Destruction: The December People, Book One (8 page)

A tingling sensation shot from David’s fingertips to his earlobes. He felt as if he had fallen asleep halfway through a movie and then woken up and couldn’t follow the story. What the hell had he missed?

She snapped her fingers in his face. “What’s the matter with you? Breathe.”

“You knew her?”

She tightened her hand into a claw shape and looked as if she might use it.

“I
introduced
you, you asshole… or did you forget?”

“But it wasn’t like that. I remember. It was in the laundry room at your apartment building. It was a Friday night. We went in there to get your clothes out of the dryer before we went downtown. She was in there guarding her clothes while they dried, reading a book. She was drinking something that looked really weird, and I asked her what it was. She said it was bubble tea. You told me her name and told her mine. We both said hi. I asked her if she was going to spend her whole Friday night reading. She laughed at me and didn’t answer. And that was it. You never mentioned her again.”

Her eyes had narrowed with each word he spoke, and he didn’t realize why until a second before she said it out loud.

“Oh my God.” She sucked on her tongue as if she wanted to remove a bad taste. “The detail… you remember what she was drinking the first time you saw her?”

“It’s not a big deal. You’re a big picture person, but I’m more into details. I remember stuff like that. About everything… not just her.” Sort of true, but he hoped she wouldn’t test him. “I remember the details about when I met you, too.” That test, he would pass.

“Did it start then?” She asked it quietly, as if she hoped he wouldn’t hear and wouldn’t answer.

“No. Not right away. It was…”

“Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

“You were friends with her?” he asked.

“Sort of.”

“Sort of? You said she never wanted to eat at the same restaurant twice. That must mean you ate at restaurants with her. Which ones? When?”

“For God’s sake, David, that’s hardly relevant.”

To David, it seemed critical. Which restaurant they ate at, what they ordered, and what they talked about. He couldn’t imagine any information more interesting—evidence that truly fascinating things happened in the world he knew nothing about.
What else happened when I wasn’t paying attention?

“I’m just saying I knew enough about her to know there is a hole in the story somewhere. She would never let that happen.”

She probably didn’t realize this comforted him. She might as well have stroked his hair and whispered,
It’s okay… none of it is real. She wouldn’t have done that to you
.

“Those are my kids,” David said. “And hers. I know they are.”

“I know.”

“I agree with you. Of course, I do. The woman I knew wouldn’t have let that happen… but she did.”

“What happened to the
man
? Did he go to prison?”

“No, he wouldn’t go quietly, so they ended up gunning him down. He died before he was cuffed.”

“Good.”

avid had fallen in love with Crystal shortly after he had fallen in love with Amanda. He had never intended to fall in love with Crystal, of course. He should have known better than to even spend time with her. To him, she stood out among all the rest at the crowded University of Texas campus. As if she wore red when everyone else wore black. He’d thought they could be friends. But he didn’t tell Amanda about his “friend.” He should have recognized that as a dangerous sign and gotten away as fast as he could.

It didn’t take long for their friendship to turn into more. The second time they studied together at a coffee shop, Crystal kissed him. They sat side by side on a couch, sipping double espressos. David had been talking about something… he couldn’t remember what… something boring, something unsexy. And, out of nowhere, she leaned over and kissed him. A quick, innocent kiss, like a twelve-year-old trying it for the first time. After her peck, she leaned back and waited, biting her lip.

If David had said what he should have said in that moment, such as, “I’m in love with my girlfriend”, or “Thanks, but no thanks; I don’t cheat”, everything would have changed from that point forward. But he didn’t. He didn’t say a thing. He smiled. Then after a moment or two of silence, which probably drove Crystal mad, he leaned in and kissed her, a lot less like a twelve-year-old. It felt right.

Four months later, they went away together, but not on purpose. On a random Wednesday, when Amanda had class, Crystal suggested they go for a drive.

“Where?” David asked.

“Let’s just see what we can find,” she said.

They took the highway out of town and turned down the first road that looked interesting. They drove purely on gut, and always agreed on which way to go, based on absolutely nothing. Without planning it, they drove almost directly to Enchanted Rock, a huge natural dome of pink granite outside Fredericksburg, Texas.

They hiked to the top of the dome and arrived at sunset.

“Is this what you were looking for?” he asked. No planned trip could have ended better, and he expected a wistful ‘yes’ but got a different answer.

She wrapped her arms around herself and looked across the orange-streaked sky. He remembered that moment clearly. She had on a thin white sweater that she hugged to herself as if it had protective powers, and her dark hair twirled and twisted madly in the wind.

“No,” she said. “I want more.”

His tongue got dry, and his heart hammered in his chest. But he couldn’t remember why he had felt so agitated.

She turned and stepped toward him. Her brown eyes pleaded with him. “Is there more, David?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, but the blood rushed through his head as loudly as the wind. He remembered he had been lying to her. But that made no sense. This memory, like a lot of his memories, felt a little off. Maybe he had drunk enough in college to burn holes in his brain.

She kissed him. Her lips tasted salty from the hike.

“Why do they call this place enchanted?” she whispered in his ear.

He could barely hear her over the wind. “The sign at the bottom says the rock moans at night. When it gets cool, the rock contracts, and that makes the sound. The Indians thought it was ghosts.”

“I see,” she said. “Maybe we can spend the night and check for ourselves.”

“I didn’t pack,” he said. “I don’t have a toothbrush or anything.”

She kissed him again.

“Okay, we can stay.”

“I know you have the answers,” she said. “You have to tell me.”

“Crystal… I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“I know there’s more. I want the
more
.”

“Who says more is better? What’s wrong with what you can see with your eyes?” He had shouted it. Why had he been so pissed? Probably because he had thought the day was perfect and she hadn’t. The amazing view wasn’t enough for her.
He
wasn’t enough. But he hadn’t felt angry, exactly. He had felt scared.

Amanda announced they would have dinner together. Jude, Patrick, and Emmy responded as if she had asked them to rip out a tooth and hand it over. But it didn’t matter. They would do it. Amanda wore a quiet simmering rage like a vest of TNT. So, everyone would sit and the table and eat the lasagna she made. Even her stepchildren lacked immunity to her force of command.

Never had the task of eating lasagna felt so dangerous. His family members hovered around the dining room, choosing seats an impossibly difficult task. David tried to help Amanda in the kitchen, but she created a force field in the doorway with a firm and biting, “I do not want your help.”

So he sat at the head of the table and waited patiently. Samantha placed the silverware and napkins with a ballerina’s grace and a paid-by-the-hour inefficiency. She took one piece of silverware out of the kitchen at a time, seeming grateful to have something to do. Poor girl. Wrong place, wrong time.

“Isn’t anyone going to help her?” David asked the room at large.

“I don’t mind,” Samantha said. “I’m pretty much finished anyway.”

“Thank you, Samantha,” David said. “Everybody sit down.”

The kids acted as if snakes hid under the napkins. Evangeline sat on his left. Maybe he had one child who didn’t hate him. Better than zero.

“Thank you,” he said.

Then Xavier had no choice but to sit down on the other side of his sister. Samantha headed toward the other side of the table but had a sudden change of heart and filled the spot next to Xavier, leaving three seats on the other side for the Vandergraff siblings. David thought she did this on purpose; she knew the two halves of David’s kids should not risk touching elbows.

When Amanda came in with the lasagna, Emmy, Jude, and Patrick sat down. Patrick sat on David’s right. David didn’t know if that meant anything. Patrick had the coolest head of his kids… at least, of the three he knew well. Patrick usually wanted everyone to “shut up and stop the drama”. He yelled something to that effect at his siblings several times a week. As the least likely to stab a fork through David’s hand, Patrick may have sat next to his father just to avoid drama.

The lasagna looked huge. Everything needed two more servings now. Aside from plates scraping and a few quiet “pass-me-the’s”, the diners remained silent. The longer no one talked, the heavier the silence became, and the harder it felt to break. Emmy talked more than this when she had the flu. She talked more than this when she had tonsillitis. She may have never gone this long without speaking in her life.

“Samantha, I talked to your mom today. They arrived in Switzerland safely,” Amanda said.

Samantha nodded. “What did she say?”

“They checked in. Said the place is nice. They’re sure it will do them some good.”

David’s daughters distracted him. They had both engaged in that specific type of sibling
looking
that inspired many children to say, “she’s
looking
at me”. He knew he shouldn’t, but he smiled slightly. They acted like sisters.

“Emmy, Patrick, it was nice of you to share your clothes. Thank you for doing that,” David said.

Patrick shrugged. Emmy appeared to have about three million words held in with a cork.

“As soon I get the chance, I can take you to buy some clothes of your own,” he said to Xavier and Evangeline.