Cause Of Fear. Robert Ross
home. It’s a mood only encouraged and made worse by his nanny’s obvious disapproval of his father’s extracurricular behavior. Julia is an old crone who had been Gabrielle’s devoted companion, and who insists that Geoff is still a married man and shouldn’t be setting a bad example for his son. Linda can’t imagine Julia staying on with them after they’re married; she makes no secret of her disdain for Geoff’s intended new wife. But Josh is attached to the old woman, and has been ever since his mother walked out on him.
So it’s best that Geoff not spend the night. He tells Linda she needs a good night’s sleep and that if she still feels jittery in the morning, maybe she ought to give her doctor a call. She insists she’ll be fine. Still, Geoff says he’ll call her once he’s home just to say goodnight one more time.
She calls Megan once he’s gone.
“Did I wake you?”
“No, we’re just watching Letterman. What’s up?”
“Remember the dream I told you about?”
“Yeah. How could I forget?”
“Well, tonight, at the restaurant, I had it again. Except it was a daydream. We were all burning alive.”
“Sweetie, what have you been smoking?”
“Nothing. Megan, what’s going on with me?”
“You were anxious about having dinner with them, weren’t you? Geoff’s friends from the college.”
“Yes, but—”
“You ought to get your doctor to give you some Xanax. Sweetie, those little pills have done wonders for my well being.”
Linda sighs. “Maybe I have been overanxious ever since we started planning the wedding.”
“That’s all it is, sweetie. Nerves can do all sorts of weird things.”
Nerves. After she hangs up, Linda heads into the bathroom to study her face in the mirror. There are definitely lines creeping in around her eyes. Worry lines. She manages a small smile. If she tells Megan about those, next she’ll be suggesting Botox.
The phone rings. It’s Geoff.
“Imagine I’m there beside you tonight,” he whispers.
“Oh, I will. I always do.”
“Are you looking forward to this weekend, darling?”
She doesn’t want to lie but to admit how anxious she is about telling Josh their wedding plans wouldn’t do right now. She wants to prove to Geoff she’s strong, grounded, solid. “Of course I am,” she says. “I love the Sunderland house.”
“It should be beautiful. We’ll take a boat out on the lake.”
She purrs, smiling.
“I love you, Linda,” he tells her.
She feels as if she’ll cry.
“I love you, too, Geoff.”
She sleeps like an angel. No dreams. Just blissful rest, with Geoff’s words echoing in her mind all night.
Friday afternoon comes around, sunny and glorious. Linda’s arranged to get out of work early, and Geoff has no Friday classes. So as soon as Josh is out of school for the day, Geoff swings by Linda’s apartment in his black Range Rover. Josh is in the back seat, already watching a video.
“Is that Spider-Man?” Linda asks. “Wasn’t that a great movie?”
They’d seen it together at the theater, she and Geoff and Josh. It was clear that the boy had loved the movie as he watched it. He was jumping up and down in his seat, laughing and calling out “Watch it!” whenever the Green Goblin would appear. But afterward, when Linda had asked him if he’d liked it, he just shrugged.
He does the same thing now, not making eye contact with Linda as she slides into the front seat. She sighs, looking over at Julia, who sits primly beside him, her gnarled hands folded in the black cloth of her lap.
“Hello, Julia,” Linda says.
“Miss Leigh.” The old woman nods.
“Well, the weather’s cooperating anyway,” Geoff says as he maneuvers his way into traffic, heading for the Massachusetts Turnpike. “It’s gonna be a spectacular weekend.”
“Sure looks that way,” Linda says, the irony not lost on her.
She lifts an eye to study the pair in the backseat through the rearview mirror. Josh is a pretty little boy, with long black eyelashes over big, round, intense blue eyes. He’s as blond as his father is dark, a constant reminder to all of them of his absent mother. He’s wearing a yellow-and-green striped shirt and red cargo pants, a colorful contrast to the old woman seated beside him. Julia is in her late sixties, a dour-faced woman with a maze of wrinkles lining her face, her dyed black hair pulled back severely in a bun. She wears a black dress and a white blouse. On her feet pink Nike sneakers seem incongruous, but she needs them to keep up with Josh.
The ride out to western Massachusetts is uneventful, the concrete of the city quickly giving way to green rolling hills. Josh is intent on his video, and Julia comes alive only to occasionally offer him a drink box of orange juice or a handful of granola. Up front, Linda and Geoff make small talk.
“You feeling better?” he asks.
“Much. Guess all I needed was a good night’s rest.”
“Jim called this morning to ask how you were.”
“Oh, Geoff, they must think I’m a total dingbat.”
“No, not at all. They were just worried.”
She shakes her head, looking out the window as they pass cornfields and cows grazing peacefully in the midmorning sun. “It just seemed so real,” she says. “The fire.”
“The fire?”
The voice startles her. It’s Josh, from the backseat.
“Did you see a fire?” the boy asks her.
It’s unusual for him to address anything to her, so she turns around to look at him kindly.
“It was just a dream, Josh. A silly dream.”
“I dreamed about fire, too,” he says.
“Hush, now, Joshua,” Julia tells him.
But the boy is persistent. “It was really hot. Fire everywhere. It was burning me up.”
Linda looks over at Geoff, who seems troubled. “Josh, why didn’t you tell me about this dream?” he asks.
“Dr. Manwaring,” Julia says, “it was just a child’s nightmare. I saw no reason to trouble you.”
“Did it frighten you, Josh?” Linda asks.
He doesn’t answer. He’s apparently decided that he’ll go no further in sharing any of his thoughts with Linda. He just settles back into watching Spider-Man.
“I had a similar dream,” Linda tells Julia. “Isn’t that peculiar?”
The old woman just shrugs. Linda turns around and faces front again.
“Here we are,” Geoff announces, and they pull into the driveway of their destination.
The Manwaring family is an old one in these parts. There’s a family tree etched onto the wall in the study, dating all the way back to Rafe de Mesnil Waring, a companion of William the Conqueror in the eleventh century. Geoff’s great, great-grandfather built this house in Sunderland in 1872. It’s been enlarged and remodeled many times since, but the exterior looks pretty much the same as it did more than a hundred years ago. It’s an early Victorian with three floors, two gables, and a central fireplace. Fifteen acres of wood and farmland stretch behind it, most of it overgrown and wild now. A flat,