Purling Road - the Complete Second Season: Episodes 1-10 (15 page)

***

On the way home, Aryl smoked again and Jonathan joined him, both wearing heavy frowns.

“Did Claire tell you they were meeting at Ruth’s on Friday nights?” Jonathan asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

“No.”

Jonathan gripped the steering wheel harder.

“What did you have to tell Caleb?”

“I told you, you’ll have to ask him.”

“Since when do we keep secrets from each other, Aryl?” Jonathan was tempted enough to pull over and demand an answer.

“It’s not a secret. I’m just not going to gossip.” He’d finished his cigarette, threw it out the window, and lit another.

“It’s not gossip when you’re concerned about a friend.”

Aryl held firm, lost in his own worries.

Jonathan stopped in front of his house and Aryl got out quickly then turned around.

“Go to his place right now if you’re concerned. Who knows, maybe you can help
them
.”

With that cryptic statement, he walked away, not going inside his house, but around the side to the backyard. Jonathan watched him until he disappeared and then drove to Caleb’s house.

***

It was quiet, even for a Sunday. There was a proverbial dark cloud hanging over his house and even the animals seemed hesitant to make noise from their pens. No sooner had he parked, Caleb shot out the back door so fast, the screen slammed into the wall behind. Seeing Jonathan, he deflated.

“Hey, how are you?” Jonathan called, trying to figure out how to ask what really awful news Aryl had to deliver without being tacky.

Caleb looked terrible. Angry. Spun up as if awaiting a fight. Jonathan climbed the porch steps and stopped.

“Aryl tell you?” he asked.

“Aryl told me that he had to deliver some bad news. He wouldn’t say what.”

Caleb threw his hands in the air. “I’m surprised everyone in town doesn’t know. Amazed that Muzzy isn’t writing up a story on it right now.”

Jonathan followed him into the house. It was quiet. He could see one of the twin’s legs hanging off the sofa in a deep afternoon sleep. Felicity made small squeaks and gurgles from somewhere off in the corner. Caleb went to the icebox, cursed at the puddle forming below the door and threw down a towel.

“I swear to God, I’m going to buy an electric one this year,” he growled.

“I saw one down at the hardware store, second hand.”

Caleb ducked his head in and pulled out two long neck bottles. “If Arianna hadn’t been taking money out of savings, I could.” He set the bottles on the table. “I don’t know if this is any good. Traded rabbits for a dozen.” Jonathan pulled the cork and sniffed. It smelled of strong home-brewed beer. He took an experimental sip.

“That’s pretty good,” he said and took another.

Caleb threw his leg over the chair and sat with a thud. He finished half the bottle in one tilt.

“What happened?” Jonathan asked.

Caleb looked over, up and down. “She’s been seeing someone,” he said quietly.

The resulting silence was deafening and Jonathan scrambled for something to say. There was no consolation in situations like this. The most he could offer was a ray of hope.

“Are you sure? Maybe—”

“I caught her,” Caleb said, looking up quickly.

Jonathan nodded slowly and sipped again.

Okay, so hope was out.

“Where is she now?” Jonathan asked, looking over his shoulder.

As Caleb threw himself back against the chair, he shrugged. “Don’t know. I made her leave this morning.”

Jonathan grappled for words and found none. They drank, didn’t look at each other. The most he could do for Caleb now was just be here and wait until he was ready to talk.

“I caught her coming home in the middle of the night earlier this week. She said she’d been at a hooch house with some people she met. Aryl had already told me what he heard. I didn’t want to believe it, even when she stood there at two a.m. lying to me that she was with no one special, just having some drinks, getting away from it all.” He shook his head at his own weakness. “I couldn’t ask her outright. I didn’t want to hear the answer. Last night, I felt her get out of bed. I heard her sneak out the front door, so I got up and followed her. Followed her all the way to lover’s bluff.”

Jonathan cringed.

“Pulled her out, punched him, and handed her bag to her,” he said with finality.

“Maybe that’s what it will take for her to…”

“To what? Learn? No, those days are over. And so are we. I thought she was past all the drinking and running around, but she’s not. She never will be. Good riddance.”

“She was for a while. Are you sure it’s not something else?” Jonathan asked, leaning over his arms. “Even back in the day, she never went this far. Maybe Ethel’s death affected her more than you thought.”

Caleb frowned. “My mother died—so naturally, Arianna has an affair? That makes no sense.”

“During times of extreme stress, people don’t always make sense. Is there a possibility it could have been just an emotional affair?”

“What difference does it make?” Caleb asked.

“When it comes to certain things, it makes a big difference. If she was just looking to someone else for what she needed to hear from you—”

“Jon, if you’re getting to the part where you tell me to go find my wife, bring her home, and make it work—save your breath.”

“What are you going to do then?” Jonathan asked, finishing off the last of his beer.

“I’m going into town tomorrow, and with the last of my savings, instead of buying an electric refrigerator, I’m filing for divorce.”

Speaking the words aloud jolted him as much as they did Jonathan.

Jonathan rolled the bottle between his hands for a moment.

“Are you sure you don’t want to wait a while before you make that decision?”

“Why wait?” he asked as he took Jonathan’s empty bottle and replaced it with a new one.

“What about the kids?” Jonathan asked.

“I’ve already talked to Maura. She’s going to come by and help me during the day.”

“What did she have to say about all this?”

“For the first time, nothing much. She listened. It seemed to make her sad. She offered her help before I could ask. Typical Maura. I know she went out looking for Arianna after I left.”

Jonathan dared to smirk. “I almost feel sorry for her if Maura finds her.”

“I don’t,” Caleb said. “She deserves everything Maura has to give plus some.”

He rose suddenly and pushed open the back door. Jonathan followed and dropped himself down on the porch swing next to Caleb.

“Maura will help until I can afford to hire someone. That’s the only good thing about everybody being broke—people are willing to work for next to nothing. Eventually, I’ll meet someone new and remarry.”

Jonathan didn’t like hearing any of this. He didn’t like the finality in Caleb’s voice and knew that even if Arianna crawled up the driveway on her hands and knees, begging for forgiveness, in his present mood, Caleb wouldn’t.

“If I can help at all, let me know,” Jonathan said.

“Aryl doesn’t know she’s gone. You can tell him he was right.”

Nothing could be done to fix this, at least not right now. Jonathan’s thoughts came back full circle to his own concerns.

“Did Arianna tell you that they were getting together at Ruth’s on Friday nights?”

“Yes.”

“I saw Ruth today. She said that they haven’t been.”

“Like an idiot, I believed her,” Caleb said with a huff.

Jonathan stared straight ahead. “Well, my friend, you’re not the only idiot.” His concern morphed into anger. “Because Ava told me the same thing.”

***

When Jonathan came home, the sky had further darkened. An afternoon storm wasted no time moving in. He said nothing. He barely acknowledged Jean’s warm welcome and he said nothing to Ava.

Upstairs, he changed clothes and silently went outside to work on the Tourer. It was choking and he needed to figure out why. Ava watched him, his deep-set frown, the way his shoulders were taut, pulled back. His eyes avoided her completely. Dread washed over her. She wondered just how much he knew.

***

Dinner was tense and quiet. Even Amy didn’t smile and whisper as she normally did. Ava had no appetite; she picked at her food, waiting for it all to come down. She wished he’d hurry. Every minute was growing more miserable.

Finally, after the children were finished, he said something.

“Jean, Eddie, take your sister in the living room and turn on the radio.”

Jean slid down, pulled Amy from her chair, and hoisted her up on his chest. With a concerned glance at his parents, he did as he was told, Eddie following close behind.

Amy babbled, Eddie whispered to her softly, and they heard the radio turn on.

Jonathan took his time saying anything. But he wouldn’t shrink away from it as Caleb had. The tremendous effort to stay calm was obvious.

“What’s his name?” Jonathan growled, eyes glaring hard at the table.

Ava sat back and crossed her arms. “Josh.”

He swallowed hard, his jaw flexed.

“Where does he live?”

“I—I don’t know. What does it matter?”

“I need to know where he lives.”

“Why?” she asked in a flat tone.

His eyes flashed up. “So I can kill him,” he seethed.

Her mouth hung open for a moment, and she was trapped in his furious stare.

“There’s no need to kill anyone,” she said. She would have laughed if she didn’t find his eyes so disturbing.

“There’s not?” he asked darkly. “I’m supposed to just let this go on?”

“It’s not your place to do anything about it,” she said gently.

“The hell it’s not!”

“I know you’re Caleb’s friend. But it’s up to him to deal with this.”

“Why would I let Caleb deal with the man who’s having an affair with my wife?!”

She stared blankly. Then her eyes flashed wide.

“You think I’m—”

“I was at Ruth’s today and found out you haven’t been going to her house every Friday night like you said.”

“Oh,” she said quietly, dropping her eyes. This wasn’t something she expected. Taking part in Arianna’s antics, yes. But not this. She’d covered her tracks so well. She’d made sure not to tell a single soul since none of the souls around her could keep a secret to save their lives. But she’d forgotten to talk to Ruth.

“And you think…” She paused, trying to find a thread to begin unwinding this tangled misunderstanding.

“I am not having an affair,” she said, looking him in the eyes.

“Then who is Josh?” he asked and looked as if he might rocket out of the chair at the mention of his name.

“He is…” She huffed, let her eyes wander all around, and then went ahead with it. “He is who Arianna is seeing secretly. Although it’s not much of a secret now.”

His face fell in shock.

“You knew about that?”

“Only recently.” She wouldn’t lie if he asked, but she wasn’t going to offer anything else that might make this situation worse. As it was, she had to come clean about the Friday nights. She doubted she’d get so lucky as after the girl’s night where he was distracted and didn’t press the issue.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He was still angry, but not on the verge of exploding.

“She asked me not to. I thought it would be short lived. She’d get it out of her system, go home, and behave.”

“When have you ever known Arianna to do that willingly?”

She shrugged without an answer.

He scrubbed his hand over his face. “I might have helped prevent what happened if I had known.”

“What happened?” she asked.

“She didn’t run it out of her system and go home. Caleb caught her last night. He threw her out.”

Ava’s eyes went wide. “Where is she now?”

“No one knows.”

“Jon, we can’t just let her wander—”

“Oh, now it’s time to do something?” he asked mockingly. “He said Aryl told him. Did you share your secret with Claire?”

She nodded. He bristled. “But not me.”

They both sat in angry silence through several radio commercials. When the normal programming resumed, it was louder and he continued.

“That doesn’t explain where you’ve been. Or why you lied to me.” He folded his arms, waiting.

“You’re going to be angry,” she said softly.

“As if I’m not already,” he replied tersely.

She rose, went to the cupboard, and pulled out a small tin. She placed it in front of him before she sat down. “Open it.”

He did and was surprised to find money.