Where Butterflies Wander: A Novel by Suzanne Redfearn

Author:Suzanne Redfearn [Redfearn, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2024-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

31

LEO

This whole thing has gotten completely out of hand. Last night, I slept on the porch with a shotgun. Me, a proclaimed pacifist who regularly petitions for gun control and has even done an economic study on the monetary impact of gun violence on our society.

I rinse the razor in the sink and return to shaving the shockingly gray stubble from my chin, trying to avoid looking too close at the rest of my face and the toll the past two months have taken. Stress can take years off a life. It’s why presidents look so much worse after they’ve served. I cannot believe how much we are hated and how quickly it happened. Before we came here, we had always been well liked. The sort of people others referred to as “good folk” or “a nice family.” I was the kind of guy people knew they could count on, often called on to volunteer in the classroom or coach or chaperone a school trip. Marie was admired and respected and constantly asked to serve on boards and committees because she is smart, reliable, and fair.

The gun is back in the cabinet in the basement. I woke this morning feeling incredibly foolish. It wasn’t loaded. I couldn’t find any shells. Even if I had, I wouldn’t have known how to load it. I didn’t even have any idea if the gun still works. But when that rock smashed through the window, something came over me, a primal instinct to do whatever it took to protect my family. I became possessed with uncharacteristic rage that made me want to seek out the evildoers and exact vengeance. The whole thing ludicrous.

I shake my head and rinse off my face.

At some point, I must have dozed off because I woke at dawn to a helicopter circling, a cameraman in the open door with the lens aimed at me. I dropped the shotgun beneath the swing, which I’m certain only made things look worse. And now, I’m incredibly embarrassed and wish there was some way to undo it.

Marie spoke with the sheriff about the rock, and he promised to speak to the landowner across the street about kicking the protesters off his property in order to disband them. He assured her, one way or another, he’d get it done. He’s a good man and seems to understand our side of this fiasco.

The front door opens, and I hear Marie snap, “Are you kidding? Where have you two been?”

Quickly, I wipe my face with a towel and hurry down the stairs.

“You left the house?” Marie says. “After what happened? Do you know how dangerous that is?”

Hannah and Pen stand just inside the door. Hannah’s hair is damp, her head bent and her eyes on the floor. Pen, on the other hand, glares angrily up at Marie, her arms crossed defiantly over her chest.

“We needed to feed the chickens and cats,” she spits. “Otherwise, they’d starve.”

Marie startles at Pen’s anger, her harshness like a lash.

I step beside Marie and set my hand on her shoulder.

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