Chapter 60
Before we had tons of snow we sat down one evening and cut out snowflakes--one for each window pane in the patio doors. They have been so fun to look at for the past few weeks. This photo is one of few times I've gone outside and seen them from a new angle.
Hidden Secrets
Leona Palmer Haag
Chapter 60
March first. Jenn put a big X through the day on the
calendar. February was over. At least Matt had given her a dozen red roses for
Valentines Day. Kristina had walked across the street to invite her to another
cooking demonstration and commented on how sweet Samuel was. Jenn guessed his
investment paid off in some sort of way, but it hadn't made her day. Nick was
glaringly absent and silent while someone she had no need to impress thought
Samuel was a wonderful husband.
The whole day Jenn wondered if she really had a
husband. Period. Or was mourning being delayed? No black shawl to wrap up in
until… until someone knew? Or until someone admitted it.
March ninth. Another big X on the calendar. The month
was jumping along like time would never slow down, and still Nick was missing.
Kevin was mum and Matt hadn't said anything of value about his absence. Neither
knew when she'd be able to return home. Everything was vague.
March eleventh. Just one more X. Nothing but swimming
lessons for Katie and sun tanning in the barely seventy degrees. Jenn fixed
something yummy for dinner after browsing the internet for recipes. But who
cared? Not Katie. She turned her nose up and requested a 'samich'. Tuna to be
specific.
March fifteenth. A cooking demonstration at one of
Kristina's friend's homes. More church talk. Nothing serious so she survived.
The day ended with another black X.
March seventeenth. Play group. At least Katie didn't
throw a tantrum like one of the other kids did when it was time to go home.
March nineteenth. Jenn stormed about everything to
Kevin over the phone. Probably losing her job—because no one kept a job open
for someone who ran off without giving notice first. Then, not knowing her
house was blown apart by some terrorist infuriated her. If she'd known why she
had to choose tile and countertops, she would have made different choices in
how it was rebuilt. Now, could he pull stuff out and do it her way? Why not!
Kevin used his whole repertoire of swear words on her
in reply, which of course made Jenn even madder. He threatened to send her to
Siberia. To a Chinese prison camp. To a cave. To—well, to places intolerable
and unrepeatable.
Jenn retaliated with her—actually his—credit card.
Katie lacked nothing. Except her daddy. Matt had shown up twice to fill in, but
what good is a guy who comes around every three to four weeks for two or three
days for swimming, playing and teasing before he disappears again? Matt was a
good guy. The best. But he wasn't Nick.
"Promise you'll stay in Phoenix and give us a few
more days?" Matt said before he left.
Jenn reluctantly nodded.
He lifted her chin. "No running off to visit your
brother?"
"I'll be good." She hoped she sounded
convincing.
"We're closing in on it. I'm working my tail off.
We think we know where Nick is. Just give us time and we'll bring him
home."
"Like I believe you," Jenn muttered in
reply.
And that was exactly how she felt. Nick was gone, Matt,
his weak fill-in wasn't home, and there was no end to her façade. The torture.
The prison she was living in. The only thing she had to show for it was a nice
tan, a two-year old who could doggy paddle and blow bubbles underwater, and a
kitchen stocked with ingredients she normally couldn’t afford, like saffron.
"Life is great," Jenn muttered as she
carried Katie upstairs to bed. But Katie wasn't tired. She wanted to jump and
play and throw pillows. Jenn finally convinced her to hold still long enough
for a diaper and jammies. She plopped three movies in front of her and said,
"Take your pick, cutie pie. What will it be tonight?"
"Pony!" Katie squealed.
My little Pony wasn't a strong enough sedative, so
Jenn put in a Care Bear movie after it ended. An hour later the Care Bears
stopped saving the world and happy music played as the credits rolled down the
TV screen. Jenn opened one eye. Katie was finally asleep. She searched for the
remote to shut it off. She’d left it on the foot of the bed, out of reach and
in the cold? She was tempted to leave it there. She was tired enough, cozy
enough, and warm enough to sleep through the night with a blinking red light on
the DVD player.
Suddenly there was a flash of light and a boom. The
music stopped, and with a soft pop, everything went pitch black. Jenn shot up
in bed. Her heart pounded in her throat. A moment later there was a distant
metallic clank and slight vibration. The TV turned back on.
Jenn slid out of bed and grabbed her phone off the
nightstand. She called Kevin as she tip-toed to the door and checked the lock.
It was secure. She turned off the TV and crossed the room to peer out the front
window through a crack between two curtain panels. Thick clouds hung in the
dark sky. Suddenly they flashed with lightening. Jenn watched the heavenly
fireworks as she waited for Kevin to answer. When she got his voice mail she
shut the phone without leaving a message. She knew the answer. The power had gone
out and the generator had kicked on.
Jenn grabbed a warm blanket and wrapped up in it. She
opened the curtains covering the French doors at the balcony and curled up on
the sofa to watch the storm roll over the blackened valley. It rattled widows
as the wind whipped, but only released enough rain to speckle the dry desert.
Within an hour it was gone. Suddenly streetlights popped on in the neighborhood
far below. She heard a soft click and knew the generator in the second basement
had shut off.
Jenn stared out the French doors over the desert. She
was sure there had been enough lightning to power the city of Dallas for three
weeks—if it could have been harnessed. It was eerie how a storm could pack such
a powerful lightning punch, then race away so quickly as if it had never been
there. Like a thief. A vandal. A ghost.
Jenn curled up tighter in the blanket and stared at
the night. Stars bravely returned as the wind forced the clouds aside. She
grabbed the remote and clicked on the gas fire. Soft flames sprang to life and
licked the ceramic log in mesmerizing blue and gold veins. They brought warmth.
Light. Comfort. Soothing calm. Without warning the flames hissed and turned
angry red and violet. A pale cold face pressed against the French door
windowpanes. Icy black eyes searched the bedroom, finding Jenn and her baby. A
hand reached through the glass with long, cold fingers. Jenn screamed. The
General and murder were only inches away!
Katie wailed.
Jenn's eyes flashed opened as she rolled off the sofa
and scrambled to untangle herself from the blanket. She crawled across the
carpet to the bed, fearing that a wrist was around her ankle, not downy fabric.
She managed to yank free and rise halfway across the room. She sprinted to
Katie. The two-year old was sitting in a puddle of tears. "Baby, I'm so
sorry," Jenn said, grabbing her into her arms. She smoothed her hair.
Kissed her cheek. Patted her back. Held her to her heart. "You didn't
deserve to be part of my nightmare. I'm so sorry."
Jenn looked back at the cold dark windowpanes. All
were empty. No one was there. Never had been. She turned back to her daughter
and rocked her in her arms and softly sang, easing bumps and quivers out of her
voice. It took as long to calm Katie as it had taken the storm to unleash its
fury and flee. Katie and Jenn shed more water than the clouds had.
At last Katie fell into fitful sleep. Jenn finally
relaxed on the feather pillows beside her daughter and stared at the ceiling.
This was not how she wanted to live. A soft click interrupted her thoughts and
chills ran up Jenn's spine. What was it? A door unlatching? The power going off
and the generator starting again?
A weak humming started. Was that the furnace turning
on? The air conditioner? From deep inside the house there was a low groan. Was
it the house adjusting to changing temperatures? The water heater kicking on?
She thought she’d already adjusted to the house sounds over time, but these
seemed new and out of place. She stared unblinkingly at the ceiling. Her home
in Dallas groaned and creaked in the night. There were always little snaps and
pops and clicks after dark. Why shouldn't a house ten times as big moan too,
and more often, and just as loudly, and with a bigger variety of noises? A new
sound filtered into the bedroom—something similar to a footstep outside the
bedroom door. Her heart stopped. Dead cold. It jump-started a second later when
she felt the soft breeze of warm air pushed from the furnace. That was it—all
it had been.
It felt like an eternity, but was perhaps another hour
before Jenn crawled out of bed and made her way to the French doors. She
hastily shut the curtains and turned around and fled back to bed. She buried
herself in the warm blankets and pulled Katie near. This was not the first
night she hadn't been able to sleep in the castle. She willed her eyes to shut.
Her heart to calm. Her breathing to slow. Sleep. She desperately needed
untroubled sleep.
The face appeared again. Inches away. In the dark.
Staring. At her. Jenn bit back a scream as she sank backward into the shadows
behind her. Holding Katie firmly in her arms, she would not scream. She'd never
scream again. Never frighten Katie like that again. No matter what happened.
What she saw. Who was there.
Katie yanked out of her arms and Jenn cried out. Her
eyes flew open. Katie managed to finally work free of Jenn's grasp and tumbled
off the side of the bed to romp and play. Jenn moaned. It had been another long
night. She followed her daughter out of bed, but unlike other mornings, she
grabbed her cell phone.
"Kevin, I need a gun," she demanded without
a preliminary.
“No, ‘hello, and how are you today?’ Just like that,
you need a gun?"
"Today. Two of them. I'll be at the mall at ten
and leave the SUV on the west side. Unlocked. I want both of them under the
front seat and ammo in the glove box before I go back to the SUV at
eleven-thirty."
"Let's get something straight, girl. Who's the
boss around here?"
"Me. Just do it or I'll go buy them myself. Got
that?"
"Yes ma'am!"
Jenn hung up before Kevin could say anything more. She
had no desire to tell him she was terrified of ghosts, nightmares and sounds in
the dark.
End Chapter 60
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