Page 30 of Call Off the Dark

When Wade didn’t answer immediately, Helen knew something truly was wrong. She thought of how Isaac had walked across her kitchen, wordless, and lifted the needle from her record player as though it was his song.

She picked up the knife from the counter.

“Tell me what’s happening.”

Chapter Thirteen

During the eighteen months that Helen and Wade had lived in the farmhouse in the woods, she had gone out to investigate sounds in the middle of the night seven times. Five of those times, including last night, she’d felt certain a person was trespassing and she’d resorted to shouting into the night air. Two of those times, Wade had slept through her shouting, but three of those times, he had awoken. He was therefore accustomed to seeing her wield a gun, but he’d never seen her hold a knife for any purpose other than cooking him dinner.

His eyes flashed with distress, and she realized the knife itself unsettled him. In his mind, guns were for hunting. They were for animal kills and good old American recreation. His wife defending his property with a gun in the middle of the night made a semblance of sense, but his wife in stocking feet clutching a knife in the kitchen was madness. He wasn’t wrong. He hadn’t seen the things knives could do to people, the things Helen had seen. If he had, maybe he would have grabbed a knife too and gotten ready.

“Helen, put the knife down.” Wade’s command came out with a firmness that surprised her. She wasn’t sure if it was true self-assurance or if he was speaking with confidence now to mask something else.

“No.” She searched his face. “Why are you acting like this?”

“He surprised me is all.”

“You seem more than surprised.”

Wade shook his head. “No, just . . . really surprised.”

He walked to the opening that led to the living room and the hall, and Helen noticed how stiff his gait was, how square his shoulders looked. He peered around the corner, then back at her with pleading eyes. “You want him to come back in here and see you like that, holding a knife?”

Yes, she kind of did.

“Helen, it’s fine.” Wade went to her, his tone reassuring now, and he rested his hand on her shoulder. “Let me handle this.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a brother?”

“Because I never thought I’d see him again.”

“You had a falling-out?”

Pained expression, he nodded.

It wasn’t hard for Helen to imagine Wade getting into an argument with someone and shutting down, letting the wound fester until the estrangement grew from temporary to permanent. You could fill an ocean with all the stubborn and scared men in the world who hid behind some idea of strong and silent, and Wade could be the sea captain of it.

She set the knife on the counter and asked, “Is that really all it is?”

“Just let me think.”

Helen rested a hand on his arm. “If you had a falling-out, he must be here to make amends. It’s never too late for that.”

“Sometimes it is,” Wade said softly.

“No, family is family.” She gently touched his cheek. “He came here. He must miss you.”

Clap! Helen and Wade jumped apart, startled by the sound of Isaac clapping his hands together as he reentered the kitchen.

“How about some of Helen’s stew?” Isaac said in a booming voice, as if he were anticipating a long-awaited meal of a famous family recipe.

Helen picked up two bowls of stew, but Isaac was already there to take them from her hands and deliver them to the table. He set them on the two blue and gray woven place mats across from each other at the heads of the table. Earlier, she’d set the place mats with utensils and cream cloth napkins.

“Wade, would you please get another place mat and napkin?” Helen asked as she scooped a third bowl. He didn’t move as she got an extra pair of utensils from the drawer. “Wade?”

Finally, he left the room, and Helen approached Isaac and spoke in a low voice. “I’m sure it means so much to Wade that you came. He’s just a little surprised.” She smiled. “And you’re my first dinner guest.”

She brightened at the thought. The farmhouse walls that always watched and whispered would witness a proper little dinner party for once. She set the third bowl and the extra set of utensils on the table.