Cul-de-sac

by Joy Fielding

  In the next second, he is flinging himself at Mark and wrestling him to the ground. The apple pie Mark was so proudly holding goes flying into the air, then crashes to the ground, chunks of crust and apple exploding like shrapnel. All around people are screaming.

  “Aiden! What are you doing?”

  “For God’s sake, Aiden, stop!”

  “Help! Somebody, stop him!”

  Aiden feels hands at his back, on his shoulders, on his arms, pulling him off the young man he now recognizes as Julia’s grandson. He looks around helplessly as Nick and Sean release him to go help Mark.

  “This is your fault,” Lisa says to Heidi. She surrounds Aiden with her arms and leads him back toward his house.

  “What the hell just happened?” Olivia asks her husband.

  Sean does a quick scan of the small dead-end street, its residents seemingly frozen in place. “Looks like the fireworks have already started.”

  Chapter Forty-one

  Heidi stands in the middle of the street, crying and issuing apologies to all within earshot. “I’m so sorry,” she mutters repeatedly.

  “This wasn’t your fault,” Maggie assures her.

  Heidi looks toward where Mark stands on the grass in front of his grandmother’s house, Julia’s protective arms around him. “I don’t know what to say,” she tells him, “except I’m so, so sorry. I don’t know what got into Aiden.”

  Mark nods. “Not your fault,” he mutters, echoing Maggie’s sentiments.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Julia asks her grandson, caressing his long hair.

  “Yeah. Just a little shook up. How about you? You look kind of pale. You’re not going to pass out, are you?”

  “No, darling.” Julia takes a deep breath to still the rapid beating of her heart. “At least, I hope not.”

  “Give me your wrist,” Nick Wilson says, kneeling beside her. “Let me check your pulse.”

  “Okay, kids,” Olivia says to the three young boys giggling nervously on the sidelines. “Five dollars to whoever picks up the most pieces of pie. And no putting any of it in your mouths,” she calls as they rush off before she can finish the sentence.

  “Five dollars?” Sean asks. “Isn’t that a little extravagant?”

  “We’re a two-income family again, remember?” Olivia says.

  Is she being sarcastic? Sean wonders, watching Maggie’s daughter, Erin, as she hovers by Mark’s side. Stupid girl almost ruined everything. Just his luck she was at MacArthur Beach on Monday afternoon, a beach he’d specifically selected because no one he knew ever went there. And that’s the beach she had to pick! He shakes his head, knowing that he’ll have to be more careful in the future. He can’t risk any more sightings of his “clone.”

  “Your beautiful pie,” he hears Erin moan.

  “It’s okay,” Mark tells her. “I made two.”

  Erin smiles, laying a gentle hand on his arm.

  “Are you really only sixteen?” he whispers out of the side of his mouth.

  “Does it matter?”

  He grimaces. “Yeah. It kind of does.”

  Erin withdraws her hand, glares at her mother.

  “Heartbeat’s a little elevated,” Nick says to Julia. “Which under the circumstances, I’d consider perfectly normal. Maybe someone could get Mrs. Fisher some water?”

  “I’ll go,” Olivia volunteers, disappearing inside her house and returning with a full glass.

  “What about you?” Maggie asks Heidi. “How are you doing?”

  “It’s Aiden’s baby,” Heidi says. “I swear it is.”

  “Of course it is. I know that.” Maggie spins Heidi around to face her. “Listen to me, sweetheart. Your mother-in-law is an evil witch. She got Aiden all riled up. What happened here is not your fault.”

  “I can’t go back to that house. Not with her there.”

  “You don’t have to go back.”

  Tears fill Heidi’s eyes and spill down her cheeks. “I have nowhere else to go.”

  “What about your parents?”

  “There’s no one.”

  “No brothers or sisters?”

  “No one.”

  Maggie nods. “Okay. Fine. You’ll stay at my place.”

  “What? No…. I can’t impose on you like that.”

  “It’s not an imposition. You’ll take Erin’s room. She can sleep with me.”

  “Oh God. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Then for the time being, you’ll do what I tell you,” Maggie says.

  Heidi nods, relieved that someone else is making the decisions. “Okay, but it’ll just be for a day or two. Till I figure out what to do.”

  “Take as long as you need. Just know that whatever you decide, you and your baby are going to be fine.”

  “You promise?”

  Maggie takes a deep breath. “I promise.”

  “I win!” Ben shouts, his hands overflowing with errant pieces of apple pie, as the three boys rush to Olivia’s side.

  “So, you did.” Olivia watches them toss the pieces of pie into the garbage bin. “Sean, do you have any loose bills on you?”

  Sean is reaching into pockets he knows are empty when Nick stops his hand. “Allow me,” he says, giving his younger son a five-dollar bill. “And one dollar for the runner-up.” He lays a dollar bill in the palm of Leo’s hand.

  “Cool,” Ben says.

  “Cool,” Leo echoes.

  “Don’t I get anything?” Tyler asks.

  Nick laughs. “You get the incentive to try harder next time. You can’t keep letting your little brother get the best of you.”

  “That’s not fair,” Tyler grouses.

  “Life’s not fair,” his father says.

  Ain’t that the truth, Sean thinks as the front door to the Wilson house opens and Dani steps outside.

  “Mom,” Tyler calls, running to her and burying his head in her side.

  “What’s the matter, sweet pea?”

  “He’s upset ’cause he didn’t get any money,” Ben yells from the middle of the road.

  “Am not.”

  “Are, too. I got five dollars ’cause I picked up the most pieces of pie. And Leo was second, so he got a dollar.”

  “I’m not sure I understand,” Dani says. “What pie were you pickin’ up?”

  “The pie that got ruined when Aiden and Mark were fighting,” Tyler explains quietly.

  “Aiden and Mark were fightin’?”

  “Let’s not get into that now,” Nick says, walking over and guiding Dani toward the barbecue. “Nice of you to finally join us.” He gives Dani’s elbow a painful squeeze. “She’ll have a hamburger,” he tells Sean. “This man makes the best hamburgers in town. Bar none.”

  Sean feels a surge of pride as he flips over the patty already cooking on the grill. Maybe instead of having Burger King for a client, he can get a job behind the counter, he thinks, and almost laughs. “Don’t think you’re going to need those much longer,” he says, indicating Dani’s oversized sunglasses. “Should be getting dark pretty soon.”

  “Almost time to get this show on the road.” Nick walks over to the box of fireworks and starts rifling through its contents.

  “Have some potato salad,” Olivia says as Dani is smoothing mustard on her burger. “I bought it myself.” She waits for a laugh that doesn’t come. Guess Sean is right about you, she thinks, wishing Dani would remove those big ugly glasses. She’s never liked talking to someone when she can’t see their eyes. “You missed quite the scene,” she confides, waiting for Dani to ask what happened, then continues when she doesn’t. “One minute, everything was fine. The next, total chaos. Julia’s grandson comes walking out of the house carrying this apple pie he made, and suddenly Aiden goes flying through the air, like some crazed aerialist,
and tackles him to the ground. Honestly, you had to see it to believe it!” She leans across the table. “I think it has something to do with Heidi. Looks like she and Mark might be—”

  “Hey, hey,” Nick interrupts, returning to his wife’s side, his left arm falling heavily across her shoulders. “No gossip allowed.”

  “Oh, you’re no fun,” Oliva says.

  Dani feels the full weight of her husband’s arm on her shoulders as she does a slow survey of the cul-de-sac, the focus of her gaze obscured by her dark glasses. She watches Ben, Tyler, and Leo as they dart in and out of the street’s growing shadows, notes Mark, his grandmother, and Erin standing silently by the curb, sees Maggie comforting Heidi in the middle of the road. “Where is Aiden?”

  “His mommy took him home,” Olivia says.

  “So, how’s the burger?” Sean asks.

  “Good,” Dani says, although the truth is that she can barely taste it over the lingering taste of dried blood in her mouth.

  “Just good?”

  “Sorry,” Dani corrects. “It’s wonderful. Best burger in town.”

  “Eat up,” Nick tells her.

  Dani takes another bite of the burger, willing herself not to gag. All she wants is to go back to her house and crawl into bed, pull the blankets up over her head, and disappear. She doesn’t want to be here, to make mind-numbing small talk with people she barely knows, to watch a bunch of celebratory fireworks light up the night sky.

  It might be the Fourth of July, but she has nothing to celebrate.

  “Hey, Dad,” Ben calls. “When are we gonna start?”

  Nick glances at the others. “What do you say, everybody? We can light a few of the smaller ones now, save the more extravagant ones till it gets darker?”

  “Fine by me,” Olivia says.

  “Light ’em up,” Sean agrees.

  “Yay!” the boys yell, their voices overlapping.

  Dani watches Heidi lower herself to the curb in front of Maggie’s house. Even from this distance and through her dark glasses, she has no trouble making out the distraught look on the young woman’s face.

  “Hey, there,” a voice says, and Dani turns to see Maggie. “I was wondering where you were.”

  Dani tries for a smile, manages only a brief twitch. She glances over her shoulder to where Nick is kneeling over the box of fireworks. “Just couldn’t seem to get movin’.”

  “Yeah. Some days are like that.”

  “They tell me I missed quite the scene.” Dani looks toward Heidi. “Is she okay?”

  “She will be. What about you?”

  “Me? I’m fine.”

  “Are you?”

  Dani’s gaze drops to her feet. “ ’Course I am. Right as rain.”

  There is a loud whoosh as a series of Roman candles suddenly explode above their heads.

  “Whee!” the boys yell. “Woo-hoo!”

  “Did Nick tell you I stopped by the other night?” Maggie asks, noting the look of surprise on Dani’s face, even with her dark glasses. “I was going to the gym, thought you might like to join me.”

  “I’m not really big on gyms.”

  “So your husband informed me.”

  Another burst of fireworks. “That was really pretty,” Dani remarks.

  “You’d see better without the dark glasses,” Maggie says.

  “It’s okay. I’m good.”

  “Are you?”

  “Dani,” Nick calls. “Come give me a hand.”

  “Talk to me, Dani,” Maggie says quickly. “I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me.”

  “Dani,” Nick calls again, rising to his feet.

  Dani takes a last look at Maggie. “No one can help me,” she says.

  Chapter Forty-two

  “No way,” Erin is saying, hands on her hips in front of her mother. “I am not giving her my room.”

  “Erin, please. Lower your voice. She’ll hear you.”

  “She’s downstairs. She can’t hear anything.” Erin looks toward her mother’s closed bedroom door. “There is no way I’m sleeping in the same bed as you.”

  “It’s a king-size bed. There’s plenty of room.”

  “I don’t care how big the damn bed is,” Erin retorts. “I’m not sharing it with you.”

  “It’s only for one night. Maybe two,” Maggie amends, over the sound of fireworks exploding in the distance.

  “No. No way. I’m not doing it.”

  “Why are you being so stubborn?”

  “Why did you have to tell Mark I’m only sixteen?” Erin counters.

  “What has that got to do with anything?”

  Erin shrugs.

  “You’re saying this is…what? Payback?”

  “Call it whatever you want.”

  “Well, first of all,” Maggie says, trying to remain calm, “I didn’t tell him.”

  “A technicality. You made sure he heard.”

  “Yes, I did,” Maggie admits. “I thought he should know. He’s twenty, Erin. You’re only sixteen. He could get in a lot of trouble….”

  “Like you care.”

  “I care about you.”

  “Yeah, well, thanks a lot. Now he says we have to cool it.”

  “Which speaks well of him,” Maggie says, trying not to imagine how hot it had been getting.

  “He’s a nice boy, Mom.”

  “He’s a man, Erin.”

  Mother and daughter release simultaneous sighs.

  “Okay,” Maggie says. “Can we please get back to the matter at hand? Heidi needs a place to stay for a couple of nights….”

  “You had no right to offer her my room,” Erin says as the bedroom door opens and Leo walks in.

  “I honestly didn’t think you’d object.”

  “You didn’t think, period.”

  “Okay. You’re right. I’m sorry. Next time—”

  “Next time? You do this every time! You butt your nose into everyone else’s business and the rest of us have to live with the consequences.”

  “Stop yelling at Mommy,” Leo says.

  “I’m not yelling,” Erin snaps. “And I am not sleeping in this bed with you,” she tells her mother.

  “I’ll sleep with you,” Leo offers.

  “What?”

  “Heidi can have my room.”

  “There,” Erin says. “It’s settled. Problem solved.” She marches from the room.

  “Are you sure, sweetheart?” Maggie asks her son.

  “Yeah. I like this bed.”

  Maggie smiles. “Okay. Thank you. That’s great. Go get your pajamas.”

  “Can I bring Mario?” he asks, referring to the plush toy he sleeps with every night.

  “Absolutely.”

  Leo turns and runs from the room, colliding with Heidi in the upstairs hall.

  “You’re sleeping in my room,” Maggie hears her son say.

  Seconds later, Heidi appears in the doorway. “I’m so sorry….”

  “Please stop apologizing.”

  “I didn’t mean to cause you problems.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “I can sleep on the couch.”

  “I am not letting a pregnant woman sleep on my couch, and that’s final. Leo has very graciously offered up his room. End of discussion.” Maggie goes to her closet and brings out a white cotton nightshirt, then guides Heidi into the hall. “This should fit. And there are some extra toothbrushes in the drawer to the left of the sink,” she adds as they pass the bathroom, stopping in front of Leo’s room.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Heidi says.

  “How about ‘good night’?”

  “It hardly seems enough.”

  “It’s all that’s necessary.”

  Heidi collap
ses into Maggie’s embrace. “Good night. And thank you.”

  “I left you Toad and Squirrel Luigi,” Leo announces, joining them in the hall and pointing to the two stuffed toys lying on his pillow. “So you’ll have company.”

  “That’s so sweet of you,” Heidi says through her tears.

  “If you don’t like them,” Leo says quickly, “I can leave Mario, too.” He offers up his favorite plush toy.

  Maggie is so proud of her son that it’s all she can do to keep from bursting into tears of her own.

  “No,” Heidi says. “I love Toad and Squirrel…”

  “…Luigi,” Leo says. “He’s in disguise.”

  “Thank you for letting me stay in your room,” Heidi tells him.

  “I’ll be setting the burglar alarm,” Maggie tells her, “so don’t open any windows.”

  Heidi nods.

  “Sleep well,” Maggie says. “We’ll see you in the morning.”

  * * *

  —

  She’s dreaming of squirrels.

  “Rats with good PR,” Craig says.

  “There’s a real fat one,” Erin says, pointing to the squirrel’s stomach.

  “She’s not fat,” Maggie announces. “She’s pregnant.”

  “Who’s the father?” Erin asks.

  “Tom Cruise,” Maggie says.

  Which is when she knows she’s dreaming.

  In the distance, a barrage of fireworks explodes, lighting up the dark sky with showers of neon pink and green. The sound of the explosion bangs against the side of Maggie’s head.

  She stirs as another round of fireworks shake up the sky, this salvo even louder than the ones that preceded it. Maggie opens her eyes, stares through the darkness at her son, asleep beside her. She lifts herself up on one elbow to see the clock.

  Two thirty-eight.

  Surely too late for anyone to still be playing with firecrackers.

  Which is when she hears another loud bang and realizes someone is at her front door.

  Maggie climbs out of bed and goes to the window, staring through the darkness at the street below.

  More banging.

  “Mommy?” Leo asks, sleepily. “What’s that noise?”

  Maggie hurries to the nightstand by her side of the bed. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Close your eyes. Go back to sleep.”