Red Rain

39

“Why is Axl crying?”

Roz squinted at Mark. “Why does the sun come up every morning? You’re the child shrink. You tell me.”

Mark set down the book he’d been reading, a treatise about how sibling order determines your fate. So interesting how often the oldest sibling is the achiever in the family. He pulled off his reading glasses and folded them carefully. He grinned at his sister. “Maybe he’s hungry.”

“Oh, wow. Genius. I never would have thought of that.” Roz rolled her eyes. She tossed the ball of dirty laundry she was carrying onto his lap.

He pulled a red pajama top off his head. “He’s bored, that’s all. Let’s pick up the boys and take everyone to the ocean.”

Roz started grabbing up the dirty clothes. “I thought doing the laundry might be more fun.”

She turned as Axl came toddling into the room. “Beach! Beach! Beach!” He could always stop crying in a split second.

Mark chuckled. “He was listening to us.”

“He listens to everything,” Roz said. “He’s a little spy.”

“Beach! Beach! Beach!” He reached for his mom to pick him up, but her arms were full of laundry. So he wrapped his hands around her knees.

“Where are the boys?”

“At Ethan’s house. All three of them. We’ll have to pull them from the pool. I’ll probably have to bribe them with ice cream to get them to come with us.”

“They’ll come. Axl, let go of me. I can’t walk. Is Lea coming?”

“No. She’s working. I’m not sure what’s up with her. She’s writing a piece about death rituals.”

Roz squinted at him. “Odd.”

“Yes. Odd.”

“It’s that island. The hurricane. She saw so much death. I think she’s having trouble shaking it from her mind.”

“We’ll have to be very nice to her.” Roz struggled across the room with Axl clinging to one leg. Giggling. He’d turned her into an amusement park ride. “The ocean will tire him out. That’s good. Only thing I hate is that he eats the beach.”

Mark nodded. “He’s definitely a sand eater. I had to pry a huge glob of sand from his mouth last time, remember? Maybe he learned his lesson.”

“Learned his lesson? Go ahead. Say something stupider than that. We’ll just have to watch him like a hawk.”

“Yes. Like a hawk. I’ll start loading up the car. We’ll take your SUV. More room.”

“Do we need food?”

“No. Bring something for Axl. We’re only going for an hour. No one will starve. And we can buy them ice cream from the truck in the parking lot.”

“Let me just drop this laundry in the machine.” She turned back to him. “This is the twins’ stuff. It’s so clean, you’d think they didn’t wear it.” She held up a white T-shirt. “But look at this. This ragged, dark spot on the sleeve? I think it’s a burn mark.”

“A burn mark?”

“Yes. The sleeve was definitely burned. Weird?”

“Weird.” Mark stared at it. “Hope they’re not playing with matches in their private hideaway back there.”

“They love it back there, Mark.”

“Really? Think they’re happy here?”

“Well. . I walked by the guesthouse last night after supper and I heard them in there giggling and giggling.”

“Think they already feel at home?”

“They have funny jokes. One of them kept saying, ‘smoked meat, smoked meat,’ and then they’d laugh and laugh.”

“I don’t get the joke.”

“They were being silly. I think they’re doing a great job of fitting in. I mean, losing their family and all, moving from their home, it can’t be easy.”

Mark climbed to his feet. He glanced at his laptop monitor. No email. No one ever emailed him on Saturday. “Well, we’ll see how they fit in. I mean, we haven’t asked much of them. They live by themselves in the back. They don’t share much about school with us. They don’t-”

“Mark, there was a horrible murder right in our driveway. Maybe they even witnessed it. But they haven’t seemed messed up by it. They haven’t acted out or anything.”

“I think it’s good they went swimming with Ira. That’s encouraging. They’re the same age, so if they manage to bond with Ira, maybe. .”

His voice drifted off. He still had major doubts about the whole thing.

He went upstairs to give Lea one more chance to come along with them, but she was captured in the glow of her laptop screen. Were her eyes glassy or just reflecting the light of the monitor?

“We’re going to the ocean. I’m going to pick up Ira and the twins. Want to come with us?”

She mumbled something he couldn’t hear and kept typing without turning her head. He couldn’t help but be annoyed. “Sweetheart, don’t you want to spend some time with the boys?”

Another mumbled reply.

He forced a laugh. “I’m going to have to pick you up and carry you away from that keyboard, aren’t I.”

She waved him away. “I need to get this all down, Mark.”

He kissed the back of her neck, changed into a swimsuit and sleeveless T-shirt, found his Tevas, and hurried outside. Roz was struggling to fasten Axl in his car seat. “Just think. Only six more years of this. Lucky, huh?”

Mark laughed. “That’s what I love about you, Roz. Always thinking on the bright side.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have put the suntan lotion on him first. He keeps sliding out of the seat.”

Mission accomplished with Axl, Roz climbed into the backseat beside him and they drove the few blocks to Ethan’s house. The sun, still high in the afternoon sky, filtered through the trees, sending flickering light dancing over the windshield. On the side of the street, a dead squirrel had attracted the attention of several hungry blackbirds. The passing car didn’t even make them flutter a wing or interrupt their feast.

Mark pulled the car to the bottom of the driveway. The three garage doors were open. No cars in view. Wasn’t anyone home to watch the boys in the pool?

He left the air-conditioner running for Roz and Axl and climbed out of the car. It was a hot day, more like summer than May, a great beach day. Sunlight bounced off the front of the white frame house. He took a few steps up the smooth paved driveway. A chipmunk darted out of the garage, into the yard.

A few doors down he heard the low drone of a power mower. Across the street, two little girls rode pink and yellow tricycles up and down a driveway.

Nearly to the front of the house, Mark stopped to listen. The silence disturbed him. No splashing. No boys’ voices. Usually they were decimating each other with water blasters, cannonballing into the pool and jumping out, shouting and wrestling and splashing.

Today silence.

They never went indoors when they could be in the pool.

A sudden feeling of dread made the back of his neck tingle. Too quiet. Too quiet. His legs felt heavy as lead as he started to jog toward the back.

Is something wrong back there?

What’s going on?

He was breathing hard by the time he reached the white picket fence. Still silent back there. “Hey-where is everybody?”

He pulled the gate. When it didn’t budge, he pushed it. He stumbled onto the deck and saw them immediately.

Oh my God.

Was that Ira? Yes. Ira flat on his back. Stretched out straight on the deck beside the pool. Daniel and Samuel on their knees, hovering over him, faces narrowed in concern.

Ira flat, his face pale white, head straight up, arms and legs so stiff at his sides. Not moving.

Not moving.

Ira. Not moving.