Alone in her trailer, a full month removed from her serendipitous soiree with Glen at the motel, Lana sat on her tattered and worn sofa, dreading the impending result of the wheels they had put into motion after having sex that morning.
Invigorated, at the time, by a man who was willing to show her some attention, sexual and otherwise, Lana had poured her soul out to the married businessman. At some point during their private conversation, Glen had half jokingly blurted out an idea that summed up everything Lana had been holding inside for years, but was too afraid and incapable of acting on alone.
Now as she sat there a month later, knowing Glen was speeding towards Duluth to put their plan into action, Lana's squirmed on the couch then paced the floor over and over, struggling with the reality of what was about to happen.
The month following her encounter with Glen had been anything but easy. Having kicked Pervis to the curb, Lana was left with a gaping void of emptiness in her life and after a week or so, she found herself roaming the bars at night and hanging out at some of his familiar haunts to try and reconcile.
Having made the connection with Glen, a passion long bottled up inside of Lana had been uncorked and now she didn't have anyone to share it with. When she finally did run into Pervis, with her hormones severely on edge, she had disgusted herself by how easily she allowed him back into her life. She would just have to tell Glen that she had changed her mind about their plan.
While she knew Pervis was having a difficult time finding a place to live, which would explain why he came back to her with his tail seemingly between his legs, she soon sensed something deeper at work in his initial goodwill towards her. After a few days back together, Lana began to hear the grumblings from some of her friends that her daughter, Angie, was pregnant from her affair with Pervis and that he didn't want to have anything to do with her as a result. When she confronted him with the rumor, Pervis didn't deny it so much as laugh it off, which left Lana right back where she started.
All the old wounds with Pervis now re-opened, Lana decided to call Glen to discuss what they had talked about weeks earlier. Torched on tequila as she talked on the phone with him for nearly 30 minutes, Lana hemmed and hawed, changing her mind several times before Glen finally pressed her for a decision.
"This is a pretty big step Lana... tell me now... do you really want to go through with this or not?" He calmly demanded.
"... Yes," Lana mumbled with renewed determination.
"I'll be coming through Duluth on the 10th... can you handle everything on your end?" Glen asked with a tone of chilling formality.
"... Yes... Yes I think so," Lana replied, her hand shaking so noticeably she could barely hold the receiver.
"Then it's done, I'll see you in a few days," he added before saying goodbye.
* * * * *
So as she sat there on the sofa, waiting for Glen's inevitable call with confirmation that he had arrived in town, Lana struggled mightily with the guilt and certain consequences over what they was about to do.
"Wouldn't it have been just as easy to tell Pervis to get out of your life so you could move on?" Lana's inner rationale begged, even though the vengeful and shattered part of her psyche, the one that absorbed and committed to memory every physical blow, callous word and perceived slight of the past 47 years, told her "No... this is your one chance to heal all those scars Lana... and your one chance to start inflicting some of your own!"
"I just can't go through with this though," Lana would mutter to herself when she stood up to pace the floor, changing her mind each time she got to the other end of her cozy and cramped living room, only to change it again when she started walking back the other way.
Finally, the phone rang.
"Hello," she whispered, knowing who it was from the number on the ID.
"I'm about 10 minutes from town... everything on track from your end?" Glen asked, the nervousness and anticipation of their impending action clear in his voice as well.
"... Yeah... " Lana replied after a breathless pause. "I talked to Pervis earlier this afternoon... told him to come by the trailer around 10 tonight... that I wanted to make amends for everything I've put him through the last few weeks."
"Good," Glen quickly interjected. "That should give us a half hour or so to set things up before he gets there... I've got to make one quick stop in town before I come over... to set up what we talked about last time... then I'll be there... last chance Lana... once we set this thing in motion there are no second chances?"
"... I know," Lana agreed.
"I'll see you in a few minutes," Glen said before hanging up.
Taking a deep breath after hanging up the phone, Lana resumed pacing the floor of her claustrophobic living space, wondering for a moment what it would look like after the night's festivities played out.
While her and Glen's original plan had been outrageous enough on its own, Lana recoiled when he came up with the added suggestion, the one he was in the process of setting up on his way over to meet her. Knowing her relationship with Pervis would be ruined in a few short hours, she couldn't help but wonder just what effect the final part of Glen's plan would have on the rest of Pervis' life.
"The Son-of-a-Bitch deserves everything he gets," Lana's tortured inner voice cackled. "But you have to be strong enough to go through with this!"
* * * * *
Lana's already pounding heart did a summersault into her throat when she heard the gravel grinding in her driveway under the weight of an approaching car.
"He's here," she shuddered, dashing across the room to peek through the curtain at Glen easing his car into park.
Feeling a cold chill tingle down her spine when she saw the two shadowy figures sitting in the front seat, Lana went to the door and waited to let Glen in.
"Oh my God... he's really gonna go through with this," She mouthed over and over as Glen's footsteps eased up the walkway.
Once inside, like a general entering a theatre of battle for the first time, Glen surveyed the cramped and poorly lit surroundings.
"We might end up tearing this whole place apart tonight," he thought to himself.
Lana, on the other hand, couldn't peel her eyes off of Glen as she stood in place.
"You've only spent 25 minutes with this man... and this is the first time you've even seen him with his clothes on... and you've gone and let him talk you into the most despicable thing you've ever done," Lana conscience raked her over the coals as she stood there silently. "What if this goes wrong... what if this goes horribly wrong... we could all end up dead!"
Finally, the two locked eyes.
"We're gonna do this," Glen nodded his head with reserved confidence.
"What time did you say he's supposed to get here?"
"10," Lana quickly chirped, still wringing her hands nervously even though she felt a warm swell of sanctuary in Glen's presence.
The next hour seemed to last a lifetime.
The two made only a minimum amount of small talk as they alternated their glances between the clock, the front window and each other. Part of Lana desperately wanted to broach the subject of the stranger Glen still had waiting out in his car, but was hesitant to do so knowing she might lose her nerve at the last moment if she was forced to discuss that part of the plan. So she simply sat beside him on the sofa, quiet as a church mouse until the sound Pervis' car caused both to stir into action.
"He's gonna wonder about the strange car out there," Lana warned.
"Too late now... Let's roll," Glen replied before taking his place behind Lana's back.
"God help us," Lana muttered under her breath as she kept her eyes trained like a magnet on the front door, waiting for her unsuspecting boyfriend to enter.
* * * * *
The next 30 seconds went by in a maddening and furious rush.
Crouched behind Lana's paralyzed body as a drunk, high and more than horny Pervis strutted up the walk, Glen guided his right forearm around Lana's neck and began squeezing it tight when he saw the door begin to open.
"Now," Glen hissed into her ear.
"UURRGHHH... HELP," Lana blurted with real conviction, squirming and twisting away from Glen as if her life depended on it.
Stunned by what he saw before he could even take a step inside, Pervis gulped and found what last bit of sobriety he had before bursting through the doorway.
Letting Lana go and pushing her aside when he saw his male rival approach, Glen braced himself for the slightly smaller man's charge.
The two tussled and scrapped for nearly 20 seconds before Glen started to get a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"What a great fucking time for her to chicken out," Glen dreadfully thought, doing his best to keep the flailing man at bay in hopes that Lana would finally move in and follow through with her end of the bargain.
"GGGRRRRRRR," the two men growled, sounding like a pair of out of shape bears locked in a life or death struggle until Pervis' body inexplicably lurched backwards.
"Thank... God," Glen mouthed before taking a step back to avoid the drunken man's aimless flails and kicks.
"GGRR... GGRR... AAHHHGGRRR," Pervis groveled, still unable to process just what had happened.
"I'll get his hands," Glen spat before lurching forward, in the process stealing a quick peek into Lana's eyes to measure her resolve as she fiendishly held on to her boyfriend's neck with one of his very own leather belts.
"OK... OK... I got his hands," Glen bristled. "Let's get him tied up and go from there."
Continuing to twist and squirm as if he was about to the thrown overboard on a ship, Pervis failed to fend off the dual attack and before he knew it, his arms had been raised high into the air and he found himself latched to a support beam in the trailer's ceiling, with his feet bound at the ankles on the floor.
For the better part of a minute, Lana and Glen stood side by side, staring at Pervis' strained and disbelieving face. Their clothes wrinkled from the tussle, they stood there silently with a look of intense awe.
His liquored up brain spinning unmercifully, Pervis began to feel his shoulders burn at the same time his legs were each going numb. Part of him was still holding out hope that it was all a big practical joke on Lana's part, but the more he looked into her and the male stranger's eyes, the unsettling reality of what had befallen him began to set in.
