The New Neighbor (27 page)

* * * *

Karen was making a stew.
 

She'd been up for nearly an hour and she still did not feel awake. She wasn't sure if what she'd seen when she first woke – the empty hole where the bedroom window used to be, covered by fluttering curtains – had been real or the lingering echo of a dream she'd been having, and she hadn't gone back into the bedroom to check. She didn't care. She didn't care that her family hadn't had breakfast yet, or that she was missing another day of work and Jen and Robby were missing school. She could not even make herself care much that an entire family that used to live down the street was now dead. All she cared about at the moment was making a stew that would last for a while so she wouldn't have to worry about cooking. And ... Lorelle.
 

Since she woke, Karen had been unable to think a thought that did not involve Lorelle ... the touch of her hand ... her tongue ... the hot moist brush of her breath on Karen's skin ...
 

What they had done in bed beside George last night was as vivid in her mind as if it had happened minutes ago.
 

She stabbed a long carrot into the top of the Cuisinart and watched as the spinning blades sliced it into thin orange coins, feeling an undercurrent of satisfaction as the carrot danced a blade-spinning jig and its pieces clattered against the transparent plastic.
 

The window over the sink looked out on the long rectangular back yard where trees swayed in an icy wind and steel-gray clouds swept across the sky.
 

Beneath the whir of the Cuisinart the telephone rang, but it was white noise to Karen, unimportant. On the third ring, George shouted, "Answer the goddamned phone, Karen!"
 

She switched off the Cuisinart and stared blinking at the telephone as if she'd never seen it before. The six steps across the kitchen felt like a long journey with bricks tied to her ankles and, when she lifted it, the receiver felt heavy as lead.
 

"Hello?"
 

"Karen." The voice was warm honey oozing into Karen's ear and she leaned heavily against the wall and closed her eyes.
 

"Hello, Lorelle."
 

"I hope I'm not calling at a bad time."
 

"No."
 

"I just noticed your car was home. Are you sick?"
 

"I'm feeling a little, you know, under the weather." She tried to keep her voice from trembling, but hearing Lorelle brought to life memories of last night when Lorelle woke her with a gentle kiss. The sensations and smells and tastes rushed back vividly as if she were experiencing them all again.
 

"Do you feel too bad to come over for a while?" Lorelle asked. "Just a little while. For a visit." There was a smile in her voice.
 

Karen suddenly felt self-conscious, clumsy. "Well, I'm ma-making some stew, but I could, you know, finish that later, or just finish it up ruh-really quick and cuh-come over, unless you want me to –"
 

"That would be fine. I'll be waiting." She replaced the receiver softly at her end.
 

Karen licked her dry lips and hung up the telephone, walked slowly back to the counter and quickly began feeding more vegetables into the spinning blades of the Cuisinart. She dumped the chopped vegetables into a pot, quickly chopped the meat she'd thawed in the microwave, slicing her thumb open in the process, then put it all on the stove.
 

It was three-forty.
 

Leaving her mess untouched and her bleeding thumb unbandaged, Karen got her coat from the hall closet and, trembling with anticipation, put it on over her baggy sweats and slipped on a pair of tennis shoes. As she passed the living room doorway, she saw Jen on the sofa, her knees curled up to her chest, hands tucked beneath her nightshirt, arms moving slightly. Karen started to tell Jen she was going across the street for a little while, but didn’t bother. The girl's eyes were closed anyway and she was oblivious even to the television.
 

Karen opened the front door and saw it. She frowned for a long moment, not sure what she was looking at, then realized it didn't matter
what
it was. Someone had defaced their front door, but it wasn’t important. She would clean it off when she got back. She wanted nothing to hold her up now. She stepped out onto the porch and started to pull the door shut when it was jerked from her hand.
 

“Where are you going?" Robby asked urgently. He stood in the doorway, eyes wide, leaning toward her as if he were about to tell her something horrible.
 

"Juh-just ... I-I was just ... "
Think fast
, Karen told herself. "I was just going across the street to get some seasonings from Lorelle. I'm making a stew."
 

George appeared behind him looking agitated, a little angry. "What
now
, Robby?" he grumbled.
 

"Don't go, Mom."
 

"Why?"
 

"Just don't go. You can get 'em at the store, can't you? You'll need more later anyway, won't you? Probably. I'll go with you."
 

Karen sighed, annoyed, and said, "I don't want to go to the store, Robby. That's why I'm getting some from her."
 

"
Don't
."
 

"What's
wrong
with you?"
 

George gripped Robby's shoulder and spun him around. "That's what I want to know. What's wrong with you, what are you on? Drugs? Have you been doing
drugs
?"
 

"No, Dad, really, I
told
you what's –"
 

"Okay, that's enough," George said in that tone he used when he was deciding how to discipline one of the kids. "Clean this shit off the door.
Now
. Then you and I are going to have a talk and this time
you're
going to listen."
 

"No, Dad, please don't –"
 

"You clean it off right now or there'll be hell to pay and you'll wish you'd –"
 

"No."
 

"What?" George's voice was soft, level. "What did you say?"
 

Robby looked and sounded near tears, his lips trembling as he whispered, "I won't clean it off."
 

Karen watched as George's face was overcome by a look of anger so powerful that it seemed to alter his features. He began shouting at Robby, using obscenities uncharacteristic of him, and Karen stepped toward them and snapped, "What is going on here?"
 

"Shut up!" George barked. "Just shut up and go get your fucking seasonings, okay, just
go!" Then
he turned to Robby again and continued shouting.
 

Karen imagined how they must look to the neighbors – the three of them shouting on their front porch on a damp cloudy day, George and Robby in their bathrobes, she in her sweats, all three of them looking deathly pale and exhausted; and for the first time that day she forgot about Lorelle and wanted to cry, wanted to
scream
.
 

"Stop it," she said tremulously, quietly at first, then louder. "Stop it." And louder still. "Please
stop
it!"
 

George stopped, glared at her, and started to speak, but someone from down the street spoke first.
 

"Take it inside, for crying out loud!" a voice called from across the street. "Somebody's trying to sleep!"
 

George looked down the street at the Weyland house. Paul Weyland's face was leaning close to the screen over the bedroom window.
 

"It's my fucking porch, Weyland," George roared, "and I'll yell on it if I want to! Keep your goddamned dog off my lawn and maybe I'll be quiet! How would you like it if I came over and shit in
your
yard"
 

The window slammed shut.
 

Karen began to feel nauseated and tears stung her eyes.
 

"George, please," she whispered, "Leave him alone and let's just go inside, okay? Let's go inside."
 

"What? You're not going over to Lorelle's?" George snapped. His mouth curled into a malignant grin. "According to Robby, here, you're going over there to fuck her. You want me to leave him alone? Fine. I will. I'll just let him go on thinking that you and I are fucking the neighbor. Okay? That’s okay with you?"
 

A clump of ice formed in Karen's gut, then shattered, its pieces tumbling through her veins.
 

They stood there for a small eternity, their eyes darting back and forth between one another. Then George's eyes held on her and he grinned.
 

"Welllll," he said, dragging the word out into a long whispery drawl, his head bobbing up and down slowly. "Maybe Robby's not on drugs after all.
Are
you? Fucking her?"
 

Karen tried to gather her thoughts but they only tumbled around noisily in her mind, words heaping one on top of another in an orgy of confusion.
 

This happened? How? Did? How happened this how did it my god how happened this Jesus Christ how did this happen my god Jesus Christ HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
 

Her tears spilled and her throat felt thick, as if something were oozing up from her stomach. She knew that nothing she could say would make any difference. She saw in George's eyes an anger that had reached such a height even words meant to comfort him would only serve to feed his fury. She had seen that look before – only a couple of times, because George seldom got angry – but never like this, never so fiery and dangerous.
 

Karen turned and walked back into the house, her vision a kaleidoscope of tear-blurred colors, picking up her pace when she heard George's heavy footsteps following her.
 

"So is it true?" he snapped, and she could hear a cold smile in his voice.
 

Karen could not respond. She headed for the bathroom.
 

"
Answer
me."
 

As she opened the bathroom door, he clutched her elbow and spun her around. She stiffened and stared at the floor.
 

"What the hell's going on here?" he hissed through clenched teeth. "Robby's spouting some crap about demons and Jen's acting like-like-like I don't
know
what and now you're giving me this-this – what
is
this anyway, are you – is there something ... going on ... be ... tween ... "
 

She lifted her eyes to his and saw in his face – slack-jawed and drunk-looking – that he knew.
 

"Son of a bitch," he breathed, then laughed coldly, hatefully. "So ... how did Robby know, do you think? Huh? Maybe –" Another laugh, louder this time. " – maybe
he's
fucking her, too." His laughter grew louder still and more rapid-fire, like a machine gun. A strip of sweat glowed on his upper lip and a bead of it rolled slowly down his cheek. "Wouldn't
that
be a hoot? Huh?
Wouldn't
it?" He leaned back against the wall and shook his head vigorously and his laughter faded to quiet hiccups, then he sucked in a deep breath and released another booming round of laughs trying to speak at the same time. "I-I-I ha-haven't ... slept well ... need some sluh-sleep I g-guess.”
 

Karen backed into the bathroom a step, frightened. George's sickly pale face was turning a rosy red and his cheeks seemed to swell as he kept laughing ... laughing and laughing ... until he leaned forward and put his face in his hands and was silent. His shoulders jerked slightly, but the loud belly laughs were gone. His fingers curled, their tips pressing into his face.
 

Frowning, Karen wiped her teary eyes with a knuckle and stepped toward him. She pressed a fist into her abdomen where she was feeling a heavy churning sickness – a combination of dread and guilt and pity – and reached her other hand out, slowly placing it on his shoulder.
 

"Don't," George mumbled into his palms, then straightened and lowered his hands. His face was deep red and puffy and the laughter was gone. "Don't ... duh-don't –" His fist moved like a striking snake, slicing the air between them and hitting the wall with a thunderous
whump
, rattling a collage frame on the wall and sending it crashing to the floor. " –
touch
me!"
 

George moved toward her suddenly, his bottom lip curling down past his lower gum and his shoulders hunched like a melodrama villain. Karen fell backwards into the bathroom with a sharp cry and slammed the door, fumbling with the lock until it clicked.
 

George pounded on the door with both fists and screamed, "You open this fucking door and open it
right now
, you hear me? Do you
hear
me, you
fucking dyke
?"
 

He stopped for just a moment to listen for a response, then began to slam himself against the door as –
 

* * * *

Robby rushed back into the house.
 

He'd been standing on the porch, enjoying the cold and the quiet, staring at the three angels' names. Then he'd heard his dad shouting, followed by the pounding, and he'd hurried inside.
 

The noise had stopped by the time Robby reached the hall, which was empty. From the other end, he heard his dad's voice:
 

"Kitty-kitty ... heeere kitty-kitty-kitty ... c'mon, puss-puss-puss, kitty-kitty."
 

From the bathroom: "George don't you
dare
hurt that cat!"
 

"Come out and stop me." He came out of the master bedroom and went into the guest room. "Heeere kitty-kitty-kitty ... "