Ed Gorman - Nightmare Child

Knowing she would soon have to go back among the fetid, rank smells of the McCay house, Diane said, "I just want to get Jenny and get out of there."

"I've even arranged that with the judge. We can take Jenny and you can keep her overnight until the caseworkers move in. Have you ever worked with caseworkers before?"

"No."

"Boy, do you have an experience ahead of you."

Thinking of Jenny's tiny voice on the other end of the phone, Diane said, "Oh, hurry, Robert. Let's go get her as soon as possible."

"Ten minutes. Fifteen at most."

"I'm getting scared."

He laughed. "Just bite your nails some more. That should keep you calm."

And with that, he hung up.

In the doorway, a red woolen scarf wrapped around his neck, Robert looked as if he were about to go caroling.

"Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee before we go over?"

"Still scared, huh?"

"Not so much scared as…I just feel awkward, I guess. I've known them for a few years and-"

"I know what you're talking about." He nodded to the cozy house inside. "You can always stay here and I can handle it alone. I'm sure it won't be a big deal."

"Well…" She thought about his invitation for a moment. "No. Jenny's well-being is at stake. That's what I've got to keep remembering."

"So you're going to go?"

"Yes. Just give me a minute."

He stepped inside, closing the door against the freezing night, while she took her coat, hat, gloves and snow boots from the closet. Within a minute, she was well bundled against tie cold.

"Ready?" he said.

"Ready."

They went out the door, locking it behind them, Diane dropping the key in her coat pocket. A golden half-moon perched on the tops of the scrub pines on the crest of the hill behind Stoneridge, and clouds the color of sterling silver raced across the black sky.

As they tramped through the heavy snow, Diane took Robert's hand. "Do you mind?"

"I'm flattered."

She laughed. "That was exactly the right thing to say."

They went the rest of the way in silence, their footsteps crunching frozen snow, a nearby dog sounding cold and lonely in the night.

Lights shined beyond the curtains in the downstairs of the McCay's house. Smoke twisted gray from the chimney up into the night sky. Soundtrack laughter from a television sitcom became louder, the closer they got.

Diane took in a very deep breath and held it. "You all right?"

"Breathing exercises," she explained. "They're supposed to calm me down."

At the door, he knocked with a big gloved hand. They stood back, waiting. Diane continued her breathing exercises.

There was no response.

"Hmm," Robert said, inclining his head toward the door. The TV sitcom played on. Behind the curtains, the lights continued to shine.

Robert knocked again, louder this time, the report of it sharp on the silent winter air.

After a minute, he knocked once more. This time the force of his fist was thunderous.

When there was still no response, he tried the knob. Locked.

"Is there a back door?"

"Yes," Diane said. "Do you think she's all right?"

"I hope so. Why don't you show me the back entrance?"

As they walked around the side of the huge house, she told him about the phone call from Jenny. "But the connection was so bad I couldn't tell if she was all right or not."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough."

The screened-in porch in the rear was draped in moonlight and shadow. Dust devils of snow sprayed against the screening. He went up the steps and tried the door. That, too, was locked.

Before Diane realized what he was doing, he pulled his service revolver. "Why don't you wait here?"

"Where are you going?"

"Inside. Through this door."

But he had barely finished speaking when the dark night was flooded with warm yellow light from the ceiling of the porch.

In the back door stood Jeff McCay, dressed in a robe, pajamas, and holding a cup of what Diane sensed would be hot chocolate.

"Hi, Diane. Is everything all right?" Jeff called in a pleasant voice. "We were all upstairs in bed. We kept thinking we heard somebody knock, but we couldn't be sure."

By now, he had come across the porch and unlocked the door for them. "Why don't you come in? Doesn't take long to get frozen on a night like this." For the first time, he looked curious about Robert-who he was and what he was doing there.

Glancing over his shoulder and shrugging, Robert gave Diane a w hat-is-going-on-here? look. His service revolver had disappeared back into his shoulder holster.

In the center of the kitchen stood Mindy and Jenny, both turned out in pajamas, robes, fuzzy slippers, and holding steaming mugs of hot chocolate with plump white marshmallows bobbing in them.

"Hi, Diane," Mindy said. "You out for a walk?"

Not knowing what to say, Diane leaned down and looked at Jenny. "And how are you doing, honey?"

"Fine, Aunt Diane," Jenny said, shaking her pigtails as she raised her glass for Diane to inspect. "I love marshmallows, don't you?"

Diane's first impression was that she'd wandered onto the set of Saturday Night Live, which was in the process of doing a scathing satire on bland suburbanites. At best, the McCay's had always been cordial, but never more than that-certainly never this beaming, nearly ecstatic trio.

"We were just upstairs reading, sipping our hot chocolate and reading Jenny some American history," Jeff said.

Mindy patted Jenny on the shoulder. "She'd rather study American history and what made this country great than read anything else, wouldn't you, Jenny?"

"Oh, yes," Jenny said. "I love American history." She gave an impish little smile. "That, and helping Mindy with her work."

"You have a job now, Mindy?" Diane said.

Mindy shook her head dismissively. "Oh, it's not really a job. It's just…helping the elderly and the poor at the Coleman Center three days a week."

Jeff slid his arm around his wife. "Isn't she something? Helping the elderly and the poor and still finding time to make the best hot chocolate in the Midwest."

The three of them laughed with great satisfaction over what wonderful people they were.

Diane was torn between wanting to throw up-she hadn't heard such overly-sweet dialogue since "Father Knows Best"-and wondering just what was going on there.

A glance at Robert told her he was wondering the same thing, his eyes studying the kitchen curiously, and then looking beyond into the dining room. Obviously he was trying to reconcile the maid-perfect condition of this house with the description of mess, blood, and feces Diane had given him. It was as if a new house had been erected on the site of the old one.

"But why are we standing here? Why don't you come in the living room and Mindy will make you some hot chocolate?" Jeff said.

Before either of them could protest, Diane and Robert were escorted into the living room, which had looked, that afternoon, as if terrorists had worked it over. Now, it was fastidious, beautiful, and inviting, with not so much as a single magazine out of place.

Meeting Robert's increasingly puzzled look, Diane sat down on the edge of a divan.

"With or without?" Jeff said.

"With or without?" Diane asked.

"With or without marshmallows?" Jeff laughed. "Kind of a family joke."

"Oh-with, I guess," Diane said.

Robert nodded. "With for me, too."

"Great. Now you two just relax and have yourselves a nice little visit with Jenny."

After Jeff left, Jenny went over and seated herself primly in a wing chair. Her feet did not touch the floor. She took a drink of her hot chocolate and yawned.

"How are you feeling, Jenny?" Diane asked.

"Oh. Fine. I like when it's cold outside. I feel nice and snug inside." She gave Diane a most serious look. "Plus Jeff rented Cinderella tonight and it was great."