The Waiting: A Supernatural Thriller(73)
“She already knows we weren’t staying forever,” he said to the quiet kitchen.
But the notion had crossed your mind, hadn’t it?
Of course it had. Just the thought of her pretty face smiling at him in the sunshine the day he’d taken her and Shaun fishing and of the way her lips had felt on his had almost cemented the notion of never leaving. It had been years since he’d experienced anything like the sensation of really being alive.
Evan cast the thoughts away and stood, his feet carrying him to his room. He took out his suitcase and began to fill it with clothes.
Shaun woke a half hour later, and Evan cooked him breakfast in the spotless kitchen. After they’d both eaten, he helped Shaun trace the alphabet and numbers to thirty, saying letters and numerals aloud as the dry-erase marker squeaked on the plastic pages. When the books were packed away, they did Shaun’s exercises, though Evan was careful not to push him too hard, for fear of bringing on another seizure. But Shaun looked strong and resilient, with no sign of giving up. Pride washed through Evan, and a smile that would’ve seemed impossible a few hours ago came to his lips. That was the power of children. Sometimes they were the sail that lifted the adults’ minds out of a free fall.
We’re always thinking that we take care of them, and more often than not it’s the other way around.
Bolstered by how well Shaun did, Evan showed him the sunshine glittering off the lake outside.
“Wanna go swimming, buddy?”
The boy looked at him, and then glanced out to the lake, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“Swimming? Do you want to swim?”
“Swum?”
Evan smiled. “Okay, let’s go.”
The water gripped Evan’s ankles like cold hands when he stepped in, and he hissed with the sensation, every inch of his skin tightening. The sun sat behind the island, and the massive trees threw long shadows on the lake, making its surface opaque and fathomless. The dark water pushed a blade of unease into him, and he walked down the beach, with Shaun in his arms, until he found a break in the trees where sunshine sprayed onto the water in a shimmering pool of light.
They eased in together, Shaun making a happy yet comical grimace as the water lapped higher and higher on his body. Evan whooped when it met his crotch, and he dunked them both lower, knowing it was better to get it over with. He walked them out to deeper water and helped Shaun float.
“You remember this?” Evan asked, as Shaun turned his head toward him. “You remember your therapy in the pool back home? Remember swimming?”
Shaun smiled and raised his eyebrows, making his eyes so large Evan burst out laughing.
“You’re a ham.”
They swam until Shaun’s teeth chattered and his own fingertips tingled. Evan waded them to the shore, and then climbed the hill to the house. Once they were both dry and in comfortable clothes, he made Shaun a cup of hot cocoa and coffee for himself. They sat at the kitchen table and drank, the warmth of the beverages sinking into them. He watched Shaun suck happily on his straw, and thought that in this moment things almost seemed normal. The trip to the hospital the night before and the incident with the closet seemed far away, like an island in the distance that is visible but without detail. He could almost imagine them living here indefinitely if every day was like this.
Evan frowned. Had he just been contemplating staying? He shook his head, the disquiet he experienced earlier when looking at the dark water returning.
“More,” Shaun said, trying to push his empty mug across the table.
Evan took it and walked to the counter, his movements automatic, his eyes unfocused as the sun climbed higher.
24
Evan forgot about Selena coming over for dinner until the moment she knocked on the door.
He and Shaun had spent the rest of the day cleaning and tidying up the house, his decision to leave the next morning as resolute as one of the pines growing outside. When he opened the door—half dreading the conversation he knew they would have to have—his thoughts stumbled over one another at the sight of her standing there in the afternoon sun.
Selena’s hair was lustrous and curled, hanging in brown dangles that framed her face. She wore a formfitting long-sleeved blouse that held tight to her flat stomach and a pair of capris that hugged her hips in curves that kept wanting to draw his eyes downward. A waft of cherry blossom crossed the distance between them, and he felt drugged, helpless but to look at her in the doorway.
She smiled, tipping her right shoulder, which held the straps of a reusable grocery bag. “Are you going to let me in or just stare at me?”
“Stare at you.”
Selena laughed. “Here.”
She handed him the grocery bag, and when he looked inside, he saw the makings of a salad, steaks, a small bag of red potatoes, and two bottles of wine.
“Whoa,” he said, carrying the bag to the kitchen.
“Yeah, I got a little carried away, but I thought I’d bring dinner, seeing as you guys have fed me so many times. Hi, Shaun.” Selena knelt next to Shaun’s chair and rubbed his shoulder, and then tickled his neck until he giggled.
“You didn’t have to do this.”
“I know, I wanted to. Now pour me a glass of wine and get out of my way, I need space to create a masterpiece.”
Evan shrugged playfully and uncorked one of the bottles. Selena worked for the next hour, pausing only to take a small sip from her wineglass from time to time. Smells of cooking steak and boiling potatoes filled the kitchen, and soon Evan heard Shaun’s stomach rumble from the other side of the table.