Motherless Child 1: Motherless Child by Hirshberg Glen

Author:Hirshberg, Glen [Hirshberg, Glen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Novel
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2014-01-01T02:00:00+00:00

13

“I’m just getting some air,” Benny called from the condo’s tiny living room into the tinier bathroom, and stepped out the sliding screen door into the sea wind. For a while, he just stood there, blinking; Jess insisted on closing the curtains when they were indoors, though he remained unclear whether that was to stay hidden or just another Jess-privacy thing. Squinting into the sinking sun while his skin warmed from its air-conditioning coma and started to tingle, he slid a hand into his pocket to check for his cell phone. Then he glanced behind him to make sure Jess wasn’t watching, felt ridiculous, and started across the street toward the tilting pier terraced over the scatter of weeds and cracked, colorless shells that passed for beach in Ocean Town, Maryland.

The sun still hung above the horizon and the pier’s splintery wooden railing retained the afternoon heat when Benny leaned on it, but already the beach had emptied. There was no sandbar along this stretch—the sandbar was for summer people—and no protective harbor, and waves pounded at the shore like fists on a door. People didn’t so much swim here as step in, get knocked down, struggle back up laughing less than they expected, and stagger out. In a few hours, the town teens would arrive with whatever beer they’d managed to scavenge and they’d huddle in whatever protection the weeds offered and get what they could from one another.

Even across the street and over the thud of the waves, he could hear both of the babies crying back in the condo. As soon as she had them swaddled, Jess would be calling for him, because he turned out to have a surprising knack for quieting them. Surprising to him, not her, as far as he could tell.

Why do you think I brought you? she often asked when he had the babies curled on his chest like kittens, sleeping soundly.

And he’d smile, as if he loved the question, instead of simply the sound of her voice aimed in his direction.

He should make his call right now, he knew. While Jess still had her hands full. Clearly, there was something back in Charlotte Jess needed to forget. He’d never press her on it, had no desire to learn more unless she wanted him to. But that didn’t mean he had to forget. Did it?

Still, he lingered against the railing, feeling the grit on the slats under his feet, letting the sunlight slip over and into him. He closed his eyes, and the wind kicked up and flung bits of sand against his arms and cheeks like rice. As if the wedding were still going on five weeks later. Not that there’d been a wedding. But there could be, he was almost sure, now. Pretty much any time he wanted. Why would she say no?

Opening his eyes, Benny glanced sideways toward town. Every single night at just about this hour—the edge of evening, almost the exact moment the beach users and retirees

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