Chapter 5 - Changing the Sheets
The deputies' cars pulled out slow down the driveway, gravel popping under their tires, and then the house went too quiet. I could still hear the clock in the hallway. My hands were shaking against the coverlet, and the damp had gone cold where the soup had soaked through my nightgown into the sheet under me.
Laura stood by the window with her arms crossed. She hadn't looked at me since the deputies left.
Daniel stood in the doorway, his suitcase still by his feet. He didn't move to unpack it. He kept his eyes on me.
"You need to get changed, Mom," he said softly. "You're still wet."
I nodded. I couldn't feel my face right. "I know."
He looked at Maria, who was twisted up by the foot of the bed with a bath towel pressed to her chest like she didn't know what to do with her hands. "Can you help her? I'll step out."
Maria nodded fast. "Yes. Yes, of course."
Daniel backed into the hallway but he didn't close the door all the way. He left it cracked, maybe six inches. I could see the stripe of his white shirt through it. I was grateful for that crack. I didn't want the door closed.
Maria came around to my side and set the towel down. Her hands were gentle when she pulled the coverlet back. The brown stain had spread wider than I remembered, dark at the center and thin at the edges.
"Let's lift, Mrs. Anderson," she whispered. "Slow."
I raised my arms and she eased the straps of my nightgown down over my shoulders. The satin stuck where the soup had dried. I winced and she stopped.
"Sorry," she said. "I'm sorry."
"It's all right," I said. "Just go slow."
She peeled it away and quickly draped the towel around me while she reached into my closet for my robe. The pale blue one Daniel gave me last Christmas. She helped me slip my arms in and tied it loose at my waist, then rolled the stained nightgown into a ball and set it on the chair. My pearl necklace had a spot on it. She wiped it with the corner of the towel without me asking.
Outside the door, I heard Laura's voice, low and sharp. "Are you really going to keep this up in front of them?"
Daniel answered just as low. "You said it, Laura. In front of my mother. In front of Maria. You said she needs to learn who runs this house now."
A pause. I held my robe closed at my throat.
"I was angry," Laura said. "She threw that bowl."
Maria froze with her hand on my shoulder. We both heard it.
"She didn't throw anything," Daniel said. His voice didn't rise, but it went hard. "I saw her. I saw the bedding. I heard you."
"You always take her side," Laura said.
"Don't," Daniel said. "Don't do that right now."
I reached for Maria's wrist. "Please," I mouthed. She squeezed my hand.
Daniel pushed the door a little wider but didn't come in. "Mom? You decent?"
"Yes," I said. "I'm in my robe."
He stepped in just far enough to see me sitting up against the pillows. His eyes went to the stained nightgown balled on the chair and then to me. Something crossed his face.
He turned and dragged his black suitcase into the hallway and unzipped it right there on the runner. I could see him from the bed. White shirts folded tight, a toiletry bag, his laptop still in its sleeve. He pulled out a wrinkled tie and just stared at it.
Laura watched him. "You weren't supposed to be back till Thursday."
"Meeting got cut," he said without looking up. "Client pulled out. I caught the early flight and drove straight from the airport. Good thing I did."
He said it flat. Laura's mouth tightened.
"Daniel," I said. My voice shook and I hated it. "Come here a minute."
He came to the side of the bed and knelt a little so we were eye to eye. He smelled like airplane air and coffee.
"Please don't fight like this," I said. "This is your home. Your marriage. I don't want to be the reason it breaks."
He shook his head. "You're not the reason."
"I am an old woman making a mess in bed," I said. "Let Maria change the sheets and we can all calm down. Please. For me."
Behind him, Laura let out a breath. "See? Even she thinks this got blown out of proportion."
Daniel didn't turn around. He kept looking at me. "Mom, the sheriff said to keep things separate until APS comes. That means I'm keeping that coverlet and your gown. I'm not throwing them out."
My stomach dropped. "You think—"
"I think I need to do what they told me to do," he said. He stood and found two large trash bags under the bathroom sink. He came back and, careful not to touch more than he had to, he folded the stained coverlet in on itself and eased it into the first bag. Maria handed him the nightgown and he put it in the second and tied both tight at the top.
I watched my bedding go into trash bags and felt tears sting again. It looked like something shameful.
Daniel set both bags by the closet door and put his hand on my blanket-covered foot. "You're going to rest in the clean sheets. Maria will change the bed while I wait in the hall. Okay?"
I nodded because I couldn't speak.
He looked at Maria. "Will you stay with her till she's settled?"
"Yes," Maria whispered.
He picked up the bags and carried them out. In the hallway I heard him set them down and heard Laura say, "You're really keeping garbage in the hall?"
"Until I can lock them in the garage," he said. "Don't touch them."
Maria moved quick then, stripping the damp sheet while I sat in the chair wrapped in my robe. She worked fast and careful, laying a fresh sheet tight and smoothing it with her palms. The bed looked like itself again, except the coverlet was gone and the mattress seemed too bare.
May you like
She helped me back in and pulled the clean top sheet up to my waist. I was in my clean robe, in the same bed, and I was shaking less, but my nightgown and the coverlet were gone into those bags by the door, and Daniel was still out in the hall with his half-unpacked suitcase and his wife.
Through the crack I could hear him zipping the suitcase shut again, like he hadn't decided where he belonged yet.
