The Legacy of Eden. Nelle Davy

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СКАЧАТЬ windshield of his wife’s car and smashed into the base of her head at the neck. Their three-year-old daughter, Julia, had been in the passenger seat next to her at the time, although miraculously she was unhurt. Cal had picked her up at the hospital after he had identified his wife. Her skin and cherry-patterned dress were still covered in her mother’s blood. He stared into the calm brown eyes of his child and had known then and there what death really was, and also, that at the tender age of three, she now knew it, too.

      That was why he let her come upstairs with him to see his father when they first arrived at the house, even though his sister, Piper, had protested.

      “It ain’t right,” she had called after them both from the bottom of the stairway.

      “What isn’t?” their brother Leo had asked, coming in to take the lunch she had laid out for him on the kitchen table.

      Piper turned. “He’s taking Julia up to see Pa.”

      Her brother had humphed as he tore into a cold beef sandwich with mustard. “So they’ve arrived, have they? Anyway what do you care? It’s his kid.”

      “Would you let yours come up?”

      “I don’t have none so I wouldn’t know. Anyway, I’m thinking that’d be more along the lines of their mother’s call. She don’t have no mother.”

      Piper jutted out her chin in irritation. “Still ain’t right.”

      “He say how long he staying for?”

      Piper watched her brother as he stared at her over his plate.

      “I didn’t have time to ask. He just dropped his bags and went straight up.”

      “No sense beating ‘round the bush, I guess. He’s only here for one reason and we all know it.”

      When Cal came back downstairs, he paused at the bottom step at the sight of his younger brother. Piper ignored them both and, bending down low, she faced the silent unflinching gaze of her niece.

      “Do you want some lunch Ju-bug?”

      Julia looked up at her father, who stared at her in silent agreement.

      “She’ll ask for it when she’s hungry,” he said.

      He looked at his sister. She was still as she ever was: thin, wiry, her hard jaw and her overly inquisitive eyes searing everything with their gaze. He looked at his brother sitting at the table, staring at him thoughtfully as he ate. Already he could feel the enmity wash over him. Suddenly he was incredibly tired, and he longed for the silent confines of his small apartment back in Oregon.

      He nodded in greeting.

      “Long time,” he said. Leo raised his eyebrows; Piper looked at the floor.

      “Could say that,” Leo replied.

      “I heard you got married,” Cal said.

      “Yeah. Just before the war.”

      “You fight?” Cal asked, suddenly curious.

      Leo used the last of his sandwich to mop up the mustard sauce on the plate.

      “Yeah.” He looked up and stared at his brother. “I did my time.”

      Cal looked away, as if lost in thought, before he cleared his throat.

      “Did you see any action, Cal?” his brother asked softly.

      Cal met his brother’s unflinching gaze.

      “I saw plenty.”

      “Pa’s glad to have you back,” offered Piper, the light notes of her voice grating against the air in the kitchen.

      “Pa barely knows his own name,” Cal snapped. Piper looked away out onto the porch and sniffed.

      Julia frowned and began to swing against the grip of her father. Cal looked down at his daughter as if he had forgotten she was there.

      “Julia, this is your uncle Leo,” he said, raising a finger. “Remember the pictures I showed you?”

      Julia looked at her uncle and then shook her head.

      “Well, it don’t matter,” said Cal. “He was much younger in them than he is now.”

      “Hi there, girl,” said Leo and gave her a halfhearted wave. He turned back to his plate. “You both gonna be here long?” he asked sharply, without looking up.

      Cal gave him a level gaze and then shrugged.

      “Don’t think so. Got to get back to work, for one thing.”

      “Didn’t you tell them the circumstances?” asked Piper, shocked.

      “Of course I did. They said I could take as much time as I needed but, uh, I just don’t think I’ll be needing that much time.”

      Piper’s eyes slid away from her brother to the floor. Leo paused and then pushed back his chair before wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

      “Well then,” he said, “well then. No need to make no fuss.”

      “My thoughts exactly,” said Cal.

      Of course that wasn’t how it turned out.

      It began when Piper came down from their father’s bedroom a few days later and started making a list at the kitchen table of things to get in town. Not from the local store, but up in the city from the place their mother had always used when she needed something special. Then she went out to see Leo. When she found him hoisting hay bales in the barn, she told him to keep the seventh free.

      “What for?” he’d asked between grunts of exertion.

      “Pa’s planning something,” she’d said.

      “Pa can’t wipe his own ass. You’re planning something for him.”

      “And?”

      “And what is it for?”

      “For the family.”

      Leo had grunted again but he did not speak.

      Then three days later, as she went to pick up some meat for dinner, Anne-Marie Parks saw Piper Hathaway order up two sides of beef, three hams, four chickens and a hog.

      “You hibernating?” asked Dan Keenan from behind the counter. “If so you’re early, it ain’t even fall yet.”

      “Luck favors the prepared,” said Piper as she counted out the money.

      Later that week over mashed potatoes with sausages and onions, Lou Parks told his wife about the invitation they had received.

      “Walter’s having a party up in the house,” he said.

      “Where?” asked Anne-Marie.

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