The Town (33 page)

On the other hand, she’d already opened up enough to tell him that Gregory was MIA today, and perhaps if they talked he could shed some light on what was happening, offer a different perspective. He
was
Gregory’s friend, and perhaps that meant he was as concerned about Gregory as she was.

She took a deep breath. Started talking.

She left out the supernatural stuff, the hints of weirdness and suspicions of hauntings—she needed all the credibility she could muster here—but she ran down everything that had happened since they’d won the lottery. They had changed, she said, drifted apart. And it wasn’t the money, she emphasized. It was . . . this place. Sometime in the middle of the conversation the girl arrived with their food and coffee, but Julia didn’t stop, didn’t pause, just kept going, until, finally, drained, she leaned back in her chair.

Paul was silent for a moment. “I . . . I don’t know what to say,” he admitted.

“That’s okay.” She smiled at him. “I think I just needed to get it off my chest. I needed a sympathetic ear more than helpful advice.” She took a bite of the now-cold pizza bagel, a huge sip of the coffee.

“I can’t help but think that if you told Gregory this, sat him down and explained it to him exactly the same way you explained it to me, he would understand. I mean, he’s not a bad guy. And he’s not a dumb guy. And I’m sure he realizes something’s wrong. I know it sounds corny and clichéd, but maybe the two of you just need to communicate. If you sit down without the kids and the grandma and just talk to each other—”

“That’s the problem. We don’t seem to be
able
to talk to each other lately.”

“He’s going through something, and I don’t think either of us knows what it is.” Paul finished his coffee, motioned for more. “I don’t want to sound like some pop psychologist, but I can tell you that he got a lot more secretive, a lot more withdrawn, after his dad died. There wasn’t a big personality change or anything, but he went through some kind of head trip, something that he didn’t tell any of us about, any of his friends. Maybe coming back here—and living with his mom again—brought some of that back.”

Julia nodded. “I’ve thought of that,” she agreed.

“And I’m hoping that’s all it is. I’m hoping he just needs a little space, a little time to get himself together and sort things through. And I’m trying to give that to him. But life doesn’t stop just because you have a few problems to work out. And, besides, I’m his wife. He’s supposed to be working them out with me. It’s not as if I’ve ever been uncaring or unsympathetic. I think he knows he can come to me with anything, that I’ll always be here for him. We’re partners here. Or at least we’re supposed to be.”

“Give it a little more time,” Paul suggested.

“I have no choice. What else can I do?”

They were silent for a few minutes, Julia finishing her food, Gregory getting a refill on his coffee.

“No relationship’s perfect,” Paul said finally. “There are always problems.”

Julia waved him away. “You think I don’t know that by now? As long as we’ve been married?”

Paul took a deep breath. “You know, Deanna and I are having some problems too,” he said. He held up a quick hand. “Nothing serious, nothing we haven’t been through before, but in the peaks-and-valleys scenario we’re in a valley right now.”

She smiled. “Maybe it’s catching.”

“Maybe,” he said. But he did not smile.

She leaned forward. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re Deanna’s friend. I was hoping you could tell me. I know she talks to you—”

“Yeah, but not about that. I was under the impression that everything was fine between you two.”

“Maybe it is,” he said. “Maybe I’m reading more into this than I should. I hope I am. I love Deanna more now than I ever have, but lately she’s been kind of bitchy.”

“PMS?” Julia suggested, joking.

He reddened. “No, it’s not that.”

She was immediately sorry she’d mentioned it. “I didn’t mean to make light of—”

“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “I know you’re not serious.”

“Is there anything I can do?” she asked.

He sighed. “I suppose we could spy on each others’ spouses, report back to each other.”

“Is
that
a joke?” she asked uncertainly.

“Yeah. That’s a joke.”

“If you’d like me to talk to her, I will.”

“No. I was just kind of curious if she’d said anything to you.”

Julia shook her head. “Like I said, I had the impression that everything was fine.”

“She hasn’t seemed bitchy to you?”

“Nope.”

“Maybe it’s all in my head. Or maybe she’s jealous because she’s been hanging around you so much lately. After all, you’re a very attractive woman.” He tried to laugh it off, but the humor fell flat and she felt slightly uncomfortable.

She pushed her chair away from the table, stood.

“Well, I’d better get going.”

He nodded, his face red.

“If you do see Gregory this afternoon, you might mention that I stopped by, looking for him.”

“I’ll do that,” Paul promised.

“Do I owe you anything for . . .” She gestured toward the table.

“On the house,” he said.

She smiled. “Thanks.”

He looked at her, and once again she felt uncomfortable. “You’re welcome.”

 

Adam and Teo confronted her that afternoon.

She picked them up from their respective schools, and they were both unusually silent on the ride back. The temperature was stuck somewhere in the mid-fifties and, though the heater was on in the van, neither of them bothered to take off their heavy jackets.

It was Teo, sitting in the back, who brought it up.

“Dad was married before, wasn’t he?”

She’d known this day would come sometime, but it still threw her for a loop. She managed to remain on an even keel, to show no surprise, and she nodded. She and Gregory had decided years ago that they would handle this matter-of-factly, and so she said, “Yes, he was.”

In her peripheral vision, she saw Adam turn in his seat and look back at his sister, giving her a meaningful glance that Julia could not see to interpret.

She stuck to the party line, the tack they’d decided to take. “Your father was very young, and he made a mistake. He realized that early, and he got a divorce, and we met after that.”

“Her name was Andrea, wasn’t it?” Adam’s voice was hostile.

“Yes, it was. But, like I said, he realized his mistake early. Which just goes to show you why you should not rush into things and why people should not get married too young.”

“How old was he?” Teo asked.

“About twenty.”

“How old were you when you and dad got married?”

She took a deep breath. “About twenty-three.”

“That’s not much difference,” Adam said.

“You and Teo are three years apart. You don’t think there’s any difference in maturity there?”

“No!” Teo announced from the back.

“I guess so,” Adam admitted grudgingly.

They were all silent. Julia knew there were more questions they wanted to ask, but she did not want to volunteer any information. She waited to see what they would come up with.

The next question, from Adam, was a surprise.

“When did Sasha find out?”

She looked back at him. “I’m not sure she knows. She’s never asked about it.”

That brought him back into her corner. The hostility was gone. He was shocked and disturbed to find out that his father had already been married and divorced before starting their family, but the fact that he knew something his older sister did not almost made up for it.

“Does Dad like you better than that other woman?” Teo asked.

That other woman.
Julia liked that. She smiled. “Yes, because he divorced her and married me and we had you children and we’ve been together now for almost twenty years.”

“Did you have another husband before Dad?”

“No,” she said. “Your father is my only husband.”

That seemed to satisfy them. There were no other questions immediately forthcoming.

She pulled into the drive. “We’ll talk about it some more with your father when he gets home.”

“Do we have to?” Adam asked.

“Well, he can explain better—”

“I don’t want to!” Teo announced.

“He was the one—”

“Can’t we just pretend like we don’t know?” Teo whined.

“Yeah.” Adam looked at her. “I’m sorry I found out. I didn’t mean to.”

They were both upset, upset and a little frightened, and she thought of Gregory’s recent behavior. She pulled to a stop, turned off the van’s engine. “It’s okay,” she said softly. “You don’t have to discuss it with your father if you don’t want to.”

They needed time to adjust, she decided. They needed to think about it a little more before they felt up to talking.

She would bring it up with Gregory herself tonight, when they were alone in bed, and tell him not to let on that he knew they knew.

Adam fixed her with a look so adult and sincere that it almost broke her heart. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Yeah,” Teo echoed, “thanks, Mom.”

The phone began ringing the instant she walked through the door, and she tossed her purse and keys on the coffee table in the living room as she ran to answer it.

Adam and Teo raced each other to the kitchen to find some snacks.

She kept her eyes on the phone across the room, wondering who was calling. She was suddenly aware of how rare an occurrence this had become. Back in California, the phone had rung constantly—calls for Sasha, mostly, but also quite a few for herself. Here in McGuane, however, very few people called. The telephone was seldom used, and what had been an ordinary part of everyday life had become almost an event. It brought home to her how much her social circle had shrunk and how much she missed her old life.

She answered the phone on the third ring. “Hello?”

It was Debbie, and Julia’s heart lifted as she heard her old friend’s voice. “Greetings from sunny California. How goes it, stranger?”

Debbie had called for no specific reason, just because she was bored and wanted to shoot the breeze (and she wanted to annoy her miserly husband by calling in the daytime instead of during the cheaper evening hours), and that touched Julia more than anything else. Adam and Teo emerged from the kitchen with Cokes and cookies in their hands, and she waved them away, motioning for them to stay out of the living room so she could talk in private.

Debbie always liked to work from the generic to the specific, so they started out talking about movies, making Julia realize how long it had been since she’d had a serious movie discussion with anyone.

“I watched
Singin’ in the Rain
last night,” Debbie told her. “It was on AMC.”

Julia smiled. “A classic.”

“Yeah, but don’t you always wonder about the movie they’re supposed to be making? The Lockwood and Lamont costume epic that’s turned into a musical? I mean, what kind of movie could include ‘Broadway Melody’
and
‘The Dancing Cavalier’? And ‘The Dancing Cavalier’ is supposed to be part of a dream sequence, while the rest of the story is contemporary, but ‘The Dancing Cavalier’ ends the movie! Does that mean the movie ends with a dream?”

Julia laughed. “God, I miss you.”

Debbie’s voice, which had been righteously serious, softened. “I miss you too, Jules. That’s why I called. How are things going there?”

She shrugged, but the shrug could not be heard over the phone. “Okay, I guess.”

Debbie had always been able to read between the lines.

“That bad, huh? What is it? Mother-in-law troubles?”

“Not exactly.”

“Local hillbillies?”

She laughed. “No. It’s just that . . . it’s taking us a little longer to adjust than we thought.”

“Gregory, huh?”

“How do you do that?” Julia asked.

“Do what?”

“See through whatever I’m telling you and guess the truth.”

“It’s an acquired skill,” Debbie said. “So spell it out for me.”

This time, Julia kept nothing back. She even talked about the box of dishes and her feelings about the house and her trip to Russiantown.

“You want my advice?” Debbie said when she was finished.

“What?”

“Get the hell out of Dodge. Pack your things and go. Stick your little tails between your legs and come running back here to the real world.”

“You really believe me about our haunted house?”

“I believe that you believe, and that’s enough for me. Whether it’s ghosts and creeps or simple dysfunction, things aren’t working out the way they should, and it sounds to me like it’s time for you to bail.”

Julia smiled, already feeling better. “This is your totally objective opinion?”

“The fact that I’d like my friend back here in California in no way compromises my impartiality.”

“Well, I’m stuck here for a while. For this school year at least.”

“But you’re thinking about coming back?”

“Every damn day.”

They both laughed.

There was a long pause, and it was Debbie who spoke first. “You’re really spooked, though, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Julia admitted.

“I didn’t think you were the type to believe in ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night.”

“I didn’t either.”

“I’ve always kept an open mind, myself. I don’t believe or disbelieve. But the fact that you think you saw something scares the shit out of me. I trust you more than I trust my own eyes.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“Jules?” Debbie’s voice was serious.

“Yes?”

“Be careful.”

A shiver passed through her, but Julia managed not to let it reach her voice. “I will,” she said.