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ALEX
I walked down to the lake with my mind reeling and my body shaking, like I just got zapped by a bolt of lightning.
There’s not one part of me that believes Penny has some kind of mental disorder. But the alternative—something that’s been trying to creep into my mind for a long time—is also unbelievable.
Maybe I’m the crazy one. Maybe years of grieving has made me insane.
I stare at the lake with Shadow for a long time before I gather the guts to pull my phone out of my pocket and call her.
“Hello?” she answers.
“Laura. It’s Alex.”
Her silence when she hears my voice is a huge red flag waving in the wind.
Taking a breath, I say, “You asked me to call you if Penny started to act weird.” I turn to look back at the house to make sure Lily or Penny hasn’t followed me out here. “She’s acting weird.”
Laura Rose doesn’t sound surprised as she sighs on the other end of the line. “I had a feeling she would.”
“What does that mean? Does she really have a mental illness?”
“Personally, I don’t believe she does.”
That doesn’t give me as much reassurance as it should. Petting Shadow, I wait for her to say more, but my patience runs out. “What do you personally think is going on? She’s upset. She doesn’t want to go back to Cali.”
“Let me ask you something, Alex. Something I should’ve asked you a long time ago.”
The serious tone of her voice sends a slither of dread up my spine. “Okay…”
“Are you in love with Penny?”
My mouth drops open. That’s the last thing I expected her to ask me. I run my hand through my hair, preparing for her wrath. “I am. I tried not to be, but…” What can I say? “It didn’t work. So, yeah. I’m very much in love with her.”
More dead silence makes me wonder if she ended the call. She and her husband might be on the next flight out here to chop my balls up into little pieces. Not that I’d fucking blame them. I’d probably do the same if the situation were reversed.
“Laura?”
“I’m still here. I was just taking a minute to think.”
As a parent, I can’t even imagine what must be going through her head. “Nothing ever happened between us when she was underage. I’m sure that doesn’t make you feel any better, but it’s true.”
“I wasn’t worried about that, Alex. I could always tell you weren’t that type of guy.”
“What’s going on with her? How can I help her?”
“Alex, I’ve tried again and again to talk about this with Ben as well as Penny’s doctors since she was two years old. They refused to listen to me. They wouldn’t see the things I was seeing. One of her doctors even suggested that I might be contributing to Penny’s so-called mental illness. Everyone made me doubt my own instincts as a mother. But you… I think it’s best if you see what I saw.” I sit in confusion when she pauses. “There’s something at our old house I want you to pick up. I’m going to text the couple renting from us and ask them to leave it in the garage for you this afternoon.”
Her bizarre crypticness only adds to my frustration and confusion. “What is it?”
“It’s a box. I think it’s best if I don’t say anything about what’s inside.”
I let out a laugh. “Should I be scared? This sounds a little weird.”
“I honestly don’t know how you should feel. I’ll text you when you can pick it up.”
“And then what?”
“And then I’m going to let you decide what’s going on with Penny because I think you’re the only one who really can.”
The box turns out to be an old steam trunk the size of a large suitcase. While the girls are inside, continuing to pack Lily’s things, I put it on my workbench and stare at it.
“Should we open it?” I ask Shadow. He wags his curly tail and lifts his front paw.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
There’s no lock. Ominous smoke doesn’t drift from the contents when I flip the latches and slowly lift the lid. I don’t know what the hell I was expecting, but it wasn’t stacks of folders and a bunch of USB drives. And six handheld can openers. Frowning, I pick up one of the folders and flip it open to see pages of children’s drawings. I almost close it and toss it to the side, but then the hair on my arms and on the back of my neck stand up when I realize these aren’t just random drawings. They’re not of Penny and her family like most little kids draw.
There’s a little white house with a fence and a barn. There are pages and pages of a man with shaggy dark hair and a woman with long brown hair and big green eyes. In some photos, the woman has a circle drawn over her stomach, with a baby inside. Every single drawing has a red dog. The word H O M E is written in large, crooked letters across the top of several of them. Swallowing hard, I put the folder to the side and look through the others. They’re all variations of the same scenes with the same people, but I can see the progression in her drawing talent. The details become more vivid and realistic. A chill shimmies up my spine when I see some of the figures labeled in small cursive writing. Alex. Me. Baby Lily. Cherry.
