The Turning (9 page)

“Have the kids ever taken you there?” she asked me. “To the cottage?”

“No,” I said. “They never mentioned there was a cottage.”

“I’m not surprised,” Linda said.

“Where is it?” I said.

“On the other side of the lake and the tennis courts,” Linda said. “Hidden back in the woods.”

I remembered how the very first day, when the children had taken me around the island, they’d made a wide circle around the tennis court. Had they been keeping me from the cottage? What would have happened if I’d asked to go that way?

“Right from the start,” Linda said, “Norris and Lucy kept their relationship secret. Maybe they thought that the children’s uncle had some policy prohibiting on-the-job romance. Though they should have known that the children’s uncle didn’t have much of a policy about anything, really, except about not giving him any trouble.

“Maybe it sounds a little paranoid, but I sensed something dark, like a storm cloud hovering over Norris and Lucy, something that gave me a very different feeling from the warm sensation you get when you see two nice people falling in love. One problem was that Norris was so much older than Lucy. He had all the power. Sometimes, in the mornings, I noticed that Lucy’s eyes were red, as if she’d been crying all night.

“But one thing about Lucy and Norris that I found reassuring—maybe too reassuring, as it turned out—was that they were always discreet around the kids. As far as I knew, the children never suspected that Norris and Lucy were involved. Or maybe it’s just how kids are: Miles and Flora seemed to assume that the only reason Norris and Lucy even talked to each other was because of them.

“Or anyway, that was how it seemed.”

Something about the way Linda sighed—I could tell she was asking herself how she could have missed the first signs of trouble.

“At first Miles and Flora liked being left with Norris and Lucy when my husband and I had to leave the island. But eventually I started noticing that the children were acting oddly. They had nightmares; they refused to eat. For the first time ever, Miles punched his sister hard, on the arm, and Flora wept, on and off, for a whole day. They always acted especially strange when I first got home from the mainland.

“They seemed nervous, sort of … shifty. I began to see Miles giving Flora that silencing look when Flora was about to say something, and what worried me was that I was sure I’d seen Norris give Lucy the same look. The kids had always been totally open with me before, but now I had the feeling that they were keeping secrets on top of secrets.”

“I’ve seen them give each other that look,” I said. This was the first time that Linda and I had ever suggested that Miles and Flora were anything but the most totally perfect little children. I mean, she’d used the word
unusual
 … but somehow this was different.

“I’m sure you have.” Linda sighed. “I thought they would get over it and go back to being their old sweet selves after Norris and Lucy left, but so far …” Her voice trailed off.

“Did you ever find out what was happening? With the kids and … Norris and Lucy?” For some reason, it felt strange saying their names. Maybe because I didn’t know them, but I was beginning to feel as if I did.

“I told you,” said Linda. “I never knew. But they had some hold over them, those two. You know me, Jack. I’m not the type to just let things go. If I think something, I say it. Especially if I’m worried, and especially if it concerns the kids.

“So I talked to them. First Norris, then Lucy. I asked if they were doing anything … weird or disturbing with, or in front of, the kids. They both denied it. They were insulted I’d even asked. And because I didn’t have any real evidence—I’d never caught them or seen them doing anything sketchy, and the kids never said anything—I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t involve the children’s uncle.... I decided to keep my eyes open and hope for the best.

“But the things I started noticing didn’t make me feel any better. For example, they always had the kids divided up between them. Lucy was always with Flora, and Norris was always with Miles …”

I’d been trying not to ask, but I couldn’t hold out any longer. “Linda … do you think they were … I don’t know. I don’t know how to say this. Molesting them or something?”

I could feel my face glowing hot. I was glad that it was night and that the only light was from the flickering citronella candles.

Linda considered her answer. “I don’t think so. I hope not. The children never said anything. I read all these books and articles about how you can tell when something like that is going on. I don’t know … my instincts told me that it wasn’t. And you know what, Jack?”

“What?” I said, though I almost didn’t want to hear what came next.

“This is going to sound really strange. And to tell you the truth, I’m not exactly sure what I mean when I say it. But I always had this feeling that Norris and Lucy weren’t interested in the children’s bodies, but rather in their souls.”

“What do you mean?” I said. I felt a chill go down my back. I sort of did know what she meant.

“I told you I’m not sure,” Linda said. “I can’t explain. It’s just something I felt. I felt something evil.... I know I can’t say why, but that’s what I felt. I tried to forget it. And I did, or almost did. But it all came back to me when Miles’s school sent that letter and used the word
evil
.”

“Holy shit,” I said. “Sorry, Linda.” Normally, I was careful not to curse around her.

“Holy shit indeed,” said Linda. “Anyway, I was delighted when something happened that made it necessary to let Norris go …”

I said, “For harming the children?”

Linda said, “It wasn’t as terrible as that, thank God. He just stole. Listen to me: he
just stole
! A silver candelabra went missing. It had been in the Crackstone family for generations. Of course Norris denied taking it, but I knew no one else could have done it. He was alone in the house on the day it disappeared. From the library.”

“From the library?
” I heard this loud voice inside my head saying, Hey, guess what, Linda? The strangest thing happened to me in the library the other day. I thought I saw this tall, dark-haired guy staring in the window.... But before I could think how to say this without seeming completely insane, Linda resumed her story.

“The nerve of that man, to think he could just take something so obvious that I was bound to notice. Something so outrageous I couldn’t ignore it. Maybe he was testing me, testing my authority. I started to think he was tired of the island and wanted to blow his life here apart. I knew I should probably break Jim Crackstone’s don’t-bother-me rule and let him know what Norris had done, but I decided to handle it myself.”

While Linda was telling me this part, my mind drifted away to the locked room. Maybe after Norris stole the silver, Linda decided to keep all the valuable stuff under lock and key. I almost wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to, that with just her and me and the kids here no one would ever steal from them again. But I thought it might sound suspicious if I said, Hey, why don’t you unlock your treasure room and be all trusting and open?

“Hey, Jack,” Linda said, “are you listening?”

“Are you kidding?” I said. “Of course I’m listening. This is amazing.”

“Wait,” Linda said. “It gets more amazing. I confronted Norris about the theft one night after the kids had gone to sleep. There was a horrifying scene. Norris was yelling, threatening me. Lucy was weeping and begging me not to tell Jim. Finally Norris told me he didn’t need this crappy, boring island full of dead people. He’d been wanting to get back to the bright lights and the big city where someone might be still be alive.

“I looked at Lucy to see how she was taking the fact that Norris was lumping her among the dead people. Tears were sheeting down her poor little face. I’d started not liking her and not trusting her, because I was worried about the kids. But now I just felt sorry for her for being Norris’s puppet. Not that I automatically feel sorry for people who let themselves be turned into puppets. But she’d really lost her way, and she thought Norris had helped her find it. But she couldn’t have been more wrong.

“The next afternoon, Norris asked me to take him to the ferry. He had a very large suitcase. I couldn’t bring myself to ask if I could search it for the candelabra. But I wanted to. I was glad to see him go. Also by then my husband had died, so I could go back to taking care of the kids full-time, without the so-called help of a man I suspected of endangering their welfare.

“Norris’s departure was another ugly scene. Lucy was pleading with him not to go. Right in front of the kids. I had no choice but to leave them at the house with her when I took him to the boat.”

“And the kids? Were they sad when he left?”

“Well, it was strange. At first they showed no reaction to his being gone, which was pretty peculiar in itself, considering they’d spent so much time with him when he was around. Nor did they seem to mind very much when ten days, maybe two weeks, later, Lucy said she was quitting, too. She was going to the mainland to be with Norris. She announced this in a proud voice, as if she was showing me: Norris hadn’t left her. He still loved her. He wanted to be with her. When she left I told her, ‘Good luck. I really mean it.’ And I really did.

“Every so often I asked the kids if they missed Norris and Lucy, and they always said yes, but it didn’t sound like they meant it. It was like they thought it would be impolite to say no. I had to get in touch with Jim Crackstone to tell him that Lucy and Norris had gone. He was very annoyed, but he calmed down when I assured him that I could take over for a while. There was no rush for him to hire anyone else. Then he found Kate, who was perfectly competent and good with the kids, until one day she got a letter from an old boyfriend who still wanted to marry her. Six months on the island with us probably convinced her to marry the first person who asked. And now we have you. We’re caught up to the present.”

We rocked in silence for a long time. Then I said, “Have you heard from them since then? Did Lucy and Norris ever try to get in touch with the kids?”

“Not likely.” Linda’s laugh was harsh and sad—not her normal laugh. “That would be quite a trick.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because they’re dead.”

“No way! What happened?” I thought of the blind man and his wife, and their story about the lovers who’d been drowned when they’d tried to escape the island. Maybe the old couple had been confused. Or maybe
I’d
been confused. No, there was no maybe about it. I was really confused. Why hadn’t Linda said something till now? I understood that, too. It was a time in her life that she wanted to forget. I should have made the blind man and his wife think harder until they remembered. But maybe I hadn’t wanted to know.

Now I wanted to know. I needed to know.

“What happened to them?” I repeated.

“They were shot,” Linda said. “In a fight in a bar on the mainland. Norris got a job bartending, which, if you ask me, was like hiring a mouse to work in a cheese factory. A mouse that got nasty when it ate cheese. And Lucy was substitute teaching in the local elementary school. Later, a woman I know at the post office said that around the time Lucy got killed the school board was getting ready to fire her anyway, because she was spending all her free time in the bar with Norris, which didn’t look all that great for a teacher.... I can’t believe you didn’t read about this. It was the biggest scandal that happened on the mainland in ages.”

I said, “My dad doesn’t read the local paper much, and I don’t watch the news all the time....” I realized it was huge for Linda, and I didn’t want to say that two people getting killed in a local bar fight wasn’t exactly front-page news a hundred miles away.

“Norris ran a poker game in the back of the bar. Illegal. They played for high stakes. All guys. All rich. They came from a long way around. Norris always insisted on having Lucy there. The only girl. For luck, he said. Then one night some guy accused Norris of cheating. He said Lucy was helping Norris cheat. It turned into a real cowboy scene. A fight broke out; the guy pulled a gun and shot Norris and then Lucy. Two murders, and the killer only got fifteen years. Can you believe it? I don’t think Norris and Lucy were any more popular in town than they were with me on the island. I think a lot of people were glad to be rid of them. Terrible story, right?”

“Wow” was all I could say.

Linda and I went back to rocking. I wanted, and I didn’t want, to know what she was thinking. I said, “Remember I told you how, on the ferry, I’d heard about this couple who drowned off the island. But that was years and years ago—that was a different couple, right?”

“Another couple,” Linda said. “That was decades before this. I didn’t know them. I only heard. Tragic lovers must be an island tradition.” She blew a stream of air between her lips.

Finally, she said, “I told you it was a long story. Mostly I try not to dwell on that period in our lives, it was so dark and sad. But like I said: when I got that letter from Miles’s school, it was the first thing that crossed my mind. I blamed Norris and Lucy. Maybe after Norris and Lucy left, I should have suggested the kids get some professional counseling, in case something really did happen. But I never knew what had happened. The kids never said anything except that they liked Norris and Lucy, and they never said anything at all unless I asked.”