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had taken his time, titillating her with what he playfully called
    his mystery kiss. It was their closest thing to kinky sex. She would
    lie nude, her arms up over her head. He would begin by kissing her feet
    or her stomach, and then she had to anticipate where he would put his
    lips next. In her perpetual darkness, his kisses felt like drops of
    warm rain, one falling on her breasts, another on her lips, and then
    another just inside her thighs.
     
    Sometimes he lingered between kisses, making the anticipation that much
    greater, drawing out the exquisite torment until she cried out and
    reached up for him. He would laugh and come to her and they would cling
    to each other with a delicious desperation. It had been like that
    tonight. And they had drifted into a gentle repose.
     
    Until the noise shattered her peace.
     
    What was that? she cried, sitting up. Lee's arm fell away from her
    shoulders and he groaned. Lee?
     
    Huh? He fought opening his eyes. It was too sweet, too comfortable.
    She poked him. What? he said, and groaned as he turned over on his
    back. Didn't you hear that bang? What bang? He wiped his eyes and
    reluctantly lifted his head from the pillow to listen. I don't hear
    anything, he said. Not now. She threw her legs over the bed and found
    her slippers.
     
    Where are you going? I heard something something terrible, she said,
    and started for the doorway.
     
    Oh Jessie, Jesus. He wiped his cheeks vigorously and sat up himself. By
    the time he found his own slippers, she was down the corridor and
    entering the living room. He was nude, but he didn't pause to get a
    robe.
     
    He flipped on the hallway light and found her with her ear pressed
    against the front window. For a moment he almost burst out laughing.
    She looked like some one eavesdropping on the neighbors in the next-door
    apartment. Jesse? Someone's out there, she said.
     
    I hear an engine running.
     
    Oh boy, he said, and joined her at the window. It took a moment for him
    to see the truck silhouetted in the darkness. Without its headlights
    on, it had blended in with the other shadows and forms in the night.
    What the There's someone there? A truck, he said. No lights.
     
    I can't tell if anyone's sitting in it or not. The engine's running,
    she insisted. He couldn't hear it through the closed window, so he
    opened it and knelt down to place his ear close to the screen. Yeah, he
    said, it is. Well, what is it? I don't know. I heard a terrible, loud
    sound before, Lee. It sounded like a gunshot. Huh? An icy finger of
    fear traced the length of his spine from his neck to his waist. He
    shook his body like a bird shaking off rain. Shit, he said. I'm
    standing here naked. And, he realized, so are you. Maybe you should
    phone the police, Lee, she said, unconcerned with her own exposure in
    the window. And tell them what? There's a truck parked on the street
    with its engine running.
     
    It's very late. And whoever it is has the lights off.
     
    That's peculiar, Lee. Oh Jesus, he groaned. I'll get some clothes on
    and see what the hell it is. She grabbed his arm. No, Lee. just phone
    the police. I'm afraid.
     
    They won't come up here if I just tell them there's a truck outside with
    its engine running, honey. There's no law against that. I'll see if
    there's anything wrong and then I'll phone. He patted her hand and
    returned to the bedroom. Jesse turned her attention back to the window
    and continued to listen. There was the distinct sound of those
    shuffling footsteps again. The cool night air came in through the
    opened window, but it wasn't the chill that made her step back; it was
    the odor, a whiff of that horrible stench. She brought the window down
    sharply stepped back, her heart pounding. A moment later she heard Lee
    coming down the hallway toward the front door. Wait, she cried. What?
    There's something out there, Lee. What? he asked. I don't know, but
    it's something horrible. Oh Jessie, he groaned. I have a flashlight
    with