To his utter shock and relief Earl spoke in a calm soothing voice. “How do you even know she’s in there?”
But Stevie cringed again when he noticed Earl’s fists clenched. Then Earl looked hard to the right and followed the look with the jerk of his head; his neck made a popping sound. He did this thing with his head just before he’d get one of his killer headaches.
Earl continued, “I’m not saying no. Okay? Let’s just wait. Until we know for sure she’s alone. You say she goes to the park?” Earl asked.
“Yeah – but not very often. And always with two little boys.” The little boys! Stevie thought, Shit! Why hadn’t he mentioned it before? Stevie blurted, “They look around seven or eight.”
Earl paused before speaking again and when he spoke he sounded pleased, “Let’s wait till the playground then. Okay? I promise. Okay.” It was obvious Earl was tired. Stevie knew Earl had no plans. Earl worked long hours all week what with the building boom going on. Earl spoke with finality as he started the engine, but Stevie could see the prospect of the stripper’s kids must have cheered him. His face relaxed and he stopped jerking his head.
As Earl began to back out of the driveway he almost failed to notice the tunnel of his headlights sweep over the two little sojourners. Near the edge of the woods, for just a moment he illuminated two little boys with backpacks. Their long shadows turned around them like the hour and second hand on a clock, before their figures vanished back into the darkness.
The calendar for that day, the start and end to days, what time it was, what time to get up to go to work, when the weekend started, when it ended, when people turned sixty-five and could collect social security, was based upon a book. Astronomers at the U.S. Naval Observatory and the U.K. Royal Greenwich Observatory jointly prepared the reference book called The Astronomical Almanac. The scientists prepared this book for their governments to provide absolute knowledge of the astronomical cycles upon which any calendar could be based. The book predicted civil twilight at the longitude and latitude of The Estates at Shady Walk subdivision to commence at 6:46 a.m. and sunrise at 7:14 a.m. Unbeknownst to the inhabitants of the area, they made a mistake. The Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac had calculated the length of the year in the fourth decimal place of the calculation wrong. This resulted in the misplacement of almost sixteen seconds of time. But as predicted, 16 seconds, more or less to the minute, the moon rose at 9:15 p.m. on the preceding day. Unfortunately for his prey, Tikki, a ten foot two inch long six hundred pound Bengal tiger, a creature from the ancient Indus delta region, the Sunderbuns, hadn’t consulted the Almanac in his decision when to begin his hunt. If he had, he might have waited another seven seconds and returned with an empty belly.