Chapter 6

When I got home Annie was screaming. I heard her high pitched voice before I opened the car door. As I was walking to the front door I noticed a flash of light coming out of Fays window, and then the curtain fell back. Opening the door, my hand on the cold brass knob, the screams are becoming louder, screams linked with harsh pain and suffering, someone getting killed, murdered, there's a man with a ski mask on right now in the living room, holding a knife up to my daughters throat.

But I open the door and see Andrea following Annie around the kitchen, the living room, up the stairs, tailing her and lecturing her, arguing to her, trying to shout over her screams.

“Hey whats going on here?” I hold the bag with the orange juice in one hand, and the checkbook in the other, just in case Andrea saw it she would be reminded of my reason of absence. 

Andrea chased Annie up the stairs and their argument became muffled, I heard their conversation directly above me through the second story floor, most likely in Annie's room. I heard the slam of a door and then the shouts ceased. 

I put the orange juice in the fridge and pocketed the sour candy and walked into the living room. Thomas was awake now, laying on the couch watching some cartoon. I sat down next to him and he looked at me and tried to smile, but I know what we both just heard upset him.

“Hey, Tommy, whatcha watchin'?” I patted his small hollow back and rubbed it gently. He looked back at the television and laughed.

“Just a cartoon.”

“I bought you some candy.” I pulled the sour skittles out of my pocket and handed it to him. “Now if you're going to eat this right now, promise me you'll brush your teeth for me tonight.”

“Okay Dada, I promise.” The lights from the Christmas tree reflected off his blue eyes that stared wondrously at the television screen. “Dada, you smell like the flowers in the back yard.”

I looked at him and realized he smelled the Devils Vegetable on me, realized that the bag was still in my pocket. 

“I know I do, I saw a cat run in the garden and I chased him out. That cat was probably looking for a place to poop, huh?”

Thomas made a laugh that echoed out of his mouth and nose. “We don't want the cats to poop in our garden and then try to bury it. Bury it like its pirates treasure.” 

“That's right.”

Thomas laid on his side and pulled the blanket over him. Andrea walked through the living room into the kitchen, her face looked red and flustered.

“Why's mommy yelling at Annie?”

“I don't know. I'll go find out right now.”

“Dada,”

“Yeah?”

“Can you open this?” Thomas held out the bag of skittles after struggling to open it.

“Of course.” I took the bag from his small hand and opened it, with some difficulty, and poured a couple into my hand and tossed them into my mouth. I stood up after the cartoon characters beat the s**t out of each other, and walked towards the kitchen.

Andrea was reaching up into the cabinet and pulled a wine bottle down and poured herself a full glass. The kitchen light was off but the light from the living room glowed softly on Andrea's skin and it  made her appear younger, her frustration framed her body and her shoulders were tense with what appeared to be angered adolescence. I can see Annie growing up into this body soon.

“Hey.”

Her body half turned but she didn't say anything. The wine was being pumped down her thin throat.

“There's orange juice in the fridge you know.”

Andrea set the glass on the counter and walked over to me, her green eyes were dark with desperation and her dark hair was in her face. She wrapped her arms around me and caught her hands at the small of my back and her face was buried in my chest. Her body told me she wanted to cry but she didn't let herself.

“What's wrong, Andrea?”

The heat from her breath formed on my sweater collar and I dug my nose in her bed of dark, soft hair. She didn't want to talk, and chances were she wasn't going to say anything. Chances are she's going to lead me by the hand upstairs into our bed and shes going to cry a little bit and then we'll make love. A monthly ritual.

“What's wrong with Annie?” I say into the mass of her hair.

She released me from her embrace and looked away, grabbing the near empty glass of wine and finishing it. 

“This wine is s****y.” She put the glass in the sink and stared out the window at the dark fog. I walked over to her and put my hands on her hips. I felt her exhale and she leaned back against me. “I think Annie is pregnant.”

I spun her around and looked into her moist, red eyes. Her face was a mix of pain and fear.

“What?” I say this loud enough to be heard throughout the house, and Thomas walks in before Andrea can say anything.”

“Mommy, I want some orange juice.”

Andrea tried to not appear so solemn and pushed the hair back from her face and smiled.

“Okay, baby, mommy will pour you a glass. She walked to the fridge and opened it. “Steven, will you hand me a glass.”

I opened the cabinet and found the glass that Thomas always used, a red mug, and set it on the island behind Andrea. She filled the mug while Thomas stared up at her patiently, and when she handed it to him he smiled and immediately poured the juice in his face, spilling a little on his t-shirt.

I watched him walk out of the room and sit back on the couch. The television lights danced on his face.

Andrea grabbed me by the hand and led me upstairs, as I had guessed, but I had a feeling we wouldn't be having sex later.

“Come here. Listen.”

She stopped in front of Annie's bedroom door and we both stood and listened to the muffled voice of Annie talking on her phone to someone. She sounds agitated and worried but I don't think either of us could make out what she's saying.

“Andrea, I don't think,”

“Shhh,”

She put her finger to my lips to quiet me and she placed her ear against the door.

“I have to pee.”

She shot me an annoyed look , her dark eyes glaring. I walked away from her into our bedroom and then into the bathroom and peed in the toilet. I stood in the doorway and looked at Andrea with her head against our daughters door.

“Andrea, come here.”

She held a finger up at me without looking. After a minute she turned and walked in the bedroom and laid on the bed. 

“I don't know what to do.”

“First, why don't you tell me why you think Annie's pregnant.”

Staring at the ceiling she sighed and said, “She's been acting...different.”

“How so?”

“Well she's been eating, a lot. Her moods have been fluctuating a lot. She'll be serious in the morning and then shes laughing her head off after breakfast. Or she's crying. She locks herself in her room.”

“Honey, shes a teenaged girl, she--”

“My point exactly.”

I sighed and sat down next to her on the bed.

“Andrea, how would you know for sure?”

“She's sleeping all the time. Every time I walk past her room shes sleeping, or she has her door locked. And, Steven, her b***s. Her b***s have gotten significantly bigger recently, ever since Christmas break started.”

I looked away from the swelling of Andrea's breasts when she said this and laid next to her. She turned her head and looked at me.

I said, “Did you ask her about it?”

“I did, and she denied it and ran off to her room. She looked shocked that I would even ask her. And that totally gave it away. See, if she knew she wasn't pregnant, she would have laughed when I asked her. But when I asked her she flipped on me and her face turned red.”

I put my arm around Andrea and pulled her towards me. Our noses touched.

“You know what, I'll take Annie out tomorrow after school. I'll get her to talk to me. If she really is pregnant, there's going to be no hiding it from me.”

“How would you find out?”

I kissed her gently, and tugged on her bottom lip.

“Because I knocked you up twice, Andrea. And remember you tried to hide it from me the first time? And I knew you were keeping something from me, I knew there was something you weren't telling me. And when we were in Carmel, I asked you and you denied it.”

Andrea smiled and her breath warmed my face. I smelled the wine. She leaned closer and pressed her warm body against mine.

“And then when we came back home, I said the same thing about your b***s. How they seemed to grow. As if the beach pumped them up,” I gently squeezed her right breast, “with the ocean breeze.”

Andrea embraced me and kissed me back.

“Promise me you'll find out, tomorrow.”

“I promise.”

“Good.” She gave me a drawn out, moist kiss. “I'm just so worried.” She let go of me and walked out of the room, and the soul in my erection died and turned into a lingering ghost. And all at once I was asleep.