Jenna Kernan - Dangerous Conditions

He slowed before the three large maple trees that stood as sentries between the road and Paige’s mother’s home. He pulled into the driveway between his dad’s and her mom’s properties, parked and then headed toward the kitchen door, but paused to breathe the cold air and glance toward his neighbor’s place.

The lights of the Morrises’ upstairs were all on and the porch light was off. Paige was home safe. He knew her bedroom sat on the west side of the house up front nearest the road, her daughter on the east and Mrs. Morris in the back near the stairs. There was a wide, flat roof that stretched over the ground-floor porch from the back of the house to the front, under Lori’s window. On the porch below, the rocking chairs creaked and rocked in the November wind. Paige’s bedroom had no roof beneath either of its two windows. He knew because there was a time when he’d thought about seeing if he could climb that big old maple tree out in front to her window and throw rocks at the glass. He’d decided against it. He wondered what would have happened if he had tried?

Movement caught his eye and he stepped off the road into the driveway. Something big moved down along the side of the house and into the shed that led to the backyard.

Was that Mrs. Morris? The figure had been too large to be Paige.

Propelled by an uncomfortable feeling, Logan walked to the shed, but found no one there or in the backyard. He knew their kitchen door was locked and the light off. The front door was also locked. He circled the entire house twice more and saw no one.

Had he seen anyone in the first place?

Logan stood in the Morrises’ yard, staring at the house. Then he retrieved his phone and dialed Paige. She answered on the first ring.

“You home?” he asked.

“Yes, why?”

“Everything all right?”

“Logan, what’s wrong?”

“Thought I saw someone in your yard. I’m out here but there’s no one now.”

“Just a minute.”

He heard Paige moving, rustling and a squeaking like a kitten looking for its mother. Several minutes later the light in the living room flicked on. He watched Paige, dressed in a lavender polar fleece robe, move from the living to dining room and then through the kitchen. Finally, she returned to the living room and opened the door, the phone disconnecting.

She called to him from the front porch, half in and half out of the screen door. “I just checked on Lori and on Mom. They’re both in their rooms. Everything is fine down here.”

“Call if you need me,” he said.

“Thank you, Logan.” She closed the door and he heard her throw the bolt.

He walked across the yard to his truck and retrieved the plate of food that Mrs. Sullivan had sent home with him, and carried it to his dad’s place. The sweet odor of decaying leaves filled the air, but there was no rustle as the leaves had been pulverized by his dad’s mower since he had left for work this morning.

The only light on in his house was the one in the hall and the bluish glow from the television as his father watched a talent show on cable.

“Hey, son. You’re home late.” His father didn’t know. All this had happened, and his dad had likely been mulching leaves.

Logan offered the plate.

“What’s this?” The way his dad blinked his eyes told Logan that he’d dozed off in his recliner.

Logan told him everything as his father held the plate before him, still covered in plastic wrap.

He sat with his father a while, but, restless, Logan drew the blanket off the back of the couch to go outside and look at the moon.

Who was he kidding? He was going to stare at Paige’s window and watch to see if anything moved on the Morris property.

“Going out to listen to that hoot owl?” asked his dad, referring to the great horned owl that lived up the hillside.

Logan couldn’t tell the difference between an owl and the wind chime on the Morrises’ porch.

“Yeah. Getting some air,” he said and headed out to sit on the porch steps.

The brown bats no longer darted across the sky. They lived up in the barn on the hill. Too cold, he decided, and the insects were all gone. They’d be hibernating now. He missed them flitting and darting overhead. The November air felt bracing as he sat on the porch, facing Paige’s window, which had gone dark.

He wondered why Paige and his brother didn’t make a go of it. He knew they had attended his brother’s senior prom. Paige had been excited to attend. Sophomores were only permitted to the school’s biggest event if they were invited by a senior. He remembered her dress and her mother taking photos of the couple right there on the steps of her home while he sat here watching. She wore a gown of mint green and her hair up with a few tendrils of curls floating about her shoulders. The color of the dress, her red hair up and festooned with fresh flowers and her translucent skin all combined so that, to Logan, she looked like the queen of the fairies.

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