Darkness Wakes Read online

  He realized then that from where he was sitting, he was facing the dining room window. The road they lived on, Kenyon Avenue, curved around so that the Caroline’s house lay in a straight line from Aaron’s front yard, though there were two other houses between. Still, Caroline’s house could be viewed from here, at least the southern corner of it. He got up, crossed over to the window, and drew open the curtains. The neighborhood was dark, save for streetlights and porch lights. He looked in the direction of the Langdons’ house, but all he saw was blackness. It seemed they didn’t have any lights on, at least not in the part of the house that Aaron could see. Caroline and Phillip were probably asleep. But then again, maybe they weren’t home yet. Maybe they were still at their sex club fucking and being fucked in ways that most people could barely imagine.

  But you can imagine, can’t you, kid? The question is, can you do more than imagine? Are you good enough to DO?

  Aaron continued sipping his milk as he looked out his window into the darkness where Caroline’s house should be.

  Aaron didn’t get sleepy again until 4:45. He considered just staying up, but Mondays were always busy with pet owners whose animals had gotten sick or injured over the weekend, and he was afraid he’d be too groggy in the afternoon if he didn’t get in a little more sleep now. So he returned to bed, settled down next to Kristen and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was alone and the digital alarm clock on his nightstand read 7:12. The realization that he’d overslept jolted him awake. He jumped out of bed and hurried down to the kitchen without bothering to put on his robe.

  “Dad’s naked!” Lindsay called out as Aaron made a beeline for the coffee maker. His daughter sat at the breakfast nook table, a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios in front of her. She wore a long nightshirt with a cartoon baby chicken on the front with the words “Chicks Rule” above it.

  Aaron poured himself a cup of coffee. It was cold, but as long as it had caffeine in it, he didn’t care. He gulped down half the cup’s contents then refilled it. He grabbed a peanut butter granola bar from the cupboard, tore off the wrapper, and took a large bite.

  “What are you doing up so early?” he asked as he chewed, his words coming out in a sticky muffle.

  “Soccer camp starts today. Eight-thirty, bright and early. And don’t talk with your mouth full.” She smiled.

  Aaron winced at Lindsay’s good-natured rebuke. It reminded him too much of something he might say. Or his father.

  “It’s time for soccer camp already?”

  Kristen was the keeper of the family’s master schedule, and she wrote down all appointments, practices, lessons, and games on a calendar hanging on the wall next to the refrigerator. Aaron walked over and checked today’s date. Sure enough, there — written in Kristen’s precise handwriting in red ink — was L-SC-8.5. Beneath that was C-LG-9. C was Colin, and 9 was nine a.m. He turned to Lindsay.

  “What’s LG?”

  Lindsay was in the middle of chewing a mouthful of cereal, and she waited until she’d swallowed to answer. “Lifeguard. Today’s the day Colin starts work at the rec center, remember?”

  “Oh. Right.” Aaron took another large gulp of coffee. Colin was on the high-school swim team, but he’d only just finished his lifeguard training a few weeks ago, and even then he’d only completed it because Aaron had insisted he get some sort of job over the summer. Now summer was half over, and the boy was only just beginning his job. Still, he had finished his training, and next summer he could get started right away.

  “Is he up yet?” Aaron had been so desperate for a cup of coffee that he hadn’t noticed if Colin’s door had been open when he’d passed on his way to the kitchen.

  “I don’t know. He hasn’t come downstairs.” Lindsay put her spoon inside her bowl, got up from the table, and carried her dishes to the sink. She removed the spoon, poured out what was left of the milk, rinsed both spoon and bowl and then put them in the dishwasher.

  Watching her, Aaron was both proud and sad. In many ways, she was so grown up, but it seemed like just yesterday that she’d been sitting on a booster seat and he’d been spoon-feeding Cheerios to her. He started to talk another bite of his granola bar, but then he remembered Lindsay’s rebuke and didn’t.

  “Where’s your mom?”

  “Outside puttering.”

  Puttering was Kristen’s all-purpose phrase for any yardwork she might do. Watering, weeding, mulching … if it was outdoors and involved some sort of plant life, it counted as puttering.

  “I’m gonna go into the den and play some video games before I get dressed, okay?”

  Lindsay left the kitchen without waiting for Aaron to grant her permission, but he barely noticed. He was angry with Kristen for not waking him up. He assumed the clock radio had gone off and he hadn’t heard it. That happened sometimes when he was really tired. But Kristen knew he needed to get to work by 7:30 every day — especially on Mondays.

  He drank the rest of his coffee and put the cup in the sink without bothering to rinse it. They kept a portable phone mounted on the wall next to the calendar — all the better for Kristen to make, change, and cancel appointments on the master schedule. Aaron walked over to the phone, called his office, and left a message for Diane, his receptionist — though she preferred the term office manager — letting her know that he’d be coming in a little late today. He hung up, popped the remainder of the granola bar in his mouth and headed for the stairs.

  Upstairs, he stopped at Colin’s room and pounded a fist on the door.

  “You up, Colin? You start your new job today!”

  Aaron listened for sounds of life, and when he didn’t hear any, he pounded on the door again, harder this time.

  “Colin! Wake up!”

  He still didn’t hear anything, and he was about to pound the shit out of the door when there came the soft snick of a lock being disengaged. The door opened a few inches, just enough so that Aaron could see one of Colin’s half-open eyes.

  “You don’t have to yell,” the boy mumbled. “I heard you.”

  Aaron had to resist saying I wasn’t yelling. Colin had hit that phase of adolescence where everything he said to his parents sounded like a challenge, and most of the time Colin wasn’t even aware of it. Or so he claimed.

  I never put up with that kind of shit from you, Martin’s voice said.

  “Big day, huh? Looking forward to it?”

  Colin’s eye stared at Aaron for several seconds.

  “I’m going. Isn’t that enough?”

  Aaron felt as if he should say something, pass on a tidbit or two of fatherly wisdom. Maybe, “The first day’s the hardest” or “The most important thing to remember is to try and maintain a good attitude.” Or even something as simple as “I’m proud of you.”

  But before he could choose, Colin said, “Aren’t you late for your job?” and closed the door. A second later the lock snicked into place one more.

  Aaron stood looking at Colin’s door for several moments before sighing and heading off for the shower.

  He was standing at the sink mirror, naked and mostly dry, and running an electric razor across his face when Kristen walked into the bathroom.

  “Hey there, sexy.” She came over, patted his ass and gave him a kiss on the back of the neck. Her hair was tired back in a ponytail, the way she always wore it when working in the yard, even when it wasn’t hot out. She had on a sleeveless green blouse and a pair of white shorts. Her feet were bare, and Aaron knew that she’d been wearing her ratty old gardening shoes, and that she’d left them in the garage when she finished working.

  Aaron didn’t want to snap at her, but he couldn’t help himself.

  “Why didn’t you get me up?”

  Kristen stepped up to the sink to wash her hands, and Aaron moved over to give her room.

  “I tried. Three times, as a matter of fact, but you were dead to the world. Did you stay up late last night?” She finished washing her hands and dried them on the towel hanging next to th
e sink.

  Aaron didn’t take his gaze off his reflection in the mirror. He was mostly finished shaving, had only his neck to do, but that was always the hardest part. He could never seem to shave there as close as he’d like. Not for the first time he wished he had the sort of job where you could go in grubby one day and no one would care. But people expected health-care workers — vets included — to have impeccable hygiene.

  “I had trouble sleeping,” he said, which was true enough. Now he would find out whether Kristen was aware of how long he’d stayed out last night.

  “Poor baby. You work too hard.” She hugged him from behind, circling her arms around his waist. “I know what might help you relax.” She slowly lowered her right hand to his penis. “If you’ve got the time for a quickie, that is.”

  Aaron sighed. He moved away from Kristen before she could begin fondling him and turned off his razor.

  “You always do this,” he said.

  “Do what?”

  Aaron answered as he put his razor away and then applied aftershave to his face.

  “Always try to initiate sex when you know we can’t do it. Like now, when I’m late for work. And then you say, ‘Next time you complain that we never do it, remember that you turned me down.’ If you really wanted to have sex, you’d pick a better time to make your move.”

  She scowled and Aaron thought that he’d done it now. She’d start yelling and they’d get into a major fight, and in the end nothing between them would change, and he’d be even later for work than he already was.

  But Kristen’s features relaxed and she managed a smile. “Maybe this isn’t the best time. How about I take a rain check, and we pick up where we left off tonight after the kids have gone to bed?”

  Aaron had heard this line before, too. When he reminded her of her “rain check” later tonight, she’d say, I’m sorry, honey, but I can barely keep my eyes open. Tomorrow night, I promise. But tomorrow night it would be the same thing all over again.

  Still, he was too late to get into it this morning, and really, what good would it do? None, that’s what.

  He smiled. “Sounds good,” he said. Then he kissed her, gave her a quick hug, and went into the bedroom to get dressed.

  Aaron backed his Lexus out of the driveway, thumbing the garage door remote attached to the visor. The garage door descended as he backed into the street and put the car in drive. Given his mood, he felt like tromping on the gas and peeling out, but he pressed his foot to the pedal gently, and the Lexus slid forward at a more leisurely rate of speed. He knew Kristen was looking out the picture window to wave goodbye to him — she did this every day, as long as she was home when he left for work. He didn’t want to look, didn’t want to smile and wave, but she’d know something was wrong if he didn’t play his part in their morning ritual. So he looked, saw her, smiled and waved, doing his best not to seem too perfunctory about it. Then he pressed the gas pedal down further and accelerated away from the house.

  They’d moved to this neighborhood not long after Aaron had opened his veterinary practice. Back then, this had been the part of town for young professionals to live, and though it wasn’t quite the hot location it used to be, if you told someone you lived on Kenyon Avenue, they were still impressed. The houses were much of a kind here, his included, two-story houses with large yards, three and four-car garages, and immaculate landscaping. McMansions, his brother had called them the last time he’d visited, during Christmas five years ago. Aaron hated to admit it, but the term fit. Back when Kristen and he had moved here, it had seemed like they’d snagged the brass ring and would be living the good life from then on. But now the neighborhood felt foolish, pretentious, hollow … More like the façade of a Hollywood set than a place where real people lived and loved.

  Aaron followed the curve of the road until he drew near the Langdons’ house. He eased off the accelerator and gazed at their house. Save for a few superficial differences, it looked almost exactly the same as his, although Caroline and Phillip didn’t have any children. They did have two cats that Caroline brought in for him to check over once a year or so. He tried to remember the animals’ names, but they wouldn’t come. He liked animals well enough, but he didn’t get all moony-eyed and sentimental over them like some vets did. That was a big part of why he had trouble remembering pet names — animals didn’t really need names as far as he was concerned. When he saw a patient, in his mind it was Adult German Shepherd with Canine Hip Dysplasia, and that was all. An animal was a problem to be solved, a task to attend to, nothing more.

  Aaron didn’t really expect to see Caroline out, certainly not this early on a Monday, but he couldn’t help slowing down even more and watching the front door of her house, glancing at the windows to see if she might be looking out. Once on his way to work, he’d driven past a house — not in this neighborhood, but close to his practice — where the front door had been open and a gorgeous, long-haired, and very naked blond woman had been bending over to retrieve the morning paper from the front stoop. She’d looked up in shocked surprised as Aaron had driven by, then fled into the house, her large firm breasts jiggling so much that Aaron had nearly ran his car — he’d been driving a BMW in those days — into one of her neighbors’ yards. Since then he’d passed the blonde’s house hundreds of times, but he’d never again seen the door open, let alone caught her outside clothed or unclothed. It wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility that he might see Caroline in a similar compromising position one day. And so every day he checked out her house as he drove by. And he really wanted to catch a glimpse of her after what he’d witnessed last night at the Valley View Shopping Center. But as he drove past her house, the door didn’t open and a naked Caroline Langdon didn’t step outside to fetch the paper, nipples hardening in the morning air, pubic hair stirring in the breeze. And the curtains were drawn over all the windows.

  Enough fantasizing, kid. Back to the real world.

  Though Aaron had known he wouldn’t see anything, he nevertheless experienced a wave of disappointment as he tore his gaze away from Caroline’s house and faced forward.

  And there, framed in his windshield, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, was Caroline. She was jogging toward him and his Lexus was heading straight for her.

  Aaron had time to register the alarm on Caroline’s face before he yanked the steering wheel to the left and slammed on the brakes. Though he hadn’t been traveling all that fast, the car still swerved as it squealed to a stop.

  Aaron sat there for several seconds, terrified that he’d hit Caroline, hurt her bad, maybe even killed her. He imagined her body crushed beneath the wheels of his Lexus. Blood bubbling up from her throat as if she were some sort of grisly fountain, her abdomen split open like a flesh sack that had been stretched too far and finally burst open to spill its wet, ropy contents all over the street.

  You heard no scream, no thump.

  Aaron turned his head, looked out the passenger side window, saw Caroline standing there, not looking frightened in the least. In fact, she looked almost amused. Aaron turned off the engine, opened the door, and jumped out of the Lexus, already babbling apologies before his feet had touched the ground.

  “Oh my god, are you all right? I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you, was off in my own little world, I guess. But as long as you’re okay … you are okay, aren’t you?”

  Aaron walked around the front of his car as he talked, and now he stood next to Caroline.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “A burst of adrenaline is a great pick-me-up in the morning. Maybe you should try to run me down every day.” She smiled, and there was no anger in her tone.

  “A little too much excitement for me,” Aaron said. “But I’m glad you’re not hurt, and I appreciate your being a good sport about my lousy driving. Guess I’m still not awake.”

  Now that Aaron knew Caroline was unharmed, he marveled at what had just happened. He’d been hoping to see her this morning, and now here he was — not merely looking at her
from a distance as he drove by, but standing less than two feet away and talking with her. Who says that dreams don’t come true?

  While she might not have been naked, the fabric or her white T-shirt was thin, and he could tell that she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath it. The legs of her black shorts were high enough to permit a glimpse of the rounded curve where leg became ass, and she wore no socks with her running shoes, displaying her slender ankles. No, she wasn’t naked, but she was still sexy as hell.

  “I understandable,” Caroline said. “I’m not exactly a morning person myself.”

  Aaron took a quick glance up and down the street to make sure no other cars were coming. His Lexus sat more or less in the middle of Kenyon Avenue, but he didn’t want to get back in and move it yet. Not if it meant cutting short his conversation with Caroline. But the street was empty at the moment, so no worries there.

  “But you’re out jogging,” he said.

  Her smile took on a secretive edge, and a look that he couldn’t define came into her eyes.

  “I’m unusually full of energy this morning, and I had to do something to burn it off. So I decided to go for a run.”

  Aaron nodded. “That explains why I’ve never seen you out alone when I leave for work.”

  Caroline’s words echoed in his mind. Unusually full of energy. Was she still basking in the afterglow of last night’s carnal adventures?

  “I’d think you’d be tired after — ” Aaron realized what he’d been about to say and snapped his mouth shut.