Accidental Evil (15 page)

“Alone with nobody is more like it,” Trina said. “Those two wouldn’t notice the world crumbling around them when they’re together.”

“Exactly,” Lily said. “I knew you would understand.”

“What is it that I’m understanding?” Trina asked.

“Because Jeff is gone, and Sarah’s basically alone when she’s at home, I was hoping that Sarah could come stay with us for a few weeks until school starts.”

Trina tilted her head. She didn’t say anything while she finished folding the sheet and put it in the basket. She pulled out the next one and handed an end to Lily.

“Didn’t Jeffrey go to live in the barn a few weeks ago?” Trina asked.

Lily nodded. “Yeah.”

“So Sarah has been alone for a while then, right?”

“I suppose.”

“What makes it so urgent that she get out of the house now?”

“Because Jeff is gone.”

“He already
was
gone. Why now? How come Sarah is itching to move right when your parents are going away. You two have some plans that I don’t know about?”

“No. It’s not that,” Lily said. She should have known better. Trina almost always sided with Lily, but she couldn’t be lied to. It just didn’t work. Lily looked up and locked eyes with Trina. The woman came forward and took the corners of the sheet from Lily’s hands. “I suppose that I’m a little scared to be alone too,” Lily said. “I love the idea of staying here with you, but with my parents gone and…”

Lily couldn’t say it.

“And what?” Trina asked. Her tone was clear—Lily had to answer if she wanted Trina’s support.

Lily couldn’t look at her while she said it. “With Gerard here I’d feel more comfortable if someone else was staying with me in my room.”

“Oh, Rabbit,” Trina said. “I will have my eyes on…”

She was interrupted. Gerard poked his head through the door. Lily blushed and looked away.

“Sorry,” Gerard said. “Cousin?”

“What is it?” Trina asked.

“Can I talk to you?”

“Go ahead,” Trina said. Gerard looked at Lily and then back to Trina. When he looked back and forth a second time, Trina repeated herself. “Go ahead.”

He blinked and turned his mouth down into a frown.

“We shouldn’t go outside,” he said.

“What?” Trina asked.
 

Lily folded her arms and shrank back from the man. Trina glanced over at the girl.

“Why, Gerard?”

“Those things are out there. I saw them near the boat house and in the woods. They’re surrounding the house.”

“What things?” Trina asked.

“Look for yourself.” He pointed to the window.
 

The laundry room had started life as a side porch. At one point, when indoor plumbing was still on the horizon, the porch had been an attached privy. The room had been expanded to a washroom and then weatherproofed when Lily’s parents had bought the place. It was still a little drafty during winter storms, and there was a window that looked in to the living room. Lily liked the room in the summer. It had a nice breeze with the windows open. Now she turned towards the window, but kept one eye on Gerard. He went to the other window with his cousin.

They all looked across the yard towards the trees. There was a neighbor’s house in that direction, but it was hidden by the summer foliage.
 

“I don’t see anything, Gerard,” Trina said.

“Look,” he said. He pointed off to the right. He had his face pressed against the glass. Lily did the same at her window and tried to see what he was pointing at. “In the water.”

Their house had waterfront on one of the lake’s private coves. The water was smooth and calm except for ripples expanding from where a fish had jumped.

“There’s nothing in the water,” Trina said.

“It just went under,” Gerard said.

Trina took her cousin by the shoulder and pulled him to the side. She whispered to him, but Lily heard perfectly well what she said.

“Listen, Gerard, you have to be on your
best behavior
. Even if you do think you see something, I don’t want you to mention it, okay? You just stay in your room and don’t bother anyone, okay?”

Gerard looked at Lily before he spoke. She could feel his eyes on her, but she kept looking through the window.

“I’m just trying to help,” he said. “I really did see something. I’m afraid it might be dangerous.”

“Gerard!” Trina growled through clenched teeth.

Lily turned and watched as Trina took her cousin’s elbow and marched him towards the door.

“Wait,” Lily said.
 

Trina stopped and turned to her. The frustration cleared from her face as she looked at Lily.
 

“What is it?”

“Look there,” Lily said. “Look to the right of Dad’s rock.” It was what they called the big chunk of rock that stuck out from the lawn over on the east side of the house. Lily’s father had been mowing the lawn one day when he said that the rock had jumped out of the soil and attacked the mower. For weeks he had claimed that the rock had never been there before the mowing incident. Ever since, they had called it, “Dad’s rock.”

“Looks like someone needs to use the weed whacker,” Trina said.

“Yeah, but look in the grass,” Lily said.

“It’s too far. I can’t see…” Trina began.

“I see it!” Gerard said. Lily jumped when she realized how close he was. “There are three yellow eyes. One, two, three.”

“He’s right,” Lily said. “Three eyes in a triangle. I’ve seen those before.”

“What are you two talking about?” Trina asked.

Lily turned as she realized that Trina’s voice was retreating into the house. She ran after her and caught up in the kitchen as Trina exited through the back door. Gerard was right on her heels, so Lily ran outside after Trina. The three of them formed an expedition as they rounded the corner of the house.

[ Discovery ]

“To the right of your Dad’s rock?”
 

“Don’t you see it?” Lily asked.

Trina began to slow when she was still a dozen paces away from the rock. Lily pulled up to her shoulder and hid behind the woman. She glanced and saw that Gerard was starting to circle around to the side.

As they approached, Lily saw the thing duck down into the tall grass.

Trina sucked in a breath and stopped in her tracks at the movement.

“Did you see it?” Lily asked.

The question seemed to bolster Trina’s courage. She began trudging forward again.

“You two have put a fright on me is all. It’s probably a little rabbit. Right, Rabbit?” Trina asked.

Gerard was closing in from the opposite side as they approached the rock from the house side.

Trina slowed again when she was only a few paces away. She lifted up to her toes and stretched her neck for better angle to see the thing. Lily kept her spot behind Trina. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to know what was there. Trina would figure it out.

“I think it ran off,” Trina said. “Whatever it was. Maybe it has a den underneath the…”

Gerard yelled as he ran towards the rock. Trina yipped her surprise and stopped suddenly. Lily pressed against her back.

“Gerard!” Trina said.

Lily peered around Trina to see him jump in the air and come down on top of the rock. The jagged surface didn’t offer a good place to land, but Gerard managed it. He squatted down and swiped at the tall grass.

“You’re going to get a tick,” Trina said.
 

Gerard tilted his head to the side. “Wait. I think I see it.”

“Gerard, stop. You’ve caused enough hysteria for one day,” Trina said.
 

Gerard let himself roll forward and did and somersault off the rock. He rolled away from them in the grass. Lily put her hand to her mouth at her own smile. It was almost funny the way he had tumbled forward. She didn’t want to encourage him.

He came back up to his knees with his hands to his chest. He pushed them away. Lily saw that he was holding something that was about the size of a football. It looked like a rock.

“Ow!” Gerard yelled. He threw the rock away from himself and it hit the ground at Trina’s feet.
 

She moved her foot forward to nudge the rock, but she didn’t move quick enough. Legs sprang from the sides of the gray mass and it sprinted towards the woods. The legs moved so fast that the thing almost looked like it was hovering. It was gone in a fraction of a second.

“Why didn’t you grab it?” Gerard asked.

“Grab it?” Trina yelled. “What was it?”

“Maybe we should go back inside,” Lily said. Her eyes went from the edge of the woods to the skies. She felt uneasy about all that open space above them for some reason.
 

Gerard cocked his head. “You hear something?”

Lily nodded. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was suddenly very dry.

“Yeah, okay,” Trina said. “Back to the house.”

As she herded Lily and Gerard towards the back door, they both glanced up. Soon, Trina was doing it too. Lily heard a buzzing sound, like the distant whine of a cloud of mosquitos coming their way. The sound was coming from multiple directions. From the way he turned his head, Gerard heard it too.

The first of the things buzzed them when they were still a few paces from the house. Something dark and fast zipped through the air between them and the house. Lily let out a surprised yell and then felt Trina’s hand in her back.

“Get in there quick, Rabbit,” Trina whispered.

Lily broke from the other two, sprinting for the door. She felt the wind of something zipping behind her and then peeling away. Lily threw open the door and dove inside. She sprang up quickly to hold open the door for Trina and Gerard, who were right on her heels.

They piled through the door and Trina pushed it shut with both hands. She ducked down and looked through the window up at the sky.
 

Behind them, Lily’s dad came through the doorway.

“Trina, there you are,” he said. “Wendy and I would like to speak with you when you have a moment.”

“Yeah,” Trina said. She didn’t take her eyes off the sky. Bruce Hazard seemed to just be registering that his daughter and Gerard were crouched on the floor behind Trina.
 

“There’s something we need to talk about,” Trina added.

[ Busy ]

T
HE
LINE
SNAKED
ACROSS
the deck, down the steps, and all the way to the rocks. It was the most customers Sarah had ever seen lined up out there, and they were all staring at her with hungry eyes. The kid in front of her couldn’t decide between the waffle and the sugar cone. She turned and grabbed one of each to hold them up.

The boy reached for them with his pudgy little fingers.

“No, not for eating,” she said. “For choosing. You want sugar or waffle.”

He pointed towards the sugar cone. She wrote it on the order and tore the sheet to hand it to Ruth.

“Okay,” Sarah said. “Now slide down and we’ll get you taken care of.” She smiled at the boy, but he just stared at her with empty eyes. Sarah thought of that movie her brother had made her watch. She thought about the giant shark with, “Dead eyes, like a doll’s eyes.” She felt insane laughter bubbling up from inside herself and fought to keep it down. Once she started laughing, when would it stop?

She quoted the total to the pudgy boy’s mom and the woman held out a credit card.

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said with a big smile. “We’re cash only.” She didn’t point to the sign that was propped up on the counter. There was another big sign on the menu board, and even a little one tacked to the post of the deck. The woman must have read, “Cash Only,” at least a hundred times while she stood there in line. Still, the notion looked like it was a complete surprise for her.

Behind Sarah, Ruth Endicott was an ice cream scooping whirlwind. Ruth moved like a tornado back there, partly because they were so busy and partly because Joey Dawn was helping them out this morning. Ruth wasn’t working extra hard to impress the boss, she was just moving very quickly to stay away from his “accidental” collisions. Joey was like a lab-designed sexual harassment machine when it came to Ruth Endicott. He couldn’t keep his hands to himself.

The woman finally came up with the cash and Sarah was on to the next customer.

She didn’t dare look at the clock. On the Fourth of July while working the ice cream stand, looking at the clock would only make it go backwards.

She took the order of the next two kids and they already had exact change waiting. She wanted to lean through the window and kiss each of them on the head. The next group was a family of five boys and a dad. They all wore nothing but bathing suits and they were so sunburned that they looked like steamed lobsters. Sarah asked the smallest what he wanted, but the oldest kid interjected his order. She smiled at him and started writing.

There had to be fifty people waiting in line. Every head turned at the sound of the bell.

It was the bell on the other side of the dam. They rang it as the final warning for all the parade participants to start to line up. The people in line assumed that they were about to miss something. They weren’t—it always took at least thirty minutes to get the parade going after the bell.

Still, the people at the back of the line began to peel away. As Sarah took the next order, she saw the line begin to dissolve, from the back to the front. As long as there was another person waiting behind them, people seemed content to wait. But as soon as they were the last people in line, they got antsy.
 

Sarah silently cheered each time someone gave up.
 

Ruth was fighting with the five boys as Sarah took orders from an old couple. The woman wanted a sundae. The man wanted toast. They didn’t serve toast. After a minute of deliberation, the man settled on toasted almond ice cream. During the wait, another two groups of people gave up their spots in line so they could head for the road.

Sarah glanced behind herself. Joey was just standing there, wiping his hands with a rag.

“Joey, why don’t you start putting the barrels away?” Sarah called.