Second to Cry (7 page)

‘It’s just getting unbearable,’ Isla admitted, glad that her husband was finally taking her anguish seriously. ‘Something happened today that made it worse.’

‘What happened?’ Aiden asked, alarmed, instantly fearing that Buck Fern had been around stirring up trouble.

Isla internally groaned and wished she’d not been so hasty in tearing up the note. Without evidence Aiden would be less likely to believe her. She’d have to fob him off with something else for the time being. Besides, she was certain that there would be more notes, no matter how zealously she tried to ignore them.

‘I’d gone to the grocery store,’ Isla began. ‘Meegan was playing up with the heat so I thought it would be nice to get myself a treat, you know, something to cheer me up. So I went to have a look through the magazine section.’

‘And?’

‘And I had a look for a copy of
Vogue
. You know how it’s always been my favourite.’

‘Right,’ Aiden was unsure where the story was headed.

‘Well, it wasn’t there. No surprise, right? As if anyone in this hick town cares about fashion. All their clothes are from the flea market!’

‘So you’re upset because you couldn’t find a copy of
Vogue
?’ Aiden asked incredulously.

‘No, not just that. I went to the guy at the register and asked if they ever have a copy in.’

‘Okay…’

‘And he was like, “no, let me ask Ralph”, this other loser working there. So he asks Ralph or whatever his name was and they both started laughing at me. These two spotty high school drop-outs were laughing at me! I’ve never been so outraged in my whole life! I mean, what sort of a shit stain of a place is this that they don’t have
Vogue
!’

Isla exhaled, her cheeks reddened with fury as she relived the encounter.

Aiden watched her closely, waiting to see if she was joking only to sadly realize that she was being completely serious.

‘You know you can just order
Vogue
online, right?’

‘That’s not the point.’

‘Then what is the point?’

‘This place! It isn’t
me.
I care about fashion, about designers, about the latest trends. The people here live in a goddamn bubble and I’m sick of it!’

‘But you can still care about fashion and all that. Just order
Vogue
online.’

‘You’re not getting it!’ Isla screamed at him in frustration.

‘What exactly aren’t I getting?’ Aiden shouted back. ‘That you are so vacuous that you want to leave somewhere just because they don’t stock an overpriced fashion magazine?’

‘It’s all of it!’ Isla wailed.

‘You are so selfish!’ Aiden seethed. ‘I genuinely thought that your concerns were legitimate. That maybe you were just really struggling here but, actually, you’re getting upset about something so minor, something so insignificant!’

‘It’s significant to me,’ Isla told him coldly. ‘But then you don’t seem to care about what matters to me. You’re too busy either working or taking Meegan out. You don’t take me anywhere.’

‘So now you’re jealous of our daughter?’ he asked in disbelief. ‘You’re crazy, you know that? I’d take you out but you refuse to go anyway around here.’

‘I’m miserable and I want to leave here!’ Isla cried.

Aiden stood up to leave, tired of arguing over something as trivial as a magazine, though he did make a mental note to set up a standing order of
Vogue
online for Isla, for his own sanity as much as hers.

‘Why can’t we go back to Chicago?’ Isla demanded. Aiden was almost through the door when she added bitterly, ‘it’s because she’s there, isn’t it? God, Aid, you’re just so infatuated with her it’s pathetic!’

He immediately knew she was referring to Brandy. Was he really that transparent with his feelings?

Aiden turned to look at her, his eyes watering. He needed to say something, to reassure her that Brandy wasn’t an issue between them. As he stood, dwelling on what to say, the plaintive sounds of crying came filtering down the stairs. Their shouting had awoken Meegan. Aiden glanced upwards and then back at Isla who was now weeping gently at the table. It made him feel sick to think that he’d upset her like that.

‘I’ll go and see Meegan,’ he told her, his voice soft, the hostility of the argument melting away. Isla didn’t answer.

It took Aiden a while to calm Meegan down.

‘Daddy, why you yell?’ she asked him repeatedly through her floods of tears. He rocked her gently in his arms, reassuring her that everything was okay.

‘Mommy and Daddy are just tired,’ he told her, ‘people shout sometimes when they are tired. You know how grumpy you get when you don’t nap?’

This seemed to make sense to Meegan and she rested her head on Aiden’s chest, feeling sleepy once more.

‘We go to the game?’ she asked before putting a comforting thumb in her mouth.

‘Yes, sweetheart, we’ll go the game tomorrow.’ Since Aiden had become aware of the football scene in Avalon following his involvement with the Brandon White case, he’d tried to attend as many games as possible, soaking up the community spirit and enjoying the jovial atmosphere.

Meegan especially loved it, always insisting on being purchased a foam hand – she now possessed quite the collection, along with popcorn. It was a fun night out for them all. Although Isla only sometimes joined them, she found the games too rowdy.

After putting Meegan back to bed, Aiden walked into his own bedroom to find it in darkness. Isla was already lying beneath the sheet, her back to him.

‘She’s okay now,’ he updated his wife on their daughter but she didn’t answer. ‘Look, I’m sorry,’ Aiden sighed, always trying to heed his mother’s advice and not go to bed on an argument.

‘For what?’ Isla challenged, turning to face him. Even in the dim light he could see that she had been crying, her cheeks were red and puffy.

‘For making you doubt things.’

‘Is she an issue?’

‘No, of course not.’ Aiden leant forward and kissed Isla on the lips. ‘I know you hate it here,’ he whispered to her, ‘but I truly believe that this is the best place of us. Please just give it a bit more time and if you’re still desperately unhappy we can discuss moving again.’

‘Okay.’

‘Why don’t you come with me and Meegan to the game tomorrow? You know how much she loves them.’

‘The thought of her growing up wanting to be a footballer scares me,’ Isla admitted.

‘She can still do beauty pageants to keep you happy,’ Aiden teased. ‘And pageants are big business here. Think how much fun you’ll have when you can put Meegan in for those!’

Isla managed a smile at this.

‘So will you come to the game?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Earlier you were moaning that I don’t take you out enough.’

‘A high school football game wasn’t what I had in mind!’ Isla objected but her voice was warm.

‘It’s better than nothing,’ Aiden laughed.

‘I suppose.’

‘And I will order you
Vogue
,’ Aiden told her as she nestled into the nook between his arm and chest. ‘I’d hate to deprive you of all the many fascinating things occurring in the world of fashion.’

‘Don’t tease,’ Isla told him. ‘One day you’ll have two women in this house demanding the finest couture.’

‘I didn’t know they made designer football helmets,’ Aiden teased.

*

Avalon was always at its most lively whenever there was a local high school football game. It didn’t matter how significant the game was, everyone would always turn up, wearing the team colours to show their support.

As Aiden parked up near the football field, the revelry was already in full swing as people all around were singing merrily. The air was electric with excitement and it was easy to see the appeal of attending the games.

‘Football! Football!’ Meegan chanted from her car seat, sensing where they were.

‘Yes, sweetheart, we are at the football game.’ Isla turned around and smiled her. ‘I swear she gets more and more excited each time we come here.’

‘Finger!’ Meegan’s chant quickly changed when she spotted someone with a foam finger walk by the car.

‘Finger!’ she demanded again.

‘What do you say?’ Aiden turned to address his daughter.

‘Finger!’

‘No.’

Meegan scrunched her little face up in frustration as she tried to remember what she was supposed to say.

‘What’s the magic word?’ Aiden prompted again.

‘Please!’ Meegan exclaimed gleefully, proud that she had remembered.

‘Okay, good girl, we’ll go get you a foam finger.’

Aiden carried Meegan into the stadium as Isla went to purchase yet another foam finger. They had tried making Meegan take one of her existing foam fingers, but it seemed that part of the draw of them was the fact that they were newly purchased at the game. It seemed that each finger represented a different game and that was what Meegan liked.

It was already busy in the bleachers and Aiden had to sit quite far up to secure a seat. He spotted a few familiar faces around which he found comforting. Not so long ago everyone in Avalon had been a stranger and, whilst he was far from popular, he no longer felt quite so alienated.

A hand waved in his direction from close to the field and Aiden looked down to see Edmond and his brood settling down to watch the game, each of them dressed up and already well equipped with snacks.

Aiden waved back, as did Meegan.

Isla soon joined them with the foam finger and some popcorn, leaving Meegan unsure which she wanted first. She looked at her mother with frightened confusion when she offered her both the finger and the popcorn at once.

‘Too much choice?’ Isla laughed. ‘Why don’t you eat your popcorn first and then you can play with the finger?’

‘Finger!’ Meegan decided.

‘Fine,’ Isla handed it over. ‘She can be a stubborn little madam,’ she leant over and whispered to Aiden.

‘I wonder where she gets that from?’ he smiled.

The cheerleaders came out and commenced their routine, which meant that the game would soon start.

‘Meegan, what do you think of the cheerleaders?’ Isla asked her daughter. ‘Don’t they look pretty in their outfits? Isn’t their dancing fancy?’

Meegan was uninterested in the cheerleaders, preferring to focus on consuming as much of the popcorn as she could before the start of the game.

‘Nice try,’ Aiden joked. ‘I know you’d rather she wanted to be a cheerleader than a football player.’

‘Wouldn’t you?’

‘No,’ Aiden replied immediately. ‘I know what guys do to cheerleaders. At least as a football player she’d be safe from all that!’

‘You’re a creep, you know that?’ Isla told him but she was smiling as she said it.

The announcer told the excited crowd that the game would begin imminently and a Mexican wave began to move back and forth amongst the stands.

Meegan waved her foam finger proudly, knocking what remained of the popcorn on to the floor.

‘Be careful!’ Isla cried.

‘She’s just having fun.’ Aiden wanted Isla to relax, to enter in to the spirit of the game as he and Meegan did.

The game started and though not particularly dramatic, it was still enjoyable to watch. Isla, however, was far less enthused than her husband and daughter. Each time a player was knocked down or tackled harshly she would flinch. For her, the cheerleading routine was always the best part of the game.

Half time came around and without the game to distract her, Meegan suddenly realized she had no popcorn left.

‘Corn!’ she pleaded but Isla shook her head firmly.

‘No more, you should have been more careful with the popcorn I got you.’ This stern approach made Meegan begin wailing uncontrollably.

‘Come on, Meegs, the players don’t want to look up and see you crying, they want to see you supporting them,’ Aiden tried to console her but it did no good. Her cries intensified and she’d only stop to briefly snivel, ‘Corn.’

‘I’m not getting her any more,’ Isla said flatly, folding her arms across her chest.

‘I don’t think she will shut up if we don’t,’ Aiden had to shout to be heard over his daughter’s tantrum.

‘You spoil her, you know that?’

‘I just want a quiet life.’ Aiden sighed.

‘Fine! Let’s go get her some damn popcorn!’

The family climbed down from their seat and headed towards the snack area. The air smelt of hot dogs and candy floss. It reminded Aiden of being at the fair.

‘Corn!’ Meegan choked out the word, her voice now hoarse from all the crying.

‘Only if you start being a good girl,’ Aiden told her sternly. Close enough to smell the popcorn, Meegan promptly stopped crying and did her best to be well behaved for fear of losing out on her beloved treat.

‘She’s going to be so fat when she’s older,’ Isla moaned.

‘Not if she’s playing football,’ Aiden laughed. ‘In fact, she’d need to carb-load then.’

‘You’re not funny.’

It was pretty crowded down by the snack vendors as most people had left their seats to replenish their food stores during half time. As Aiden balanced Meegan on his hip, he accidently knocked into someone behind him. He turned to apologize and was surprised to see Deena Fern.

She looked equally surprised to see him. Or did she seem more horrified? Aiden couldn’t tell.

‘Mrs Fern!’ Aiden greeted her, trying to sound friendly and casual. ‘Sorry if I knocked into you.’

Deena smiled thinly at him. She was wearing skin-tight jeans and a red cashmere sweater which was set off by her red lipstick. Her blonde hair was held up in a tight bun, showing off her high, defined cheekbones.

Jude and Davis were each holding one of her hands and wearing the football team’s jersey. Meegan looked down at them and saw the jerseys and her eyes widened covetously.

‘It’s just very busy here,’ Aiden explained, feeling unnerved by Deena’s steely silence.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said, her tone abrupt. Aiden was about to make his excuses and back away when Isla joined him with a fresh batch of popcorn and immediately shot Deena a quizzical glance.

‘Honey, this is Deena Fern.’ Aiden knew it was best to make introductions else face an interrogation from his wife when they returned to their seats.