn’t she do? First she kills her fat
“Why?”
“Who knows? But she has betrayed me, and that comes with a cost.” She dramatically crossed her throat with her finger.
“No need for the theatrics, Elga, I know what you mean.” The priest shook his head. “But that does not sound like Zoya.”
The old woman threw up her hands “She has always been a messy one. And I am tired of cleaning up after her. She makes me act like some ugly maid scrubbing the floor, working on my hands and knees with my fat ass up in the air, ripe for a kick. It is stupid. I am too old for this.”
“You are the same age you have been for a century,” he said.
“No, I am much older, you just do not see. It happens too slowly.”
He chose to ignore this; he knew he did not understand the laws that governed Elga and her sisters. He had tried to once, but that was a long time ago. “Any idea where she is?”
“No. We left town fast, before Max could sniff her out.” Elga dug her finger into her nostril and then flicked the snot on the ground. “Listen, I’m going to need you to send some of your village idiots with that truck to my place to pack my work up. It’s safe there, should be no trouble, I put a curse on the door.”
“No trouble? Really, Elga? I hear the word ‘curse,’ and I tend to think there might be trouble.”
Elga was quiet. The priest scratched his head. “The farmer down the way has two boys who can help move your stuff. He has a better truck than mine. Whose car did you come in?”
“I don’t know.” She set the keys on the table. “You can have it if you want. I wouldn’t drive it, though.”
The priest looked at her suspiciously, then he went out the door. A minute later he came back inside. “It’s a police car, Elga. You want to tell me where the policemen are who came with that car?”
“You got me.” She shrugged.
The priest went over to the icebox and slid a bottle of vodka out of its small freezer compartment. He poured himself a shot and then splashed another shot into the empty soup bowl. The rat went at it. The priest sat back down. “Why don’t you tell me what you want, Elga?”
“Maybe put the car in the shed. Then get those farm boys to clear out my place. I can store things here for the time being. And I need your help getting a new girl.”
“A new girl? Why?”
“I told you, Zoya’s dead.”
The priest closed his eyes, letting the comment pass. “Where will we find this new girl?”
“That hospital in town. Get me a job there tomorrow.”
“What if they’re not hiring?”
Elga nodded. “One of their workers is sick, they’re going to need help to cover for her. I can be that help.”
“You’re confusing me, Elga. The worker is sick? How do you know this? Are you talking about an event that has happened or will happen?”
Elga looked at him like he was an idiot. He knew time and tense did not concern her, they would be chopped and thrown in the stew with all the rest.
