We heard the front door open, Will calling, “Hello! I’m home!”
“Myrtle?” I whispered urgently. “Tell me.”
Myrtle straightened up in her chair, looked in my direction—not at me, but through me, as though I weren’t really there. Then she smiled a thin, nervous smile and reached for her tea, called out, “Hello, William! We’re in the kitchen with Ethel’s famous tarts!”
Later that night, tucked under the covers, safe and warm in our bedroom with its clean white plaster walls, Will’s arms around me, there’s a moment between waking and sleeping when I found myself back at the springs. I was on my hands and knees, whispering my secret, watching my reflection, and feeling with deep certainty that there was something down in that water. Something listening, waiting, watching.
Something I’m sure I caught a glimpse of.
Something that I’m also sure caught a glimpse of me.
chapternine
June 17, 2019
Just after lunch, Aunt Diane arrived in jeans and a T-shirt with two professional housecleaners. I gave her a tight hug.
“How’d you sleep last night?” she asked, studying my face with concern.
“Fine,” I lied. “But it was a little difficult finding my way around in the dark. The light bulbs are all either missing or broken.”
Diane frowned. “Well, that’s odd. We’ll do a grocery store run later, pick some up.”
She donned a pair of pink rubber gloves. “Let’s dive in,” she said.
We opened all the windows to fill the place with fresh air. While the four of us worked inside, a landscaping crew came and cut the grass, trimmed the bushes. Terrified by the invasion, Pig took off into the hills behind the house.
Slowly, we made progress. We threw away six trash bags full of garbage, scrubbed spills and stains, rehung art and photos, dumped all the cups of water from the antique sideboard. We gathered the clothing scattered all over the house—swimming suits, running shorts, underwear, T-shirts. Threw out fossilized food and countless spent joints. I caught Diane lighting up one that still had a few good puffs left. “Really?” I asked.
“Don’t be a stick in the mud, Jax. Lexie would want me to have it.”
Her phone kept making an assortment of sounds: a locomotive,songs, crickets chirping, an old-fashioned car horn, a regular ringtone. She ignored them all.
“Do you have a different sound for each girlfriend?” I joked.
“Very funny,” she said.
“How come you’re not answering any of them?” I asked. Her phone chirped again.
She switched her phone to silent and stuck it in her back pocket. “Now where the hell did the broom go?” she asked, wandering off.
We picked up and put away flashlights, extension cords, kitchen knives, the diving mask and snorkel, a hammer. Every strange item we found got held up and stared at, wondered over like an archeological find. An unopened bag of previously frozen peas under the couch. An enormous pipe wrench on the kitchen table. An old Coleman camping lantern and some tent stakes in the bathtub. The board game Lex and I had played so many times in childhood—Snakes and Ladders. I took the lid off, and there, just as I’d remembered, was Rita’s name along with the crayon drawing she’d made. A stick figure girl in a blue dress with pale yellow hair. Underneath, it read:Martha W. 7 years old.
Beside the game was a photo of Ryan, Lexie, me, Gram, Terri, Randy, Shirley, and Aunt Diane all sitting around the pool. I showed it to Aunt Diane.
“Ralph must have taken it.”
“How is Ralph?” Although they’d been divorced for over a decade, they’d remained friends.
“He’s well. Still with Emily. He’s talking about early retirement. Moving down to Florida. He’s done with the winters here.”
I looked down at the photo—Lexie in faded cut-offs and a Nike T-shirt. Curly-haired Ryan squinting into the camera because he wasn’t wearing his glasses. Lexie had teased him about them, so he rarely wore them when he was around her.
“Do you remember when Lexie thought she’d seen a peacock inthe woods?” I asked, thinking this might be a photo from that very day.
“Yes!” Diane laughed. “She and Ryan made all those ridiculous traps trying to catch it! It’s a wonder we didn’t get sued by some poor hiker falling into a pit trap!”
“What’s Ryan up to these days? Isn’t he married? Kids?”
