Lana continued to vacuum but waved to Kaki.
Kaki made her way into the kitchen where the appetizers were assembled on trays. Oh, that’s right. Lana had told her earlier in the week that the Wolfs were coming over that night. She only hoped Molly and Josh were gone by ten, as she had to figure out some way to sneak out after that. Anxiety clenched her stomach that she could be late for her first date with Damien.
First date. A thrill ran through her. It was her first date ever. And the fact that it would be with a gorgeous and much older guy doubled the electric charge coursing through her body.
Lana had gone to some trouble stringing assorted cheese cubes on red and green toothpicks, topping them off with a perfect square of ham at the end. She’d also made a spinach and artichoke dip, and a steak was marinating in the refrigerator.
Kaki popped a cheese cube into her mouth.
Lana was a good cook—much better than her mother—and Kaki loved eating at their house. Lana said cooking was the only creative outlet she had anymore. Numerous times she’d told Kaki, “I never expected that at thirty-eight, I’d be living in suburbia as a housewife with a bunch of kids. I figured I’d be in California with an acting career. That was what I studied in school, you know. But…it’s been eight years since I’ve even auditioned for anything. Once all the babies came…well, the actress in me died as the children grew in my womb.”
Dramatic. But then, Lana was a drama queen. Kaki didn’t know how many times she’d heard her tell the same story. Usually after Lana’s third vodka.
Moving back into the living room, Kaki caught a glimpse of Lana storing her drink behind some books. “Hey, Katherine—oh, there you are.” A smile—like one that a little kid would give when found stealing a finger full of icing from a fresh-baked cake—slinked over her lips. She probably wondered if Kaki had seen her hide the drink. “Hey, would you mind gathering up the laundry upstairs and throwing it in the washer for me? Grab it out of Celia’s room, too. She’s napping, but you know she sleeps like the dead.”
“Sure.” She lumbered upstairs, going first into Celia’s room where the little girl’s form was completely covered by a mound of blankets.
Celia’s clothing was in her pink princess hamper. Kaki reached in and pulled out her clothing, laughing softly as Barbie dolls, stuffed animals, and plastic figurines spilled out onto the floor along with the dirty clothes. Kaki picked out the extraneous items and threw the clothes into the plastic bin she carried.
She left the room as quietly as possible and moved to Brandon’s room. Brandon was her full brother, three years younger than her. He was a pretty angry kid these days, and she didn’t know if that was because he was thirteen, or because her dad and Lana had laid down the law with him. No video games unless the grades improved. Kaki was a straight A student, but in the past year, Brandon’s grades had tanked, sliding from As and Bs to Ds and Fs.
A mound of dirty jeans, T-shirts, and socks were all piled carelessly at the end of his bed. This was a typical teenage boy’s room strewn with video games, graphic novels, and sport jerseys—a cluttered mess covering most of the floor and furniture. On Brandon’s desk, just next to his computer, a pile of notebooks towered. Crumpled papers poked out from between them—no doubt homework he’d never turned in.
Shaking her head at the disarray, Kaki bent over to gather the dirty clothes, her elbow grazing the edge of the desk, shifting the computer’s mouse enough to disturb the screen saver. Waking from its sleep, the computer clicked and whirred. As Kaki stood up, her arms and nose wrinkled with disgust at the smell of pungent and musky teenage boy castoffs. She scanned the room and her gaze locked on the computer screen. Graphic images of naked women slapped her in the eyes with the same force as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water into her face.
She stood frozen, her mouth dropping open as she attempted to adjust to the grotesque pictures. She’d seen pictures of naked people before, but nothing so intense. “Ew!” Closing her eyes momentarily, she opened them again to marvel that those pictures really were there. She grabbed the mouse and closed out of the images. Pausing for a moment, she stared at the screen, now returned to the desktop, still trying to process what she’d seen. Kaki turned away and hurried out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Now what? She threw clothes haphazardly into the washer. Should she tell her dad and Lana? To do so would cause World War III in the house. Anyway, she guessed all teenage boys looked at that kind of stuff.
~*~
Kaki watched the clock on the wall of the living room as she joined the adults for their pre-dinner drinks and appetizers. She couldn’t eat anything. She was too nervous about what was to come later that night.
“You should have seen the house!” Lana was telling Josh and Molly Wolf. “I mean, they have an entertainment room with a popcorn machine and everything!”
Molly and Josh listened politely, nodding and smiling.
“It sounds beautiful,” Molly said.
“I think they said the show will be broadcast sometime in February. Renovation Reload. Have you seen it?” Lana swigged from her glass. She was on drink six, at least.
“I’d be especially happy for the people from HGTV to visit some of our neighbors’ homes,” her dad interjected while using his teeth to rake cheese cubes off the toothpick and into his mouth. “I mean, let’s face it. The last few years the neighborhood has been going downhill. Have you seen the neighbor’s house two doors down? Broken windows they’ve never bothered to fix. Trash all over the front yard. I was glad there was no HOA when we first moved here. Now, I see why people have them.”
“I’m worried about the gangs,” Josh said. “This town is becoming a breeding ground for them. Body found just last week in the park. Gang related. Unfortunately, we’re starting to see activity at the school, too.” Josh was the security resource officer at her school. He was a big guy—really tall with broad shoulders—and very good looking. Tonight, he wore a light blue button-down that made the blue of his eyes really stand out. It was always really weird for Kaki to see him out of his uniform.
“Makes me want to pull Katherine and Brandon out of there and enroll them in a Christian school or something,” her dad said, tossing her a glance.
Lana laughed and looked over at Kaki. “Yeah, right. Christina would never let you do that. For that matter, Brandon and Katherine probably wouldn’t either.”
“No, I wouldn’t.” That would be the last thing she’d ever agree to do.
Kaki couldn’t help but stare at Josh and Molly Wolf. Molly, an English teacher at her school, had really exotic features—a heart-shaped face, high cheekbones, and huge, dark eyes. Molly was in her late thirties and Josh was in his early forties, but both of them looked years younger.
“Katherine,” Lana said, waving to her stepdaughter to get her attention. “Could you go in and get us some drink refills?”
Kaki hurried into the kitchen with the tray full of empty glasses.
Molly followed, her black, heeled boots snugly fitting against her thin and toned calves. She click-clacked down the hall. “Do you need any help in here?”
“No, I got it. Thanks.”
Suddenly Lana rushed into the kitchen—hot on their heels. “I forgot to put the roast in the oven to warm it up.”
Oh, no. How long would that take? At this rate, they wouldn’t get to eat dinner until eight. She glanced nervously at the digital clock on the microwave. Kaki refilled glasses of water for Molly and Josh and a martini glass for Lana.
Molly leaned against the counter, watching Lana throw some salt over the meat before putting it into the oven. “Josh and I haven’t seen you and Tyler at church lately.”
Lana sighed. “There’s been a lot going on. It seems like every Sunday there’s something else.”
Just as Kaki started to pour Lana’s drink from the martini shaker, she fumbled and spilled the rest of its contents across the granite countertop.
“Katherine!” Lana scolded.
/> “Sorry.”
“Oh, here. Let me help you with that.” Molly reached for a paper towel.
“No, no. It’s fine. I got it.”
Molly righted the shaker and began scooping up the spilled ice from the floor. As they cleaned water from the floor, Lana kept talking. “Actually, I’ll be honest, Molly. My decision not to go to church anymore is a conscious one. The whole faith thing is Tyler’s arena, not mine. I mean, I always had a marginal belief in God, and when I married Tyler, I knew it was important to him and his parents, but over the years, it’s just been something I do for the kids, not because I truly believe what the pastor’s saying. You know? I’m not really sure what I believe anymore.”
Molly remained silent. She stood up straight beside the kitchen island and wadded up the vodka-soaked paper towels.
“Thanks for helping me,” Kaki said. She liked Molly. She had never had her as a teacher, but she had never heard any of the kids say anything bad about her. She just seemed really nice.
“Are you sure I can’t get you something to drink?” Lana asked Molly, her words slurring together a little.
“No, thanks. Just water. That’s about all I get to drink anymore. One cup of coffee in the morning, and then water, water, water. No sodas, no sugar, no carbs even though I’m supposed to gain five pounds. It’s ridiculous.”
Lana snorted. “Gain five pounds. I’d be happy to give you ten of my own pounds.”
Molly smiled. “It’s supposed to help the conception process.”
Molly and Josh had been trying unsuccessfully to have a baby. They’d had a bunch of miscarriages, but there hadn’t been any babies born.
Kaki followed Lana as she carried the drinks back into the den where the men sat talking about teenagers and high school and the problem with public education. All topics that didn’t interest her in the least.
“I don’t know what’s going on with Brandon these days—thank you, honey,” Dad said, lifting the martini from Lana’s hand.
“You’re welcome,” Lana frowned.
Kaki laughed. Her dad thought the drink was for him. He had no idea how much Lana drank, and Kaki wasn’t about to tell him. That wasn’t her business. It was just one of the many ways she felt like an outsider in their house. Sometimes she thought of herself as a ghost. She observed, but she didn’t intervene.
“Yeah,” her dad continued without missing a beat. “He’s so angry. He has a lot of his mother’s personality anyway—very combative and sullen. But these days everything is a battle. His grades have plummeted, and all he wants to do is play video games.”
Josh nodded. “Where is Brandon tonight?”
Kaki was wondering the same thing. Hadn’t her mom said he would be walking over from a friend’s house, and that was why she didn’t drop him off? Oh, whatever. Her mom talked all the time anyway. Sometimes it was hard to keep it all straight.
Lana jumped in. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, Tyler. Brandon texted me earlier and said his mom set up some appointment for him early in the morning. He decided just to stay with her tonight.”
“What kind of appointment is he going to on a Saturday?” her dad asked.
Lana shrugged. “I don’t know. He didn’t tell me. I figured it was another doctor’s appointment or something.”
Her dad shook his head. “Brandon’s mother…get this—she thinks he’s depressed.” He stressed the word with mock sympathetic tones. “He’s just so depressed he has trouble getting out of bed in the mornings to go to school. You know what my dad would’ve done if I’d pulled that kind of stuff?”
“Dragged you out of the bed?” Josh’s smile suggested his dad would have done the same.
“Absolutely. They would’ve cracked me on the head and yanked me out by the hair. And if they’d really needed to, they would’ve stuck me in a wheelchair and rolled me into the school.”
Josh laughed. “Yeah, mine, too. What about when Brandon stays here? How do you get him out of bed to go to school?”
“Oh, believe me. There’s no problem when he’s here. I don’t know how his mother handles stuff, but Brandon knows he’s at school on time when he stays with us.”
“Which isn’t very often anymore,” Lana added with a taut smile. “He’s pretty much at his mom’s during the week now.”
“Yeah, kind of funny, huh? It’s too hard to stay here where we actually make him—oh, I don’t know—do something. He’s just a little too comfortable for my taste.”
“Suburban dangers,” Lana said. “And it’s not just the kids. We’re all so comfortable and complacent here. We’re all lulled into this false sense of security. This is what we strive for, right? Marriage, big houses in the suburbs, great jobs, children. And then what? Does it make any of us happy?”
An uncomfortable silence followed Lana’s words. Everyone sipped from their drinks as they struggled for something to say.
Kaki looked from Josh to Molly to her dad—who was glaring at Lana. Kaki wasn’t sure what Lana was talking about or what she had said that was so wrong, but, obviously, something was bugging him.
Molly broke the silence. “I think you’re right, Lana. Isn’t that the nature of the human heart, though? We always want more. We’re never content with what we have. There’s always something else out there that will make us happy.”
“Yes,” Josh agreed. “That whole God-shaped-hole thing.”
That phrase—God-shaped hole—always made Kaki cringe. What did that really mean? She wasn’t sure she understood a lot of the lingo tossed around in the church. A few years before, she used to go to church with her dad and Lana, but her dad didn’t go much anymore, and Lana almost never went.
Eight o’clock. Two more hours. She hoped the roast hurried up and cooked so Molly and Josh could eat it and get out of there. As their conversation continued on, she went to the staircase and began walking up and down it. Some of the steps creaked as her foot pressed them down. She practiced placing her feet on the outer edges. Yes. Much less creaking there.
Molly and Josh left at 9:30. By then Kaki was ready to push them out the door. Would her dad and Lana go to bed soon? If not, she’d have to start thinking about her bedroom window’s possibilities. To her relief, within fifteen minutes, they were in the bedroom with the door shut, their raised voices on the other side of it.
“What was that all about?” Her dad’s sharp tone suggested he was hot about something.
“What?”
“That whole speech about ‘suburban dangers’ and how none of us are happy. Talk about embarrassing. And what’s all that supposed to mean, anyway? You’re not happy again? What do you need now, Lana? Do we really need to have Remodel, Inc. come in and renovate our house to make you happy?”
“Are you happy, Tyler?”
“I’m happy enough.”
“Well then, I guess that’s all that matters.”
After that, their voices died down, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Lana was probably passed out, and her dad slept soundly anyway. Nine fifty. Ten minutes until show time. She looked down at her phone as it buzzed with a text from Sydney.
Good luck tonight. Don’t let me down, K?
Let you down? What?
Damien is a good catch. Don’t blow it.
With her heart pounding against her rib cage, she quickly changed into a borrowed pair of Sydney’s skinny jeans and a black sweater she usually wore for fancy dinners out with her parents. Pulling the rubber band out of her hair, she fanned the yellow strands over her shoulders and assessed herself in the mirror. She still looked really young. Reaching into her purse, she grabbed the red lipstick Sydney had given her and ran it over her lips as Sydney had shown her. Popping her lips together, she evaluated the effect. It was a little better. The lipstick did make her seem a bit older.
As she had rehearsed earlier, she descended the steps, her feet positioned on the outer edges, and managed to keep the creaks to a minimum. She paused at the bottom and listened for any sound from her pare
nts’ bedroom. When there wasn’t any, she quietly turned the lock on the door, then the knob, and finally she was free. Locking the door, she turned to see Damien in his car, already waiting for her at the curb. As she approached the dark blue car, a sense of panic jolted her. Not enough to keep her from getting in, but enough to dry out her throat and cause her hands to sweat.
Damien hardly looked at her as she climbed in. “Turn off your phone.”
“Why?” She grasped at her phone nestled in the little silk purse her grandmother had hand-sewn for her.
“Because.” He looked over at her and smiled as he placed his hand on her leg. “I want to have you all to myself. I don’t want there to be any interruptions.”
Kaki laughed. She didn’t know how else she should respond.
“I’m serious,” he said. “Before we go anywhere, I want to see you turn off your phone. That’ll be your first test—the first chance to show me how much you really care about me.”
Not wanting to disappoint him, she switched off her phone. In response, he floored the car, and they peeled out of the cul-de-sac. Within minutes they were speeding east on the Dulles Toll Road toward DC.
“Where are we going?” She yelled over the blaring rap music.
“To a club. Do you like to dance?”
She couldn’t remember having done any dancing except the ballet classes her mother had forced her to take as a kid. She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
The rest of the car ride, Damien didn’t talk to her, and even if she’d wanted to talk to him, she couldn’t. The music was too loud. Occasionally she glanced over, but his face was completely unreadable—blank and emotionless. What he was thinking? Did he really like her? It was so hard to tell.
In the city, they entered the club through a back alley littered with trash, beer bottles, and cardboard boxes that looked as if they’d been out there for years—blackened with mildew and partially pulverized into the wet pavement. Something smelled funny, too. Was that beer or urine? Whatever it was, it reeked.
The man standing at the door reminded her of the Incredible Hulk—right down to the green cast onto his skin by a neon light shining over his head. The Hulk nodded in acknowledgement of Damien. They obviously knew each other since Damien didn’t flash so much as a driver’s license to get them into the club.
Suburban Dangers Page 3
