And as Anna’s laughter echoed off the walls of the mansion again, I just sat there, wishing I would’ve told Marla to help me back to my room.
Maybe that woman’s laugh wouldn’t haunt me there.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I just wanted to get back to my barracks room.
I just wanted to get back to my life.
I needed it more than air.
2
DOC
“I think you know everything,” Anna said as we stopped by the room she chose for herself.
I looked around the hallway before looking back down at her. “No one knows everything.”
She crooked an eyebrow and crossed those pudgy little arms of hers over her chest. “Oh yeah? All right, then, smarty pants. Statistically speaking, what’s the best way to go about killing an ant infestation?”
I tilted my head. “What color are the ants?”
“Black.”
“Are they marching in a line?”
“No.”
I nodded slowly as my eyes gazed off down the hallway. “Slow movers? Or quick movers?”
She paused. “Slow until startled.”
“How big we talkin’?”
“Doc.”
I shrugged. “Details matter.”
She snickered and shook her head. “I’ve given you all of the information I’ve got. Big. Black. Move quickly when startled. They’re in your home. What kind are they, and what do you do?”
“Well,” I said as I brought my attention back down to her, “depending on your area of the country, they could be carpenter ants. However, formica ants are also big and black, just not as big and black. In this neck of the woods, carpenter ants only rear their heads from satellite colonies, and if you don’t see any frass or discarded wings around, chances are the ants are coming from outside through cracks in the outer lining of the house. With formica ants, you’d see mounds outside, especially if you’re a lawn mower. You’d run over one of those yard mounds and it would go?—”
Anna laughed, and I paused.
“What?” I asked.
She shook her head as she slipped into her room. “I swear, Doc, you know everything.”
“It doesn’t take a genius to know a thing or two about ants.”
She looked up at me with an unamused stare. “What percentage of the populous in Redd Valley is white?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Demographically speaking, sixty-four percent of Redd Valley is white, while your neck of the woods is around seventy-three percent white. However, Redd Valley’s got a larger population of Native American women than your hometown. Your hometown seems to center around Hispanic?—”
She barked with laughter and closed her door. “See you for the next patrol, Doc.”
I furrowed my brow as I watched her shut her door. “Sure, yeah. I’ll come by and knock on your door.”
