David Gates - A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me

“I understand that it’s a difficult situation,” I said.

“You didn’t tell him?” the girl said.

“Seth’s mom filled me in a little,” I said. “If there’s anything we can do to help—”

“So I guess you’re not going to let me stay here.”

“We can’t,” I said. “I’m sorry. We don’t have any right to just—”

“ That’s brilliant,” Seth said. “You don’t know how fucked up this is. Mom’s just going to send her home. That’s everybody’s big answer.”

The girl put her hands over her ears, elbows to her chest. “You’re fighting .”

“I’m not letting this happen,” Seth said.

“It’s okay,” she told him. “I can try my aunt again.”

“Look, I have to run a quick errand,” I said. Of course I’d forgotten about putting that check in the mail. “You guys get together whatever you need and we’ll talk when your mother gets here.”

“And everybody goes away happy,” Seth said.

“I could do with a hair less sarcasm,” I said. “May I have my keys?”

“I put them back in the kitchen,” he said. “I wasn’t being sarcastic. I was trying to tell you something.”

—

And I suppose he was. Though I didn’t realize it until I’d gotten back, searched the house, finally thought to look in the garage and—shower music—there was the tarp lying on the concrete.

I came to the door when the Saab pulled in. “They’re gone,” I said. “I had to go out for a minute and apparently they took Wayne’s car.”

“Are you serious? You left them alone ?”

“Well, naturally if I’d had any idea—”

“You know what he’s like. He’s probably taking her to Mexico or something.”

“I would doubt he has a plan,” I said. “It was obviously a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

“Did you try his cell?”

“I left him a message to get the hell back here.”

“I’m sure that was a help.” She reached into her purse, poked at her phone, then said, “Sweetie, it’s me. Call the minute you get this, okay?” She turned to me. “Can they track you if your phone’s off?”

“You’re not thinking of getting the cops involved?”

“He stole your uncle’s car . Can he even drive that thing? And he’s got that stupid little bitch with him.”

“Come on in and let’s think this through a minute,” I said. I led her into the kitchen and on to the living room. “Here, why don’t you sit down. Can I get you anything?”

She examined the seat of Wayne’s recliner, brushed at it and sat. “So this is where you live.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “What a dump.”

She tapped a fingernail on one of the metal shades of the pole lamp. “You don’t see these every day.”

“ I do. Seltzer?”

“This can’t be happening,” she said. “You don’t think they would’ve gone to my place?”

I shook my head. “He’s afraid you’ll turn the girl over to her mother.”

“Oh God, the mother . Well, this is the end of that little romance. He can hate me forever.”

“I don’t disagree,” I said. “I do feel bad for the girl.”

“She’s going to eat his life.” She took her phone out again. “Okay, now that we’ve done our thinking.”

“I’ll make the call,” I said. “Let’s just give it another fifteen minutes.”

“And do what? Talk about old times?” She raked her hair away from her cheek and behind her ear—I noticed some strands of white—and then touched her pinkie to her cheekbone, as if to make sure it was still Hepburnesque. Such a creaturely gesture.

“It’s an idea,” I said. “Look, this probably isn’t the moment, but I’m well aware that I fucked up.”

“Did you,” she said. “Sort of an inadvertency?”

“Fine, okay, I said my little piece. But can we wait this out together?”

“I guess I’m here,” she said. “Did you say you had seltzer?”

I got up. “Put something in it if you want.”

“Not just now,” she said. “Do you have lime? I don’t know, maybe this will all just…do you think?”

“At this point,” I said, “I’d make a promise to God.”

She said, “Do it.”

And here’s the thing: I was out in the kitchen slicing the lime and formulating my prayer —Dear God seemed childish, O God operatic—when my cellphone rang.

I ran back to the living room and angled it between our ears. “Look, I’m not going to say where I am, okay?” Seth’s tinny voice. “But I didn’t want you to get all worried.”

“What do you think you’re doing ?” I said. “Your mother’s here.”

“We didn’t go real far, okay? Kendra’s aunt’s coming to get her so I need to wait with her.”

“Where’s her aunt?”

“New Jersey? She’s like on her way.”

“Well look, if that’s the case, why don’t we pick you up and you can wait here?”

“Because I don’t trust you guys?”

“Let me talk to him.” Sarah took the phone. “Seth, listen to me, please? If you’ll tell us where you are, I promise you—yes, okay, but you’re not going to drive anywhere else, right? We’ll just come pick you up and—” She shook her head and closed the phone. “Well,” she said, “they’re somewhere . I don’t know, probably some mall? At least they’re off the road. Supposedly. He said he’d call back. They could definitely trace his phone.”

“Do you want to do that?”

“Not really.” She flumped down on one end of the couch. “So I guess your prayers got answered. I hope you didn’t promise your firstborn.”

I sat down at the other end. “Do we know anything about this aunt?”

“Another of life’s winners, I’m sure. How long does it take to get here from New Jersey?”

“I don’t know. Holiday weekend? Look, I say we trust him.”

“He’s a kid , for God’s sake.”

“He thinks he’s doing the right thing,” I said. “You want him never to trust us ?”

“Oh God,” she said. “I don’t know. You’d better be right.”

“Yeah, when have you ever known me to show poor judgment?” I said. “I made a funny.”

“I think I will have something.” She bent to untie her track shoes. She was wearing that same shirt and I saw between her breasts. The weight she’d gained had made them fuller. “Since you brought it up,” she said, “what were you thinking? When you decided to fuck her.”

“How sorry I’d be.”

“Then you did get some pleasure out of it. You see how well I know you?” She drew her feet up under her to sit sidesaddle.

“Gin and tonic? We do have lime.”

“And gin,” she said. “Why am I not surprised.”

I brought the drinks in and sat closer to her on the couch. “No touching,” she said. “I can’t believe I’m drinking with you in the middle of the day.” She drained half her glass in the first swallow.

“Look at you ,” I said.

“Maybe you had the right idea all along,” she said. “Just fuck everything.”

“We should probably go slow,” I said. “This could be a long day.”

“That’s exactly why,” she said. She drank the rest and rattled the ice. “One more. Is it irresponsible?”

“I doubt anybody would judge us,” I said. “Considering.”

“Oh no, we’ve been model parents,” she said. “And I teach at Yale—actually, you teach at Yale. It’s the get-out-of-Yale-for-free card. See, I can make a funny too.”

I poured us each another gin and tonic and sat next to her again. She offered her glass to clink. “Old times?” she said. “Better days?”