But then… she starts cracking up. No mistaking this for something else: she is definitely laughin’. Instantly the table stops moving.
“No! I am not interested in Clay. You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Then what is it?”
She clears her throat, which makes me think she’s about to lie.
“Can we talk about it some other time?”
Now she’s scarin’ me. She tells me everything. Why not this? I grab a dish towel to mop up the water on the floor. “Is it somethin’ serious?”
“No…,” she says, but trails off like there’s more to the answer than a simple no. She sighs. “I don’t like Clay like that, Evvie. But I guess I do wonder sometimes what it’s like to be you.”
“Why?”
“Cuz everybody wants you!”
Where did that come from? She’s never said anything like this to me before. “That is not true,” I tell her.
“It is, actually.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I have eyes and I can see with ’em. It’s hard sometimes, cuz it ain’t fair. But it’s not your fault.”
I stop fussin’ with the flower mess and sit on the floor. I feel light-headed. Is this new, or has she always felt like this? I dab my forehead with the wet dish towel. I tend to feel a bit ill when I think I mighta hurt someone’s feelings without meaning to.
“Evvie? You there?”
“Anne? Can you come over here? I’m at the Heywoods’.”
“Why?”
Why? Because you basically just said you’re jealous of me, and I’m afraid you’re ’bout to drop me as a friend!
“I don’t know. Talkin’ on the phone is limited. I wanna see your face.” It’s all I can think to say.
“Maybe. Where is it again?”
I have to pause and swallow. Feels like tears aren’t too far away, and I don’t understand why I keep gettin’ all emotional today.
“Thirty-Five Sutton,” I tell her.
Outside, a gentle breeze blows through the elm leaves. I spy some dandelion dust floatin’ on the air and settling in the pile of dirt where Abigail and Patty were just playing.
Were. Just. Playing. They’re gone.
I drop the phone and race to the back door, throwing it open.
“Abigail? Where y’all at?”
Nothing. A dog barks from somebody’s yard.
“Abigail! Patty! Answer me!”
Nothing.
I run up and down the yard, snaking through the swing set, the sandbox, the seesaw, and around the front with the tacky wooden sheep lawn ornament announcing THE HEYWOODS. They’re nowhere. Nowhere. I run as fast as I can go down Sutton Lane, looking in every yard I see. Down one side and up the other.
“What’s the matter with you, gal?” some old white man watering his grass calls out as I fly by him. They were just there! Where could they’ve gotten to so goddamn fast?
I run right through Patty’s yard, her mama hollerin’ out the back door, leap over the low hedges back into the Heywoods’ backyard, and I look inside. I see a tall, pale figure walking toward the front of the house. There’s a strange man in the house! I wanna turn and run in the opposite direction, but I have to take care of Abigail. I rush in, ignorin’ all the alarm bells screamin’ inside me. But once I get all the way through the kitchen, dinin’ room, and sittin’ room, he’s gone.
“Evalene!”
I jump outta my skin.
“Oh, Christ Jesus!” Abigail and Patty sit on the front hall stairs staring at me all innocent. So cool and calm, as if butter wouldn’t melt in either of their mouths.
“I was scared to DEATH lookin’ for you,” I shriek, shakin’ like a tree caught in a hurricane. “How many times I gotta tell ya not to leave the yard without me?”
“But we didn’t leave the yard,” Abigail argues, eyes wide and questioning. Both girls got their filthy hands wrapped around ice cream cones, vanilla for Abigail and zebra swirl for Patty.
“Where did you get those?” I ask, tryna catch my breath.
“The man,” Patty says, as if this is a dumb question.
“What man?”
Abigail scampers down the stairs and opens the door. Sure enough, out on the sidewalk, in the bright light of day, is the man I saw last night. He’s closer now. He is not a statue. His eyes are concealed by dark shades. His lips bend unnaturally into a ghoulish smile. He cocks his head to the left, and I don’t know why, but this gesture doesn’t look human to me, and I drag Abigail back inside as fast as I can before slamming the door and locking it.
That pale face. It looks just as blank up close.
“Why did you do that?” Abigail asks.
I’m not sure how to answer that question. What did he do just now that was so wrong? I can’t explain it, but it felt like… it made me think of old stories I’d hear as a kid, about the boogeyman. They said he ate children who misbehaved so he could steal their souls. When I saw that man out there, I felt like I was lookin’ at a person who would surely eat me to steal my soul.
“Ha-ha! You told me I couldn’t have it, but I got ice cream anyway, Evalene!” Abigail gloats.
I lean against the banister, using it for support. I try to sound calm.
“Do you know who he was?” I ask.
“Huh-uh, but he was nice,” Patty says. “He got us ice cream from the ice cream man when you was on the phone forever, and then he made us hide with him. He said it was a game.”
“He said you’d think it was funny. Isn’t he your friend?” Abigail asks me.
I shake my head. “No. He’s not my friend. I don’t know who that man was.”
“He knows you,” they both say in unison. A shiver passes through me. My throat is raw and dry. I hold my hands together to stop the shakin’. I’m scared, but above all, I’m tired. Tired and relieved that the kids are safe. I don’t even wanna think about this weirdo right now. Or ever.
