Chapter 3

I’m momentarily confused. I’m in my kitchen, but it’s still olive green and we’d had it redone to blue 7 or 8 years ago. I look around and realize I remember this. I can just see the yellow bus as it stops through the living room window from where I stand. I watch my remaining children hop off followed by the brat who immediately breaks into a run.

I hear the front door open and a painful squeal of, “Mommy! Mommy!” as he dashes to me. I can feel the contempt tighten in my stomach like a vice. My children follow behind him far better behaved. He looks up at me with excitement and I feel a momentary splash of guilt that is squashed beneath annoyance, “What do you want?”

He speaks so quickly it takes a second for the words to hit me, “MOMMY! We played this game today where you can’t use your hands and it was amazing. I’m good at it too. I got it in the net three times!”

Soccer. The brat is trying to play soccer. He’s trying take that away from my son, from Stephen.

The vice in my stomach tightens and I speak in what I intend to be a calm, but firm tone, “No! That was Stephen’s. You can’t play soccer. You don’t get to take that away from him the way you took him away from me!”

I glance up and see Selena recoil and I wonder if my tone was as calm as it was and then the brat sniffles and I look down again. He doesn’t cry. He hasn’t done that in years, he just looks at me with pain. The face stays frozen as the rest of the world shifts and swirls and we’re in a forest. I don’t need to look up to know we’re below the overlook despite it being flat. The seven-year-old brat is replaced by a broken pretzel of an older brat. His hand clutching tightly to my scarf.

RA-RA-RA-RATT!

I woke up and turned to grab my phone cursing the early alarm. I can hear the shower and know Henry is already up and planning. I checked my messages while I waited. There wasn’t anything about the brat. I wondered briefly if I could rent an ATV and find the body to get my scarf back or if I’d have to wait for it to be found.

Henry popped out of the bathroom a minute later and I set about my morning routine. It was a half-hour earlier than normal so we could ‘discuss’ how to deal with my fuck-up and get a story straight for reporting the brat missing.

Once I come out of the bathroom and dress, Henry speaks, “If someone calls from the school, we’ll report him missing then. If not an hour after he would normally get home. You caught him taking some of your jewelry and your scarf and he ran off when you confronted him. That is all you know.”

“What Jewelry?”

He handed me a tiny notepad with seven items written on it. I read them, “No. That necklace was my grandmother’s! I won’t give that up for the brat. It’s bad enough my scarf is gone! That was last thing Stephen picked out for me!”

He leveled me with a glare, “Keep it down. I’ve already got the jewelry. I’ll make sure it’s found by people that will pawn it. When the police get the descriptions, we can find it and buy it back and eventually if a bear or the coyotes don’t eat it ... you’ll get your scarf back in a couple years when the body is found. You need to get over it. Now repeat the story for me.”

“I caught him taking my jewelry. I confronted him. We yelled. He left.”

“Just before 8 o’clock.”

“Just before 8 o’clock.”

“Do you remember what he was wearing?”

“No. I should, shouldn’t I?”

“It’s fine. You can just say you were too worked up and you can’t remember that part.”

“What about Selena and Michael? They know I took him to Maiden’s point?”

“I’ll bribe them. They’ll stick to the story. Just go to work and have a normal day. If the school calls, you call me and make sure you remember your story. Word-for-word.”

“I will”

One thing I could always count on Henry for is direction. I dressed and recoiled when I instinctively tried to grab my scarf. I sighed and fought the urge to either weep or go rent an ATV and headed out to the kitchen to make breakfast. I decided to go easy for the day; bacon, toast, and eggs. I dished out four plates and set one in front of my husband, my son, my daughter, and the last in front of my normal seat.

Selena asked quickly, “Where is Isaac? I didn’t see him come in last night.”

Why does she want to know? Does she know something?

Michael joined in, “Yeah, I want to tell him I got Kimberly’s number.”

Selena was quicker on the draw than I was, “Kimberly?”

Michael answered, “You remember that chick with the green hair that graduated with me? Turns out she’s in the art program at State and he had a thing for her. Wanted to rub it in.”

Ha ha ha. Good for you, kid. Show the brat ... oh wait.

Henry struck his water with a spoon and all eyes went to him, “Isaac ran away after your mother caught him stealing her jewelry.”

Selena asked, “After they got back from Maiden’s Point?”

Henry cleared his throat and spoke with a bit more gravitas, “They never went to Maiden’s Point. Your mother found him raiding her jewelry, they fought, and he left. If you’re asked about it that is what you say.”

Selena looked anxious, but Michael added, “And what do we get out of it?”

“An extra grand in your allowances this month.”

Michael smiled and said, “Yes, sir.”