Unlocking by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction
ISBN: 9781773851419
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Published: 2021-03-24T19:49:05+00:00

Second Winter

chapter 12

Lou took a week to reach a decision—a few days later she went to Bart Hastings’ house. She was five minutes away when her focus began to swim, and she had to pull over into a nearby parking lot.

She remembered parking in the same lot once before, after an argument with Edward. The twins were eight then, both crying over a hamster that Lou had stepped on days before, and it was the hottest night of the summer. Thankfully, Lou had been wearing slippers when she stepped on the hamster; she didn’t need to pluck small bones from the arch of her foot. She remembered leaving the house in her nightgown and slippers and driving until she reached the lot. She hadn’t grabbed her housecoat before driving away, and the sweat on her skin was cold and clammy despite the temperature being in the high thirties. She got into the car alone, but Edward followed her into the garage and closed the garage door from the remote on the wall. She pushed the button again from inside the car, and the door rose, but Edward hadn’t closed the door to the house behind him, and Magician seized the opportunity to make a run for it. Lou rolled down the window to raise the alarm about the cat when Edward slid into the back seat and fastened his seatbelt.

“Nothing has to change, Louise. I made a mistake, a big one, but I love you. I love our children. I love our life together.”

The cat hopped up onto the hood of the car and began rubbing against the windshield. Lou could hear purring through the open window.

“Get the cat off my car, Edward.”

“The cat can wait.”

“I’ll drive over it.”

(They both knew she wouldn’t.)

“For fuck’s sake, Edward—”

She pressed the car horn and leaned on it while Edward stared at her from the back seat.

“Louise, you’re going to wake the neighbours.”

She leaned on the horn for a few more seconds, and then slowly let her hand return to her lap. In the rearview mirror, she saw lights flicker on down the street, and she saw Euphemia pressed against the screen door with a bag of Hobnobs in her hand as she watched what she surely knew was an unfolding argument.

“Edward,” she said more calmly than she knew she could, “get out of my car, get the cat back inside, and both of you stay there.”

She looked straight ahead and placed her hands on the steering wheel as her knuckles turned white.

“She doesn’t mean anything to me,” he said with a heavy exhalation.

The next movements happened quite slowly, as if they were being filmed and slowed down in a studio. He moved his hands to unbuckle his seatbelt and stepped out of the car, lifted the cat off the hood, and then stood in the doorway of their house. Lou watched him holding the cat under his arm like a football, as his glasses slid down his face from the heat. She put the car in reverse and drove until she reached the parking lot.

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