The Stones of Serin - Chapter 2

Midnight comes and goes leaving Clare sitting nervously caressing a teacup and waiting. She tries to call Jack and after getting no answer returns to fidgeting with her cup. Tommy oscillates between sitting restlessly and pacing about. They speak little and carefully avoid the topic of Jack’s absence.

At daybreak, a couple of highway patrol officers arrive at the door. After confirming with whom they were speaking, one officer utters those fateful words, “Mrs. Davids, we regret to inform you…”

Clare’s weary eyes darken, and her face pales. Her ears ring muffling the sound of the officer’s voice, so she does not hear the remainder of what he says—but she doesn’t need to.

“Oh my God,” she mutters.

Tommy stands beside his mother carefully noting of every detail the officer can provide.

As soon as they close the door, Clare saunters to the kitchen. Then she drops to the floor and sits with her back to the cabinet and her knees pulled to her chest and blankly stares forward. Tommy comes in and sits on the floor across from her.

“Ma?”

Clare takes a deep breath. “Dad and I have actually talked about this. I mean we’ve talk about what each of us would do if the other…But I don’t think I can do it,” she says shaking her head.

Tommy grabs her hands. “You have to, Ma.”

Clare sees the determination on her son’s face. She remembers the many times she consoled him as he grew up and squeezes his hands.

“Do you want some breakfast?” Clare asks.

“Breakfast? Right now?”

“Well it is morning. And I want you to feel better. And I want to cook—I need to cook.”

Tommy purses lips and nods. Then he stands up and helps Clare up before wandering into the living room. He pulls out his phone and searches his contacts for Katie Liu.

Clare pulls out her phone and scrolls through her music app. “I want play Jack’s mood music. What did he actually call that playlist?” she mutters.

“Playing mood music,” her phone replies.

Clare cracks a smile and casts the music to the home entertainment system and turns up the volume.

“Hold on. My mom just turned the stereo up. Let me step outside,” Tommy yells over the phone as he walks out the front door.

As Clare flutters about the kitchen. Katie lets herself in through kitchen door. Her thick, shoulder-length deep brown hair is still wet, and she’s wearing no makeup.

She notices a sticky doughy mess on the prep island. Clare has batter smudges on her face and flour in her hair and all over her apron. She is lost in several baking projects but has yet to complete one.

Without a word, Katie pulls Clare into her embrace, and tears begin to stream down Clare’s face.

After a few minutes, Clare takes a small step back. Tears still roll as she looks at Katie, who is crying with her. Katie grabs a damp dishtowel to wipe her eyes. Then she wipes Clare’s tears and gently removes the batter smudges from her face.

Tommy walks into the kitchen. When he sees that Katie has arrived, he returns to the living room and turns off the music.

“So, what do you have going on here?” Katie asks.

“I was going to make pancakes. Then I remembered those muffins—the ones that Jack raved about at the fair. When I got the almonds out for the muffins, I saw the pecans and thought, sticky buns. Tommy likes biscuits. And I have to make something with chocolate chips,” Clare chatters, trying to get the entire explanation out in a single breath as she points out the various items.

“But you haven’t actually made anything—except a mess,” Katie tenderly tells her.

Clare’s lips quiver, and Katie pulls her back into her embrace.

When Henry arrives, Clare is still weeping in Katie’s arms.

He rolls up the sleeves of his neatly-pressed button-up shirt as he follows the women into the living room.

As they shuffle to get seated, Katie catches a whiff of Henry’s musky cologne and rolls her eyes. After noticing that he is impeccably dressed, and his poufy brown hair is well controlled with hair gel, she glares at him.

“I knew he shouldn’t have been out on the road that late. I could feel it; I should have insisted, but I let it go—I let him go,” Clare sobs.

Clare strokes the loveseat’s light beige minky chenille upholstery while Katie embraces her and rubs her back. Henry sits cornerwise to them on the matching couch and gazes at Clare.

“He just drifted off the road and rolled down the embankment moments after he got off the phone with you?” Katie asks Clare.

Clare takes a deep breath. “Well…”

Tommy interrupts as enters the room with a pitcher of water and four glasses, “Presumably. The officers said they found his car rolled over in the desert, and Dad was…” His eyes well up with tears.

“I figured out the moments-after-he-got-off-the-phone part, based on where they said it happened,” Clare sniffles.

“And you said he sounded pretty awake?” Henry inquires with his Australian accent punctuating the solemn mood.

“Wide awake,” Clare replies.

“Strange,” says Henry.

“I think strange is an understatement,” Tommy indignantly interjects. “I mean my sister—then we lose my dad because he ran off the road wide awake?”

Tommy sets the pitcher and cups down and takes a seat in the rocking chair across from Clare and Katie. He wipes his eyes with his strong bare hands.

Katie pours water into each of the four cups. “Here, Clare, you need to drink something,” she says handing one to Clare.

“Thank you,” Clare replies as she takes the cup and sets it down on the glass side table.

Henry takes a cup and sits back. He brings it to his mouth, but then stops short of sipping and leans forward. “You said local officers came—but not the ones from there that would have been on scene? That means you were informed by someone who got a short explanation via radio from a dispatcher. Maybe you need to talk to the officers that actually responded,” he says swirling the water in his cup.

“What, so she can hear it all over and have her heart broken again?” Katie retorts.

“Perhaps this is classic case of ‘playing telephone,’” Henry replies. “You probably have to go identify Jack’s body, right?” he adds looking at Clare.

Clare nods.

“I’m sure they are going to want to talk to you. They might even interrogate you, given the unusual circumstances. But you’ll also be able to get some insight on what actually happened,” Henry insists.

Clare nods again then stares down at her fidgeting hands.

Henry sits back in his chair, sets down his water, and checks his phone.

“I’m sorry, I have to go. My niece.” says Henry. “Clare, if you need anything,” he adds squeezing Clare’s hand.

Katie sees Henry out then returns to her place next to Clare. She refills her and Tommy’s cups and takes another sip.

“I can stay a while, if you’d like,” Katie offers.

“That’d be nice,” Clare replies. “I’m exhausted. Do either of you mind if I go lie down?

“No. You should rest,” Katie and Tommy reply in unison.

Midway through the kitchen Clare stops in her tracks.

“What is it, Ma?” Tommy sputters.

Clare points down the hallway toward her bedroom. “I don’t know if I can,” she replies.

Katie comes to Clare’s side.

“Here, why don’t you rest on the couch for now,” Tommy suggests.

Clare shakes her head.

“Clare, you have to lie down somewhere. You’re not going to get rest just standing here in the kitchen,” Katie advises.

Clare nods and hesitantly walks to her room with tears flooding her eyes. She lies down on the bed and clutches Jacks pillow.

Tommy walks into the kitchen with Clare’s water glass. He dumps it out and rinses the glass.

“You just rinsed a glass that had only water in it,” Katie chuckles.

Tommy pauses and shrugs his shoulders. “Habit, I guess,” he replies as he pulls a pitcher of murky beige liquid from the refrigerator.

Katie raises an eyebrow.

“It’s some kind of tea latte thing that my mom and dad started making recently. She didn’t drink her water, so I’m hoping maybe she’ll drink this.”

“Good thinking. Would you like me to take it to her?”

“No. I’ve got it. You make yourself comfortable. Have a bite to eat or something more to drink.”

Katie gathers up and empties the remaining the glasses and the near-empty pitcher and puts them in the dishwasher, while Tommy disappears into Clare’s room. After a few minutes, he returns with an empty glass.

“Success,” he remarks as he rinses the glass. “She’s drifting off to sleep now. I’m a bit tired myself, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to rest, too.”

Katie nods.

Tommy yawns and lies on the couch. As his eyes droop, he thinks about his dad. He quickly flips through many father-and-son activities—playing ball, hiking, working on the car, making pancakes for Mother’s Day. Then he was on to everything Jack taught him—how to ride a bike, ride a motorcycle, shave, drive a car, compliment a girl without sounding cheesy. As precious as these moments are, though, Tommy realizes his favorite moments of Jack also involve Clare.

His parents were so connected—practically intertwined into one. One summer day comes to his mind.

Tommy had just turned seven. He and Sara were coloring at the kitchen table while Clare prepared dinner and talked on the phone.

Jack quietly entered through front door.

Sara gasped, and prepared to announce his arrival, but Jack shushed her.

The kids giggled and shushed each other as he tiptoed toward the kitchen holding a bouquet of flowers.

“Hold on, I think my kids are up to something,” Clare told the caller on phone. “What’s so funny, you two?” Clare said to the children as she walked toward them.

Jack stood at the threshold between the kitchen the living room presenting the flowers. “Hey, Babydoll.”

“Jack!” Clare exclaimed as she dropped the phone and rushed into her husband’s arms.

“So, do you forgive me?” Jack asks.

“For what?” Clare replies.

“For not being all here.”

Tommy scrunched his nose and eyebrows. “How can a person be only partly somewhere?” he tried to ask as Jack and Clare whispered to each other.

Then Clare planted a full opened-mouth kiss on Jack.

“Mommy and Daddy sitting in a tree,” Sara chirped as she giggled. “K…I…SS…ING.”

“Are you making fun of us, you silly girl?” Jack asked as he walked over and gave Sara’s nose a loving pinch.

Sara laughed and continued, “First comes … uh…”

Tommy whispered in her ear.

“First comes loves,” she sang proudly. “Then comes …” she continued, looking over at Tommy.

He whispered in her ear again.

“Then comes marriage. Then comes …” Again, she looked at Tommy who was trying to mouth the words for her. “Then comes Daddy with a baby carriage!”

Clare paused.

“So, what happens next? Daddy and I are already in love,” Clare said embracing her husband and giving him another kiss. “And we’re already married,” she continued, showing Sara her wedding ring. “And we’ve already had two babies.”

“We’re not babies!” Tommy and Sara protested.

“But you used to be,” Clare replied. “So, what happens next?”

“More babies!” Sara proudly answered.

Clare briefly looked at Jack then turned her attention back to Sara.

“Where are we going to put all those babies?” she asked. “We only have two bedrooms—one for Daddy and me and one for the kids.”

Sara thought for a minute, and then replied, “At Grandma’s.”

“Now that’s an idea. All the kids will live at Grandma’s!” Jack announced as he swooped Sara up and marched out the door. “Come on, you, too, Champ,” he said to Tommy.

On his way out, Tommy stopped in the doorway and whined, “I don’t want to live in at Grandma’s. I want to live here with you and Daddy!”

Clare kneeled next to him. “We’re just teasing, honey. Can you pretend—for Sara?”

Tommy smiled and nodded, and then he burst out the door past Jack and Sara.

Jack grabbed him and then turned around and gazed at Clare, who was standing in the doorway. “Look at that, kids. Doesn’t Mommy look beautiful right now?”

“I think Mommy looks beautiful all the time,” Tommy prodigiously announced.

“You got that right,” replied Jack as he winked at Clare. “She IS beautiful all the time.”

Tommy chuckles; then he ponders why that particular memory stands out.

Tommy and Clare quickly succumb to their drowsiness, each snoring softly. Katie, not wanting to disturb either of them, quietly cleans up Clare’s baking extravaganza and then tries to settle in the kitchen. She opens the cupboard to get a teabag and knocks over a few canned goods that tumble down the shelves with a thud. Then her spoon drops to the ground with a startling “ta ching!” As Katie picks it up, she bumps a chair causing it to screech on tile floor. Amused by how everything seems to be working against her efforts to keep quiet, Katie bursts out in laughter. She holds her breath trying to stifle her giggles, which leads to an echoing snort. Katie gets a fresh glass of water and leaves the kitchen in search of another place, hopefully a quieter place, to settle while Tommy and Clare rest.

Katie tiptoes through the living room to avoid disturbing Tommy and stops at the music room door. Finding it locked, she moves on to the hallway and makes her way to Jack’s study.

Author’s note: This is the second chapter of an in-progress novel. Stay tuned for future chapters.

Read chapter one