So Far Gone

by Jess Walter

He wore a heavy flannel shirt over what appeared to be a lighter flannel shirt over what appeared to be a once-white T-shirt, now a dirty beige-gray color that Leah might have called twice-plowed snow. (It was a hobby of hers, naming new colors. Shane once said she should go to work for the big paint companies.) Kinnick’s face was gaunt and his long, unkempt brown hair was streaked with gray (hash browns and country gravy) while his shaggy beard was dusky white (high winter clouds). Whiskers migrated down his neck nearly to his chest and up his cheeks, nearly to his regret-to-inform-you blue eyes.