“I…”
“She helped me with the cleanup, and then we had an important conversation,” Mrs. Fennel said. I supposed I should be thinking of her as Aunt Razi, I thought, but I wouldn’t, nor would I call her that until she told me it was okay to do so.
“Oh? That’s good,” Daddy said. I thought he looked tired. His shoulders sagged, and his face was darker. “We’ll talk more tomorrow,” he added, and headed upstairs. I looked quickly at Mrs. Fennel.
“Tend to your own duties now,” she said, and returned to the kitchen.
I rose and went to my room. I heard Marla watching television in hers and started toward it but stopped. I really didn’t feel like talking to her. I certainly didn’t want her to ask me about any conversation I might have had with Mrs. Fennel. Instead, I went to my room and started my homework. I fell asleep once while I was reading and decided just to go to bed. There were so many different thoughts troubling me, but I did doze off.
The sound of a car door slamming woke me. I sat up to listen and, hearing nothing, went to my window. There was a strange car in the driveway. I saw no one near it, however, and went to my bedroom door. What surprised me was the sound of Ava’s voice. She wasn’t pleading so much as complaining. Her voice began to sound more strident. I stepped into the hallway and looked toward the entryway.
The young man Ava was with was obviously stoned. He was trying to get her to go right down on the floor with him. At one point, he simply sat at her feet and pulled on her arm to get her to join him. He was that out of it.
“I’m not climbing no stairway,” he said. “This rug’s about as soft as my bed.”
“Stop it!” she cried.
He laughed, and then he paused as Daddy stepped forward. I hadn’t heard him come down the stairway, either.
“What is this?” Daddy asked.
“Huh?” the man said. “Who’s this?” He blinked his eyes and wiped his face.
“Is he on drugs? You brought me someone stoned?”
“I couldn’t help it, Daddy,” Ava said, sounding years younger. “He took something on the way up here. I didn’t realize it until we were almost here.”
“This is spoiled food,
Ava. I can’t feed on this tonight.”
“What? What the hell’s he talking about?” the young man asked, and struggled to get to his feet.
I never saw the blow. Daddy’s hands could move that quickly. He struck him on the back of his neck, and the man folded to the floor. Then Daddy kneeled down and lifted him in his arms as if he were a child, when he looked to me to be more than six feet tall and easily more than two hundred pounds.
“I’ll have to put him in storage until nearly morning,” Daddy said sharply to Ava.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. We were just drinking earlier. I told him I didn’t want to take anything, and I thought he understood, but…”
Daddy didn’t wait for any further explanation. He turned and carried the young man toward the stairway. Ava stood there with her head down. She looked up when Daddy was nearly to the top, and then she started toward me.
“What happened?” I asked.
She glared at me for a moment. “You saw it. Why ask?”
“I don’t…”
“Let me tell you something,” she said, looking as if she might actually cry. “If you thought you were moving too quickly and magically before, it will be nothing compared to how he’ll move you along now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not little Miss Perfect anymore. You are, or you’d better be. The writing’s on the wall, Lorelei, and it’s in blood,” she told me, and walked on to her room.
8
Daddy Knows Best
The young man’s car was gone in the morning. I didn’t have to ask Mrs. Fennel why Daddy was still asleep, either. Even Marla looked tired that morning. I wondered if she had overheard anything or seen anything the night before, but as it turned out, she had simply stayed up too late watching television. Actually, I hadn’t slept that well myself.