Red Rain

43

Mark felt his throat tighten. He turned to Ira. “Did Ethan spend the night here last night?”

Ira nodded.

“Are you kidding me?” Mark exploded.

Ira grabbed a toaster waffle. The twins giggled.

“Ethan is here?” Mark demanded. He heard Ginny Margulies shout something in his ear. “Where is he?”

“Out back,” Ira replied. He loaded the waffle into the toaster.

“Your mom and I were out. Didn’t Roz check on you last night? She said she checks on the guesthouse every night.”

Ira shrugged. “Axl was crying a lot. Roz didn’t come.”

Mark looked to Lea to say something. But she stood frozen, leaning against the refrigerator with her arms crossed. Just watching. Why isn’t she giving me a little support here?

“You’re not going to school till you explain this,” Mark said to Ira. “And you are all going to remove those stupid arrows from your faces.”

“I don’t think so,” Ira said softly.

“Is my family getting weird?” Elena chimed in.

“Ethan is here,” Mark said into the phone.

“Oh, thank goodness.” He heard a long sigh at the other end.

“But we didn’t know-”

“You don’t know who’s staying in your own house?” Her worst fear over, the woman quickly turned angry. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t he call me and tell me where he was? Why didn’t you call me? Somebody?”

“Please. Calm down. Ethan is fine. There was a mix-up, that’s all. My sister was supposed to check on them.”

Mark wanted to end the conversation. But he knew there was just more confrontation facing him after he hung up.

What is Ira’s story? Why is he acting so un-Ira-like?

“Can I at least talk to him?” Mrs. Margulies’s voice was tight and challenging.

“Well, no. I don’t see him yet. He-” Mark realizing how feeble he sounded.

“Well, where is he?”

Mark lowered the phone. “Ira? Can you go get Ethan? His mother wants to speak with him.”

Ira took a bite of toaster waffle. He stared back at Mark as if he didn’t understand the question.

The twins giggled again.

Elena rolled her eyes. “What is your problem this morning?”

Lea finally uncrossed her arms. “We should have a family discussion later, don’t you think?” She turned to the twins. “If you have guests back there-”

“We’re not exactly guests,” Ira interrupted. “We live there now.”

“The school bus!” Daniel cried, pointing at the window that looked out on the driveway. “Let’s go!”

“Not so fast!” Mark made a grab for Ira. But Ira dodged out of his hands and burst out the kitchen door.

The twins followed, shouting their morning chant, which was beginning to sound more and more unpleasant to Mark. “Rule the school! Rule the school!”

Maybe there’s a meaning here I’m not getting.

Out the back window, he saw Ethan run out of the guesthouse and catch up with Ira and the twins. “Oh no,” Mark groaned. “Is that a blue arrow on Ethan’s face?”

Lea raked her hands through her hair, making it stick out in frazzled clumps. “I don’t really understand. . ”

Mark heard a chattering sound. He lowered his eyes to the phone. He forgot he was still holding it.

“Ginny? Ginny?” It took awhile to make her stop shouting. “Ethan just got on the school bus,” he told her. “He’s on his way to school.”

“But what about his backpack? What was he wearing? What about his lunch? Did he have any breakfast?”

“I’m sorry. I really can’t answer those questions. This is all a surprise to Lea and me, too. The boys slept in the guesthouse last night and. . we didn’t know.”

“Excuse me? The guesthouse? You allow twelve-year-old boys to sleep by themselves in your guesthouse? And you don’t even know who’s there?”

“Normally, we check on them all the time. But I guess the boys had a sleepover together and forgot to tell us.” Lame.

Silence at the other end.

Mark raised his eyes to Lea, who was pacing back and forth, hands in the pockets of her beach cover-up, hair still spiked like lawn divots.

“Ira is a nice boy,” Mrs. Margulies said finally. “But I’m not so sure I want Ethan to come to your house.”

“I’m sorry, Ginny. I feel as badly as you do.”

“I read the papers, Mark. I know what happened at your house. The murder, I mean. You must be under a lot of pressure. I think Ethan should stay away.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better-” He realized she had clicked off.

He slammed the phone onto the counter. He turned to Lea. “Nice morning, huh? That was a warm family moment.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you blaming the twins? You’re going to berate me again for bringing them here?”

Elena backed away, hands raised. “I don’t want to hear this.”

“How are you getting to school?” Mark spun on her. He didn’t intend to sound so angry.

She backed up against the kitchen table. “Ruth-Ann’s dad. He’s picking me up. You don’t have to chew my head off. I didn’t do anything.”

Before Mark could apologize, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Roz stormed into the kitchen, still in her long blue flannel nightshirt and carrying Axl in her arms. Her hair was unbrushed. Her eyes darted around the kitchen.

“Roz-? Are you okay?” he started.

“Who did this?” she demanded. “Who was it?”

Elena squinted at Axl. She was the first to see it. “Oh my God.”

“Who snuck up to the attic last night?” Roz shouted. “Who would do this to my baby?”

Mark took a staggering step toward her, then stopped short when he saw what Roz was talking about. The fat blue arrow, pointing up, on Axl’s left cheek.