by Blake Pierce
Jessie looked around at the serious, unsmiling faces and decided this wasn’t the time to crack wise. She was pissed that Kyle had applied to this club without discussing it with her first. She felt sandbagged. But that was something to address with him privately later.
“I am,” she replied, mustering up what she hoped was the appropriate deference.
“Then let us begin. Do you believe that your marriage is the most important thing in your life?”
The question was complicated and intrusive. And it was clear what the right response was supposed to be. Jessie decided that she could honestly answer it, as at least most of the time it was.
“Yes,” she said.
“Do you plan to have children?” Marguerite asked, her tone so uncurious that Jessie thought she might as well be asking if she planned to have chicken for dinner tonight.
She opened her mouth, about to respond to what she considered a private matter with a snarky retort about how few folks ever truly plan such a thing. But at the last minute she thought better of it.
“Yes,” Jessie said, again deciding there was no harm in answering truthfully.
“Is loyalty a priority to you?”
“Absolutely,” Jessie said without hesitation.
“Is discretion a priority for you?” Marguerite asked.
That question could be interpreted many ways. But considering that she was “applying” to join a secret club, Jessie decided to go with the safe answer, even though she sensed that Marguerite might be setting a trap for her.
“Yes.”
“Have you ever been unfaithful to your husband?” Marguerite inquired emotionlessly.
I guess we’ve gotten to part two of the Q&A session.
“Have you?” Jessie blurted out before she could stop herself.
Marguerite stared daggers at her and she happily stared back. She wasn’t going to be cowed by some SoCal royalty wannabe.
“I am already a member,” Marguerite replied, her tone all pique. “So my indiscretions or lack thereof are not a matter for discussion at this time. So let me repeat the question. Have you—”
“No need to repeat, Marguerite. And it’s not really your business. But since I already said loyalty was a priority for me, no.”
Marguerite paused briefly, her thin lips pursing into something between a smile and a grimace.
“When did you lose your virginity?” she asked slowly. She seemed borderline reluctant to ask, as if worried how Jessie might react.
“Definitely not your business,” Jessie replied, getting into the groove now. “I’m willing to go with the teen years, but that’s as much as I care to share.”
She heard soft murmuring and knew that her answers were no longer hitting the bull’s-eye. She saw Mel in the back, biting her lip nervously. Marguerite stared at her humorlessly before asking what Jessie suspected was the final question.
“How many people have you had sex with?”
Jessie could feel her skin tingling with righteous resentment. She wanted to say “none of your goddamn business, cyborg lady.” But she knew Marguerite was testing her, trying to upset her. She wouldn’t fall prey to this amateur’s machinations. After all, she’d dealt with far more cunning manipulators.
“Oh my,” she said, adopting a tenor of faux embarrassment, “such a penetrating question in so public a venue. I think I’m going to have to refer you back to my earlier answer about the value of discretion and just say—that information dies with me.”
She smiled sweetly and waited for the axe to fall.
CHAPTER NINE
Later that night, as they were getting into bed, Kyle asked her again.
“You couldn’t tell whether they were impressed or annoyed by your answers?”
“The woman’s face was an emotionless mask,” Jessie said for what she was pretty sure was the third time. “I’m not sure she had the ability to be impressed or annoyed. They let us stick around for dinner, so it couldn’t have been that awful.”
“That could have just been politeness,” he replied, “not wanting to toss us out on the pier. That would have looked bad.”
He sat quietly in bed, his eyes darting back and forth without seeing. He was clearly anxious. Part of her wanted to ease his discomfort and part of her wanted to lash out for how he’d surreptitiously applied to join the club. She’d been holding back all night and wasn’t sure she could do it any longer.
“Kyle, I wasn’t about to share details of my sexual history with a dungeon full of strangers. I figured you’d get that without me having to say it. Did you answer that question?”
“They never asked,” he said. “Couldn’t you just have given a safe answer?”
She stared at him, dumbfounded.
“What’s the safe answer, sweetie? Ten? Five? Three? No one but my darling hubby? I would think you’d be more offended on my behalf.”
“You seem offended enough for the both of us,” he muttered under his breath. That was the last straw.
“You know what offends me?” she demanded. “That you applied to join this place without discussing it with me first. That I got blindsided by the ‘double double toil and trouble’ brigade at some adult sorority pledge event.”
“I didn’t sign us up,” he insisted, sounding genuinely insulted. “Teddy told me he did it as a surprise. And I didn’t know anything about the interviews. I thought we were just going to meet some new people at dinner. I can’t believe you think I would do that on my own. I mean, really?”
“You don’t seem all that broken up about it,” she said, still pissed but backing down slightly now that she was uncertain what was true.
“I’m not. I thought it was a nice gesture. He’s trying help us fit in. Maybe he was a little rash doing it without telling us. And he definitely should have warned us about what we were in for. But the truth is I’d like to join this club. And I probably would have talked to you about applying sooner or later anyway. So I’m not going to pretend to be upset that he jumped the gun a bit.”
“I was interrogated, Kyle,” she reminded him.
“It sounds like you held your own just fine.”
“That’s not the point,” she said, getting out of bed as she felt her blood rise.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I don’t feel like going to sleep right now. And since I don’t want to lie here seething in the dark next to my currently thoughtless husband, I’m going to go read for a while.”
“Oh come on, Jessie,” he said. “It’s not that big a deal.”
“The fact that you think that is all the more reason I don’t want to stick around. I’ll come back to bed later. Don’t wait up.”
Despite her best effort to leave the room with dignity, she slammed the bedroom door as she left. The second she did it, she felt like she’d lost the high ground, suddenly a petulant child throwing a tantrum. But it was done so she doubled down by stomping down the stairs too.
*
Jessie woke up with a start. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was after 1 a.m. She must have drifted off while reading. She sat upright on the sitting room couch she’d slumped into and tried to blink herself awake.
She’d been resting at an awkward angle and her neck ached. She stood up to try to stretch out the kink. After a few minutes of that, she decided to go back to the bedroom. She had just started up the stairs when the groaning sound she’d heard on previous nights echoed through the otherwise silent house.
This time, it didn’t sound like it was coming from the attic but from somewhere on the first. She stepped back down and tried to pinpoint the source of the noise, circling the entire first floor and finally arriving in front of the living room fireplace, which seemed to be the origin point.
But once she came to a stop, so did the groaning. She stood there for at least a minute, waiting, listening. But nothing happened and she began to feel silly.
What is wrong with me?
She turned to head for th
e stairs when she noticed she’d left a sitting room table lamp on. She walked over to turn it off when she noticed the half-open curtain and moved to the window to close it.
From her vantage point, she had a clear view of Kimberly Miner’s house across the street. It looked as quiet as one would expect in the middle of a Saturday night. The only lights on were one in the kitchen, which must have been accidentally left on, and another dull one in the hallway stairwell that led from the first to the second floor.
Jessie had just started to pull the curtain shut when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. A young woman was walking up the stairs of the Miner house, facing the window. She looked to be in her early twenties. She was blonde, with a trim, athletic figure and a tan that covered her entire body. Jessie knew this because she was completely naked.
The woman reached the top of the stairs and receded into the darkness. About thirty seconds later, a second figure emerged from the first floor, lumbering up the stairs. It took a second for Jessie to realize who it was until she saw the wild red hair. It was Kimberly’s husband, Morgan. He too was completely naked.
Jessie leaned closer to the window to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. As she did, she bumped the table lamp. It swayed for an interminable second before falling, hitting the wall hard as it fell and landing on the floor with a surprisingly loud thud.
Jessie saw Morgan’s head pop up at the sound. Realizing that she would be visible with the open curtain and light from the lamp, she dropped quickly and heavily to the ground. With her heart thumping, she lay there on her stomach, as if about to do a pushup, for a good ten seconds before poking her head up again.
Morgan was apparently unconcerned with the sound because he continued up the stairs and soon disappeared after the girl into the darkness. Jessie stood there for a long time, staring at the now empty stairwell.
Did I really just see that? Am I still sleeping?
Eventually, she closed the curtain, returned the lamp to the table, turned it off, and headed back to bed, befuddled, exhausted, and not one hundred percent sure she was in her right mind. She tried to get to sleep but questions kept popping up, keeping her awake.
Should I tell Kimberly this? What if I’m wrong? Am I putting a marriage at risk? Worse, what if I’m right? If what I saw was real, what the hell is going on in this neighborhood?
CHAPTER TEN
The next morning, Kyle was already showered and dressed when she woke up, feeling drained and out of sorts.
“Are you leaving?” she asked sleepily as she sat up in bed. “Isn’t it Sunday?”
“It is but I got called in for an emergency all-hands meeting. One of our investors filed for bankruptcy on Friday and we only just found out. We’re having a strategy session at nine.”
“Oh,” she said. “Will you be gone all day?”
“I hope not but I can’t make any guarantees. I know we’re a little churned up right now, you and I. Maybe we can hash it out this evening?”
“Okay,” Jessie said, still a little discombobulated.
“I love you,” he said as he leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead before heading out.
“I love you too,” she said to the now empty room.
She listened to him hurry down the stairs, heard the garage door open and the car start. The garage door closed again as the sound of his engine faded into the distance. As she sat in bed, trying to get her bearings, the events of the night before leaked back into her brain: the club interrogation, the argument that night, her going downstairs, the weird naked hallway sighting from across the street.
Was that real? Or just part of my dream?
It wouldn’t be the first time her memory had played tricks on her. But this wasn’t a memory from her childhood. It was from last night. And it involved total strangers. She could have sworn she saw it.
Jessie resolved to go over Kimberly’s house this morning to suss out the situation. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions or make accusations. But if she’d really seen Morgan and some girl running naked up the stairs, that might be something his wife would want to know.
She got up, took a quick shower, got dressed, and drove over to the doughnut shop down the street, where she got a dozen. She returned home, made herself some coffee, then walked across the street and knocked on the Miners’ front door. Kimberly opened it almost immediately. She was wearing a robe and had her hair in curlers.
“Hello, neighbor,” she said cheerily. “This is a pleasant surprise on a Sunday morning. How are you?”
“I’m good,” Jessie replied, trying to match Kimberly’s energy. “I just wanted to thank you again for your hospitality the other day. I brought you all some doughnuts to let you know much I appreciate how welcoming you’ve been.”
“That is so sweet. Come on in,” she said, opening the door and leading her down the hall. “You know, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the club last night for the big event. We had a prior commitment.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were members.”
“Of course,” Kimberly said. “Most folks around here are. We’ve just been so busy lately that we haven’t had much of a chance to stop by. How’d it go?”
“Good, I guess.”
Jessie followed her into the kitchen and saw the whole family, including Morgan, sitting at the breakfast table munching down. He was completely dressed, even wearing a sport jacket and slacks, and looked completely normal. Jessie was having increasing trouble believing her own recollection of last night.
“We’re already eating,” Kimberly said. “We’ve got church in a bit. But we’ll save these for later. In fact,” she said, addressing her family, “you all really have to go. I’ll meet you there.”
“You heard your mother, kids,” Morgan said, standing up and bringing his plate into the kitchen. “Hurry up. We need to stop at the drugstore for Mikey’s prescription on the way in.”
He tossed the plate into the sink, kissed Kimberly on the cheek, and nodded at Jessie.
“Nice to see you again,” he said, sounding for all the world like a pleasant, slightly harried husband and father.
The kids, despite being only four and two, took their plates into the kitchen too before shuffling into the living room to shove on loafers or fancy flats.
“We’ll see you there,” Morgan said to his wife before turning to the kids. “I’ll be in the car. I leave in sixty seconds, with or without you.”
Jessie watched as the two kids scrambled desperately to get their shoes on and rush out the door. Less than minute later the madness had been replaced by something resembling calm.
“Ah, listen to that silence,” Kimberly said with a blissful smile. “It’s a rarity these days.”
“I’ll bet,” Jessie agreed.
“So what’s up, neighbor? I have to get ready soon but it looks like you came over for more than just a doughnut drop-off. Care to share?”
“You know, I thought I had something to discuss. But now that I think about it, I guess I don’t. I’ll let you finish getting ready. We can talk some other time.”
“You sure?” Kimberly asked as she removed he robe to reveal a tank top and yoga pants below.
Jessie was about to reply when she heard someone come down the stairs. She glanced over and saw the same young woman she thought she’d imagined from the night before. She was dressed now, in a T-shirt and sweatpants with a duffel bag flung over her shoulder. But it was definitely her.
“Jessie, this is Rachelle, our sometime nanny. Rachelle, this is Jessie, our new neighbor from across the street. She brought doughnuts, so dig in.”
“Thanks but I can’t,” Rachelle said casually. “I’m going to the beach later and I don’t want a belly lump. I’ll just have granola.”
She ambled into the kitchen, nodding at Jessie as she passed by. Jessie nodded back, desperately pretending like everything was cool. She looked over at Kimberly, who seemed to be amused at the notion that one doughnut would make
Rachelle fat but oblivious to the fact that the nanny was scampering around the house naked with her husband last night.
“This girl thinks anything other than a celery stick is going to make her blow up,” she said with just the slightest edge in her voice. “Super healthy body image, right, Rachelle?”
“Right, Mrs. M,” Rachelle replied cluelessly, her head now in the fridge. “I actually have to head out soon to meet my friends. Do you mind if I take a bowl to go? I’ll bring it back next time I come by.”
“No problem,” Kimberly said.
Rachelle filled a bowl with granola and milk, grabbed a spoon, and headed out the front door, shouting a casual “later” as she left.
“She’s an eating disorder waiting to happen,” Kimberly said ruefully once the younger girl was gone.
Jessie stood there as her neighbor removed the curlers from her hair and debated whether to say anything. Then, deciding that she would want to know, she spoke.
“Kimberly, you know I said I wanted to discuss something?”
“Uh-huh,” Kimberly said vaguely, as she looked at her hair in the hall mirror.
“Well, I feel a little uncomfortable saying this. We don’t really know each other very well. But I feel like I have an obligation.”
Kimberly heard the seriousness in her voice and turned to look at her.
“I’m not under arrest for some forensic-y thing, am I?” she asked, forcing a smile but clearly unsettled.
“It’s nothing like that. It’s just…last night I was having trouble sleeping. I glanced out my window and I saw something…unusual.”
“You were spying on my house?” Kimberly asked. Her tone was light but the panic in her eyes was clear.
“Inadvertently. And I saw your nanny…I saw Rachelle walking up the stairs… nude. And forgive me, but I saw your husband go up after her. He was naked as well.”
