A rectangle of yellow light struck the sidewalk and Becky left the diner. She squeezed between the hood of one car and the trunk of another, stuffing the work apron in her jacket pocket and made it to the corner of Mainstreet where Cooper was waiting. They spoke in hurried whispers. Briefly, Becky turned back, scanning the street as if her actions might look suspicious should anyone see her. She pointed in the direction of the hills on the edge of town and Cooper nodded. They seemed to come to some kind of agreement, then parted, quickly walking off in opposite directions. Agony gnawed at Peter’s stomach. Why won’t you just be happy, Cooper? Why? But the Other Peter reflected in the glass started to close his eyes, too bored or too tired to even care. And somehow that option looked so peaceful that after a while, Peter sat there quietly watching the snow fall across the marquee and let himself do the same.

Insects swarmed the cabin doorway, rising up from the rushy grass and pines where sticky sap wept in golden globules. Heat broke through the trees at Peter’s back. He’d stepped out of the lake on to the island to follow Cooper only moments before, but his shorts were already dry. The last bead of water coiled down the inside of his leg and he stepped up to the door.

The darkness within cooled Peter’s skin, but his heart kept pumping. Inside, matching toothbrushes nuzzled each other in a tin cup on a shelf above the sink. His and Cooper’s towels lay strewn across the floor, somewhere between the wash tub and the bed. Peter scooped the bedding up into his arms, cradling the scent of the night before. His body flexed beneath his undershorts. He and Cooper were everywhere. And yet Cooper was nowhere to be seen.

There was another door. Peter was sure the end wall had been decorated with moose antlers just a moment before. But in the exact moment he needed an explanation for Cooper’s disappearance, a door appeared and was open.

Peter squinted. The light coming through was so blisteringly bright, the frame of the door dissolved inside the glare and was gone.

A desert stretched beyond the cabin, now. The scorched earth was cracked in hexagonal tiles, curled crisp at the edges. Above it, herds of white clouds roamed the doming sky. Somewhere between, but not quite at the point where the earth meets the sky, hovered another cabin. Peter set one bare foot down on to the clay and stepped out beneath the shimmering sky.

20

That night, the other Cooper appeared at the bedroom door again. They’d barely spoken at dinner. Cooper wouldn’t even look him in the eye. Then they’d taken turns brushing their teeth in the bathroom alone so the silence they shared wasn’t even louder in smaller spaces.