"Where's dad? He's never this late…" With a clattering of porcelain, Odessa reached up into the cabinets and grabbed a stack of brown and white speckled plates, pulling them down before handing them over to her mother.
She had been watching out the small window above the kitchen sink for some time now, waiting for the headlights to come around the driveway bend, but nearly an hour had gone by and still, nothing.
"It's not like him…" She repeated, frowning.
"Remind me again, Des? Which one of us is married to him? You know how he gets… caught up on one of his projects or another. You are gonna look like a wrinkled paper bag someday, if you don't stop worrying." As she laid out each plate, Mary Carrigan's eyes moved to the window as well, pausing for only a second or two, before she returned to setting the table.
"What's he working on, anyway? I heard him on the phone last night… He sounded stressed."
"I don't know, Honey. It all goes over my head. Look, now… There he is."
The headlights rounded the bend as Odessa turned to watch, "I… don't think that's dad. Unless he went out and bought a new car?"
Blinking, Mary straightened and stepping alongside Odessa, she followed her daughter's gaze. Something in her face shifted as she watched the vehicle pull to a stop and without moving, she reaching out to grip Odessa's arm, "Sweetheart. I need you to listen… Get your brother and sister and go to the laundry room…"
"Mom??"
Waving off the question, Mary moved closer to the window, "Odessa. Go, now. And lock the door. Lock the door and do not open it… not for any reason. Do you understand me?"
"Mom? You're scaring me…"
"Odessa!"
At the shout, she turned, and without a word, she made for the living room, where her younger siblings sat, watching the television, "Rylie, Meg. Come with me, right now…" As she spoke, she could hear a knock at the door, the mumbling of a voice behind it.
"Now!" She shouted, and her brother and sister rose, their expressions a mixture of confusion and fear. Ushering them through the living room, then the mud room and at last into the laundry room, she closed the door and as she had been instructed, locked it, before turning to the other two, "Not one word, okay? No matter what…"
No matter what…
It felt strange to say… stranger, perhaps, because she knew that whatever was happening, it was bad. She had seen it in her mother's eyes. Something was wrong. Horribly wrong.
Moving to the door again, she leaned against it, craning her ear to the muffled voices. They grew louder and louder, but she could barely make out anything anyone was saying. Then rather suddenly, there was silence… Utter silence, so deep that she could hear her own heart, beating in her chest.
After that, she heard the gunshot. Megan whimpered, and Rylie rose to his feet, but Odessa spun and put a finger to her lips, shaking her head, her eyes burned with tears. The quiet settled again, and for several seconds there was only that stillness, like oblivion had fallen over the house. Then a tapping sound… hard leather soled shoes across the tile floor. Tap… tap...tap… Closer and closer the came, and Odessa crossed to her siblings, hugging them tightly to her, Megan burrowing her face in Odessa's shoulder. She could feel their pulses, rapid and frightened, feel the sweat on the backs of their necks and their palms. Her shoulder dampened with Megan's tears, and Rylie looked terrifyingly pale.
The door rattled, and she pressed Megan into her, muffling the sound of her fearful squeal. Swiftly, she glanced around. There was only one exit from the laundry room - a narrow window that led out into the backyard. It wasn't very big, but it would be enough for her brother and sister to climb through.
There was a sound in the hallway, a shuffling and then someone muttered. From her position, she could make out shadows under the door jam… a faint orange glow, flickering light… like a flashlight, but less static. And then she smelled it… the smoke. Biting her cheek, she spun and looking to Rylie, gestured to the window, then to Megan. He seemed confused at first, but as she gestured a second time, he nodded and together, then hefted her up. Her fumbling fingers, confused and afraid scrambled for the lock three times before she managed to unlatch it and after a few tense seconds, she was up and out, but smoke had already begun to pour in through the narrow crack under the door, and Rylie was coughing and sputtering. Shaking her head, she pulled down a towel from the rack about her head and wetting it, wrapped it around his face, she wrapped her own as well, then steepling her hands together, boosted her brother up and out of the window.
Rylie was back, peeking through as soon as he had climbed fully out, waving her along, but she shook her head, hissing up at him to take Megan and run. Smoke had already begun to pour high in the room, and she could feel it, the tendrils curling into her nose, burning the back of her throat. Rylie yelled something, but she couldn't hear him through the ringing in her ears and waving him along again, she waved as he disappeared, the smoke too high, too thick… Sinking lower, choking on a cough, she pressed the towel against her face, and squeezed her eyes shut as her vision began to blur…