Julia looked up, confused. “Uh, no.”
“Really? I thought I saw you there a couple of weeks ago.”
“And you remembered me?”
The woman smiled. “It’s a small town.”
Julia examined her fellow shopper more carefully. Approximately her own age, with short blond hair and clothes that seemed far too hip for McGuane, she was not someone Julia recognized, yet she did seem vaguely familiar.
“I was thinking of volunteering a few days a week,” Julia explained. “But I changed my mind.”
“The reason I ask is because I used to work at the library myself.” The woman paused. “How… did you like the other volunteers there?” she asked carefully.
“They were loony. That’s why I quit. Alma was talking about some comet that was going to hit Earth and they were all into bizarre conspiracy theories.”
The woman wiped her brow in a melodramatically exaggerated expression of relief. “Whew! I was hoping you’d say that. But you can’t be too careful in this town.” She smiled. “My name’s Deanna Matthews.”
Julia blinked. “Are you related to Paul Matthews?” “He’s my husband.”
“This is a small town. My husband is Gregory Tomasov.”
Deanna laughed. “Gregory’s wife and a normal person to boot! It’s my lucky day. Are you Molokan, too?”
Julia nodded.
“I’m not, but I grew up here.”
“So you knew Gregory when he was little?”
“Oh, yes.”
“I take it you were all friends—”
Deanna laughed. “Well… Not exactly. To tell you the truth, he was kind of a…”
“Jerk?”
“Thank you. I was trying to think of a polite way to say it.”
“I think he’s changed since then.”
“I hope so.” Deanna chuckled. “Although, to be honest, Paul was just as bad back then. Maybe even worse. They were both typical teenagers, but in a place like this that means asshole.” She moved her cart aside to let another shopper pass. “Listen, Paul’s really grateful for everything Gregory’s doing. He’s not the kind of guy who’ll express it, but I can tell you that he’s really excited about everything that’s happening down at the café. We were just barely keeping our heads above water, and you guys’ve been a godsend. He seems to think the place actually has potential now.” She smiled. “Your winning the lottery’s having a sort of trickle-down effect on us, and since he probably won’t tell you, I thought I would. We’re really glad you’re here.”
“Thank you,” Julia said, genuinely touched. “Gregory’ll be happy to hear that. He’s pretty excited about the café himself.”
“Paul’s also glad Gregory’s back just for personal reasons. As you can probably tell, this isn’t exactly the hub of cultural activity, and we don’t really have a lot of friends here in town. Paul hangs around with that Odd guy, and I occasionally see some of my old friends from high school, but… Well, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I hope we can become friends. It’d be nice to have an intelligent conversation once in a while.”
Julia laughed.
“You think I’m joking?”
“No. Not after my experience at the library.”
“Comet conspiracies are just the tip of the iceberg.”
“What are you doing this afternoon?” Julia asked.
“No plans. Why?”
“Would you like to come over?”
“Sure.” She nodded at her half-filled shopping cart. “Just let me take this home and get it put away.”
“You know where we live?”
“Of course.”
Something about Deanna’s tone of voice, her surprise at the fact that the question had been asked at all, set off Julia’s internal alarm. “ ‘Of course’?” she repeated.
Deanna frowned. “You live in the old Megan…” She trailed off, realization dawning in her face. “Oh, my God. You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“About your house. What happened.”
A chill crept down Julia’s spine. She didn’t want to hear what was coming next, but she knew she could not turn back. “No,” she said. “I guess not.”
“It was a while ago, and several people have lived there since, but…” She shook her head. “I don’t exactly know how to put this.”
Julia felt cold. “What?”
“A family called the Megans were living in the house. They’d been there for… well, for years. They’d lived there for a long time. And one day the father, Bill Megan, just snapped. He woke up in the middle of the night and… killed his family. His wife, their kids. He shot them all. Then he killed himself. No one knows why. He hadn’t been fired from his job or anything. Nothing traumatic had happened. He just… he went crazy.”
Julia licked her suddenly dry lips. “How many kids were there?”
“Three.”
All at once her fears and worries didn’t seem quite so silly—all at once the dread she’d felt was understandable, made sense.
“I wondered why you two would live there.” Deanna shook her head. “I can’t believe no one told you.”
“Who could’ve told me?” she said, but at the instant she said it she thought of the Molokans at the picnic. “I don’t really know anyone in town.”
Deanna laid a hand on her arm. “You do now.”
Julia nodded, forced herself to smile, though inside she felt like ice. “Yes,” she said. “I do now.”
She confronted Gregory the minute he came home. Deanna had left only a few moments before, and Julia was still putting away cups and dishes when Gregory walked through the door.
She told him everything: Deanna’s story and the fleshed-out details her new friend had provided, her own uneasy feelings about the house, the mysterious box of dishes that had fallen for no apparent reason. She threw it at him angrily, getting in his face, but he seemed neither surprised nor particularly upset by her behavior. He was calm, rational, and his unflappability only increased her anger.
“What do you want to do?” he said. “Move?”
She met his eyes. “Yes.”
“Come on.”
“ ‘Come on’ what?”
“You think our house is haunted? You think the ghosts of that murdered family are harassing you and breaking your china?” He shook his head. “Jesus. You sound like my mother.”
“Maybe she’s smarter than you give her credit for.”
“Even if she is, even if there are such things as ghosts, this house is safe because she purged it of evil spirits and she blesses it every time she walks through the goddamn door!”
“Keep your voice down. She’s in her room.”
“We’re not moving because you got a sudden attack of superstition.”
“It doesn’t bother you at all that people were murdered in the room we sleep in? In the rooms our kids sleep in? That doesn’t bother you at all?”
“It didn’t bother you until you found out about it.”
“It’s not as if we have all of our money tied up in this place. We—”
“All our money is tied up in this place. All our money for this year, at least. We’re not going to get another lottery payment until next August. So unless we can miraculously sell this house, which is pretty doubtful, considering its pedigree, we’re stuck here.”
She stared at him, blinked. “You knew,” she said. “You knew about this.”
“Paul and Odd told me. I thought it would be better if you didn’t know. I didn’t want to worry you.”
“What gives you the right to make that decision for me? Who are you to censor my information like I’m some goddamn child?”
“Why don’t you keep your voice down?” he said.