The Anniversary (14 page)

he slipped between them. Squatting beside wooden shingles, he 8

peered into the shadows. He ruffled the branches of a gnarled 9

shrub, then ran his fingers across the earth. She’d come back here 10

with just one small basket, and when she’d come out it was gone.

11

It had to be somewhere, he told himself. But where, damn it, 12

where? Then, at that instant, he caught sight of it, the pale scrap 13

of ribbon. Gingerly, he reached up the drainpipe spout until he 14

grasped the basket. It was wedged tightly in the narrow pipe, and 15

it took a while to dislodge. Impatiently, he pushed against the 16

straw until it fell away.

17

As the basket slid out of the chute, candy tumbled out. He 18

picked up a foil-covered chocolate egg, unwrapped it, and popped 19

it in his mouth. Sweetness melted across his tongue, as he 20

reached down into a pocket. From inside, he pulled out another 21

egg, this one made of hollow pink plastic. When he turned the 22

ends, the egg fell in two, and he looked at the object he’d placed 23

inside. He wondered how long it would take her to realize its sig-24

nificance. She was smart, he had to give her that. He doubted 25

that it would take long.

26

I am not a man, I am dynamite.

27

He smiled at the philosopher’s words.

28

After snapping the plastic egg back together, he placed it in 29

the tiny basket. The egg looked so innocent resting there. Who 30

could guess what it held? He took a moment to straighten the 31

bow before restoring the basket.

32

Once he was sure it was securely stowed, he climbed back to 33

his feet. Everything was in order now. Everything was ready. Now 34

it was time for him to go home, to get a good night’s sleep. The 35 S

only thing he had left to do was make sure that Anna found it.

36 R

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Sunday, April 16

An n a ’ s gotten so tall! How old is she now?”

1

“Ten,” Callie said. Across the street, she watched as Anna beat 2

through the Creightons’ shrubs, joining the horde of neighbor-3

hood kids in their search for eggs and baskets.

4

“So this will be her last one?”

5

“Mmm.” Callie felt a pang.

6

Naomi Steinmetz shook her head, short gray hair bobbing.

7

The thick lenses of her oversized glasses seemed to magnify her 8

eyes. A Latin professor at Windham, she’d recently retired. She’d 9

always reminded Callie of a large yet friendly insect.

10

It was one of those magical early spring days when time seemed 11

to stand still. The sky was a bright primary blue dotted with puffy 12

white clouds. All around kids laughed and shrieked as they 13

scrambled for hidden bounty. There had to be more than twenty 14

of them; the event had grown each year. Parents mingled in the 15

background, irrelevant and ignored, their smiles nostalgic and a 16

bit wistful as they watched the frenzied search.

17

“Mommy, I found
another
! Here.” Anna thrust a basket into 18

Callie’s hands, then dashed away again.

19

Naomi laughed. “A lot of energy, that one.”

20

“Yes,” Callie said. On days like this, when Anna seemed so 21

happy, she could almost forget the rest, almost convince herself 22

that Anna’s moods were simple growing pains.

23

As Naomi stepped away to find her husband, Callie walked to 24

the porch. She added Anna’s basket to the growing pile and 25

checked her watch again. After eleven-thirty. Rick was running S 26

late.

R 27

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A M Y G U T M A N

1

From the porch, Callie watched the Henning twins toddle 2

toward a cache of eggs. One two-year-old twin stared straight at 3

them, then promptly turned away. The other ran a few short 4

steps, teetered, and fell down, at which point he lost all interest 5

in everything but his left shoe. He studied the sole with intensity, 6

then stuffed it in his mouth.

7

“Just wait ’til next year,” Callie called to their mother. “You 8

won’t be able to stop them.”

9

Across the street, Anna and Henry romped with a neighbor’s 10

dog. The puppy grabbed hold of an Easter basket, and galloped 11

across the yard.
Camera,
Callie thought. And went into the 12

house to find it.

13

As she came back out, she was putting in film, fiddling with 14

the roll. She closed the compartment and listened for the buzz 15

that would tell her the film was loading. As she held the camera 16

to her ear, she heard a noise behind her. But before she had time 17

to turn around, hands came down on her shoulders. In that in-18

stant, her blood seemed to freeze. She shrieked and wheeled 19

around.

20

But it was only Tod Carver standing there, wearing a sheepish 21

expression.

22

“Geez, Callie,” he said, abashed. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

23

She’d dropped the camera. He picked it up. “Hope this isn’t 24

broken.”

25

“It fell on the grass. I’m sure it’s fine.” She smiled at him, em-26

barrassed. “Sorry that I screamed. You just caught me by surprise.”

27

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason, but how was he to know?

28

“Kids here?”

29

Tod gave her his rueful smile. “Nope. I left Oliver and Lilly at 30

home and came to the Easter egg hunt on my own. Thought I’d 31

use my superior size and strength to beat out the other children.”

32

“And if that doesn’t work, you can always flash your badge.”

33

“Now you’re talking.” Tod grinned.

34

Callie grinned back, calmed by the familiar banter.

35 S

“They’re over there,” Tod said, pointing toward the Steinmetz 36 R

yard. Callie caught a glimpse of Lilly, with her long hair and pipe-7 6

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T H E A N N I V E R S A R Y

stem legs. Tod just adored his daughter, who was two years 1

younger than Anna.

2

Like Rick, Tod was an unlikely cop, low-key and warm. He was 3

boyishly good-looking, with an open face and hair the color of 4

copper. Looking at him, she couldn’t imagine why he didn’t have 5

a girlfriend. But Rick said the divorce had hit Tod hard. He still 6

wasn’t ready.

7

“Where’s Rick?” asked Tod, as if on cue.

8

“He should be here by now.” Again, Callie looked around.

9

“Hey, Tod, Callie!” Mimi Creighton swooped down on them, 10

a smile planted on her face. Gucci loafers, streaked blonde hair, a 11

Louis Vuitton handbag. Mimi might have left the city but she’d 12

kept all the trappings.

13

“Isn’t it a
beautiful day
?” Mimi looked excited, almost giddy, 14

her small eyes shining. Taken separately, Mimi’s features weren’t 15

pretty, but together, they somehow worked. She had a slight 16

overbite, a bumpy nose, and small gray-green eyes. But she con-17

veyed an impression of energy that substituted for beauty.

18

“Sure is,” said Tod, smiling and laconic.

19

Mimi barely seemed to hear him. Her eyes had lighted on her 20

son. “I just can’t believe this is Henry’s last year.”

21

“Anna’s too,” said Callie.

22

“Oh, well,” said Mimi brightly. “I guess they have to grow up.”

23

She didn’t seem too bothered. Already, Callie sensed that she 24

was charting Henry’s future, mapping his path from Merritt Ele-25

mentary to the nation’s halls of power. Her other two kids were 26

already in college, one at Yale, one at Brown. Henry’s birth, Cal-27

lie suspected, hadn’t exactly been planned.

28

Callie glanced toward the Driscolls’ yard, where Anna was 29

sprawled with Henry. Their heads were close together as they 30

talked over who-knew-what. Henry was sort of cute, Callie 31

thought, in a gawky boy-genius way, a look that gained a sort of 32

cachet with the Harry Potter craze. He was small and slender 33

with quick bright eyes behind thick horn-rimmed glasses. Like 34

Anna, he sometimes seemed older than his age and at other times S 35

far younger. It struck Callie as a little odd that Anna’s best friend R 36

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A M Y G U T M A N

1

was a boy, but things had changed since she was a kid and boys 2

were the source of cooties.

3

“Greetings, neighbors.” Bernie Creighton appeared, tossing a 4

casual arm around his wife.

5

Bernie exuded an air of enormous self-satisfaction.
Well uphol-6

stered
was the term that came to mind when Callie looked at him.

7

He was short — a bit shorter than his wife — maybe five foot six 8

or seven, barrel-chested with a neat moustache, and slightly 9

overweight. But somehow the extra pounds only added to the ef-10

fect. He gave the impression of being well fed rather than out of 11

shape.

12

“I
made
Bernie come today,” Mimi said. She sounded pleased 13

with herself. “We saw this video last week, where the father 14

didn’t know the daughter’s middle name. He didn’t even know 15

she
had
a middle name.”

16

“The Royal Tenenbaums,”
said Callie. “We saw it too.”

17

“Yeah, that’s what it was. Anyway, I told Bernie that he’s going 18

to forget his kids’
first
names if he doesn’t see more of them.”

19

Callie and Tod laughed politely. It didn’t seem so funny.

20

Bernie shrugged. “We’ve got a trial coming up. That’s just how 21

it is.”

22

“He’s even taken an apartment in Boston,” Mimi said.

23

“Just until after the trial.”

24

The conversation went on in this vein with Callie zoning out.

25

She heard Tod making the appropriate sounds.
Yes. No. Really?

26

With the Creightons, you never had to worry about a topic of 27

conversation. Mimi and Bernie were more than happy to talk 28

about themselves.

29

Scanning the street for Rick again, Callie started at an unex-30

pected sight: her classmate Nathan Lacoste on a bike slowly ped-31

aling toward them. She hadn’t talked to him since that night 32

he’d tried to cadge an invitation for pizza.
The weird one,
Rick 33

had called him. What was he doing here? Quickly, Callie turned 34

away, hoping he wouldn’t see her. Maybe he was heading for the 35 S

Windham campus, just a few blocks away. But he lived on the 36 R

other side of town. She was hardly on his route.

7 8

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T H E A N N I V E R S A R Y

When she looked back up, she saw with relief that he didn’t 1

seem to be stopping. He rode his bike straight through the 2

throng, stopped at the corner, then turned.

3

“Hey there, buddy!” she heard Tod call.

4

She looked back, and there was Rick.

5

“Sorry, babe. I overslept. Forgot to set the alarm.”

6

The day got subtly brighter, as Rick leaned down to kiss her.

7

Callie took his large, warm hand and folded hers into it.

8

The festivities were winding down now, and Callie snapped a 9

last few pictures. Clusters of kids lay sprawled about, baskets piled 10

around them, happily gorging themselves on sugar in all of its 11

various forms. Chocolate rabbits and malted eggs. Marshmallow 12

chickens and jelly beans. Not one of the children that Callie 13

could see was eating a hard-boiled egg.

14

Bernie and Mimi, arm in arm, headed back toward home.

15

When Tod’s kids straggled back, the three of them left as well.

16

“You look tired,” Callie said to Rick. They were still holding 17

hands.

18

Rick shrugged. “I’m okay. Just haven’t been sleeping well.”

19

“Hungry?” Callie asked.

20

“Now that you mention it.”

21

Anna bounced into view. She was wearing jeans and a yellow 22

shirt that picked up the gold in her hair.

23

“I like the light blue eggs best,” said Anna. “They’re like 24

robins’ eggs but bigger.”

25

Callie and Rick headed inside, Anna trailing behind them.

26

In the kitchen, Callie pulled out bread, mustard, leftover 27

chicken, and lettuce.

28

“So how’s your boyfriend?” Rick teased, as he took plates from 29

the cupboard.

30

Callie rolled her eyes. “C’mon Rick. That was twenty years 31

ago.” Rick always ribbed her about Tod’s resemblance to her high 32