Shaun grinned, his teeth stained with chocolate.
They arrived on the island in the early afternoon, the sun making a brief appearance before sliding back into cover behind a wall of gray clouds. Shaun fell asleep on the ride across the lake and didn’t wake even when Evan carried him up to the house and laid him on his bed.
With the house quiet, his mind whispered of sleep, the early session of cleaning catching up to him, but the idea of the story behind the clock wouldn’t leave his head for more than a few minutes. Cecil’s reaction hadn’t dulled his interest in the least; quite the opposite, in fact. Hanging up on him spoke of hidden secrets buried within families and time. The prospect of uncovering them became so appealing, he wondered what was wrong with him. You’re enthused about something, he told himself, as he sat at the kitchen table. How long had it been since he’d felt like this?
Elle immediately entered his mind, and he stood from his chair, not willing to be dragged down by memories this afternoon. Noticing a little dust and a several specks of dirt on the linoleum, he decided to do some cleaning, to actually earn some of the money that Jason was paying him.
He found a broom in the closet near the entry. Starting at the sink, Evan swept in the direction of the basement door, herding a nest of dust bunnies above a layer of dirt as he went, his mind wandering to the article and its layout. When the dirt formed a small pyramid in the center of the room, he knelt and started to sweep it into a dustpan but stopped. Leaning forward, he reached into the dust pile and plucked a shining white hair from the center. It unwound from the dirt like a snake uncoiling from its lair, and he saw that it stretched at least two feet. Holding it up in the light, he brought it close to his face. It hung in a pale question mark from his fingers, mirroring his thoughts.
“Where the hell did this come from?” he asked out loud.
Had Jason’s grandmother worn her hair long? But that couldn’t be—his grandparents had passed away a decade ago. And if Bob had supposedly been here up until a couple of months before they arrived, how did the hair get missed?
He dropped it back into the pile, wiping his hand against his jeans. Another glint of white caught his eye, and when he looked closer, he saw that a second strand lay amongst the dust, this one longer than the first.
The phone on the wall rang loud and shrill, and Evan inhaled and almost sucked up a mouthful of dirt. He stood and stared at the phone on the wall as it trilled again. The panic was quelled inside him as he stepped forward and picked the receiver up.
“Hello?”
A slight crackle of static. “Evan?”
“Yes?”
“It’s Selena.”
He turned toward the backyard, leaning against the wall. “Hi, how are you?”
“Good. I’m calling because I was thinking of going for a paddle later if the lake calms down, and wondered if I could stop in and say hi.”
No.
The internal answer to her request startled him. “Sure, that’d be fine. What time are you thinking?”
“Oh, late afternoon.”
“That would work, we’ll be here.”
“Sounds great, see you later.”
“Bye.”
Evan hung the phone up and gazed out at the backyard. “What are you afraid of?” he said.
The tinkling of the wind chimes was the only answer.
~
A knock at the front door pulled Evan away from the cooking beef. He rumpled Shaun’s hair as he walked by the kitchen table, where the boy played with several toy cars. Smoothing his own hair forward, he opened the door.
The late-afternoon sunshine outlined Selena in the entryway. Her hair hung past her shoulders in a brown wave that caught the light. She wore a white T-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts that accentuated her legs.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he replied, his heart picking up speed. “Come in, dinner will be ready in a bit.”
She paused halfway through the entry. “Oh, you don’t have to feed me, I just wanted to pop by, maybe meet Shaun properly.”
“Come in, it’s fine. I have to cook for us anyway.”
Evan waved toward the kitchen and Selena smiled, stepping inside.
“Shaun, this is Selena, do you remember her from the other day?” Evan said, turning Shaun in his chair so that he could face her in the doorway.
“Hi, Shaun, how are you?” Selena said, putting her hand out as she knelt before him.
Shaun looked at her for a moment, and then smiled and placed his hand in her own.
“Nice to meet you,” she said, pumping his arm up and down.
Selena turned her eyes to Evan’s, and he caught himself smiling at her. Hearing the sizzle of the stove, he made his way to the browning hamburger. After adding some salt and pepper, he stirred the meat until he thought of something to say.
“So the lake calmed down, huh?”
Selena gave Shaun one last smile and then stood, framing herself in the doorway. “Yeah, turned out to be great. I was disappointed this morning when I looked outside, I didn’t think I’d be able to get out on the lake today.”
“Yeah, we went into town when it was rough this morning. Even in the pontoon, it bounced us around. Would you like a glass of wine?” Evan said.
“That would be great.” Selena pulled out a chair from the table and sat. “So, are you two getting settled in here?”
He opened a bottle and poured two glasses. “I think so. It’s a little more of a commute into town than we’re used to, but yeah, it’s a good fit for us.”
He moved to the table and handed Selena her glass. As he did, their fingers brushed and a flutter of pleasure flitted in his stomach.
“To the evening,” she said, tilting her glass toward him.
“To the evening.”