Бри Деспейн - The Dark Divine

Mom stiffened, no doubt realizing I had been there through that whole exchange. "Finish those pies," she snapped. "And then run over to Apple Valley and get some cranberries. The berries. Not that canned garbage."

Mom slammed the fridge door. Her shoulders dropped. "I'm sorry. I forgot," she said. "They were out at Day's Market yesterday and I forgot to check elsewhere. I think

Super Target opens at seven for a few hours." She opened the fridge again. "Would you mind running to get a couple of things?"

"Not at all." Normally, I would have grumbled and whined on principle at being asked to run errands on such a frigid morning, but that was one heated kitchen I was anxious to get out of.

LATER THAT MORNING

I drifted without direction up and down the grocery aisles, unable to remember what I'd come to the store to get in the first place. I'd left the house as soon as I stuck my pies in the ovens--and, in my haste, left the dozen-item shopping list Mom had dictated to me on the counter.

That was the second time in a week that I'd heard my parents shout at each other. Had things been strained at my house for longer than I realized? I thought of Dad holed up in his study for the last month. And Mom flipping into perfection overdrive wasn't a new thing. The first time I'd noticed it was a few days after Charity and I had come home from our unplanned trip to Grandma Kramer's three years ago. I'd found Mom frantically trying to brush, measure, and cut all the fringe on the area rugs to be the exact same length. Dad hid the scissors for weeks after that. I guess I'd been too young to fully clue in to the weird-ness between them then. And, of course, no one ever talked about it.

Was this how it started for April's family? Was this anything like it had been for Daniel in his broken home?

But I knew it had been worse for him. My parents' shouting was nothing like what Daniel had lived through.

I dropped a bag of cranberries into my basket and pushed all thoughts of Daniel aside. I foraged through the picked-over shelves for whatever else I could remember from the list, paid for my stuff, and headed back home.

When I opened the door into the mudroom, T was slammed by a wall of stench. Something was burning. I dropped my grocery bags and ran to the kitchen. All but one of my pies was cooling on the counter. I yanked open the oven door. Black smoke billowed out, making me cough and gag. I pushed open the window above the sink and tried to direct the smoke outside. But it was too late. The smoke detector started screaming from the hallway.

I covered my ears and ran for Dad's study. The detector was right in front of the closed doors. I flung the doors open and was surprised that Dad wasn't in there--and even more surprised that no one else in the family had responded to the screeching alarm.

I struggled to open the study window, almost snagging my hand on a protruding nail in the sill. Stupid old house. I finally pried the window open and grabbed a book from the stacks on my father's desk. I used it to fan the smoke away from the detector until the blaring stopped.

My ears were still ringing as I took the book back to the tower of babble that used to be Dad's desk--books and notes were scattered everywhere in heaps. The book I held was cased in crackling leather and looked older than anything I had ever checked out of the local Rose Crest library branch. A delicate hooded flower was etched in silver on the cover. The title was also engraved in worn silver: Loup-Garou.

I'd never heard such a word. I flipped the book open. It was all in what I assumed was French. I checked the next book in the stack where I'd gotten the first. This one didn't look quite as old, but it was just as battered. Lycanthropy: Blessing or Curse? I was about to open it when I saw a long, slender velvet box sitting in the stacks of papers. It looked like one of those necklace boxes from a high-end jewelry store. I put down the book and popped open the lid of the box. It held Don's silver knife. The one I'd locked in Dad's office over at the parish. Why would Dad bring it here? And why would he leave it out like this with a toddler in the house?

The front door rattled open.

"What on earth?" Mom's voice echoed down the hall.

I stuck the knife box on the highest shelf of the bookcase and went out to meet her.

Mom had James on her hip and a Day's Market bag in her hand. "Great. I forgot one of the pies, didn't I?"

I nodded. Though I felt like it was my fault for taking so long at the store.

"Just great!" she said. "I remembered a few more groceries just after you left, so I ran over to Day's... And now the house stinks. Just what I need."

1 contemplated reopening my petition for a cell phone but thought better of it as James started to fuss when Mom tried to put him down. He wrapped his legs around her knee and clung to her shirt. I offered to take him from her.

Mom peeled him from her legs and handed him over.

"It'll air out," I said, and tried to bounce James on my hip.

Why did it seem like I was the one holding everyone together lately?

James dropped his blanket in a desperate attempt to jump from my arms to Mom's. "Banket!" he shrieked, and burst into tears, kicking his Curious George slippers against my legs.

I picked it up and wadded it into a puppet. "Mwah, mwah," I said, and pretended to kiss his face. His whines turned to laughter, and he hugged his blanket in his skinny little arms.

"I'll open a few more windows," I said to Mom, "and then find Charity so she can entertain Baby James while I help you cook."

"Thanks." Mom rubbed her temples. "Charity should be back soon. She went over to the Johnsons' to feed their birds. Tell her to make James some lunch in a couple of hours. Dinner is at three, so I want him to go down for a nap by two. Oh, but we'll have to put him down in his Portacrib in the study. Aunt Carol will be staying in his room."

Great. Just who my dad needed today--Aunt Carol.

DINNER

My mother's family is half Roman Catholic, half Jewish--kind of ironic for the wife of a protestant pastor. And even though she was raised Catholic, her family still celebrated Passover and Hanukkah. I think that is where they got this interesting tradition of always setting an extra place at the table for special occasions. According to Aunt Carol, it was supposed to be an expression of hope and faith in the Messiah who would someday come. While I thought it was kind of cool, it usually bugged

Dad because, of course, he believed that the Messiah had already come, in the form of Jesus Christ, and that such a tradition was an affront to his devotion for Him.

Mom, trying to appease both him and her sister, would tell him to think of it as an extra place for an unexpected visitor. However, today Dad seemed to find my mother's family's tradition especially irksome as he scanned the ragtag group of lonely hearts, young families, widows, widowers, and single moms who congregated around our holiday table, and noticed that there was not only one empty seat but two. One was at his end of the table.

The other, across the table from me, was set with a special golden goblet and golden utensils.

Dad glared at the goblet and mumbled something under his breath. Then an almost-genial smile spread across his face. "Shall we get started?" he asked the crowd.

Eager faces nodded, and April actually licked her lips--but she was staring at Jude when she did it, so it may have had nothing to do with the food.

"Who's missing?" Pete Bradshaw gestured to the two empty seats. He and his mother sat to one side of me. I'd felt bad when Pete told me his dad had cancelled their annual Thanksgiving cruise because he had an emergency meeting in Toledo, but I was glad Pete was there to close the distance between my mom and dad-- who threw each other pointed looks when Pete asked this question.