Page 40 of Such a Good Wife

“Got a 10K next weekend.”

I still look at her blankly. “In the rain?” I ask.

“Rain or shine,” she says. I don’t see headphones, but some people don’t use them for races. It’s weird, but if she’s covering for something, why would she stop to say hello? If she’s covering for something, she sure isn’t acting nervous.

“Out here?” I look around and she seems confused by my confusion. I guess she could have been just running past, not into the trees that lead to his house. I didn’t actually see her come through them. She just sort of appeared. I relax a little.

“Uh, yeah. I live just down on Park and Fourth. Close. You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m...yeah.”

“Hey, I was thinking, we should talk more about making our own writing group...but like without any psychos like Jonathan or hotshot writers ruining it with loud readings in the background. Just cool people, maybe some booze involved.” She laughs. “You in?”

“Yeah, maybe. I’ll think on it.”

“I’ll text you,” she says, before she pulls her rubber hood tighter with two drawstrings and jogs off down Main. What exactly does she have against Jonathan, and was the hotshot writer comment a dig at Luke? There were a few other authors who gave readings at the bookstore over the summer. I’m sure it was a general statement, and I’m sure that she is really just jogging. I didn’t know she ran races, but how well do I know her? She didn’t look dressed for training, but I guess a runner would throw a rain parka on over running clothes in this weather. There are perfectly reasonable explanations for why Mia was running from Luke Ellison’s property.

I remember the story she wrote in for the writing group. She seemed a little too comfortable describing murder and slow revenge in great detail. I feel my stomach turn when I think about the possibility that she was sleeping with him too. If it was easy to have a fling with Lacy, why not her? A single guy stuck in this small town. I take a deep breath and blow it out through my mouth, hard. No. I can’t let myself get paranoid.

***

17

WHEN I GET HOME, Ben is playing a video game—some car racing thing—Rachel is on her laptop with headphones attached, settled into the recliner in the living room, and Collin is napping on the couch between them. Not a bad way to spend a rainy day. I see Collin has made some cinnamon rolls from a tube, the cardboard curl and tub of sugary icing discarded in the sink. I pour a cup of coffee and instinctively check on Claire the way I usually do when I come in. I grab the last cinnamon roll and put it on a small plate to take to her.

“Hey, bub, get your swim stuff together,” I say to Ben as I make my way down the hall. I see Claire’s door cracked open. That’s odd; she always keeps it closed. She prefers her privacy, and she sleeps most of the time. Although I know she doesn’t have the capacity to do so, sometimes I think she wants it that way to protect the kids from seeing her waste away, but that’s not really possible, I know. I don’t think too much of it until I open the door, peering in, and don’t see her in her usual spot, propped up in her bed with the TV and fan on. She wanders to the bathroom on her own sometimes. I put the plate down, and I check the bathroom. Then I check all the other rooms in the back of the house, telling myself she’s just wandered off down the hall somewhere, before shouting to Collin and running to the living room, looking again inside each door on my way.

“Collin!”

I see him sit up quickly, pretending he wasn’t asleep.

“Mel, what’s wrong?”

“Where’s your mom?”

“What do you mean?” He hasn’t registered my panic yet.

“She’s not in her room, or any of the back rooms. Kids, go check the rest of the house, look in your rooms.”

Ben starts to cry. He cannot handle shouting or any kind of stress or emergency without shutting down. I should have been more careful.

“Mom?” Collin starts calling around the house. I comfort Ben.

“Honey, it’s okay. Nobody is upset, it’s just not like your grandma to go anywhere on her own.” I make my voice overly light. “It’s fine, baby.”

He calms a little.

“Do you wanna help?”

He nods and goes to check his room. We clear all the rooms, and Rachel even checks behind every shower curtain and behind open doors like it’s a deranged game of hide-and-seek. Collin runs down to look in the basement, and I carefully open the sliding glass door as a clap of thunder sounds and the gathering storm inches closer. I’m afraid to look in the backyard. I shudder thinking about Claire wandering off because of our negligence, that I might find her bloated body floating in the backyard pool. The blood around Luke’s head flashes in my memory as I walk across the pool deck and peer in. I exhale when I see she’s not there.

I meet a panicked Collin back in the living room. He grabs an umbrella from the front closet and starts to put his shoes on.

“When’s the last time you saw her?” I ask.

“I don’t know. Last night. She was asleep, I thought she was still asleep, right?”

“She was when I checked on her this morning.”

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