After Midnight

by Lacy Hart

  James sighed as he took another sip of his beer, this one a little longer than the last one.

  “I know, and I’m sorry about that,” James said to me. “I’m not really sure what’s going on. We’ve been fighting more, she’s been nasty to you, and even short with Lizzie. I think it’s just all the long hours she’s been working. I told her she didn’t have to work so hard, or even at all if she didn’t want to, and she really ripped into me when I said that, saying it was the only thing she really liked right now. I don’t know what’s going on lately.”

  “I’m trying to stay out of her way, James, I really am,” I told him.

  “I know, but you shouldn’t have to walk around on eggshells every time you come through the door. It’s not fair to you. Hopefully, it will all blow over soon.”

  Lizzie leaned her head out the back door and yelled at us.

  “Dad, Mom wants to know if the steaks are done yet. Everything else is done.”

  James looked at me and shrugged. I pressed my index finger to the steaks to see how much give they had, another trick I had picked up from Justin to test the doneness of the steaks.

  “Feels like medium to me,” I told him. “I would say they are done.”

  “Good enough for me,” James said as he picked up the tongs. “Tell Mom they’re done,” James said to Lizzie as he lifted the steaks onto the tray he had. After he had the steaks on the tray, James turned to close the lid to the grill and shut it off and juggled the tray. I reached over and snatched the tray from him, giving him a sigh as I did.

  “You need to learn how to carry these things the right way,” I scolded. “Put heavy items towards the middle of the tray. One hand underneath, palm under the center of the tray. It’s not rocket science, James.”

  “You’ve had a lot more practice than I have,” he said as he held the door open for me. “I use tool boxes and tool belts to carry stuff.”

  I placed the tray down on the center of the table and took my seat. Denise and Lizzie were already sitting in their places, passing the salad around. Lizzie politely passed the bowl over to me with a smile.

  “How was work last night?” James asked me as he spooned potatoes onto his plate.

  “Super busy pretty much non-stop until I left. Saturday nights get crazy as it creeps closer to the end of the school year. All the college and high school kids get antsy,” I said as I looked over at Lizzie.

  “Of course we’re antsy,” she said as she put a steak down on her plate. “Summer vacation is coming. We have all that lounging around to look forward to.”

  “I thought you were going to get a job this summer,” Denise asked her. “I would prefer you weren’t just laying around the house all summer long.”

  “I guess I could pick something up in town,” Lizzie answered, looking disappointed at the idea of working. “Do you think there would be anything I could do at the diner?” she asked me.

  Before I could even answer, Denise abruptly answered.

  “Certainly not!” she exclaimed. “My daughter is not going to work at that place and be subjected to rude men and teenagers leering at her all day. It’s not acceptable. No one should do that.”

  “I don’t think Doug could hire you anyway, Lizzie,” I answered, keeping my cool. “Waitresses have to be at least eighteen because we serve alcohol.”

  “Another reason not to work there,” Denise mumbled as she took a bite of her steak.

  “You could come to work in the office with me,” James said to her.

  “Yippee,” Lizzie said in mock excitement. “Eight hours in a plumbing office.”

  “The pay is good, and the work isn’t too hard,” James replied. “Just answering phones and handling paperwork. I could use the help.”

  “Can I think about it, Dad?” Lizzie said, hoping to change the subject quickly.

  James just nodded as he ate, shrugging his shoulders.

  When dinner was over, I helped to clear the table and do the dishes, finishing up everything and cleaning the counters. As I finished wiping down the counter, I heard Denise’s tablet buzzing and saw she had a video call coming in. Denise hurried over and grabbed the tablet and answered it.

  “Hey, Denise,” I heard the familiar country drawl let out. My body tensed immediately as I recognized my mother’s voice. I worked to try to finish cleaning up quickly and quietly so I could go up to my room before I got pulled into anything. James and Lizzie just looked on from the table.

  “Hi Mom,” Denise said, suddenly sounding friendly and cheerful for the first time since I had been downstairs. “What’s new?”

  “Oh, nothing much around here, you know,” she said loudly. “Retired life is pretty quiet most of the time. Bill is out on the back patio reading the paper, and I just finished clearing dinner, so I thought I would call and see how y’all were.”

  “We’re doing pretty well,” Denise answered. “Say hi everyone!” Denise yelled as she turned the tablet around and flashed it over to James and Lizzie. They both waved and shouted hello.

  “Hi, Grandma!” Lizzie yelled.

  “Hi, Mom,” James said to her, giving a casual wave.

  Denise then turned the tablet so the camera stayed on me as I wiped the counter. I looked into the screen and saw my mother looking back at me. I hadn’t physically seen her in years. James had shown me a few pictures of her and Dad over the years, but she looked grayer now. She still had that same stern look I remember.

  “Hello, Sarah,” she said in a monotone voice.

  I was quiet for a few seconds, not saying anything, and glared at Denise. I took a deep breath and tried to fight my way through the upset feeling welling up in my stomach.

  “Hi, Mom,” I said quietly, trying to get back to cleaning the already-cleaned counter.

  “How are you?” she asked, not knowing what else to say.

  “I’m fine,” I replied, keeping the conversation short with the hope it would end quickly.

  “James said you're working hard and going to school. Are you still working at that diner?”

  “Yes, yes, I am,” I told her. I could feel my voice starting to tremble a little because I knew where this conversation was going.

  “Hmmm,” she said, with a hint of disdain behind it. “I’m surprised you stayed with it so long. I would think there’s something better suited for you.”

  “I like my job,” I shot back. “There’s nothing wrong with it. I work hard and do it well.” I was ready to storm out of the room.

  “Yes, and you meet all kinds of interesting men there, too,” Denise said loudly and with a snicker.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I said angrily. The control of my temper was gone now.

  “Sarah Jane, there’s no need to cuss,” my mother scolded on video. I could see her face turning, reminding me of what it was like in my childhood when I swore. “And what men are you consorting with now?”

  Denise turned the tablet back towards herself.

  “Some man who keeps coming into the diner late at night to see her. She let this stranger follow her home. Goodness knows what they are up to. I told her I didn’t like it, Mom.”

  “Denise!” James shouted from the table. I was standing there frozen, stunned at what she was saying. James stood up and came over towards where we both were standing. He could see my face was getting red with anger while Denise just smirked at me.

  “I don’t need to stand here and listen to this,” I said just as James stepped between Denise and me.

  “Learn to control yourself, Sarah,” Denise told me tauntingly.

  I pushed my way past James and raced up the stairs. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate by the time I reached my room. My head was spinning, and I reached over and grabbed one of the pillows off my bed and screamed loudly into it.

  I went into the closet and pulled out some work clothes and stuffed them into my backpack. I kicked off the flip-flops and put on my sneakers, taking three times to try to tie them because I w
as so angry I couldn’t see straight. I grabbed my phone, my backpack, and my purse and went out of my room and headed for the stairs. James met me at the bottom of the staircase, grabbing my arm before I could burst out the front door.

  “Sarah, wait,” he pleaded.

  “James, I need to get out of here before I say or do something I’ll regret,” I said. I could feel my face burning as I spoke to him.

  James didn’t want to let me go.

  “Where are you going to go?” he asked me. “You don’t have to be at work for hours.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said in a huff. “I don’t think anyone around here cares.”

  “Hey, that’s not fair,” James said to me, holding my arm as I tried to wrest it away from his grip.

  “James, let go of me,” I hissed. He released my arm, and I stormed out the front door, slamming the door behind me. I marched over to where my seldom-used car was parked in the driveway, thinking I could just hop in and go somewhere, anywhere, maybe someplace far away and forget all this nonsense. Of course, when I got in the car, all I could see parked behind me was Denise’s luxury car, blocking my path out.

  “Fuck!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

  As tempting as it was to just throw the car into reverse and drive through her car, I knew she would just call the police on me and have me arrested at this point. I got out of the car, slamming the door so hard I could see paint chips fly off.

  I started marching up the block quickly, just wanting to get away from the house as fast as I could. I knew I could go to the diner and hang out there until it was time for my shift, but no one I was close with would be there yet, and I would have no one to confide in or console me.

  Instead of going all the way up to Oak Street, I turned myself around and started walking back towards the house. When I reached the top of the driveway, I made a right and kept walking in that direction, hoping it would clear my head. The rain was falling lightly all around me. Once I had walked a few blocks, I knew exactly what direction I wanted to head in.

  18

  Caleb

  There’s nothing better than getting some sound sleep, except for experiencing that good sleep a few days in a row. It had been so long since I felt like I was rested that I almost didn’t know what it was like anymore. Sleep was fleeting for the twenty years I was in the Army, and there were times where I went days without getting any. Even after I was done, up until now, I had slept erratically at best. I had been feeling so good lately that I almost didn’t want to wake up whenever I had to.

  I thought today might be a good day to get a catnap in since I wanted to be rested to go see Sarah tonight, but I also wanted to be able to get some regular sleep so we could go out and do something over the next two days she had off. I also had to keep reminding myself that I had to go back to see Dr. Weber on Monday night. Really though, I didn’t have to remind myself much since Linda did a good job of making sure I wouldn’t forget the appointment.

  After sleeping, walking Sarah home this morning and lingering over the good feelings it gave me to spend time with her and get to kiss her, I went into the house and had some lunch with Adam and Linda. I felt better about the three of us getting to spend more time together over the last few days, and it seemed to me that maybe I was finally getting more at ease with being back home.

  I hadn’t mentioned the house I had stopped to look at to Adam or to Linda, but I had gotten in touch with the real estate agent who showed the house and sent her my information. She had promised to get back to this week about putting in an offer once all my loan application work was done. With my background, she didn’t think I would have any trouble getting the loan for the house, and I knew I had money set aside where I could take care of a good chunk of the payment upfront. Ella and I had been squirreling away money for years with the goal of one day buying our own place once I was out of the Army. It made me a little sad to think she wouldn’t get to enjoy it with me, but I knew it was still the best thing to do for me, for Adam, and for Linda. It would give Linda a chance to live her life without having to worry about us all the time.

  When I was done with lunch, I went back to the apartment to relax a bit more so I would be energized and ready to go to the diner late tonight to see Sarah. I sat on the couch mindlessly flipping channels for a while before settling on a John Wayne movie I saw on one of the channels. I found myself dozing and drifting off just as The Duke was getting ready to get involved in a gunfight.

  It was one particularly loud explosion that I thought jolted me out of a haze. I sat straight up, working to catch my breath from the surprise. At first, I thought it was just the gunfight on TV, but it was then that I realized the noise was still there and it was a mixture of thunder outside and someone knocking rapidly on my door.

  I stumbled up from the couch, making my way to the apartment door, thinking it was probably Linda or Adam with something they needed help with. I was more than a little surprised when I saw Sarah standing there in front of me.

  Sarah had a frantic look on her face. She had clearly been crying and even seemed a little bit out of breath. She was also wet from the rain that was coming down. I rubbed my eyes to help clear my head and make sure what I was seeing was real and not just another dream.

  “Sarah,” I said to her. “What are you doing here? What’s wrong?”

  She burst out crying, pushing herself into my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her to hold her. I guided her into the apartment and took her hand and led her over to the couch to sit down. She was overcome with tears and had a hard time getting the words out she wanted to say.

  “I had a fight… well, not really a fight… I don’t know what it was… it all happened so fast… and it was so upsetting, and I didn’t know where to go… and all I could think of was that I needed to see you.”

  She started sobbing again, and she put her head on my shoulder as she wept. I held her there, letting her get her feelings out before she started to get some control over herself. Sarah sat back on the couch, taking a few deep breaths, while I handed her some tissues from a box I had on the end table next to the couch.

  “What happened?” I asked her quietly.

  “it was crazy,” Sarah said, sniffling as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “We had just finished dinner, and everything was fine. I was helping clean up when Denise’s… Denise is my sister-in-law, James’ wife – when her tablet started ringing like she was getting a call. She picked it up, and my mother was there on the screen. That’s when things got ugly.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said to her. “Why is your mother calling a bad thing?”

  Sarah looked at me and took another deep breath. I could tell already that whatever she was about to say was not going to be easy for her.

  “There’s a long story and a lot of history between my parents and me,” Sarah started. “About five years ago I was going to Swanson College and working on my degree. I was going into my junior year, and everything was going great. I had friends and a steady boyfriend for the first time in my life. I thought it was going to be a great year. One morning I wake up in my dorm room, turn on my computer and open my email and there are all these messages with pictures… pictures of me getting dressed and undressed, in the shower, getting into bed… there were dozens of them flooding my email. I don’t who sent them or where they came from. Then I started getting emails from friends and family, asking me about the pictures they got in their emails of me. Then I saw on my social media accounts that pictures of me were posted there too. They seemed to be everywhere I looked. I… I didn’t know what to do or where to go for help. My roommate didn’t know anything about them or how they got taken. I got in touch with campus security, and they investigated for a while and contacted the local police. They finally found tiny cameras… cameras hidden around my room, and in the shower. The police tried to find out about it. They interviewed me for hours, talked to my roommate, my friends, my boyfriend, anyone they thought might know s
omething, but they never got anywhere.”

  “The pictures just kept circulating around and around. Even after I shut down my social media accounts, my email, changed cell phone numbers, everything – they would still pop up thanks to someone somewhere. Eventually, my boyfriend couldn’t take it anymore and broke up with me. My friends started avoiding me, people started saying all kinds of things about me behind my back. I felt like I had no one to turn to that I could trust, Caleb. So, I called my parents and told them I was dropping out, and I wanted to come home.”

  Sarah took another deep breath before she continued.

  “My parents are very conservative, very religious people. They never liked the idea of me going away to college, even though it wasn’t that far from where they lived, and my brother was right here in town if I needed anything. They thought I would get into trouble. When all this happened, and they got the pictures in their email… well, it was more than they could take. They said they were embarrassed and ashamed, that people they knew had the pictures, people at church, and they thought my being home would be too much of a scandal for them.”