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streamed past Turn to line up at the pay desk.
Turn leaned on the wall, watching me.
I couldn t look away from him. My heart choked
me.
 Can we talk, KT?
 Yeah. I shoved my work ticket in my pocket. It
wouldn t expire if I waited for tomorrow to cash it
in. If I cared about it tomorrow.  You want to walk
a li le bit? Nice old garden about a block that way.
 I d like that.
The wind would be from our right. Considering
I hadn t bothered to wash my jeans or shirt since
Wednesday, I walked on the left to keep downwind
of Turn. He smelled of the herbal soap and deodorant
I picked for him.
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We walked silently to the garden, not even
brushing elbows. Not even in step. Walking in step
with Turn had been a game. A fun one. My legs are
quite long, and I could stretch until he just about
had to run, but then he d grab me by the belt and
yank me to him, and we d laugh.
The belt I was wearing tonight was stolen. He d
make such a face if he knew.  I guess Ellstrom got
hold of you?
 You knew he would. The old man hunted me
down at work. Miss Georgie keeps saying he ain t
been right since Vietnam, but the two of them
damned sure worked together when it came to
finding you. 
And here I was assuming he must have used FBI
resources to find me.
He was wearing his own shoes again.  Your toes
must be be er.
 They are. The burns finally scabbed over, too. I
only have two days left on the antibiotic. Used the
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TURNCOAT
last pain pill the other day.
I cringed, inwardly. Turn hates pills, hates the
idea of being weak enough to need pills of any sort.
 How are your teeth?
I hadn t thought of them in several days. I
tongued them, but already knew that if they didn t
hurt they d be okay.  The loose ones re-seated. I was
lucky.
 Good.
We walked on, in step. He didn t ask if I d been
tested. No reason to ask yet. It would be six months
before an HIV test would give a definitive answer.
Nor did he ask if I d taken the morning-after shots. I
had they were free but if I hadn t, it was too late
now.
Knowing how his mind worked, what he d be
thinking about now that he was here beside me,
freaked me out some. I was ready to speak, but
didn t know how to start.
He started it for me.  You look good. Healthy.
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AMBER GREEN
Healthy? I guess. I felt sand-blasted. I d taken up
my belt a full notch since swiping it from the fire
station, and now it was loose again. Without Turn
to cook for, to argue over the food with, I didn t
have much interest in eating. What if that was then
and this was now? What if whatever we d had was
over, and this was just goodbye?
 KT& 
We kept walking, at some point falling into step.
Walking, we were a team. Nothing to argue about.
Nothing to& I don t know. No decisions to make, or
to worry about.  How s Sweet?
 Temporarily, he s in a wheelchair. Half a dozen
pins in his left leg. He comes in for a few hours
every morning.
 Tough man. Tell him I asked about him, please.
 I will.
A bat swooped across our path. We both recoiled,
and Turn let out the faintest hint of a grunt.
Fuck. Turn had scabbed-over burns on his foot,
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TURNCOAT
and I was making him walk.
I cut to the left, where park benches hid among
the azaleas. He followed, and when I stopped to lean
against a tree, he dropped onto a bench and propped
up his foot.
 You don t have to be a tough-man, Turn. You
could have said that first garden was far enough.
 I figured you needed to walk.
Well, maybe I did. I looked up through the
spo ed canopy of trees to the glow of the Atlanta
night sky, the sparking building lights two trees and
a street s width away. We weren t that far from the
main Olympic park here. But we d walked as far as
either of us needed to.
 KT, can I talk without& Fuck. Can I talk?
 Talk.
He paused a minute, the silence filled in with a
bus venting its air brakes.  This summer, when you
were there, my blood pressure went down twenty
points from the same time last year. The cluster
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AMBER GREEN
headaches I didn t have any. None. My cholesterol
went down too, with all those steamed vegetables
you stuffed me with. Now I m back on blood pressure
pills and cholesterol pills, and I m too young to need
either. I need sleeping pills every night or I ll twist
up the sheets and listen to the rats screwing in the
a ic and wonder about you until dawn. I m still
waking up with shaking hands. I picture you living
off turnip juice and brown rice, or some such shit,
and I want to find you and feed you real food. Then
I need caffeine pills to get to work and stay awake
once I m there. Then I come home exhausted and
you re not there. My headaches are back too KT,
you were good for me.
He stopped, and I wondered what to say to all
that. Everybody hurts. No use crying about it.
He heaved his bulk to sit upright.
I watched him. My eyes burned. I still couldn t
think of anything to say. What if that s how the story
ends? Don t go away and leave me here alone. Don t
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TURNCOAT
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