Chapter 5
“I developed a taste for it when I was in India two years ago,” David said, halfway through a story when Callie returned to the dining room. “And now that I’m back in Ferndale, I can’t find authentic Vindaloo anywhere! No place around here makes it spicy enough.”
Callie groaned and started clearing the plates from the table. “Oh, god, David, please don’t tell me you’re boring our guest with your complaints about how bland the food is in Ferndale.” She gave Sasha a look. “This is an ongoing diatribe in our house. I’m sorry he’s subjecting you to it.”
Sasha chuckled and continued bouncing Dot on her lap. “That’s okay. I actually started talking about how much I love spicy food.”
“See!” David said defensively. “I wasn’t doing anything except bonding with Sasha over the greatness of spicy Indian food!”
“And he’s right about there not being any good options in Ferndale,” Sasha said. “If I won the lottery, the first thing I’d do is find the best Indian chef in the country and have them to cook for me every day. Or give them the money to open a restaurant here.”
David snapped his fingers. “I like that second idea. That way I can enjoy the food too. Is that selfish?”
“Nope. We need to bring better food to this place for everyone’s sake.” Sasha chuckled.
“Agreed,” David said before turning his attention to Callie who reached for his glass. “Don’t do that.” He shooed her hand away. “I’ll clear the table and do the dishes.”
“That’s okay. I—”
“I insist,” he said. “You cooked, I clean.”
“I can help too,” Sasha chimed in.
“Now that’s where I draw the line,” Callie said. “You’re a guest here and it’s your first night. You will not be lifting a finger, young lady.” She sighed and put the plates in a stack at the end of the table. “But if David insists on doing the dishes, I’m not going to stop him.”
David laughed and got up to finish the job Callie had started. “We’ll continue this conversation about dream restaurants later.”
Sasha smirked. “Looking forward to it.”
As David took the plates into the kitchen, Callie suggested that she and Sasha sit in the living room to digest a bit. Once they were comfortable, Callie watched the baby suck on the ear of a little plush bunny and sighed with content.
“So, Sasha,” she started eventually, “you seem to know a lot about the Ferndale food scene—or lack thereof. Does that mean you grew up around here?”
“Not far.”
“One of the other little towns in the area then?”
Sasha nodded but didn’t meet Callie’s gaze. “Yeah, a few of them, actually. We moved around a lot when I was younger.”
“Ah, I see. Army brat?”
Sasha furrowed her brow. “What?”
“Oh—sorry. That’s maybe an outdated term. I swear, I’m not calling you a brat. I was just wondering if one of your parents was in the military? There aren’t a lot of bases in the area, but I thought that might’ve been why you guys moved a lot.”
“Oh. No. We just… moved.” She shrugged. “I don’t know why really.”
Callie didn’t push her on this, feeling the tension in the air. Sasha took the toy from her baby girl once it was dripping with drool and wiped Dot’s mouth with her spit up bib. “So, this is what you guys do on the weekends,” she said. “What happens during the work week? Are you both gone all day?”
Callie shook her head. “No, just David. He goes into the office most days, although he’s usually home before five now that they’re really just keeping him on to train his successor.
I teach a class on Tuesday nights, which is the only day I have to actually be on campus, but during the week I usually grade papers and take video calls with my students who want to meet up. ”
“Do you have an office?”
“No, I prefer to work on the porch.” She motioned with her head to the beautiful wrap around deck that could be seen through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Their house was right against a preserve, and they were on a sort of bluff, meaning their deck looked out over a forest. Though the trees were still taller than the house, the back deck was about 100 feet off the ground, providing a breathtaking view.
They were so high that Callie could see birds building their nests and tree frogs climbing to escape the predators that lurked on the forest floor.
She loved nothing more than to sit outside on that deck.
Since the day they’d moved in, it had been her happy place.
“I can see why,” Sasha said. “I’d probably spend a lot of time out there too.”
“I hope you do spend time out here while you’re staying with us!
” Callie said with a bright smile. “David and the kids never appreciated this house as much as I thought they should’ve.
But then again, that meant more space for me, right?
Oh, but I’d love it if you and Dot came outside with me in the mornings.
That’s when it’s the best. Everything is so quiet—except the birds—and you can really convince yourself that you’re someplace exotic. ”
“That sounds so nice,” Sasha said, her voice cracking a bit. Callie glanced at her with a concerned look, noting her sullen expression. “You and David are lucky. Your kids are even more lucky. I can’t imagine how nice it would’ve been growing up in a place like this...”
Callie took a deep breath, trying to understand what had caused this sudden shift in Sasha’s mood. Was she expressing jealousy? Or sadness? What had her own childhood been like?
But before Callie could ask any of these questions, the young woman stood up and took the baby with her. “I—uh—I’m gonna see if Dot’s ready to sleep for the night. This is usually when she gets tired.”
“Oh, alright. Do you want any help?”
“No, it’s better if I just do it. We kinda have a whole routine.”
Callie smiled and nodded. “Understood. I know how important routine is when they’re young like that.”
“It’s the only way she’ll sleep.”
“Well, there’s a TV in your room if you want to wind down for the night alone, but feel free to join me in the family room later on, if you’d like. I’ll be catching up on some episodes I missed of this dumb medical drama I’m addicted to.”
“I’ll probably just go to bed,” Sasha said. “I’m really tired.”
“Sure. Of course. Sleep well.”
“Yeah, you too.” Sasha turned on her heels and marched out of the room without another word. Dot was staring over her mother’s shoulder at Callie, but the baby also made no noise.
*
“Callie, wake up. It’s Taylor.”
“Taylor?” Callie groggily rolled over onto her back and blinked up at the ceiling. Her husband was gently shaking her shoulder, and the lamp on his side table was turned on. She sighed and listened, hearing her baby crying from across the room. “Isn’t it your turn?”
“I tried to calm him down,” David said. “But nothing’s working. I was hoping you could try.”
She groaned. “What did you try?”
“Everything.”
“Really? Everything?”
“Well, everything besides asking politely, I guess,” David joked, even though his wife was not in the mood for a laugh.
Callie rubbed her hands over her face, trying to will some life back into herself. “Okay, I’m going. I’m going. But this means you do the dishes in the morning, deal?”
“Deal.”
She slowly forced her tired body upright and swung her legs around the other side of the bed. It was when her feet hit the carpet, however, that she paused to think.
They’d ripped that carpet out over a decade ago, hadn’t they? Her room was now hard wood, wasn’t it?
And the baby crying… It couldn’t have been one of her children. They were all grown. So then—
Dot’s shrill cry shattered through the haze of Callie’s dream, and she jolted awake.
Throwing off her blankets, she jumped out of bed and rushed down the hall.
But when she reached the door to Mallory’s old bedroom, she hesitated.
All was quiet for a moment. But then she heard it again—the wail of a fussy baby—and her instincts kicked in.
Not only did she want to soothe Dot, but she also wanted to give Sasha a break.
She was mothering on two-fronts at the moment, and it felt good after not getting to stretch these muscles much the last twenty years or so.
Turning the handle slowly, she tiptoed inside the room. Sasha lifted her head and squinted briefly in the dark, mumbling something incoherent from the bed.
“Shh, it’s okay,” Callie whispered. “It’s just me. You go back to sleep, I’m just checking to see if Dot needs to be changed.”
Whether it was because Sasha was too tired to argue or she was starting to trust Callie, she allowed Callie take little Dot from her crib and out into the hallway.
At first, Dot seemed a bit confused, probably aware that she wasn’t being held by her mother, but she calmed down once Callie changed her diaper and got her a bottle.
The clock on the stove read 2 a.m., and it was a chilly night, but she was craving a breath of crisp, forest air.
Grabbing the socks and blanket she’d left on the couch when the baby was overheating, Callie bundled up Dot and then slipped through the sliding glass door.
Stepping out onto the back porch, the darkness was illuminated by the soft glow of the half-full moon and the dew drops glistened like stars on the autumn leaves.
Callie held Dot close to her chest and the baby drifted off to sleep as she sat down in her favorite rocking chair.
Callie breathed in the scent of dirt and sap as a cool breeze wafted past the house.
“My daughter Mallory’s first word was ‘tree’,” she said to the slumbering baby in her arms, rocking back and forth.
“She loved this backyard. When she’d have friends over after school, they’d wander in the forest for hours.
David would always worry they’d get lost, but I trusted Mallory to find her way back.
” She smiled down at the baby. “Mal isn’t the most responsible, but she’s smart.
She used to talk about being a park ranger when she grew up…
I wonder what happened to that dream...”
Keeping her eyes on the vast expanse of stars above, a comfortable silence fell between them as Callie continued swaying in her chair for a while.
She stayed outside for longer than she probably should’ve, but she knew the baby was warm, so it was her own chill that she had to worry about.
After a half hour or so, she remembered that there was a sleeping mother down the hall who might wake up and panic over where her baby had gone.
“We better get you back in the crib,” she whispered, “so your mama doesn’t worry too much.” Callie stepped back inside and headed to Sasha’s room. Dot was still slumbering peacefully and didn’t even stir as she was gently placed on the mattress.
“Goodnight little one,” Callie muttered, her fingers brushing over the baby’s thick, soft hair. “Sleep tight.” She straightened up and glanced over at the bed where Sasha was still sleeping. “You too, sweetheart. You too.”