That’s messed up.”
“Yeah.”
“I’d like to put Brandon in a house and smash it with him inside.”
“How long is he going to be here?” Sophie wondered. She had another question, a much more important one, that she was working up to.
“Oh, I don’t know. No one wants him back,” Leslie sighed. “He’s like that kid in that movie The Omen. No one wanted that kid.” Leslie stared out at the pool for another minute, inhaling on her cigarette and taking a few inches off the paper.
“People have kids, I think, because they get bored with themselves,” Leslie said, thoughtfully. “Everyone says life is short – I don’t think so. You just get bored.”
Sophie glanced up at Brandon. His penis was sticking out of his shorts.
“Then they have kids and they realize they’ve taken on too much,” Leslie went on. “They think…they think they’re going to have some kid that’s going to be better than them, and better the world in the process, and then when that doesn’t happen, you know what they do?” Leslie waited a second. The Tornado dived back into the water. “They ship them off to a…” Sophie joined in on the last part. “House in the Hamptons…”
11
Sophie managed to make her way upstairs without anyone seeing her. Vanessa was on the phone and the boys were hovering over a bag of chips like vultures tearing flesh from a dead body.
“Yes, that’s right,” Vannessa said over the phone. “A reservation for ten people. Trust me, I don’t envy you.” Vanessa laughed like a witch. “Okay, wonderful! We’ll see you then!”
Sophie was almost all the way up the stairs when Vanessa caught her.
“Sophs! You have a dress to wear? Its kind of a fancy restaurant. Did you pack a dress?”
Sophie turned and looked down at Vanessa. At that moment she didn’t want to be on any particular floor of any particular house.
“Do you know when the TV will be fixed?” Sophie just asked. Vanessa seemed put off by the question.
“Oh I don’t know,” she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. A dishcloth hung from it. “I have to talk to Bill first.”
“Bill?”
“My husband…?” she sounded offended that Sophie didn’t know that. The truth was Leslie spoke of her father almost as much as Sophie spoke of hers.
“Oh right, sorry, I don’t feel very well. Do you think it will be fixed by Sunday?”
“Good heavens no,” Vanessa said. “I don’t even know if it can be fixed. We have to have it picked up by the…place where we got it from. Good lord, Sophie, its on my long list to do. You have a pool. There’s a tennis court up the street, not to mention you’ll be taking dance classes soon. You won’t even have time for television.”
“Mom, all she did was ask a question,” Leslie fussed as she walked back outside.
“Please, everyone get dressed – if you want to eat,” Vanessa finalized.
There wasn’t much to Sophie’s guest room. It was like a hotel room – just a bed, a bedside table and a windowseat. She sat on the windowseat and watched Leslie play with the dog. Leslie was more outgoing than Sophie. She didn’t let things weigh her down.
Sophie went over to her duffel bag. She unzipped it and pulled out a bunch of sweaters. Sweaters? In the summer? Dorris must have done it just to be cruel. There was however a black dress at the bottom of it all, that Sophie wore once to a family dinner. She put it on and stood in front of the mirror, wishing she had Leslie’s curves to fill it out. Disgusted, she took it off and threw it on the floor and curled up on the bed in nothing but her underwear.
12
“I really don’t want to go,” Sophie told Leslie an hour later when Leslie came knocking on her door. Sophie had a nice nap, and just wanted to go back to sleep, or maybe lounge by the pool and read her new book. Or maybe…just go.
Leslie stared back at Sophie, heartbroken.
“I’ll be the only one there with all those hooligans and mom…”
“Your dad’s not going?”
“Yeah, right,” she bitterly laughed. “Okay,” she gave up. She stood up and grabbed her purse. Leslie looked amazing in her dress because she had the body for it, she’d filled out. She’d blossomed. Sophie glared at her, jealous, before turning and looking out of the window.
“Want me to bring you back some food?” Leslie generously offered.
“No, its okay. I’ll probably be asleep by then,” Sophie said. “But thanks.”
“K, see ya.” Leslie walked out of the room and a few minutes later Sophie heard voices outside as everyone got into the big family van. She couldn’t believe it – she was finally alone. She wasted no time grabbing her backpack. The idea of staying here – of even being here when they returned, was too much. She simply couldn’t do it.
She walked the long stretch to the huge black gates. This was it – she didn’t know the code to get back in. There really was no turning back. But this way everyone got what they wanted – for her to be gone.
She didn’t want to go east back towards Montauk, back towards home, so she went the other way. It was nothing but woods. The road was very narrow and winding. Every so often she’d pass a house but the houses here, because they were all surrounded by trees, had been ruined by that tragic storm and their owners seemed to have picked up and left.
She glanced up at the sky as a damning wind whipped up. Was another storm coming? Would it be as strong as the last one, the one that knocked down houses? Storms and mothers, she thought. There was a teddy bear in the street. A stray dog stopped and sniffed it before going on its lonely, limping way. Had a family taken off from the rubble the storm left and abandoned that dog? She watched the dog run off into the woods and started to follow it when she saw a woman running out of the woods, towards the street. Sophie stopped and backed away until she was hiding behind a tree. She watched the woman slip and fall down the hill that spilled out into the street. She would have gotten hit by a car but the man chasing her pulled her back up the hill and into the woods. It was the same man Sophie saw earlier at Barnes N Noble, the Detective Travis Warren lookalike.
She watched as the woman struggled to break free but the man spun her around and punched her in the mouth. The woman fell down and the man grabbed a huge branch and held it over the woman’s face.
“No!” The woman screamed as the man slammed it into her face. Sophie heard something crack and thought it was a stick under her foot but she hadn’t moved. She realized whatever cracked was in the woman’s face. The woman was no longer moving, no longer struggling or crying, but the man assaulting her stood over her like he still wanted to fight. Sophie stared at the woman’s white sneakers and blue uniform. She must have been a nurse.
The shock that had taken hold of Sophie finally left and she turned to run.
“HEY!” The man called out, running after her. Sophie let out a little cry when she felt him right behind her. He grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her along so the collar burned against her neck. She helplessly writhed about until he stopped pulling her up the hill towards the woods and yanked her up to her feet by her arm. He rested his arms at his sides but the madness in his eyes did not subside. She was too scared to move, let along run.
“How long have you been standing here?” he demanded. She couldn’t speak, she didn’t have it in her. This was the same man, same messy long blonde hair and mustache. He’d looked right at her from his truck earlier.
“What’d you see?” he grimaced. “How long have you been here?” She stared at him, trying to guess his age. Thirty-something? He was cute, but in that moment his anger made him ugly.
“Please…” she said. “I was just going for a walk, I didn’t see anything.”
“You’re lying,” he said, certain.
“Please,” she shook her head. Her hands were trembling terribly. “Please, I didn’t…I didn’t.” He held his hand out to her and grabbed her by the arm once ag
ain.
“Come on,” he said.
“No…” she started to argue when he raised the branch he was still holding like he was going to hit her.
“Okay! Okay I’ll go! I’ll go.” She tried not to stare at the blood smeared on the branch. He gripped her wrist tighter and pulled her up towards the little white house in the woods. The ground, with its slippery branches, seemed to want to pull her back down but his brute strength kept hold of her.
They stopped at the woman lying in the woods. She hadn’t moved at all. She must have been dead. Her eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the darkening sky.
“Go,” he ordered, pointing towards the house. Sophie could hardly breathe. Was this it? Was he going to kill her too? Was fifteen years all she got? She felt blood gush out of her. She felt very weak and thirsty. She couldn’t run if she wanted to, and she wasn’t about to test him.
Sophie glanced back down at the woman. The side of her head was smashed in and there was blood all over the front of her shirt and on her leg.
The man picked the knife up lying on the ground and held it up in front of Sophie’s face. She stared at the bloodied blade, wide-eyed and frozen with fear. He dropped the branch, figuring the knife was enough. Sophie’s heart pounded and her mouth ran so dry her tongue felt like sandpaper.
“You want this in you?” he coldly whispered, holding the knife up. “Or do you want to keep going?”
“Keep…going…”
“Good girl.”