He nodded once and exposed his foamy teeth.
“Does that mean we should have her over for dinner again?”
“Na,” he said, smiling.
“No?” Evan laughed and tickled his son’s sides. “What do you mean, no? I thought you liked her.”
Shaun giggled and tried to bat Evan’s hands away.
“Okay, okay, let’s finish brushing.”
Evan glanced at the clock after they finished in the bathroom. “It’s still a little early to go to bed, do you want to find another documentary on the TV?”
Shaun struggled to get down from his arms, in an effort to get to the couch faster.
“All right, let’s do it.”
He placed Shaun on the couch and walked to the entertainment center to grab the remote, looking out the windows at the evening— —and saw the outline of a body floating in the water.
His eyes widened, and the remote slipped from his hand, snapping against the floor and spewing its batteries out like a rotten meal.
“Oh God,” Evan said.
A moment of indecision gripped him, and then he ran toward the door.
“Shaun, stay right there.”
His fingers fumbled at the doorknob for an agonizing second, and then he flew down the steps, onto the grass, the dew of the evening wetting his socks. As he ran, he hoped he was seeing things again, perhaps a trick of the failing light on the water. Maybe a piece of driftwood or something like it. But no, the shape was there, clearer this time, floating past the end of the dock. It looked like a man, facedown ... definitely facedown.
“Hey! Are you okay?”
The figure in the water didn’t stir. It bobbed, turning counterclockwise, its feet spinning slowly toward the town.
“Shit,” Evan said.
He tore his T-shirt over his head. His feet hit the dock, the planking banging beneath his soles as he ran. Three more strides and he jumped, hung in the air, and dove into the water.
The lake hit him like something alive, its cold unlike anything he’d experienced before. Frozen needles pierced every inch of his skin, and he barely resisted the urge to gasp at the shock. He stroked toward the surface and broke through, heaving a lungful of air in. He tried to shake the water from his eyes, then swam forward, hoping for and dreading the moment his fingers found the body. The moisture filtered from his vision, and he stopped, treading water and spun in a circle.
Nothing was there.
The beating of his heart throbbed in his ears as he searched the calm, flat plane of water all around him. He dove, keeping his eyes open against the blinding cold this time, and swam down, panning the surrounding few feet for the man’s body he knew must be there. Straggling weeds grew up from the lake’s bottom, but otherwise the water was too dark to see through.
He rose, sucked a breath in, and plunged down again. Over and over he dove, a sickening feeling growing in his stomach the whole time.
There was nothing there in the first place.
At last he gave up and swam toward the dock, glancing over his shoulder every other stroke, half expecting the body to be there again. Whenever a weed touched his foot, his heart gave a nasty jump. When his hand found the decking, the relief was almost overwhelming. Pulling himself onto the dock, he stood there shivering, cold water running out of his pants legs in streams, the dripping of the moisture returning to the lake and the chattering of his teeth the only sounds.
Evan hurried back to the house, picking up his dropped T-shirt on the way. When he stepped into the entry and saw Shaun still propped on the couch where he’d left him, his first instinct was to call 911. Picking up his cell phone, he started dialing the numbers, but then turned to face the lake again. Darkness cloaked the water now, hiding everything but the barest of movement of small waves licking the shore.
He’d imagined the body, or it had been a trick of the light. A floating body couldn’t just disappear in a matter of seconds.
He shivered again, not sure if his soaking pants were to blame.
“Da?”
Shaun’s eyes were wide and unblinking in the low light.
“I’m okay,” Evan said, and shook again. “I’m okay.”
He crossed the room and turned on the TV with a trembling hand, finding a cartoon on the next station he turned to.
“You watch for a minute, and Dad’s going to take a quick shower.”
He left the bathroom door wide open and, after firing up the shower, stripped out of his sopping clothes. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he saw that his lips were light blue.
The shocking change in temperature brought a rasping breath from him as he stepped into the hot water. Evan let it flow over him, envelope his body in its warmth. Gradually he stopped shaking and the tension in his muscles eased. As the physical strain washed away, his mind began to whir with questions, none he wanted try to answer. Mostly because the solution to almost all of them ended with another question—one concerning his own sanity.
He leaned forward, resting his head against the shower surround. “What the hell’s happening to me?”
Shaun’s scream rang through the house, and Evan jerked, nearly slipping on the shower floor. He ripped the curtain away and slapped the shower handle off, then jumped from the tub. Shaun’s scream came again, louder this time, and Evan ran, launching himself through the doorway and into the living room.
Shaun lay on his side on the couch, his arms flailing at the air, his legs kicking against a stack of pillows. Evan skidded to a stop and knelt, setting him back up into a sitting position.
“What’s wrong, honey? What’s the matter? Are you hurt?”
Shaun responded with another wail and craned his neck around toward the kitchen. Tears ran in steady streams down his reddened face, and he coughed, choking on his own panic. Evan scanned his small body and saw no bleeding or bruises, although he didn’t know how he would’ve gotten hurt sitting on the couch.
“What’s the matter?” Evan asked again.