I said, “What?”
10. A FLASHBACK TO AMY’S TRAUMATIC WAFFLE EXPERIENCE
Amy
About nine hours earlier, Shawn had dropped Amy off at the Venus Flytrap and she had gone upstairs to have that momentary weird sensation that David had frozen in place. But then he started talking and Amy didn’t give it a second thought. That’s because there was something far stranger going on:
David, for the first time in months, seemed genuinely happy.
She had asked, “Did you solve the thing with the little girl?”
“We did,” David had answered, whisking his waffle batter. “She’s back home safe and sound. Turned out there was nothing clown dick about it, it was just a local creep. We got the cops to track his phone and found his van. Whatever he was going to do, he never got a chance.”
They had taken a moment to revel in the victory, Amy of course ignorant of the fact that at that moment, John and the real David were still out trying to solve the case, and Maggie was still missing. Then Amy had noticed the roof leak was fixed and had been shocked to her core to hear that David had done it himself.
“I’m making you waffles. You hungry?”
She wasn’t, but said, “Starving!”
He said, “Then have a seat. With what I’ve got planned, you’ll need your energy.”
“Oh, really?”
“You’ll see. How was work?”
A question David hadn’t asked her in probably a year.
“Boring. Had an old lady who kept calling saying her dead husband was trying to break into her house, but it turned out it was her alive son. She had Alzheimer’s. No monster stuff. So … how’re you feeling?”
“Great. I mean, we solved the case.”
“You had a rough night last night…”
He shrugged. “Nothing some waffles can’t fix.”
She wandered over to the window. “Hey, where’s the car?”
“Oh, it’s in the shop. Brakes started making noise.”
Of course the car was not in “the shop,” the actual David was out driving it, heading toward the little church in search of John. But again, Amy had no way of knowing that.
“Can we, uh, afford that?”
“Don’t wanna drive without brakes, Amy. What if the guy working the drive-through mistimes his throw? Have a seat.”
She sat. The card table had been cleared and dishes had been set. Real ones, not the paper plates David had started buying when he decided he didn’t have enough energy to wash dishes anymore.
“But that’s what I want to talk about,” David said. “John and I got paid for this one, parents had a lot of money and they wouldn’t take no for an answer. And the father, he said something to me that really hit home, he said that all he could think about while his daughter was missing was how if he had known his last day with her had been the last, everything would have been different. He’d have taken time to read her a story before bed, he’d have told her he loved her in a way that showed he meant it. He said if he got her back, that he’d treat every day from now on like it could be the last, because it could. And, I thought, that’s exactly what I haven’t been doing. So then I thought, what would I do if I knew it was my last day on earth? The answer was easy. I’d go away with you somewhere, just the two of us. So, I figured, why not just do it? You’re going to decline Saturday overtime tomorrow. Today, you and I are going on a little getaway. A place with no TV, no Internet.”
“Uh … okay. You’re not going to get bored?”
“Bored? The moment you walk in that door, I’m going to strip you naked, and by the time I’m done with you, you won’t be able to move. If I ever get bored with that, maybe you should just put me out of my misery.”
Amy folded her arms on the table. “Oh, really?”
“Only thing I ask—Shawn doesn’t bring you home anymore. You don’t go anywhere with Shawn anymore, not even in a group. Not that I blame him, he’s acting how any man would act in proximity to one of the most beautiful women in the world. But if he threatens what we have, I’ll lose control, you know I will. And I don’t want to lose control. For my sake, or his.”
“We can talk about that later.”
“No. We can’t. Waffle iron’s hot, let’s do this!”
And so they chatted, and ate their waffles, and Amy couldn’t stop smiling.
She had suggested waiting for the rain to stop or at least slack off a bit before heading out, but as soon as they’d eaten, David insisted they go.
“It’s just water. Your clothes will get wet, but you won’t be needing them the rest of the weekend anyway.”
She asked if they needed to call a cab, since the car was in the shop and all, but David said nothing, just walked out and headed down the stairs, toward the store’s parking lot. She followed and found him unlocking a red sports car from the 1960s.
“What’s this?”
“This is a 1967 Chevy Impala. Given to us by our grateful client. Title is in the glove box, it’s ours free and clear. Get in.”
She did. David twisted the key and the engine rumbled to life. He turned to her and smiled. “You hear that?”
Amy smiled back. “I feel like we should both have varsity jackets on, and at least one of us should be smoking.”
“Then we’ll go join a Vietnam demonstration. In favor of the war.”
They both laughed. David threw it in gear and they took off, rain lashing the Impala’s cherry-red hood, drops breaking and splattering against the layers of gleaming wax. A car that had been someone’s baby.
Amy said, “The storm is getting scary.”
David shrugged. “A whole bunch of noise and not much else. Scary if you’re in a plane or a small watercraft. If you’re looking to go two miles in a kickass muscle car, not so much.”
“Where are we going, again?”
“Part of our payment from the grateful family of the victim was one free weekend at their cabin at Mine’s Eye. Got a screened-in deck overlooking the pond. We can listen to the rain and the local wildlife can listen to me screwing your brains out.”
“Calm down there, cowboy.”
“Ha! Sorry. This thing, with the missing girl … when I saw her parents, the look on their faces when we brought her back safe and sound … I don’t know. It’s like all at once, I realized that we do real good in the world. The detective on the case was there and he shook our hands and it’s like, well, like we were legit. You know? Like we deserved to be there, that we had done what the cops couldn’t.”
“Well, yeah. You should feel great about that. I’ve told you, over and over.”
“I know. But you know how I get, that cloud that forms in my brain, so that no sense can get through. Today, I just saw a break and a little bit of light came spilling in. And I can see the look on your face right now, you’re trying not to get your hopes up because this is what I do, I get up for a while and then I crash. But that’s the other thing. I called the doctor. I’m going to get a prescription, try to regulate these moods. Appointment is next Tuesday.”
“Oh my god. David.”
“It’s just time, you know. All this bullshit in my past, this fucked-up childhood and those rough high school years, there’s a point you’ve just got to let it go. Nobody is going to rewind and give me functioning parents. Nobody is going to flip a switch and make it so that I’m suddenly just like everybody else. I’m never going to fit in. But that’s okay. All of this, it really can be okay.”
She reached over and held his hand. He looked over at her. “Are you crying?”
She said, “No! Of course not.” She laughed, through her tears. “How can you even see where you’re driving? All I see is flying water. I can feel the wind pushing the car around. Are you sure you shouldn’t pull over until this passes?”