Not a Creature Was Stirring(29)

“Here comes Bennis,” Chris said.

“Bennis?” Teddy sat up straight. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. God, she grew up beautiful, didn’t she?”

“Mmm,” Teddy said.

“Anne Marie’s probably looking for us. That’s what it’s about.”

“What time is it?” Teddy said.

Chris looked over his shoulder, confused to find Teddy up and moving around. “You’re the one with the watch,” he said. “I never wear a watch.”

Teddy checked his watch. “Quarter to six. How did it get to be quarter to six?”

“Dope is like that,” Chris said.

Teddy brushed away the offered joint. “I’ve got to get out of here. I had no idea it was this late. I’ve got to get dressed for dinner. I’ve got to—”

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Teddy said. “I’m just in a hurry.”

“Why? Stay around and talk to Bennis. She—”

Teddy shook him off. “No. The one thing I don’t want to do is stay around and talk to Bennis.” He found the boot he had lost and got it on. A moment later, he had swung out of sight down the ladder. Chris sat up and stared after him, amazed. Teddy was hopping down to the stable floor. His brace clattered once or twice against the ladder rungs, then landed with a thump in the hay at the bottom.

“Will you just cool out?” Chris said.

Thump. Thump. Drag. Thump. Thump. Drag. Teddy didn’t stop moving until he got to the stable door—the back stable door, so he wouldn’t even run into Bennis coming in—and then he turned around and said,

“Screw you.”

Chris blinked. Teddy was gone. Bennis hadn’t arrived. He was alone. He suddenly felt as if he’d been on one of those acid trips he never actually took.

He was beginning to think he ought to give up dope.





3


At 5:59 Bennis Hannaford, fresh from a two-way trek through the wilds of the kitchen yard and an even stranger trek through the wilds of her brother Christopher’s mind, came in out of the wind to the warmth and humidity of the kitchen. Mrs. Washington was at the stove, pulling a tray of hot cheese canapés out of the lower oven. Bennis popped off her boots—nobody in their right mind made a mess of Mrs. Washington’s daily-waxed floors—and went over and stole one. She had to snake her thin white hand under Mrs. Washington’s broader black one, but this was a game they had been playing since Bennis was three. If Mrs. Washington ever started making it easier for her, Bennis would be wrecked.

Mrs. Washington decided to make it harder by putting the canapé tray on top of the refrigerator. “That man isn’t here yet,” she said. “Stuck in the snow out there, I guess.”

“The snow is awful,” Bennis said. “The canapés are good.”

Mrs. Washington didn’t respond to that one. Her canapés were always good. “Did you find those two?”

“I found Chris. Stoned.”

Mrs. Washington took another tray of canapés, ham and cheese this time, and shoved them into the lower oven. “That boy always did have money where he should have had brains. What happened to the other one?”

“I don’t know. According to Chris, they were both out there all afternoon, and then just before I came Teddy took off. Actually, what Chris said was that Teddy took off because I came, but that doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

“Nobody makes any sense,” Mrs. Washington said. “Maybe he went up to see your mother.”

“Did he come through here?”

“I haven’t seen him yet.”

“I saw him at lunch. God, but it’s tense around here. I don’t know how you stand it.”

Mrs. Washington smiled. “Forty-five thousand a year and a ride to Mass every Sunday. And it’s not so tense when the whole pack of you aren’t here at once. He’s always a nuisance, but your mother and Anne Marie aren’t bad.”

“I’d rather live with him than Anne Marie,” Bennis said. “At least I know what’s going on with him.”

“There’s your brother Teddy now.” Mrs. Washington waved her spatula at the wall. “He’s going down the east hall. You can hear the brace.”

Bennis could quite definitely hear the brace. She’d forgotten what a distinctive sound it made. “I wonder what he’s doing over there,” she said. “I can’t believe he’s going to pay a visit to Daddy.”

“If he does, your father will beat him to a pulp,” Mrs. Washington said. “My, the energy you people waste on hating each other, it’s amazing. Myra came through here a little while ago—”