Perri O'Shaughnessy - Presumption Of Death

“I want to know what you’ve been up to,” she said. “You better start talking.” She stood right in front of him, arms folded, face white, wearing her gardening jeans and one of her old flowered cotton pregnancy tops that gave her lots of room to grow.

“What’s the matter?” Darryl said. He set down his beer. “What happened?”

“You ask what’s the matter. Britta’s in the hospital, Danny’s dead, the hills are alive with the sound of crackling, the Cat Lady was murdered-murdered, Darryl. You don’t love me anymore. And you ask me what’s the matter? I’m going to pack up the kids and get out of here. I’m not staying here. We’re going.” Her voice sounded strange. He’d never heard her so angry. He stood up and tried to put his arms around her to calm her down, but she shook him off.

“You better listen this time,” she said. “I’ve had it.”

“But what did I do?”

“I don’t know what you did yet. I’m going to go check our bank records and find out some of what you did, but even before I do that, I’m going to tell you, Darryl, you better make up your mind if we’re going to stay married. I’m not putting up with it any longer. With you chasing after Elizabeth, jealous about her.” She burst into tears.

“Oh, sweetie, don’t get so upset.” Darryl felt helpless. “Where are the kids?”

“Debbie’s watching them so I can talk to you,” she choked out, and Darryl had that terrible sinking feeling that this was it, he was going to have to really talk to Tory. He wasn’t ready.

“We’re leaving you, Darryl,” Tory sobbed. It felt like getting hit with a ninety-mile-an-hour fastball. Darryl sat down. He couldn’t breathe. “I’m packing up. All because of you being so stupid. You don’t care about anything but your big stupid self. You just sit home and wait for your girlfriend to come to you. I doubt she ever will, but that’s the way you’ve decided to live.”

“But-but Pastor Sobczek-tomorrow-”

“Too late. Too late.” She was crying like her heart was broken, and all of a sudden Darryl realized it really was. This was serious. She was thinking the unthinkable.

He cleared his throat. “Sweetie, can we sit down? Please? Let’s sit down.” She let him take her hand and they sat down on the couch. He took her chin and tried to get her to look at him, but she wouldn’t. Now he was really alarmed.

“Well, you love her, right?” Tory cried.

“I-I-”

“Putting me through hell. For what? She doesn’t love you! Me and the kids, that’s who used to love you! Well, it’s over. You keep your secrets, all of them. I don’t even care what you’ve been doing.”

“What brought all this on?” Darryl asked, his alarm making it hard for him to hear, making his ears ring.

“Debbie says the kids are in danger from the man who hurt Britta. I’m not staying here, Darryl. And I found out you went to see her.”

“How?”

“Who cares how? You think I’m stupid old Tory, I’ll put up with anything! I’m leav-”

“Tory,” Darryl said as calmly as he could, “listen to me for just a second. You’re very upset and I-I understand. But you can’t just take off.”

“Watch me!”

“We have five kids!” The thought that he might lose his kids was new and so frightening he could barely say that.

“Four. I’m not keeping this one, Darryl.” Stunned, Darryl let go of her. His mouth fell open. She too seemed stunned by what she had said. Then an expression of the most awful sadness and hostility all mixed up came over her face.

“I’m going to have an abortion. I am.”

Darryl’s eyes filled up. He couldn’t say a word.

“I don’t want to, but what am I going to do with five kids? Society doesn’t support motherhood, not really.”

“No. Please, no, Tory. Please listen.”

“To your lies? You and your secrets. All you men. Something awful is going on around here.” She spun around and ran into the bedroom. Darryl stood there a second, panic knotting his gut, then he followed her in. She had pulled open the dresser drawers and was setting clothes on the bed.

“Tory-Tory-”

“Go away, Darryl.” She was crying again.

“We’ll go see the pastor tomorrow.”

“No.”

“I’ll do anything. I love you. I do. I’ll prove it. Please don’t leave.” He grabbed her and she tried to struggle free, but he wouldn’t let her. They fell onto the bed and thrashed around and she got one arm free and hit him in the face, hard. She fought so hard he had to let her go so he wouldn’t accidentally hurt her. She was yelling and screaming the whole time.

She rolled away and got up on one elbow, trying to catch her breath. Darryl felt something wet on his face and wiped under his nose and saw his hand covered with blood.

“I think you broke my nose,” he mumbled. She jumped up and came back in with a bunch of tissue and said, “Stuff it under there.” Then she went back into the bathroom and a minute later came back with some wet washcloths. He sat on the edge of the bed and she wiped the blood from his lip and mouth carefully. She had stopped crying, but her eyelashes were wet and her face was all flushed and he felt the most tender and sad feeling come over him. He had made her cry.

“Just a nosebleed,” she told him.

“You have a hard right.”

“You deserve that and more.”

“You’re right. I’m stupid. I don’t believe how stupid I am. But please don’t leave me. Please. Let’s go see the pastor tomorrow. Then if you have to go, all right. Tory, I can’t make it without you and the kids.”

“I don’t know,” Tory said. “I’m very mixed up. And afraid for the kids. And you’re no help at all. No support at all. Worst of all is that you don’t love me.”

“But I do. I do. I just forgot it for a while.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Darryl got down on his knees and buried his head in her lap. He broke down like a little kid.

And after a minute he felt her hands stroking his hair. It was like crashing a car and then, finding, thank God, you’re still alive.

T HE BOYZ GAVE NOTICE THE NEXT day.

“We’re leaving tomorrow, but we’ll pay the rent until the end of the month,” Dustin said on the phone. Nina, on the floor in Paul’s bedroom, files and books and papers spread around her in a semicircle, tried to wrap her mind around this new domestic disturbance.

“You sure will,” she answered. “Care to give me a reason?”

“This whole thing with Wish.”

“I don’t see how-”

“Wish’s mother. Mrs. Whitefeather. She’s here right now. Know what she’s doing?”

“What?”

“She’s scrubbing the bathroom. She’s putting my razor in the cabinet above the toilet where I’ll never find it.” Dustin must be on a cordless phone because he seemed to be watching Sandy’s movements. His voice, hushed, went on, “She’s sniffing the towels.”

“Put her on, would you?”

“It won’t change our minds. We’re leaving. Sorry, Nina.”

“So that’s it? There’s nothing I can do? Even make Sandy go stay somewhere else?”

“Something else will happen. Tus and I need quiet to study. If Wish gets out he’ll come back here and-no offense, but who knows what’ll happen next? We need quiet. Quiet, man.” Nina heard the sound of the toilet flushing. “There goes the roach that lived in the medicine cabinet,” Dustin said. “He was kind of a pet.”

Nina said, “Okay, Dustin. But I’ll still need you in court next week.”

“We’re still on. I owe Wish that.” Sandy came on the line.

Apparently Dustin hadn’t told her the news yet. When Nina told her she was about to become the sole tenant of the cottage, Sandy said, “I wasn’t going to say anything. But there were things in the freezer that would make your hair stand on end. So what now?”