Sleep No More

“You promise?”

Rose’s words reminded him of the promise he had made Mallory so long ago. “I think I know what’s wrong, Rose. And I don’t think a doctor can fix it. I have to fix it.”

The black woman turned and looked deep into his eyes. “You sure you ain’t been goin’ in the street with somebody?”

“I’m sure.”

She shook her head in surrender, as if to say, “White people’s problems,” then grunted and stood and waved at Annelise. “I’m going on, girl. Your daddy got you now.”

“Bye, Rose!” Ana yelled. “See you tomorrow!”

“Mmm-hmm.” Rose waddled up the steps and into the house.

Waters let Annelise make a few more circuits of the patio, then took her inside and fed her the supper Rose had left in the oven. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, broccoli, and salad. Ana skipped the salad, but she put away two chicken legs and three helpings of potatoes and gravy. Waters wondered where the food went; his daughter still weighed only fifty pounds.

When he finished rinsing the dishes, Lily had still not appeared, so he took Ana into the den and listened to her read aloud from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers. She had quickly graduated from the Harry Potter series, and now loved nothing more than hobbits and elves. As the struggle of good versus evil played out in his ears, Waters realized he had rarely looked at his own life in those terms.

Despite all Mallory had done in his distant past, he had never attributed the word “evil” to her. But now…an image of Lily dangling the butcher knife over Annelise’s head flashed into his mind, and he knew in his bones that Mallory would not stop until Lily and Annelise had been wiped from the earth. He could see only one solution: Mallory had to be destroyed. And yet…she could not be killed without killing the innocent person who contained her-

“John?”

Waters got to his feet as Lily walked into the den in an old blue housecoat. Her eyes were puffy from sleep, and her newly cut blond hair was pressed flat against the left side of her face. Annelise looked up from her book, and her eyes went wide.

“Mom?”

“Sit down, babe,” Waters said, leading Lily to the sofa. “Do you feel all right?”

“Not really. I’m exhausted. I have been all afternoon.” She looked at Annelise, whose eyes were filled with confusion. “Hey, baby.”

“What’s the matter, Mom?”

“What did you do this morning?” Waters asked. “Did you run again?”

Lily squinted at her watch. “I’m not sure. What day is it?”

Annelise laughed, but the sound rode an undercurrent of fear.

“Wednesday.”

Lily shook her head, then covered her eyes. Waters feared she would begin crying in front of Annelise.

“Mom, what’s wrong?” Ana asked.

“I’ve got a headache, honey. You keep reading.”

“I’m tired of reading.”

“Well…turn on the TV, then.”

“I don’t want to watch TV.”

Waters got up, switched on the television, and set it on the Disney Channel. Annelise sighed in frustration, but she began watching all the same. Waters did not sit again, but walked behind the sofa and massaged Lily’s shoulders. As he worked his way up to her neck and scalp, she moaned and leaned forward. He gave her about fifteen minutes of that treatment, and then Ana’s program ended.

“Time for bed,” he said.

“Why?” Ana asked, looking ready to throw a fit. “It’s not time yet.”

“Mom doesn’t feel good, and I have some work to do.”

“I can just stay in here and watch TV. I’ll be quiet.”

Waters shook his head and held out his hand. Ana hesitated, then got up and closed her hand around two of his fingers.

Lily said, “Is it all right if I don’t go up to tuck you in, baby?”

Annelise gave her a hug. “It’s okay. You better take a pill or something.”

Waters went upstairs and helped his daughter into her pajamas. He kissed her and stroked her hair for a minute, but he left without reading a story. He was anxious to get back downstairs before Lily nodded off again. With Mallory so unstable, he could not afford to wait another night. There was also the chance that Tom Jackson would turn up more evidence linking him to Eve, and that might be all it took for Jackson to arrest him.

Lily was back in the bedroom, sitting in her chaise with her feet propped on the ottoman. She still wore the old housecoat, and in the brighter light of the bedroom, he saw black rings beneath her eyes.

“Is Ana all right?” she asked.

“She’s fine.”

Lily squinted up at him. “You look worried.”

He walked over and sat on the ottoman, then laid his hand on her knee. “I want to talk to you about something.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“I don’t mean for it to. But this is serious. You’ve been having trouble with your memory for the past couple of days, haven’t you?”

Lily looked strangely at him. “How did you know?”

“Have you noticed anything else out of the ordinary?”

She looked away, deep in thought. “I don’t really feel like myself,” she said in a careful voice. “I’ve noticed some…physical things.”

“Like what?”

She looked embarrassed. “I’m bruised, John.”

“Where?”

She opened her housecoat at the waist, revealing her left hip, which was mottled with dark blue spots. “Both hips are like this. Bruises like hand marks.”

He swallowed. “I did that.”

“When?”

“Last night.”

Confusion clouded her eyes. “I don’t remember. But at least it explains some things.”

“Like what?”

“This morning when I woke up and went to the bathroom, I felt like…no, I knew that I’d had sex. And it frightened me.”

“And you don’t remember it at all?”

“No. And the same thing happened this afternoon. Did we make love this morning?”

Waters closed his eyes in anguish. “No.”

“But…did you do this?” She pulled open her housecoat at the chest, and Waters saw two purple suck marks above her breasts. “No,” he whispered. “I didn’t.”

She stiffened. “Then how did they get there?”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. This is going to be the hardest conversation of our lives.”

“You’re scaring me, John.”

“I know. We’re in trouble, Lily. And we won’t get out of it unless we do it together.”

“Tell me. Don’t make me wait like this!”

He was still unsure how to start. “What I’m going to say will sound crazy to you. But I want you to promise to keep an open mind and hear me out until the end. All right?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember that day at the soccer field when I asked you about Eve Sumner? I didn’t know who she