Chapter Thirty-Five
In the dark kitchen, Helen sat at the empty table, waiting.
It took over two hours before she heard the truck and then another minute before the front door opened and Wade and Isaac
entered, dirty from a day’s work. They stopped when they saw her there.
“I didn’t make any food today,” Helen said.
“You didn’t make any food today?” Wade said.
“I didn’t make any food today,” she repeated.
Wade’s jaw clenched. He was hungry. “You didn’t make any food today.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t make any food today.”
“Jesus,” Isaac said. “How many times are you two going to say that?”
“I was planning on saying it as many times as he did,” Helen said.
“What am I supposed to eat?” Wade asked.
“That’s my question to you,” she said. “I told you I need to go into town for more supplies, and you told me I couldn’t use
the truck.”
Wade stormed out of the room.
Isaac picked up the rags by the front door. As he wiped his boots with them, he looked at Helen circumspectly. “You don’t have any food in the garden?”
“I do. But there are worms in the garden.”
“What do you mean? Like an infestation?”
“No, just regular old garden worms.”
He tossed the rags on the floor by the door and crossed to the kitchen sink to wash his hands. When he reached for the hand
towel, he whispered, “It’s going to be hard to drug him if you don’t give him food.”
Helen sighed. He was right.
Isaac set the towel on the counter and turned to face Helen. “There’s still food in the cellar.”
She rose from the table and approached him so they could speak in hushed tones. “I guess I do need to make dinner to give
him the meds.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure he needs the meds.”
Her shoulders lifted a little. “Was he doing better today?”
Isaac shook his head. “I don’t know what game he’s playing, but Wade knows I’m not dead. I’m pretty sure he’s known this whole
time.”
She recoiled at the thought. “Why do you say that?”
“Wade is controlling and manipulative. Always has been.”
“I don’t know . . .” Helen thought about it. Controlling, yes. But manipulative? It didn’t seem possible that Wade had been
putting on a performance three nights ago in the bedroom when he’d told her Isaac was dead. If Wade was capable of lying that
convincingly, it would mean anything and everything he’d ever told her could be a lie.
As if he could read her mind, Isaac said, “He never even told you I existed.”
“He didn’t really share much about his childhood. It’s possible that I asked, ‘Do you have any siblings?’ and he said, ‘No,’
and left it at that, and that’s not exactly a lie.”
Isaac gave her a look to indicate that it was a weak argument.
“If he believed you were dead,” Helen said, “that would mean he no longer had any living siblings, wouldn’t it? Omitting information that’s painful isn’t the same as lying, is it?” There were plenty of things she didn’t want to talk about with Wade. She was guilty of exactly the same thing.
“Do you really think he believes I’m dead?”
“Yes!” But after a moment, she added, “I think so, but I don’t really know.”
Isaac made a derisive sound. “So he just goes out to the trees and shoots the shit all day with his dead brother?”
“What?” Helen couldn’t hide the shock from her face, but she kept her voice low. “What do you guys talk about?”
“Anything, all day.”
“Both days you went out to the trees?”
“Not as much the first day. But yeah, all day today, we talked.”
“Did he try to talk to you about your soul moving on in peace, or anything like that?”
“My soul moving on?” Isaac laughed. “No.”
Suddenly feeling paranoid, Helen went to the opening that led into the living room and down the hall. She peered around the
corner to make sure Wade wasn’t coming back before she said to Isaac, “He doesn’t act that way here. He barely talks to you
at all.”
“That’s my point, Helen. He’s putting on a show here. For your benefit.”
“Why?”
“I couldn’t figure it out at first, but I’ve been thinking,” Isaac said. “Wade likes to play the white knight, but really,
he just wants what he wants at any cost. Why do you think he keeps you out here all alone?”
“He doesn’t. He just likes the solitude and we make do and . . .” Helen stopped. Her words sounded hollow even to her. The
last few trips to town, Wade had gone without her, and now he didn’t want her to go into town without him. Everything she
did all day was in support of his efforts to manage the trees and live off the land.
“Did you ask him then?” she said.
“Ask him?” Isaac echoed.
“Yeah, if you think he’s lying to me, if you think he’s making this whole thing up about you being dead, why don’t you say
something?”
“I thought about that too.” Isaac ran a hand through his hair absently. “But if I’m wrong, and he really is unstable and having
delusions, I don’t know if confronting him is the best thing. We should keep drugging him and then when he’s thinking straight,
we can convince him we need to take him to a doctor.”
“But what if you’re right and he’s lying?”
A long moment passed before Isaac answered. “If I’m right, I don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“You think he’s dangerous?”
Isaac looked away, shaking his head, but it didn’t appear to be a no. It seemed to be concerned disbelief.
She stepped back.
“Helen, I’m sorry,” he said. “It’ll be okay, but just be careful. Wade’s not a man who likes to be challenged by anyone. He
sold the farm without even consulting me.”
Helen stilled. Because she’d always believed Wade to be an only child, she’d never considered the conditions of his inheritance.
“You got half the money though, right?”
“I didn’t get a penny.”
Helen felt her breath quicken. Wade owed his brother money, and that brother was here now to collect. Everyone was playing
a different side of some twisted game. She envisioned the tractor driving over the top of Isaac with Wade at the wheel of
it. Had he wanted to eliminate Isaac to avoid sharing the inheritance? Wade had never seemed motivated by money, but maybe
she was wrong about that too.
Quietly, she said, “You didn’t say anything about this before.”
Isaac shrugged. “It is what it is.”
Helen walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway. She found Wade in the bedroom removing his dirty work clothes.
“How are you getting along with Isaac?” she asked.
“He’s a ghost, and he hates me. We’re not getting along.”
“You spent all day together in the trees. Did you talk?”
“I tried, but he mostly just sat and watched me work with this look on his face.” Wade kicked off his pants, down to just his underwear now.
“What kind of a look?”
“Not a good one.” Wade stalked past her to the door. “I’m taking a bath.”
“But who will run the water for you?”
He ignored her and exited.
Helen stayed in the bedroom, thinking about the things Isaac had said. She didn’t know what unsettled her more: the notion
that Wade might be lying to her or the notion that she’d been falling for it all this time.