Accidental Evil (4 page)

It wasn’t a squirrel.

Instead of the dark outline of a bushy-tailed rodent, she saw the sharp lines and round joints of something manufactured. Three yellow, glowing electronic eyes stared at her from out in the night. Lily held her breath and stared as the thing’s mechanical legs moved one at a time to propel the thing up the screen. The head swiveled as it climbed. It kept those three orbs locked on her. Lily began to mistrust her eyes and strained her ears for confirmation of the thing’s existence. She heard the low whine of the motors as the legs moved. The three yellow lights blinked and she heard a click.
 

Lily broke her paralysis and pulled her sheet over her head. She trembled in the dark and heard the sound of her own panicked breath and thudding heart.

She waited. She knew it was only a matter of time before little mechanical pincers would cut through her sheet and attack her. She tightened her body into a ball and hugged her knees to her chest. Lily waited. She was too frightened to call out. She imagined that the floor of her room might be covered in the mechanical insects, so she was terrified by the thought of jumping down from her loft.

Thunder rumbled again, making Lily shake.

Eventually, with her eyes squeezed shut and sleepiness flowering back up from her bones, Lily fell asleep. Her terror was replaced by unsettled dreams of being chased through the night.
 

[ News ]

July 1

When Lily woke up, all the bad dreams from the night before were distant memories. They were cobwebs swept away by the bright sunlight streaming through her window.

She tied her shoes at the bottom of the stairs and put her hair into a ponytail on her way to the kitchen. Her mom was having a conversation at the kitchen table with Trina. Lily’s heart nearly stopped. They both wore somber expressions.
 

Lily feared the worst.

“Honey, have a seat,” Lily’s mom said.

Lily smiled at Trina, but the woman didn’t return it. She only looked away. Trina had been with their family almost as long as Lily’s memory. With a young family of her own, Trina had started out doing some light cooking for the Hazard family. The house was too big, and Wendy was too busy to take care of the house and two kids.
 

But as the Hazard family had flourished, Trina’s young family had withered. Her son died—Lily still wasn’t sure of the exact circumstances. Trina’s no-good husband left her. He didn’t even get a divorce or anything, he just wandered off. The only valuable thing he left Trina was his last name. At least with all the Prescotts around, Trina was shepherded into a little mobile home next to a woodlot, and provided with a string of nearly road-worthy cars.

Wendy and Bruce Hazard had stepped up in their own way. They knew that Trina wouldn’t accept a handout, but she would accept more work. They gave her all she could handle. She graduated from some light cleaning into cooking, cleaning, and babysitting. Aside from the fact that she kept her own house, she was nearly the type of maid that Wendy swore she would never get. Wendy—as she told Lily many times—had grown up with maids and didn’t want her own kids to live like that.

Lily loved Trina. The idea of having Trina as a substitute mom for the summer was awesome.

“I’ve been telling Trina about our dilemma,” Lily’s mom said.

“Dilemma?” Lily asked. Trina shifted her gaze out the window.
 

Wendy nodded. She always nodded like that when she wanted Lily to agree with her for the sake of appearances.

“I explained that your father and I have business in Spain and you have commitments here,” Wendy said.

That was an interesting spin. Lily wondered who her mother was really trying to convince.

Lily wanted to reach out and take Trina’s hand. The woman looked very sad. Technically, Trina wasn’t that much younger than her mother, but it had always seemed like Trina was just a cool older friend to the kids.

Nobody was explaining the problem. Lily spoke to fill the void.

“We’ll have tons of fun,” Lily said. “You can even come to one of my events if you want.”
 

Trina looked at her. She still didn’t smile.

“There’s a problem,” Wendy said. “Trina has a previous engagement. In fact, she came in today to tell us that she was going to have to take a leave of absence.”

“What?” Lily asked. Her mother shot her a stern glance. If they had been alone, Wendy would have asked her to, “Modulate your tone, please.”

“Why would you quit?” Lily asked.

“It’s not up to me,” Trina said.

She didn’t elaborate. Lily jerked her attention between Trina and her mother, waiting for an explanation. She felt tears rising. It felt like they were bubbling up from her chest and would soon choke her until she couldn’t breathe.

“May I share what you told me?” Wendy asked Trina.
 

Trina gave the tiniest nod.

“For the summer, Trina is taking responsibility for her cousin, Gerard. He requires a decent amount of supervision and care.”

Lily searched her memory. She always remembered everything—why hadn’t she ever heard of Gerard?

“She will be responsible for taking him to his appointments and cooking for him. She’s not even sure she can keep up with her duties here.”

Lily wanted to demand an explanation. She wanted to know who this Gerard was, and why he was more important than them. As far as she knew, Trina never spoke of this Cousin Gerard and she had been in the Hazard house nearly every day for ten years. How could he possibly be more important? Lily held her tongue, but only because of the pained expression on Trina’s face.

“Your father will handle the passport details and everything will work out perfectly. Trina will have her leave of absence and we’ll be out of town anyway. We’ll miss you, dear,” her mother said to Trina.

“Thank you,” Trina said.

Lily finally caught her eye again. She saw the pain there and continued to hold her tongue.

[ Cousin ]

T
RINA
DIDN
’
T
MIND
LYING
to Wendy. It got personal when Lily came in. That was a conversation she had hoped to avoid. It was made worse by the elevated expectations that Lily had developed. It was good of the girl to put her up for the house-sitting job. She was sad to disappoint.

But family was family.

Well, more accurately, the Prescotts were the Prescotts. They weren’t technically her family anymore, but they paid for her little house and the car she was driving. That gave them just as much claim on her time as any family member could.

She paused at the stop sign and then took a right on the West Road.

And the Prescotts almost never asked for anything in return. Almost.

When they did ask, it wasn’t an
easy
ask.
 

Gerard was a walking, talking nightmare, and in less than an hour, she was going to be responsible for him.
 

Her car lost power as she climbed the hill to the Old South Church. When she finally got to the top, she came to a complete stop. She turned to look at Mr. Minot’s house as she drove by. She didn’t know the name of the people who lived there now. She still thought of it as Minot’s house. There was a fancy new generator out front. It was red—the color of danger. She wondered why they didn’t make it green to blend into the grass, or gray to blend in with the granite foundation. It seemed like everyone was getting generators now. All the old houses were being scooped up by People from Away, and new generators came with them.
 

It seemed like these newcomers were afraid of the dark. There was nothing more natural than a house thrust into darkness during a big storm. Being at the mercy of Mother Nature allowed people to stay humble. These People from Away would never understand their helplessness until it was too late. Although, in the case of Mr. Minot’s house, maybe the generator wasn’t such an abomination. There were a lot of dark secrets in that house. Perhaps it was best to keep the light handy, and chase away the shadows.
 

Trina slowed for the curve.

The land fell away on the other side of the guard rail and Trina saw the stacks of harvested logs. Sprinklers kept the wood wet until it was ready for the mill. This was the empire of the family that she was tangentially related to. This was the home base of the Prescott mill. From trees like this, money filtered through layers and layers of hands and then eventually paid her mortgage. She put gas in the tank, but the tree money was going to pay for the new transmission if the car lasted that long. If it didn’t, the tree money would help her buy another car.
 

The scent of preservatives wafted in through her vents. Trina rolled down her window and spat.

She turned on the radio and got on the highway.

By the time she rolled to a stop in front of the big house, Trina had forgotten about perverted Mr. Minot, and forgot about the stacks of lumber.

One thing occupied her brain—Gerard Dingus.

Growing up, her mom had used the name Dingus to describe anyone who didn’t know what they were doing.
 

“Everything was fine until Dingus here turned off the pump,” her mom would say. It wasn’t until years later that Trina met a real live Dingus and discovered that it was a proper last name. There were people named Dingus, and it seemed like a disproportionate number of them weren’t exactly geniuses. Her mom’s slur had been unfairly prejudiced, but just barely. It was like assuming that a person from Sand Hill was going to be short—it was unfair, but not exactly untrue.

Trina sat there, looking up at the windows and wondered if Gerard Dingus was looking down at her from one of them. The last time she had seen him was at Paul’s wedding. Gerard had been masturbating in the coat closet at the reception. His mother—Mother Dingus, as it were—seemed more upset that he was touching himself in the church basement than the fact that he had ejaculated on someone’s coat.

Trina gathered her nerve and got out of the car.
 

She walked towards the porch. She could only imagine how bad the Dingus was if they were asking her to watch over him. There had to be at least a dozen closer relatives who would have been a better fit.
 

She raised her hand to knock on the door. It swung inwards before she touched the wood.

He was standing there—Gerard Dingus—looking composed and handsome. The years had stamped away the soft curves of boyhood and revealed a tone and tan man. Trina shook her head slightly and realized her mistake. This couldn’t be Gerard Dingus. This had to be a brother or an uncle that she had never met before. Still, the resemblance was uncanny.
 

“Hi,” she said.

“Good morning, Cousin Katrina,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

He held the door open for her.
 

Confused, she stepped inside.

[ Aunt ]

Her aunt-in-law looked much older than she had any right to. Her floral print dress—completely out of place in the summer heat—wasn’t helping. It made her look like someone’s great grandmother.

“I hope it’s not too much bother. It’s just with me going south for treatment and all I won’t be able to drive him anymore,” Maggie said.

“I understand,” Trina said. She stole another glance at Gerard. He didn’t look the same at all. He was so skinny and tan. It was impossible to think of him as a mental case. He simply didn’t look the part. Sitting in the formal sitting room, Gerard Dingus looked downright proper.

“We’ve got his schedule worked out. You’re so close to his appointment, it just makes sense. He doesn’t drive, and he has to go twice every week. He doesn’t have another medical until September, so no need to worry about that,” Maggie said. She pushed a sheet of paper over the coffee table. Trina picked it up. It was broken down by day and then listed by time. The address was right in Kingston Lakes. That was the reason they had chosen her—she was practically walking distance to Gerard’s therapist. Hell, the Hazard house
was
walking distance.
Easy
walking distance. She pushed the thought away.

“I’ll be on my best behavior,” Gerard said. He gave her a warm smile. It was almost impossible to not trust him. He seemed completely sincere.

“Do you have any questions?” Maggie asked.

She had a million questions. Was he dangerous? She had heard so many stories. Did he dress himself? Could he be trusted alone in the house? She couldn’t bring herself to ask any of those questions in front of him. She would have to figure out another way to get her answers.

“I guess not,” Trina said.

“I’ll get my bag,” Gerard said.

Trina watched him. As soon as he was out of the room, she intended to find out the real story.
 

Maggie had already stood up. When Trina stood up too, Maggie began to guide her towards the door. Gerard didn’t even really get out of earshot. Apparently, he had stashed his bag right in the hall. As soon as he passed out of sight, he was right back in the doorway, holding a big duffel.
 

“Call me once a week, Gerry,” Maggie said. She tapped her cheek when she approached. He leaned forward and gave her a gentle peck.
 

Gerard moved around Trina and held the door open for her.
 

“After you,” he said.

She couldn’t get over how normal he seemed.

“I’m right behind you,” she said. She turned back to Maggie. Gerard went ahead without her. She waited until he was walking across the yard to the car.

“Aunt Maggie, I just have one or two things I need to…”

She cut Trina off. “Of course. Billy will bring you cash, twice a week for food and groceries. Let him shop for himself. He’s great with a budget. I have to go sit down now. You take care.”

Maggie had somehow maneuvered Trina to the porch. She closed the conversation by shutting the door. Trina stood there for a second and blinked. She reached up to knock on the door. Before she could, she heard a heavy deadbolt latch. The message was unmistakable. Gerard was her problem now. When she turned around, he was already in the passenger’s seat. Trina walked slowly back to the car.