|-JOHN DOE-|
"Did you have any idea there was a cave down here?"
"Not at all. This is so fucking cool. Aren't you glad we came down here now?"
"You successfully avoided rockfalls and snakes, but that's not what I would--"
"What you would?"
"Kat. Is that a body?"
"What? No way--holy shit that's a body. That's a creepy cave body. We found a body."
"Wait, maybe she's still alive. I don't smell any rot. Can you check her pulse?"
"Why do I have to check her pulse? You saw her first, you do it!"
"No way! What if she's dead?"
"Are you really gonna make your new bride touch a dead body in a creepy cave in the middle of nowhere? On our honeymoon of all times?"
"No. I don't think I am."
"Good, because that would be terrible husband behavior."
"I'm not going to because she's sitting up."
It was truly a strange day in Idle, Arizona: Barbara Smith Gutierrez Doe had closed up shop early.
For decades Barbara had only closed her shop on Christmas (when John Doe and Fable made their obligatory contributions to her hearth) and Thanksgiving (when she was merciful enough to let them dine separately.) The craft store was, in its own way, an institution far more reliable than the police, the town hall, and even the august PTA. Fires in the scrubland had done nothing to shadow its hallowed halls.
Still, when Jon Doe attempted to visit his daughter at noon, he found her settling the 'CLOSED--Please Come Back Later' sign with an unsettling air of finality.
"Dad?" She glanced over her shoulder at Jhon Doe and frowned. "You're here. I thought I was going to have to go to the mesquites to get you."
John Doh sometimes liked to surprise his daughter. He had with him a styrofoam container from the Idling Diner, her favorite open faced turkey sandwich inside. Because he had a terrible habit of spoiling Barbara, more than half of it was still inside.
"Thanks, but I'm not really hungry." The sun glared off the street. Barbara squinted at him. "We have bigger problems. My well ran dry today."
John Dote was not a hydrographer. Nor was he a deity to command precipitation.
"Don't give me that," Barbara scolded. Her brow was creased. She didn't bother to spare the sandwich a glance. "It's a hot day today. Just like the rest of the week."
The weather was always perfect in Idle. Saying otherwise would be illogical. John Do was nonetheless standing in the shade beneath the overhang of Barbara's shop.
"There's a stranger in town. Dell called ahead."
Jonh Doe was very, very still. It took a couple of minutes to remember to breathe. Breathing no longer came very easily for him. Barbara glanced up and down the street before leaning closer.
"You said the stranger was broken when you ate it, right? No way it could have survived."
Dzhon Doe never said that he ate the stranger. He merely broke it into pieces and watched it crumble into the street. The stranger was as dust. Jnoh Doe had no interest in adopting such an undignified name.
Barbara's cheeks were ordinarily very red in the noontime heat. It was one of the things which made her an incessantly adorable child. They currently had the pallor of an anemic corpse.
