Bay became confused, unable to comprehend how and why Christopher the interloper had vanished. He watched a single firefly make elaborate loops of thick twilight, passing over, swooping, rising, and falling through the space between the two gated gardens to the saltbox’s rear patio. The single firefly flashed on and off numerous times. On the patio, just beyond the closed, screen door, hanging outside the kitchen, it created a vertical circle, two circles, three circles and…
Christopher appeared on the patio, naked from head to toes. He smiled: gleaming white teeth, tall and thin. So many more muscles on the man than Bay realized. He nodded at Bay, blinked, and whispered through the screen door, “You’re watching me.”
Bay felt as if he would faint behind the kitchen’s island. Christopher
