Close to Home by Nolon King

Author:Nolon King [King, Nolon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sterling & Stone
Published: 2019-07-07T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Two

“You sure you don’t want more ice?”

Cynthia looked at Corban in sympathy, like she wanted to reach out and touch his nose again.

“Thank you, Mrs. Harris, but that’s okay. Really, it doesn’t even hurt that much anymore. I’m sure it looks worse than it is.”

“That’s what you get for running too fast and not watching where you’re going.” It was the third time that Kari had found a way to naturally deliver the lie she needed her mom to believe.

Because this couldn’t be about that. Not in her mother’s current condition.

Under normal circumstances she would never have fallen for such a sham, but Kari’s mom was an absolute mess.

She warned him before he came over, but Corban hadn’t expected this. It was heartbreaking, and such a contrast with his own mother, who seemed so delighted by all of the disasters raining upon Almond Park. He thought of that farce of a dinner party a couple days before — Cynthia’s drinking and his father’s nauseating onslaught of garbage — and wanted to shudder.

According to Kari, her mom had barely left the house, and she was clearly hanging by a thread. Kari made a pot of oolong, but Cynthia ignored it entirely for the bottle that she seemed determined to drink as fast as possible.

Kari glanced at Corban, worried. Her mother was too lost to notice.

“I don’t have any friends anymore,” Cynthia said, a second after a giant swallow.

“That’s not true, Mom.”

But it was. Kari told him the same thing herself on the bike ride here.

“This will all blow over,” Kari added. “They’ll find the killer and everyone in town will feel really bad about how they’ve treated Dad.”

Another swallow, much closer to a gulp. “But how could I ever be friends with them again after this? After what they thought of your father? I just couldn’t.” She shook her head, haunted and furious. Another sip, this one small and nervous. “Everything’s ruined forever.”

“It’s not ruined forever, you just have to—”

“It is, Kari.” Cynthia stood. She gulped — no, guzzled — the rest of her wine, then headed for the kitchen, probably to open another bottle. “I can’t just anything. Not today or tomorrow or ever again.”

Cynthia cracked the bottle with a couple of twists of the corkscrew followed by a pop, without ever once looking down at the bottle. Same for the way she filled her glass. Extra impressive, considering she was already drunk.

“I’m ostracized.”

Her words were starting to slur. Ostracized definitely had an added H. Kari squeezed his hand under the table, hard.

“What can we do, Mom?”

“You can’t do anything! No one can do anything. Either your father did it and our lives are ruined, or he didn’t do it and our lives are still ruined.”

“Things will be okay if—”

“What do you know, Kari?”

Kari flinched.

“I’m sorry. I just—”

“My Bunco group canceled on me. I made a beef enchilada dip.” Her voice cracked, like the real tragedy was that her dip might go to waste.

“It will pass.”

“You’re not getting it,” Cynthia said, sounding more upset by the word, “it won’t.

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