Ezra didn’t respond as Clara walked to her phone. She paused the song. The house reverted to silence. There was no indication that anyone else was in the house, but it was a rather big house. Clara attributed it to Ezra being farther away, but if that were the case, why did he leave the music playing in their room?
“Ezra?” she called out again. “Where are you?”
As she walked to the door, still wrapped in a towel, her gaze fell to the bed. A black dress had been laid out for her. It was the dress she’d worn to Ezra’s father’s funeral.
“Ezra, this isn’t funny!” she said, her voice shrill and angry.
She was tired of his game. He had frightened her when he started talking about ghosts and seeing his dead father. She’d been so worried about his mental health. Yet it was starting to look like some kind of elaborate prank, a way to spook her in this house that was supposedly haunted.
Sure, they had tricked each other before, but this was going too far. She was genuinely concerned about his state of mind, so if he had been lying about it this whole time… that was just awful to think about. It didn’t seem like him to joke about something like that.
It wasn’t like him, and that was what got to Clara most. It wasn’t like Ezra to joke about something that would lead to him calling a doctor. He was fun, but he also knew when to be serious. He’d know this wasn’t the way to make her laugh. It wouldn’t be a fun scare.
Had his father’s death impacted him so greatly that he was now lacking his better judgement? Or was there something more to this? There couldn’t be though, right? Clara couldn’t think of another explanation.
Determined to get to the bottom of this, Clara walked out of the room still wrapped in her towel. “Ezra!” she called out. “This isn’t funny. Where are you?”
The house was silent aside from her voice though. Her anger grew as she tried to find him. They were adults. This game of hide and seek was ridiculous and she was so tired of indulging his stupid games. Clara and her husband rarely fought, though they had of course gotten into a few arguments during their time together.
Nothing like this though. Once she found him, she was going to tell him exactly how much this was all getting to her. There had to be changes. She didn’t want to keep doing this. She wouldn’t keep doing this.
“Ezra!” She walked downstairs, into the kitchen where he usually was at this time of the morning. Nothing but dirty dishes in the sink. He’d clearly been up and eating breakfast, but he wasn’t there any longer. She shook her head, stumped.
Was he in a room and unable to hear her? Was he hiding like a child? If he were hiding, he was going to get an earful. This was ridiculous. She didn’t want to have to search for her adult husband.
“Ezra!” she bellowed.
The front door opened. “What?” Ezra asked as he came in carrying a coffee cup in one hand and a paper bag in the other. They looked at each other, bewildered.
25
Ezra shut the door behind him and faced his wife, trying to make sense of the confused and irritated look on her face.
Clara didn’t know what to think as she stared at her husband, a tornado of emotions swirling in her mind. Ezra had to have been in the house. He had to have turned on the music and laid her dress out. It was so ominous too, that song paired with the dress she wore to his father’s memorial. Considering everything that had been going on lately, she felt she had every reason to be angry about it.
Yet, she didn’t lash out at him with the full force of her anger because there he was, a cup of coffee and a paper bag in hand. She didn’t think she’d been in the shower for that long. So, how had Ezra put on the music, laid out the dress, and managed to go to the coffee shop all while she was in the bathroom?
“Where were you?” Clara asked, her tone more accusing than she meant it to be. Though Ezra knew he hadn’t done anything wrong, he immediately felt like he had.
“I went to a local coffee shop,” he replied. “I’m sorry I left without telling you. I meant to only go for a walk while you were sleeping, but then Sam saw me and invited me out for coffee. I thought it’d be good to build a better relationship with him, you know? We’ve talked about how it’d be good to connect to other business owners in the area. We want to connect to other people in the area in general. So, I agreed to go with him.”
Clara looked at him, dumbstruck. She was unaware of how to respond. Her mind just couldn’t make sense of this. He had to have been in the house, and she would’ve accused him of lying, but he had proof in his hands.
“Did you come in before this?” she asked, as a possible explanation formed as her mind tried desperately to make sense of everything.
“What do you mean?” Ezra asked, more than slightly confused.
“Like did you come into the house, then realize you forgot the bag in your car, and then go back out to get it or something?”
“No…” he responded slowly, confused as to why she’d even ask that. “I didn’t even take my car. Sam picked me up while I was walking. We took his car. He just barely dropped me off back home and I came straight inside. Didn’t want your coffee to get cold. Why do you ask?"
Clara was growing more confused by the second. It simply didn’t make sense, but she didn’t want to accuse her husband of something
