Harmony House - Nic Sheff Page 0,32
some of her friends?”
“Oh yeah,” I say. “I forgot about that.”
“You don’t want to cancel?” Rose asks.
“Jen,” my dad says, turning to me. “I don’t want you to get distracted. We have a lot of work to do.”
“A little company won’t hurt her any,” Rose says, smiling. “Be a nice thing for Jen after all that happened.”
My dad clenches his teeth, but nods.
“Fine,” he says. “But just for tonight.”
Aunt Rose smiles, then she looks up into the sky, wonderingly.
“Well, I hope you two get outside a little today—take advantage of this fine weather we’re having. Gonna be a big storm coming in tomorrow. Weatherman says it could be the biggest storm on record.”
She turns her attention to me suddenly and cocks her head to one side.
“But you know that already, don’t you?”
I make a face, frowning.
“Me? What do you mean?”
“Oh, nothing,” she tells me, smiling. “I just saw you looking at those clouds, too.”
“You did?” I ask, confused.
“Come on,” my dad says, taking hold of my arm. “You have to get back to work if you want to see your friends tonight.”
He nods curtly to Rose.
“Thank you for your concern,” he says.
Her turns his back on her and doesn’t let go of my arm.
“If you need anything,” Rose tells me, “you know where to find me.”
My dad pulls me away.
“Let’s go,” he says.
I look back at Rose.
She smiles at me.
And with my eyes, I try to ask her for help—I try to tell her I’m trapped here with a crazy person. But I can’t say it out loud. And so she can’t understand. And my dad has me back inside.
He closes the door.
CHAPTER 9
After I finish my chores in the house, my dad wants me to go pull weeds in the garden and, of course, I don’t really have a choice. I put on boots and my heavy jacket and a pair of leather gardening gloves and go out into the still-warm afternoon.
The world is coming into focus a little better, the dreamy haze from the pills clearing. I’ve made little piles of the deep-rooted ragweed and thistles all the way out to the forest and I go grab the rake out of the stone garage and start adding up all the piles into one big pile. It’s not difficult work, but already I’m flushed and glossy with sweat. My chest, too, is tender and weirdly bigger-seeming, so I start unfastening my bra.
But then a shiver runs through me and I turn, almost jumping out of my skin as a voice says, “Jen, hey.”
It’s Colin.
He’s half-hidden by the white barren pines.
“Jesus, why are you always lurking behind my house?”
He laughs, keeping his eyes on the ground.
“I’m not lurking.”
“You look like you’re lurking. Anyway, I told you, my dad’s gonna kill me if he sees me talking to you.”
“We were supposed to meet up,” he says, stepping back into the shadows of the forest. “Don’t you remember?”
I nod.
“Oh yeah, right. Sorry.”
“Well, do you have time to come talk for a minute?”
I look back at the house, scanning the many windows.
“Yeah, all right,” I say. “Just for a minute.”
He turns and starts off into the woods and I follow after him.
Leaves colored gold and red and brown cover the forest floor. Birds sing atonally overhead.
“I’m sorry I startled you,” he tells me. “But I really wanted to see you.”
I breathe out slow.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry I forgot. It was a crazy night—and morning.”
“Is it true about Alex, then?” he asks.
I stare up at the close together, narrow, spindly, dead-looking trees.
“Jesus, this is a gossipy little town, isn’t it?”
He leans his shoulder into me.
“Yeah, it is. We got shit else to do. Anyway, I’m just glad you’re all right.”
He pauses then before adding, “You are all right, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I’m all right. He’s the one who ended up in the hospital.”
“The hospital?”
“Uh-huh. I kicked him in the balls and then smashed a picture frame across his face.”
Not exactly true, but it seems easier to explain it that way.
“Well, good,” he says. “I’m just sorry you had to deal with that.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
The clouds are moving in quickly from the east and there’s a sweet smell like rain in the air.
“It’s weird that he would come back here,” Colin says.
I look at him curiously.
“What do you mean?”
He scratches at the bridge of his broad nose.
“I mean, this place . . .”
He gestures with both hands.
“Harmony House . . . we used to come sneak in here when we were kids.”
“‘We’?”
He reddens.
“Yeah, we. We used