0765378809 by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Author:Thomas Olde Heuvelt [Heuvelt, Thomas Olde]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Fantasy, Thriller
ISBN: 9781466864580
Google: ED06CQAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00XHHV4ZI
Barnesnoble: B00XHHV4ZI
Goodreads: 25667187
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2013-04-01T05:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

LATER THE SAME afternoon Steve suggested they go get the horses and settle them back in their own stable, but Jocelyn’s face clouded over at the idea.

“I don’t know, Steve. I don’t have a good feeling about it, so close to the creek and the woods and all.… How can we know if it’s safe?” She looked outdoors through the new window. The air in the dining room was still heavy with the smell of fresh paint from the retouched window frame, but the fragrance of Jocelyn’s vegetarian quiche in the oven was slowly taking over.

Steve shrugged. “We stayed here, didn’t we? Nothing happened to us.”

“Yes, but it’s different with people,” Matt said, as simple as that. He laid down his pen on top of his homework. “I don’t want Nuala to end up hanging from a tree, too, Dad.”

“The creek’s been back to normal for two days now,” Steve said. “And there’s no indication that things are any different than they were before, or that the horses are in any kind of danger.”

“Unless a certain person forgets to shut the stable door,” Matt remarked. He seemed shocked by his own comment, but it was too late: Jocelyn’s expression changed into a mask of offended distress.

Steve was taken aback. “What kind of goddamn presumptuousness is that!” he exclaimed.

“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? Gramma can’t use her hands, and Fletcher didn’t unbolt his kennel by himself, you know!”

“We don’t know how Fletcher got out. But if your mom says she bolted the kennel, you have no right to doubt her. I want you to apologize.”

“I’m not going to apologize for something that—”

“Apologize!”

Matt slammed his book on the floor and jumped up from the table. “I’m sorry, all right? Sorry you guys can’t take it if somebody speaks the truth for once!”

“Matt!”

But he had already run upstairs and slammed his bedroom door. Steve was aghast. He looked at Jocelyn in the pale four o’clock light, but she lowered her eyes. “Well done,” she sighed.

“You should have said something yourself, then,” Steve snapped, nastier than he had intended. He understood that Matt’s irrational outburst was just his way of dealing with his grief, but it made Steve angry nonetheless. He didn’t know how to deal with Matt’s mood swings, especially when he got downright mean. Jocelyn was better at it. One of the things that had always held their marriage together in the Black Spring whirlwind was the natural division of roles they had settled into within the family, from which they rarely deviated. It created context and order in an environment where turmoil was all too common. And when it came to matters of the heart, reason was a virtue. One of the aspects of that role division was that Jocelyn took care of Matt while Steve was responsible for Tyler. It wasn’t entirely black-and-white, of course, but that’s what both of them—all four of them—knew to be true.

“I don’t mean just Matt,” Jocelyn said. “It’s affecting both of them. Tyler hasn’t come out of his room for days.

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