The Piper

EIGHTEEN




Tuesday night was the spaghetti special at Naples Italian Restaurant, so Olivia told Teddy they’d have dinner out. It would have been a matter of five minutes to stop at the house and drop Winston off, along with Teddy’s backpack, to give Olivia a chance to put on a pair of jeans. But somehow, they didn’t. Olivia told herself that her fantasy of cuddly dinners with Teddy in the little sunroom off the kitchen would have to wait until all the kitchen boxes were unpacked, and they were better settled in.

Naples was a block down the road, on Kingston Pike, and their parking lot was half full. Olivia and Teddy giggled about how close the restaurant was. They’d done a lot of driving in LA. They parked the Jeep on the left hand side of the restaurant, and left the windows down a double snout length. Winston seemed content to curl up and sleep and Teddy promised him a share of her spaghetti for later on.

The restaurant was small, and had not changed, which made Olivia feel nostalgic and relieved. This was where she’d celebrated birthday dinners as she grew up, where she and Hugh had their first date. She and Teddy could smell garlic sautéed in olive oil, and freshly baked bread. Wooden booths with red upholstery, darkly papered walls, two tiny alcoves in the corner for private, intimate dinners – a traditional family Italian restaurant right down to the wine bottles along the wall.

Olivia and Teddy slathered herb studded butter on warm bread from a basket, ate spaghetti with meat sauce, and ended by splitting an order of tiramisu. Normally Olivia would have had a glass of Chianti or Shiraz, but for some reason it didn’t seem wise. She was glad, later, that she had passed.

Teddy ate a good dinner. Olivia was relieved. They took the leftovers with them for Winston. But eventually, they had to go home.

Olivia was sure she had left a light on in the kitchen, but the house was dark when they pulled into the drive. The dog was barking again, the one Olivia had heard the night before. Winston stuck his head in the crack of the window and growled.

‘Mommy, do you hear that dog? I think he’s trapped in that yard, where that house is for sale.’

‘Which one, Teddy? There are a lot of houses for sale.’

Teddy pointed. Past the trees to the privacy fence, the tangle of bamboo, honeysuckle and forsythia that shrouded them from the house next door.

Olivia shook her head. ‘That house is empty, Teddy, nobody lives there.’

‘But listen.’

Olivia stepped out of the car. Teddy opened the door for Winston, who jumped out and headed straight for the woods that divided their yard from the one next door.

‘I don’t hear it anymore, Teddy. The barking’s stopped,’ Olivia said.

‘But what if the dog is in there, trapped in the backyard?’ Teddy pushed her glasses up on her nose and her eyes seemed to glint in the dark.

Olivia had an image of the way her daughter had looked last night, so still and afraid in her room.

‘People do that, you know. They move away and leave their animals, I heard it on the news. Please, Mommy. Can’t we just look? If they left him in the backyard, he’ll starve.’

Olivia left her purse and briefcase on the front seat of the car. The truth was the barking had seemed to come from the fenced in backyard. ‘Okay. We’ll take a quick look.’

Teddy went first, calling to Winston, who led the charge. Olivia lagged awkwardly in her heels. She trudged behind Teddy and Winston, past the koi pond that was now full of dead decaying fish, and the old brick barbecue grill gummed up with the dried, charred remains of cookouts past. Chris and Charlotte had left things in a bad way. Olivia knew she needed to clear things out, but she didn’t have the energy right now.

But it reminded her of how things used to be, and she liked thinking about those days, the early ones in particular, when they were all there and safe, Emily, Chris, her mother and father and Hunter the dog. They played Monopoly every Saturday night, and cooked barbecued chicken outside on the grill, and sometimes on cold weekend days her daddy built a fire in the fireplace. The images were good ones, a timeless loop she liked to play in her head.

The For Sale sign next door was crooked. It had been up a while. The windows of the house were dark, with the bereft glaze of vacancy, no shutters, curtains or blinds. The grass was high and weedy, wet and itchy on Olivia’s ankles. Slats of wood had fallen from the side of the house. Someone had heaped branches and grass clippings in a pile that was too close to the house for the garbage men to pick up.

Olivia hesitated in the driveway. Teddy and Winston charged ahead.

The wood gate that led into the backyard was not locked. It swung inward with ease. A security light on the utility pole in the back made spotlights and shadows. Olivia went in first, with Teddy at her back, and she took Teddy’s hand as Winston rushed past them. He covered every inch, running in a zigzag, following scents, nose to the ground, investigating every tree, every dip of ground. The yard was terraced, tangled with neglect, and lonely somehow. There was no dog to be seen.

‘I know I heard him, Mommy,’ Teddy said.

‘I heard him, too. He’s just a neighbor dog, honey. Maybe he lives over there,’ Olivia pointed. ‘Or even across the street.’

‘The barking came from here.’

Olivia didn’t argue.

‘I can prove it. Let’s come back tomorrow, when it’s daylight, and look for poo.’

‘Come on, Kidlet. You need a hot bath and I want to get out of these shoes. OK, Winston, here boy.’

Olivia was careful to close the gate behind them. She noticed, as soon as they turned back for home, the light in the kitchen was on now, just the way she’d left it that morning.

Olivia knew that she was tired. She knew that she was stressed. And she knew the house had been dark ten minutes ago when she and Teddy drove up.

Olivia kept an eye on Winston. If someone had broken in, he’d tell her.