Richard Cox - House of the Rising Sun

The experience with Dan had opened her eyes to a different kind of man, one who might not be handsome on the outside, or even confident, but who would direct his energy toward loving her deeply. It was this niche Seth had leveraged to win her heart, and for many years she had enjoyed stability that reminded her of her father. When the twins were born, and Seth found a way to let her stay home full-time, Natalie realized she was finally living the life she’d always dreamed of as a little girl.

But that long run of peace was over. By the time Natalie summoned the nerve to snoop through Seth’s phone, she realized it had been over for some time, and once again a man she trusted had played her for the fool.

She wasn’t proud of her actions with the phone, but at least she finally had proof of his infidelity. Because surely if “JJ” were one of his male friends there would have been other natural details of the relationship, like text messages or posts on Facebook, or maybe Seth could have said something to her about it. Instead, he had never breathed a word about anyone named JJ, even though this person (this woman) had been calling him repeatedly for days.

All this was made more annoying by how jealous Seth had recently become about Colin Scott, her manager at the nonprofit. He was convinced Natalie was attracted to Colin, that rather than perform any actual volunteer work she spent all day flirting with him. And while Seth’s suspicions were mostly unfounded (her tiny crush on Colin lasted all of two seconds and was completely harmless), the fund-raising golf tournament complicated her defense.

Colin, after all, was in charge of tournament staffing, and the role he’d given her each year was to pass out free drinks to generous donors of the Deckard Foundation. What the job actually entailed was permitting loudmouthed, poorly dressed idiots to flirt with her and gawk at her boobs.

Natalie had never relished her role as “cart girl” and had always made herself look as plain as possible. Last year she’d worn a baggy white T-shirt and khaki shorts and giant black sunglasses that covered most of her face. But this morning she was dressed in a sleeveless pink top and cute plaid skirt and had put on extra mascara. She was tired of feeling unloved and unwanted at home, and if her sexy golf outfit attracted a few extra glances and better tips than normal, wasn’t that something she deserved? A little attention?

She had expected Seth, before he left for work, to notice her outfit and maybe accuse her of dressing up for Colin. In fact she’d been hoping for a confrontation that might lead to some truth about JJ. Instead Seth had barely glanced at her, which wasn’t a surprise. When her husband was in town, he was either ecstatically happy or dark and sullen and she could never find the courage to mount an offensive against these extremes. Increasingly, though, he’d been traveling for work, and on those days he barely spoke to her at all… probably because he was with JJ doing kinky things in a faraway hotel room.

Natalie was on her way to the eleventh hole when her cell phone buzzed. She reached into her purse and glanced at the display and was surprised to see Thomas had called her. She’d given him her number on the last day of the reunion, before she drove home, but in the intervening weeks he’d never bothered to use it. Why would he? She was married, and he was a single, wealthy screenwriter surely interested in younger, hotter women than her.

“Natalie. You need to—”

The message was interrupted then, like it went to dead air, and when Natalie looked down at the screen she saw the phone had turned itself off. When she tried to switch it back on, nothing happened. This made no sense because she’d charged the battery all night specifically so it wouldn’t run out during the tournament.

Eventually Natalie reached the eleventh tee and set her phone aside. She was already stepping out of the cart and ready to reach for the beer cooler when she noticed none of the golfers were looking her way. Instead they were all standing near the cart path, facing the same direction, looking at something above the trees. Natalie followed their gaze and saw a star in the morning sky, very bright, sitting below the sun. She’d never seen anything like it and immediately began to worry.

“What is that?” she asked.

An older man turned to face her. He was wearing a red Oklahoma University ball cap and an ancient white golf shirt that was too large for him. He smiled a creepy smile and involuntarily glanced at her boobs.

“I dunno. Maybe a spaceship.”

“It ain’t a spaceship,” said another of the men, who didn’t turn around.

“I just saw it,” Natalie said. “How long has it been up there?”

“Not long. Twenty or thirty seconds. We were just getting ready to tee off when Blake thought he saw a blue flash in the sky. We figured he was full of shit until we seen that light up there. I’d say it’s getting brighter by the minute. Like it’s getting closer.”

“I can’t get my phone to work,” she said loudly, hoping one of the others would notice her. “I wonder if that thing messed up the satellites or whatever?”

Finally, another guy pulled a cell phone out of his back pocket and looked at her. He was tall and bookish and wore glasses with thick brown frames.

“Cell phones don’t talk to satellites,” he said. “They talk to towers. Either way, mine doesn’t seem to be working, either.”

“Is that bad?”

“I don’t know how it would be good. What cell phone company are you with?”

“AT&T.”

“I’m on Verizon. So it’s not just one. Definitely not good.”

Natalie’s vague sense of worry was becoming more like dread. Her two sons were in drop-in daycare this morning because school was out. It figured that something terrible would happen on the one day she wasn’t home and her boys were in an unfamiliar place.

“You think I should drive to the clubhouse and see what’s going on?” she asked. “Maybe it’s on the news? I’d like to make sure everything is okay.”

“It’s definitely not a spaceship,” said another golfer in his 40s, who looked bored with the whole thing. “No need to panic.”

The younger guy in the glasses was a little more sympathetic.

“Drive up there if you need to,” he said. “It’s only two holes away and then you won’t have to worry.”

“Thanks. I’ll be back soon if it’s no big deal.”

“Sounds great. I’m Blake, by the way.”

“I’m Natalie.”

She climbed back into the cart and was about to leave when the old man walked up to her, smiling again.

“Can we get some beers before you go? If we’re gonna be invaded I want a nice buzz while it goes down.”

A minute or so later she had finally turned around and was puttering toward the clubhouse. She couldn’t imagine a slower vehicle in the world than this drink cart. The clubhouse sat atop a small hill, and as Natalie approached she could see a crowd had gathered outside. Several golf carts were parked there, and ten or twelve people were standing in a rough circle talking. Most of them were looking in the direction of the light in the sky.

In the crowd Natalie found Colin, who smiled when he saw her.

“Can you believe this?” he said in a casual voice, as if cell phone-killing spacecraft appeared on the regular.

“Does anyone know what happened?”

“I don’t think so. But everybody is pretty freaked out.”

“Does your phone work?” Natalie asked him. “Mine doesn’t and I’m worried about my sons.”

“Nothing works.”

“What do you mean nothing?”

“I was inside on the computer when the power went out. I thought maybe it was a tripped breaker, but then Jeff came running to tell me about that.”