“I know what you mean. I feel so bad for them.”
Skylar stood there saying nothing. For a while all Seth could hear was wind whistling past the window.
“When I was a little girl,” she eventually whispered, “I thought grownups knew what they were doing. Not all of them, but I was sure a select group of smart people knew how things worked. It didn’t seem possible to live in a world with cars and planes and bridges and the Internet if there weren’t people, you know, in control of it all.”
Seth couldn’t think of anything clever to say, so he waited for Skylar to continue.
“I got into acting when I was young and did my first big picture when I was only fifteen. It was a rude awakening. The director was a big deal and I went into the shoot thinking he was one of those ‘in control’ guys. But he was a basket case. The whole project was an unorganized disaster, and I kept thinking there was no way all this megaphone yelling and standing around in the freezing cold could turn out to be a real picture. But then the movie won two Oscars, including Best Director. And that’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That grownups weren’t so different from children. That everyone was as lost as I felt. Until that point I had been a good little girl, totally not rebellious because I was afraid to disappoint my father. But the idea that the best and smartest people in the world were as flawed as I was made me wonder why I was bothering to be proper. Why not snort coke and fuck men twice my age and spend two drunk weeks in Copenhagen with a dude who could barely speak English and liked me to shove steel balls up his butt?”
Seth nearly laughed, but when Skylar looked at him there were tears in her eyes.
“I understand how Natalie feels,” she said. “The world is falling apart and no one is coming to fix it. No one is in charge. If the government was, you know, a bunch of thoughtful people with the country’s best interests in mind, this wouldn’t have happened. Someone would have made smart choices to keep us safe. But instead the government is burdened by small men with small minds whose only thoughts are for corporate donors.”
“Personally,” he said, “I’ve never trusted the government. It’s too bloated and wasteful with my tax dollars.”
“Come on, Seth. That’s just a talking point you’ve been trained to repeat. Do you honestly think anything happens in government without the consent of private money?”
To Seth, this was a typical argument made by the liberal elite, which was to blame the problems of society on someone else, either Republican congressmen or large corporations that did what they were designed to do—make a profit for stakeholders. Liberals never wanted to assign blame where it belonged, which was on people who wouldn’t lift a finger to help themselves, who lived on welfare and food stamps at the expense of taxpayers like him. Or they wanted to blame natural events on humanity’s failures. Whether the pulse had been divine intervention or a celestial accident, it definitely hadn’t been caused by humans.
He would have liked to explain all this to Skylar, to talk sense into her pretty liberal head, but he worried that arguments coming from him would sound poorly reasoned and unintelligent compared to her own. She was a beautiful and articulate actress and he was an average man who barely graduated from a mediocre college. Also, he was enamored with her.
Before he could decide what to say, Seth realized they weren’t alone. He turned around and saw Thomas looking at them from across the kitchen.
“I’m going to bed,” Skylar said, and walked away.
Now it was the middle of Monday morning, what normally would have been the beginning of a new work week, and Seth was on the living room floor with the boys playing Monopoly again. Natalie was still in bed, Skylar was at the kitchen table, and Thomas had disappeared into the garage.
Seth was struggling to focus on the game because he couldn’t stop sneaking glances into the kitchen.
“I don’t understand why we can’t go outside,” said Brandon.
“We just can’t.”
“Why?”
“Brandon, I already—”
“But Dad,” whined Ben. “It’s so hot in here.”
“I don’t care how hot it is. You are not going outside. We don’t know what’s going on out there, and I’m not sure it’s safe.”
“Yes, we do!” said Brandon. “I can see out the window. Let’s go swimming in the lake! That would feel so good.”
Seth looked into the kitchen again and found Skylar smiling back at him. A book was open in front of her and he wondered what she must think of him, playing board games and denying pleasures to the twins.
“No.”
“Are we going to sit here and play Monopoly for the rest of our lives? I don’t even like this game, Dad.”
“Me, neither,” said Ben.
The problem for Seth was he agreed with his sons. It was miserable indoors and looked comfortable outdoors. They could be fishing off the dock or swimming near the shore or just sitting in the grass, enjoying the breeze. Who was to say this Larry guy would see them, and why would it matter if he did? If he came by later, starving and armed, he would be outnumbered and easily overpowered.
“Dad, pleeeaaaase,” said Ben.
Seth heard a sound and looked up to find Skylar standing above him. She was wearing a pink tank top and cutoff shorts, and seeing her smooth, delicate thighs at eye level made the boys and their pleas seem distant, unconnected to this moment. What he wouldn’t give to reach for those thighs, to feel their silky texture against his fingertips. Natalie’s own legs had given up their slim sensuality in favor of a robust, industrial girth more suited to domestic labors than wrapping themselves around Seth’s midsection.
“Let’s take them outside,” said Skylar, who seemed oblivious to his longing.
“Are you serious?”
“But be quiet about it,” she said to the boys. “Can you do that?”
Ben and Brandon nodded ferociously. Seth tried not to notice how, from this angle, he could see two inches of leg above the ragged hem of Skylar’s shorts. Her underwear, if she was wearing any, could be only millimeters out of view.
“Then let’s go,” Skylar said.
When they reached the back door, the dead bolt was locked, but Seth knew Thomas kept a key on the molding above. He watched over his shoulder for someone to discover what they were doing, but no one else was around.
“All right,” he told the boys. “Let’s go. Quietly. I mean tiptoes.”
The difference between indoors and out was a revelation. On the porch it felt at least ten degrees cooler than the kitchen. Seth hadn’t realized how much he was sweating until wind pressed his shirt against his skin, which felt cool as ice.
“Dad,” said Brandon. “This is amazing!”
“Can we walk down to the water?” asked Ben. “Please?”
“Sure.”
When the boys were out of earshot, Skylar said, “Ever wonder how it would feel to be a fictional character?”
Seth desperately wanted her to think he was intelligent and was careful with his reply.
“Isn’t that sort of your job?”
“I mean what if none of this is real? Thomas already wrote one film that basically came true. Maybe this is another.”
“How could something like that even happen?” asked Seth. “Isn’t a screenplay just words on a page?”
“Movies are just pixels on a screen, and they look real, don’t they?”
Seth smiled and stared into Skylar’s sea-green eyes. He couldn’t imagine how a man might approach her. Or attempt to kiss her. What sort of armor did a woman wear when she was desired by every man she met?
“I think maybe this is all bullshit,” she said. “That’s why I want to meet this Larry character. It’s time for the villain to make his first appearance.”