The Neighbors Are Watching (18 page)

But she knew very well what mandatory evacuation meant and she didn’t care if it was just a precaution. Mandatory meant officials were involved—maybe in person—and the very last thing Dorothy would allow was to get involved in any way with officials or police. She didn’t understand why Dick wanted to dig in his heels all of a sudden because it wasn’t as if he was the world’s most devoted homeowner. He mowed the backyard reluctantly, took no interest in gardening or landscaping, and cared nothing about interior design. Dick left all the details to Dorothy. However she wanted to decorate was fine with him as long as it was cheap. That was really at the heart of it, she thought. Dick was never going to be
that guy
who burned to death while trying to protect his house—he just wanted to save a few bucks.

“Dick,” she said again, “mandatory evacuation means you have to leave. It’s not optional.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “Since when are you buying into all that crap? I’m looking at this blog right now that they’ve set up about the fires. Nobody out here is panicking. Anyway, Dorothy, do you want to go sleep at Qualcomm Stadium? Because that’s the only place where you can get a room right now.”

“Why don’t we call a few hotels?” Dorothy asked. “I can call if you want.”

“Go ahead,” Dick said, “you won’t find anything.”

Dorothy hesitated, thinking of another option. “We could go stay with your brother,” she said.

“In
Arizona
?” From her spot in front of the television, Dorothy couldn’t see Dick’s face, but she could picture his expression anyway—disbelief crossed with irritation. “What’s gotten into you, Dot?”

“I just think we should go if they’re telling us to go.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Dick said, a harsh edge creeping into his voice. He cleared his throat. “That fire has to come all the way down the
fifty-six and jump across all kinds of freeway before it gets here. It’s not going to happen. They’re not going to let it.”

“Dick …”

“Where’s Kevin?” Dick asked, shifting abruptly to the one topic guaranteed to get Dorothy off her quest to evacuate. “I haven’t seen him since … for hours.”

Instinctively, Dorothy turned her head toward the top of the staircase as if Kevin would appear on it at any second.

“Well?” The air around Dorothy seemed to get hotter and less oxygenated. “Dorothy?”

Dorothy focused on the flickering orange and yellow flames on the television. “He went out with his friends,” she said. “School’s going to be closed tomorrow—probably until next Monday. They’re … you know how kids are. They’re taking advantage. Like the snow days we—” Dorothy inhaled sharply, realizing her slip a split second too late. She felt the nerves and muscles in her neck and shoulders contract into a painful spasm.

“What friends?” Dick had missed it. She squeezed her eyes shut in relief.

“You know,” she said, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice, “those guys he’s in … uh, Spanish class with … Jason, I think, and, um, Mike.”

“Spanish?” Dick was incredulous. “Since when does he take Spanish?”

“Since it’s a requirement to graduate.” Dick didn’t answer that one so Dorothy shifted her position so that she could see his face. He’d found something on the computer that had captured his attention and bent his head toward the screen. She saw the bluish light reflecting off his reading glasses and his lips a thin line of concentration half-buried under his mustache as he started typing.

He seemed to have bought her story completely. She was glad, but also surprisingly annoyed at his total lack of perceptiveness. She hadn’t done a very good job of lying and that was maybe accidentally-on-purpose she thought now, because certainly she was capable of much greater
deceptions. It was a sort of test to see if he—what? Cared? Was paying attention to anything other than his own wants and needs? Dorothy didn’t know and didn’t really understand why she would want to test him in the first place. It wasn’t as if she could afford to risk another scene. They’d already called way too much attention to themselves as it was, getting all tangled up with the Montanas and Dick with his threats of legal action that she’d only barely managed to talk him out of. It was ridiculous anyway, insisting that Kevin and Diana remain apart—almost guaranteed to turn them into Romeo and Juliet and make them want to be together even more. Let them spend as much time together as they wanted, Dorothy thought, and they’d get sick of each other in no time. Kevin, a father! He couldn’t even keep his own room clean. And if that stupid, stupid girl was going to insist on keeping that baby she’d get tired of having some carless, penniless, totally dependent teenage boy hanging around her neck real quick.

But no, Dick
had
to get all macho about it and that only made it forbidden fruit, which, as Dorothy knew intimately, was the most tempting and sweetest of all.

She’d tried to tell Dick all of this, but she guessed she hadn’t been clear enough. Or, Dorothy thought now, maybe Dick just hadn’t listened to her. He was completely unreasonable about that girl, his intense dislike of her totally out of proportion. Although Dorothy was certainly no fan of Diana’s, she couldn’t muster up the kind of extreme emotion Dick seemed to feel. Dorothy didn’t understand it and it made her vaguely uneasy. As for Kevin, he was probably with Diana at this very moment. Although she didn’t see how they were managing any secret trysts. Joe and Allison had been just as clear as Dick about not wanting Kevin and Diana to see each other, so Kevin would have to be sneaking into their house and hiding out because there was no way they were hanging out anywhere else with that baby.

On the other hand, maybe he wasn’t with her at all. It had been hours
since she’d seen him last, heading for the front door. She’d called to him from the living room where she’d been following the news updates on the fires.

“Kevin, wait a minute.”

“What?” He stood with his hand on the doorknob, so anxious to be gone that he didn’t even turn to look at her. He was wearing a grubby white T-shirt with a rash of what looked like pinholes at the hem, ultrabaggy jeans that slid halfway down his backside showing the green-striped top of his boxer shorts, and a maroon baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. Not for the first time she wondered when he had become this angry inarticulate person and how she had managed to miss the transformation.

“Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“Out
where
?”

“Just out.”

“Kevin …”

“I’m meeting a friend, okay? A guy I know from school. We’re gonna see a
movie
, okay? Now you know.”

“You know, everything’s being evacuated, Kevin. The theater might not even be open. We might have to leave. And are you going to walk over there? Because the air’s really bad.”

“That’s the last fucking thing I’m worried about,” he said and made his exit before she could chastise him for his terrible language, slamming the door behind him.

Would it have made a difference if she’d run after him? If she’d watched to see where he was headed? Would he have talked to her then?

Dorothy’s neck tensed up again. She could feel a headache crouching at the bottom of her skull, ready to burst out. She needed relief. Instantly, her mind’s eye focused on that spot buried deep in the bathroom where she knew she could find it. She’d been getting so many bad headaches lately and that doctor hadn’t given her nearly as many pills as she needed and no
refill either, and so she was running dangerously low. She was going to have to be careful and conserve or else … Dorothy clamped down hard on the thought that had started to wind its way into her brain. No, she told herself. No, no, no.

“Dick,” she said, “I’m going upstairs to put a few things together. In case we need to leave. I just think it’s a good idea to be prepared.”

“Okay,” he said without looking up. He was deep into whatever he was reading on the computer and she could tell he hadn’t heard a word she’d said.

Dorothy headed to her special place in the bathroom, fished out a pill, and swallowed it without water. She was about to put the bottle back when it occurred to her that she really might need to pack some essentials in case she could change Dick’s mind and get him to leave. She should keep some pills handy. She opened the bottle and poured a few into her hand. Of course, if they did leave, she’d have to find Kevin as well. He probably wouldn’t answer his cell phone, but she’d send him a text message—she knew he looked at those—and find out where to pick him up. In fact, she thought, she should probably do that now. It was getting late. Dorothy slid her hand inside her top and emptied the pills into her bra, trying to visualize where she’d left her cell phone. She was halfway back down the stairs and headed to the living room when she stopped herself short—her hand involuntarily moving to her heart. She’d put the pills in her bra. Without even thinking about it. It had been more than twenty years since she’d done that. Dorothy bit the inside of her lip. Something was happening, she thought. Something bad. As if on cue, the doorbell rang at that very moment and her blood jumped with the surge of adrenaline.

“Dorothy!” Dick called. “Can you get that?”

Dorothy wanted to shout down that she couldn’t, that she was busy, but nothing came out of her mouth. The bell sounded again.

“Dorothy!”

Finally, she moved. Down the stairs and over to the front door. Dick,
still seated at the table with his head in the computer, didn’t even look at her as she walked by him. With great reluctance, she unlocked their front door and pulled it open. Sam stood under the awning, one arm reaching out to ring the doorbell a third time and the other holding a bundled-up baby close to her chest. Dorothy’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Sam?”

“Hi, Dorothy. Can I come in please? I don’t want the baby to breathe in this air.”

“Sure, of course.”

Sam walked in and Dorothy closed the door behind her. Dorothy could hear the baby now, muffled little noises coming from under layers of blankets. Sam’s eyebrows were drawn together in worry and her whole body seemed tense and rigid. “I’m glad you’re still here,” Sam said. “I thought maybe you’d be gone already. You are evacuating, right?”

“Well, we—” Dorothy began, but suddenly Dick was next to her and interrupting.

“What’s going on?” he said.

Sam gave Dick as cutting a look as Dorothy had ever seen, yet the words that came out of her mouth were polite, even beseeching. “I’m sorry to drop in like this,” she said. “I would have called, but I can’t seem to find my Watch list and I figured you’re so close.”

“Whose baby is that?” Dorothy asked, although she already knew.

“It’s Diana’s baby. Zoë.” She wrapped both arms around the baby and started rocking. “That’s why I came over. I’m wondering if you know where Diana is. She left the baby—”

“Why would we know where she is?” Dick barked.

“I know she’s … She’s friends with Kevin, isn’t she? I just thought maybe she was here. With Kevin.”

“Kevin’s not even home.”

“Well, do you know where he
is
?” Sam asked. She held her ground, her tone strong, her expression stony. She wasn’t intimidated by Dick in
the least, Dorothy thought, feeling a passing twinge of envy. “Maybe Diana is with him. I need to find her. We have to evacuate and if I can’t find her, I’m going to have to take the baby with me. There’s nobody home at the Montanas. I think they’ve left. I don’t know where they are.” Sam frowned. “I’m just trying to do the right thing here, Dick.” Dorothy shifted her gaze from Sam to Dick. His face looked folded up, closed and angry.

“So do you know where he is?” Sam asked. “Please.”

“He’s not here,” Dick said again.

“Are you sure?”

Dick flushed. “Are you saying you don’t believe me?”

“No,” Sam said calmly, “I’m just asking if you’re sure.”

Dick turned abruptly and almost ran up the stairs. A few seconds later she could hear him rattling Kevin’s door.

“I don’t understand why you have the baby,” Dorothy said. “Did Diana leave her with you? Are you babysitting?”

“No,” Sam said. “That’s why I came over here. I went over there hours ago—to Joe and Allison’s. I wanted to see if they needed any help.” Sam paused for a second, her jaw working. “I wanted to see if
Diana
needed any help. But when I got there—”

“Kevin’s asleep in his room,” Dick said, coming down the stairs, “so I guess he is here after all.” He walked over to Dorothy and stood next to her, placing one hand on her shoulder. She looked at him—studied his face—and realized he was telling the truth. “But he’s
by himself
. Sorry Sam, can’t help you. That girl isn’t here.”

Dorothy’s brain scrambled for an explanation. How could she have missed Kevin coming in? She was sure—

“This isn’t right,” Sam said. She was getting agitated, nervous. “When I went over there, nobody answered the door, but I could hear the baby crying. She was screaming. So I got concerned and went around the back. The back door was open so I figured somebody must be home, but the place was empty except for her.” Sam patted the baby. “She was all alone, screaming her head off. So I took her over to my house. Just until …” Sam
looked at them, pleading. “I left a note,” she said. “But that was hours ago. Nobody’s come home.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Dick said, shrugging. “The way those people run their lives is none of our business.” Dorothy noted the “our” and the disgust with which he delivered his statement.

“Would you mind asking Kevin?” Sam asked. “Maybe he knows where she is.”

“He doesn’t know anything,” Dick said. “He’s finally figured out how to leave well enough alone and I’m not going to get him involved all over again.”

Sam turned to Dorothy, her eyes flashing accusation.
I can’t
, Dorothy wanted to tell her.
I’m sorry but I can’t
. “Do you have Joe or Allison’s cell phone numbers?” Sam asked. “I could try those.”

As Dorothy went to the kitchen to extract her master copy of the Neighborhood Watch list, she heard Sam asking Dick again to please ask Kevin when he woke up if he knew where Diana had gone and to please call her if he found anything out. Then Dorothy lost the train of their conversation for a minute and when she came back out, Sam was explaining to Dick that she had packed up her car with a few things and was going to find a place to stay until the evacuation orders were lifted. “You have my cell phone number,” Sam said. “Please call me. I have to take the baby with me. I can’t leave her.”