The kids were downstairs watching TV and Jimmy was out with two of his sailing buddies, which meant she had at least another hour to herself. There was nothing she had to do. No one needed anything from her. The kitchen was clean. The dogs had been fed. She could take a long bath, paint her nails, or read a book.
Instead, she made popcorn for herself and the kids. Then she went downstairs and joined them for the end ofTime Bandits.
When the credits started rolling, Justin climbed onto Natalie’s lap. She kissed the top of his head and told him it was bedtime.
To J.J. and Jill, she said, “No more TV. You can read until ten.”
After tucking Justin in, Natalie got ready for bed. She turned on the small TV in her room and settled in to watchDeath on the Nile. During commercials, she flipped through a Spiegel catalog, folding down a page featuring a long denim skirt and another showing a smart-looking red blazer. She made it halfway through the catalog before the dogs appeared next to her bed, whining to be let out.
With a sigh, she threw off the covers and followed the dogs to the front door. On her way back, she poked her head into Jill’s room. Her daughter had a book open on her lap and two more stacked near her feet.
“Still reading about monsters?” Natalie asked.
“They’re African folktales,” Jill said. “Some have monsters. Some don’t.”
“I was about your age when I got really into mysteries. I’ll have to give you one of my old Agatha Christie paperbacks to try.”
Closing her book, Jill stared at its cover. Without looking at Natalie, she said, “Would your parents have believed you if you told them something was evil? Like the kid inTime Banditstried to do?”
Natalie glanced around her daughter’s room, idly searching for anything that might be out of place, but all was in order. “Probably not. Because I was a big-time reader. Like you. They would’ve thought I was telling them a story—something from a book or my imagination.”
“What if you knew something was evil, like the black rock inTime Bandits, but you couldn’t get any adults to believe you?”
“I’d do what the boy in the movie did. I’d try to be brave and figure out how to solve the problem myself.” Natalie began to close the door. “You’d better hit the hay. If you want a trophy like J.J.’s, you’ll have to swim like a shark tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
Natalie smiled at her daughter. She almost said, “I love you,” but “sweet dreams” came out instead.
“You, too,” Jill whispered back.
Climbing into bed, Natalie picked up her Spiegel catalog again. As she studied the glossy pages, her thoughts turned to Beth. Could she and Don continue living up the street from Mrs. Smith, or would they feel compelled to move?
Natalie pictured a Gold Coast sign with her name on it in front of their house. A vase full of yellow roses in Beth’s kitchen. She saw herself in her gold blazer, opening the door to a crowd of eager buyers.
She drifted off long before Jimmy came home. By the time he slipped into bed, she was dreaming of Gold Coast signs up and down the street. Every sign bore her name. In the kitchens of every house, there were vases with yellow roses.
In her sleep, Natalie wore the ghost of a smile.
27
Una
Una was looking through the clothes in her closet, wondering if the dress she’d worn to a wedding two years ago was fancy enough for Charles’s party.
Though it was the nicest dress she owned, it wasn’t very summery.
It was a silvery blue and shimmered like a fish scale. When she’d tried it on and stood in front of the mirror in the JCPenney fitting room, she’d caught a glimpse of the pretty girl she used to be. She’d also tried on a purple dress, though she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps because purple had been Svana’s favorite color.
Try as she might, her routines failed to restore a semblance of balance to her world. She couldn’t concentrate on simple tasks like gardening or baking brown bread. Pests were chewing craters in her flowers. The last loaf she’d made had burned in the pan.
The shadow at the bottom of Tidewater Terrace was beginning to spread. It had gotten to Don first. Then to Beth. Then to poor Paul Campbell.
Kristofer believed that Paul had a heart attack, but when Una saw the plate with the daisies around the rim that hadbeen recovered from Paul’s mail truck, she knew what had really happened.
The plate was one of Beth’s. She always used a daisy plate when gifting her baked goods.
But the treats she’d made weren’t meant for Paul. Una had seen the hole in Beth’s garden when she’d gone outside to shake out a rug. All the foxglove was gone.
