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We stood together in a line, with me in the center, and we watched.
We waited.
Nathan shifted until he was behind me, looking over my head. His hands found my shoulders, and he massaged.
Victor claimed my right hand.
Gabriel my left.
Kota gripped the pack he was wearing.
We all stared.
Waiting for explosions.
The house didn’t seem any different to me, but we were seeing the back. The shed blocked the view of the drive. The screened-in back porch was empty.
The blinds were down. That was normal for my house.
The trampoline we had finished stood quietly, the metal rim reflecting sunlight. The grass was a little overgrown, but the process had slowed for winter, and patches of it were brown. Despite the break in clouds and the blue sky above, the day still felt gray and gloomy with the bare trees and the chill.
“I’ll get this over with,” I said, suddenly determined. My father wouldn’t stay on. “He’s just here to pay a bill and check up on us. He’ll leave again.”
“Let’s hope so,” Kota said. He found his phone. He turned it on, pushed a pink heart...my icon. The screen gave an option for video feeds, and he checked one. “I see him,” he said. “He’s in his bedroom, making the bed.” He picked his head up and looked out toward the back window that led to my parents’ en suite bathroom. “So he’s staying at least one night.”
“Okay,” I said. That was in sync with what I was thinking before. “Yes. He’s here for a night. Maybe two. He’ll be gone on Monday. I can probably walk in there, show my face, and once he’s busy, I’ll sneak right back out again.”
“We’ll send someone in,” Kota said, not looking at me but continuing to look at the house. “We’ll keep an eye on it and find a good time to head up. Someone will be in the attic at all times at the least.”
“You said he wouldn’t hurt her,” Victor said. He turned to face Kota, looking past me to do so. “Why send someone in if she isn’t staying?”
“It’s not about him,” Kota said and turned back to me. His green eyes had a depth of sadness I’d rarely seen in them, and it now seemed to envelop him enough to scare me. “It may take a few hours for you to establish a routine, and figure out if you’ll be able to get out. And you should really rest a bit since...because...” He paused, lowering his eyes to the ground. I knew he was thinking about this morning, when I’d fainted. “But it’s up to you. Do you want us to?”
He was right. Did I think it would be so simple? I’d walk in, talk to him, but what if I needed to be seen more?
I could spend the weekend there, if needed. That wouldn’t be too bad if they were there with me anyway. “Don’t let anyone go up there unless you’re sure it’s safe,” I said. “Don’t let them get caught.”
He nodded sharply.
That was it. Decision made. Despite heading back, I wouldn’t be alone.
I was never alone.
I left them and crossed the bridge, still feeling their warm touch in my palms and at my shoulders, and I tried to keep that memory with me. I ducked my head and kept going.
When I was halfway across the yard, I heard a short whistle. I panicked, worried someone inside would hear, and I stopped, turning back.
Kota had stepped into view, waving to me.
I started to turn back. Was something wrong? I stood in the yard, puzzled, trying to figure out if he was telling me to hurry up for some reason, or to go back. With the way he was waving to me, I couldn’t figure out his meaning.
“Sang!” Marie’s voice came at me like a punch in the back. I spun around again, hoping Kota would retreat and let me handle this. I wasn’t sure if seeing him would spur her to say something to our father.
Marie was at the edge of the wide driveway, her arms crossed over her chest. She was barefoot, wearing jeans and a sweater. Her eyes were wide, her straight brown hair in a ponytail. She motioned for me to hurry. “Come quick.”
I started slowly toward her, looking over my shoulder once.
Kota had disappeared again out of sight.
Was that what Kota had been warning me about? That Marie was outside?
I hurried to her. It was too late to turn back now.
I was back.
Three Plus Two Makes Cataclysm
Marie waited in the driveway while I charged through the yard toward her. Her hair was frizzy around her face, and she brushed the strands out of her eyes and back behind her ear. She shook her head, making a displeased frown. “You won’t believe this,” she said, grumbling. “I just can’t believe it.”
“What?” I said, wanting to ask her more, but I stopped, distracted by the car parked in the drive just outside the garage.
My father’s car. I’d expected it, but then something struck me hard at seeing it in that particular spot.
It wasn’t in the garage.
I glanced up the road, looking out for mysterious cars around that could belong to Mr. Hendricks or someone who worked for him. Had anyone seen him drive in?
Had anything happened within view of the road that I should w
orry about?
“Come see,” Marie said, interrupting my scan of the street. She padded into the garage.
I trailed behind, coming around the edge of the house.
A minivan was parked in one of the garage spaces, luggage strapped to the top of it. The second parking spot in the garage was taken up by cardboard boxes stacked neatly in rows.
The minivan had a North Carolina license plate.
“Who...” I started to say, the questions falling from my lips the moment I thought of them. I couldn’t get a full phrase out after that.
Panic claimed me. Deep down in my bones, I was shaking.
That had to be what Kota was trying to warn me about. Could it be social services?
If that was the case, why was the plate from North Carolina? And what were the boxes for? Were they packing up what little I had and moving me out?
Was that why he’d demanded I come back? Because the police had demanded it?
Did they drive minivans?
Marie walked past it all and went directly for a short flight of steps that led up to the side door. She put her hand on the handle, and then waited for me.
I eased myself around the minivan, and as I got closer, I heard a deep humming coming from inside the house.
A vacuum.
Our father never did housework. Not that I’d ever seen him. We usually did it.
Now everything made even less sense. He had been making the bed. I didn’t know much about social services, or the police, but if they’d discovered my existence and had come to take me, he wouldn’t be vacuuming the house.
Would he?
I stalled just before taking that first step on the stairs. After a week of camp, and with my issues with the guys, I wasn’t sure I could handle this new problem.
This wasn’t what we’d expected.
This shook the plan I’d had right out of my brain.
Marie’s wide, terrified brown eyes told me she wasn’t about to enter without me. It was like when we were kids, and we’d gotten into trouble for leaving toys out, or playing out in the yard after dark.
