Last Light (22 page)

He wished she’d go into the house. “I wasn’t talking to you, but since you insist on listening . . . I’m saying that I fought for the bikes this morning because something inside me reacted, and in the heat of that moment, I would have killed to protect our property.”

Mandy seemed moved by his honesty. “We fight for what’s important, Jeff. You did the right thing.”

“Yeah, but if we’re going to fight to the death for something, shouldn’t it be something worth dying . . . or killing for? Would you kill someone for a bike, Deni?”

Deni winked at Mandy. “Depends. Is it a ten-speed or one of those no-frills kind?”

“So you’d kill for the frills?” he asked.

Mandy laughed, which only encouraged Deni. “Yeah, maybe.” Deni rolled her eyes and headed for the door into the house. “Right now I’d kill for a glass of water, so don’t get in my way.”

Mandy giggled as Deni went in. Jeff didn’t find it funny. “She is so clueless.”

“I like her. She’s cool.”

Her giggle was good medicine. It was the best he’d felt all day. “I’m glad you came by.”

“Hey, why don’t you come back to Zach’s tonight? We’re going to be over there swimming again.”

Jeff saw his dad coming up the driveway, and his smile faded. “No, I can’t. I’m in enough trouble already, and my family needs me.”

“All night? Can’t you come for part of it?”

“No, I’d better not.”

His father had an angry look on his face as he came into the garage. Jeff hoped he hadn’t reconsidered grounding him.

“Dad, this is Mandy.”

His dad wore a guarded look as he reached out to shake her hand. “Hi, Mandy. Nice to meet you.”

Jeff braced himself, expecting him to comment on meeting her in Jeff’s lap last night. But he didn’t, and his silence was almost as awkward.

A hint of red crept into Mandy’s cheeks. “Uh, well, I guess I should go.”

“Yeah,” Jeff said. “I’ll see you around, okay?”

She smiled. “I’d tell you to call me, but . . .”

It was enough that she wanted him to.

“See ya.” He watched her walk away. When he turned back to his father, he saw the disapproval in his eyes. His joy faded.

“Dad, she’s the best-looking girl at school. I’ve tried to get her attention forever, and now I think she likes me.”

“I’d say she does, judging from the way she was acting last night.” He looked at the wheels on the garbage can and rolled it to see how it worked.

“Dad, she’s a nice girl. I know you might not have thought so last night, but she is. It’s not like she just plopped down into my lap. I pulled her there. It was my fault.”

“I agree. I blame you completely.”

Jeff sighed. He couldn’t win.

“Nice job here.” His dad’s face softened. “Let’s try it out and head down to the lake. We need more water.”

Jeff felt his father’s anger still radiating between them, even though his words suggested he’d forgiven him. But why else could he be in such a sour mood? He hated it, but all he could do was earn back his respect. And he was starting to realize that might take longer than he’d hoped.

twenty-nine

Doug kept what had happened at Sam’s house to himself, since it wouldn’t make the family feel any more secure to know that a bunch of angry, racist rednecks with guns were “protecting” their streets at night. But the conversation ate at him. That afternoon, as he got the family busy taking inventory of their food, he found his mind sinking back into that maddening conversation. He couldn’t believe what jerks some of his neighbors were.

Trying to keep his mind focused, he went over the list the family had come up with. The provisions looked grim.

“We need to make up some very rigid menus, guys,” he said. “No snacking. We have to make this food last as long as we can.”

“Yeah, Jeff,” Deni said. “He broke into the potato chips earlier.”

“Hey, I’m not the only one who ate them,” Jeff said.

“You opened the bag.”

“And I forced them into your mouth and moved your jaw to make you chew?”

Doug sighed. “That’s enough, you two. I’m serious. No more chips, unless they’re on the menu.”

“Then you’d better tell Mom to stop giving stuff away.”

At Deni’s remark, Doug looked up at Kay. “Giving what away?”

She sighed. “I gave some of our canned vegetables to Amber. I’m worried about her, Doug. She has to feed those kids somehow.”

“Well, you have to feed
us
,” Deni said.

As much as he understood Kay’s helping the woman next door, he found himself more on Deni’s side. She was right. They didn’t need to be giving away their food. He studied the list. “We need to be realistic. This thing hit us unprepared. We don’t have enough.”

Deni pulled up and sat on the counter. “Dad, you have to be wrong about how bad things are. The power will be back on before we know it. It has to.”

Beth started spinning a quarter on the table. “Hopefully before the next episode of
Thunder Down Under
.”

“That’s Thursday night,” Doug said. “I can almost promise you nothing will be resolved before then.”

Deni didn’t want to hear it. “I’m leaving Friday, and that’s all there is to it.”

“In what?” Jeff asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m going. And before I leave, I have a million wedding details to settle. I have to pick out the cake, order invitations, shop for my tiara.”

Jeff moaned. “Give me a break! A crown? You’re letting her wear a crown?”

Kay chuckled. “It’s her wedding, Jeff.”

“Shows what you know about weddings,” Beth piped in. “That’s what brides wear now.”

“I thought they wore those stupid veil things.”

Deni looked disgusted. “They wear the tiara
with
the veil, moron.”

He grinned. “Tell the truth. You’re really just marrying the guy for the crown. It’s not him you love, it’s the power.”

She threw a pot holder at him. “Why don’t you shut up?”

Jeff laughed. “Well, you gotta admit the guy isn’t even your type. He’s a workaholic and treats you like you ought to feel privileged he gives you any time at all.”

Doug started to stop him, but these were things that he’d wanted to say for some time. He met Kay’s eyes, but she didn’t intervene, either.

“He’s a mover and a shaker, okay?” Deni threw back. “That’s what attracts me to him.”

“Attraction is one thing, but marriage is another.”

Doug stared at Jeff. When did his son get so wise?

“And you’re a mover and a shaker, too, but you always have time for him whenever he can fit you into his busy schedule.”

Deni threw her chin up. “You clearly have no concept of what an important person he is. And I’m not going to be some whining housewife who needs her husband’s undivided attention twenty-four/seven!”

Doug braced himself as Kay flinched at that comment.

“Excuse me, young lady?” Kay said. “Are you insinuating that there’s something wrong with being a housewife?”

Deni backed down then. “No, Mom. I didn’t mean
you’re
whiny and attention-starved. Just that I want to do more with my life. I want to make a difference.”

Kay’s jaw dropped. “And I haven’t done anything with my life? I haven’t made a difference?”

Doug tried to suppress his grin at the hole Deni had dug for herself. How in the world would she get out of it now?

“I didn’t say that. Did I say that?”

“Sounded like you said that,” Beth muttered.

Jeff crossed his arms and grinned. “That’s what I heard.”

Her siblings leaned back in their chairs, enjoying her predicament.

She took a deep breath and started over. “I’m glad you were a stay-at-home mom. It did make a difference. I wasn’t making a comment on what
you
do. I was just saying that I’m strong enough to handle a powerful man who puts his work first.”

Her words punctured something in Doug’s hopes for her, and the air spilled out in a long sigh.

Kay just got up and grabbed the broom, and started to sweep the kitchen.

“Don’t you believe me, Mom? That I didn’t mean to insult you or any other housewives?”

“I worry about your attitude, Deni,” she said. “I worry about your expectations. I worry about your arrogance.”

“Me? Arrogant?” She grunted. “You’ve
got
to be kidding.”

Finally, Doug entered the fray. “Deni, if you really want to succeed in life—in the important ways, I mean—you need to put others first. That means you don’t look down on people for any reason. A plumber can be much more important than a senator. A farmer could be a thousand times more important than an astronaut. And the job of a mother is more important than any other job a woman can have. It requires strength, character, discipline, patience, organization, intuition, and a strong work ethic. And when you can’t see those things, when your eyes are dimmed by your own ambitions and dreams, then sometimes God has to teach you how wrong you are. I don’t want Him to have to do that. I’d rather you just loved people and saw them as worthwhile.”

Deni’s hands went to her hips, in that posture of arrogance again. “So you’re saying I shouldn’t have dreams? That I’m wrong to be ambitious? Then why did you send me to Georgetown in the first place?”

“We sent you there because of your grades, Deni. We felt you’d earned the right to go to the college of your choice. And yes, it’s fine to have dreams, and I’m glad you’re ambitious. But you shouldn’t put yourself above others who choose differently.”

Deni looked as if she’d been desperately misunderstood. “I
told
you, I’m not doing that. I know other things are important. So sue me for getting excited about my future. Maybe you’d rather I moped around all the time.”

Kay sighed and got the dustpan, swept up the dirt, and dumped it into the ever-growing trash bag. “We want you to be happy, Deni. We really do. Let’s just start over, okay? We have work to do, and we don’t need to drag this conversation out anymore. We have more important things to talk about, like how we’re going to manage this crisis. We could be in the dark for weeks. Months, even.”

Logan’s face mottled red, and his mouth fell open. “There’s no way I can sit in this house for months, in the dark, with no TV, no radio, no computer, no air conditioner, and no video games!”

From one fight to the next. Doug was too tired for this. “Logan, you may not have a choice.” Doug got up, feeling the pull of those aching muscles again. And the oppressive heat didn’t help matters. He wiped his forehead on his sleeve. “Now, Deni and Beth, I want you to help your mother make up menus for the next three weeks. Jeff and Logan, we’re going to rig up something in the barbecue pit so we can boil water over the fire. We’re also out of charcoal, so we’ll need to chop wood.”

“Dad, that’s impossible. We can’t get all that done today.”

“We’re all going to help. When the girls get finished with the menus, they can help us with the wood.”

“I’d rather chop wood now than sit in this hot house making menus,” Beth said.

Deni agreed. “Me, too. I can swing an axe.”

Doug shot Kay a look, and she gave him a smirk.
Let them go
, it seemed to say.
Give them what they ask for
.

“Fine. Mom will stay here and work on menus, and the rest of us will go. But I don’t want to hear any complaining. I expect hard work.”

A little while later, Doug had rigged up some slots on the sides of the barbecue pit, so that they could raise and lower the grate depending on the kind of heat they’d need. That way, they’d be able to do more stove-top type cooking, rather than just grilling everything.

He’d led the kids to a forest area near the subdivision and instructed them to cut up fallen limbs. With the two axes they’d bought at Wal-Mart, they managed to make pretty good progress, tag-teaming as each got tired.

They had a good-sized pile and were loading it onto their wagon, when Doug saw Amber pushing her stroller through the woods, her three-year-old running ahead of her to pick up sticks.