Chapter 58
It was dusk when we finally retraced our steps.
Rounding the last corner toward home, I saw Tom.
He was pacing the driveway, furious. He’d been looking for us, he scolded me, as Henry called and began to run to him.
He was beside himself with worry. Where had we been?
What on earth was going on? Where was Ida?
“With Louise.”
“What do you mean?” he demanded.
“Just what I said.”
“But it’s getting dark,” he said, as if the statement definitively answered everything, all life’s enduring mysteries and catastrophes.
“Yes,” I said. “Henry, should we go brush our teeth?”
I moved to the door, which was slightly ajar, and held it wide for him to run inside.
I lingered on the threshold. Tom fixed me with a look, and after a moment, I followed him inside and up the half flight of stairs to the living room.
He opened his mouth, closed it. I watched the muscles tense up the side of his face.
“Sally, what is going on here? You knew I would be getting back. Don’t you see it’s getting dark?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding dumbly. “It’s dark; that’s true, Tom.”
He stared as if trying to fathom me, the situation. Don’t bother, I thought. You don’t know me, what I’m capable of. You don’t know the half.
Seeming to arrive at a decision, he shook his head. “I don’t trust that woman. You shouldn’t either.”
I laughed. “Believe me, I know that.”
“So, what, it’s down to me, then?” he said furiously. “I’m supposed to go get her—me, after everything I’ve been through today.”
I just looked up at the ceiling, like, Whatever, it doesn’t matter. I’ve already lost her.
In the next second, reconsidering, I said I would go.