Page 7 of The Woods

“Pretty much,” she answers, easing herself into the chair while making sure she doesn’t spill a drop. “It’s not a very big place, after all.”

“Better than being homeless, isn’t it?”

“Cheers to that.” Beverley holds up her martini in Alice’s direction, who does the same with her wine.

They sit in silence for a few minutes, watching Geoff swim laps in the pool only a few yards away. The sun is setting and the lights in the pool have turned on. The song of crickets fills the warm night air, syncing to the rhythm of Geoff’s front-stroke splashes. All very idyllic, Beverley thinks, then remembers what she learned earlier.

“I’m sorry,” she says, the words feeling cumbersome in her mouth, “for telling Polly about the house. I should have let you do that on your own time.”

Alice’s eyebrows raise in surprise at her mother’s apology, and Beverley immediately wants to take it back. “Thanks, Mom. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you in the first place. I thought I was just protecting everyone.”

“Dreadful stuff though, isn’t it? Any idea why she did it?”

“Probably because her husband refused to unpack the kitchen properly and her kids were upset about the Wi-Fi.” Both cackle, then feel horrible about it, but neither can stop.

“What’s so funny?” Quinn asks, coming through the back door to let Panda out.

“Nothing, dear,” Beverley says quickly. “Just girl talk. Come out and join us.” She’s surprised to see that he does. Normally you can’t pry that child off his videogame contraption.

Geoff arrives dripping from the pool, wrapped in a towel that Beverley knows is meant for the bathroom, meaning Alice is probably prickling inside. She still marvels at how her daughter grew up to be so anal.

Geoff puts a hand on Alice’s shoulder. “Sorry about earlier. I should have done a better job unpacking the kitchen.”

Alice nods and gives his hand a pat. “It’s okay. I wasn’t very considerate about your writing studio.”

Beverley resists the urge to swat her daughter. Alice is far too accommodating as it is. She’s never been a huge fan of her daughter’s husband. She’s pretty sure Geoff only makes such apologies when there’s an audience so that everyone sees what a good man he is. She takes a long sip of her martini to drown the snarky words on the tip of her tongue. What kind of man quits his college teaching job to try to write books?

“What is that dog doing?” Alice asks, making them all look across the yard at Panda, pacing and growling in front of the path into the woods.

“She’s done it every time I let her out,” Quinn says.

“Probably growling at all the coyotes in there waiting to swarm her,” Beverley jokes, only to be scolded with a look from Alice.

“Whatever she’s doing, it’s weird,” Polly says from behind, startling her again.

Beverley’s always thought of her as the sneaky one, and Lucy the good one. She’s never said it out loud, though. She knows better. Especially now that Lucy is gone.

“Maybe it’s Justine Gordon in there,” Polly adds. “She heard a new family moved into her house and escaped from prison to come murder us all.”

“Polly!” Alice sloshes her wine onto her top.

“Justine who?” Quinn asks.

“No one,” Beverley, Geoff, and Alice say in unison.

Polly chuckles, and Beverley has to stifle her smile behind her hand. Little shit-disturber. That’s the other thing Beverley thinks of when she thinks of her granddaughter. Not so different from herself.

Panda lets out one more long, low growl and then runs back across the lawn whimpering.

“So weird,” Alice says as they all stare into the woods and share a collective shiver.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

Quinn

Quinn walks behind his parents, in step with Polly, the whole time imagining what he’d do to his mother if he had his Fortnite weapons in real life. She’s forcing him to go to some stupid neighborhood Labor Day barbecue. “There’ll be fireworks,” she’d said, as if he were still eight years old and gave two shits about fireworks. “It’s a chance to meet some kids before you start school on Tuesday,” she’d said, as though it were ever that easy. He asked why she wasn’t forcing Nana to go, and she said because Nana didn’t do backyard barbecues and she would probably embarrass them anyway. None of them know a single person who’s going to be there. They’re just going because they got a flyer in the mailbox. He’s pretty sure they’ll end up standing around like a bunch of losers.

That’s probably what his mother wants though. As far as Quinn’s concerned, she likes seeing them suffer. Making them move to some new house just because she wanted a change. Not caring about Quinn having to leave all his friends in the middle of high school, that their dog Buttons was buried in the backyard of their old house, or that it was the last place that they were all together with Lucy.