Part 4 (1/2)
In the living room, he found her standing, staring at the wall. When he looked, he saw she was looking at a family picture they'd taken just a few weeks after getting married.
”What'cha doing?” he asked.
”Just looking.”
”What for?”
”I was wondering if people in town, since we're new, wonder if maybe we kidnapped Joey and are hiding out from his real parents.”
”The hair?” he asked, knowing the answer.
”Of course. I mean, really. We just got here, no one knows us, and we're not the most social people ever. You got the dark hair, I got the red. And here we are with this little blonde-haired, blue-eyed kid.”
”Who is not the least bit nervous about where he is, because he's with his parents.”
”Parent and a half,” she corrected.
”Would you stop? He'll do it when he's ready. All right?”
”I know he will,” she said, moving away from the picture and leaning back on the couch. ”Ignore me. I'm just goofy right now. I think I sniffed too many paint fumes today; I started seeing things in the bathroom.”
”Oh, yeah?” he asked, curious. ”Like what?”
”Nothing you want to hear about,” she said. She rolled her eyes and raised her eyebrows.
”A big s.e.xy guy?”
”Not even close,” she said. ”Trust me, though, honey, it was nothing I need to see again.”
He sat at her feet and rubbed them through her socks. Liz moaned and stretched her back, arms above her head. Then she collapsed in a heap of exhaustion and closed her eyes.
”You ready for bed?” he asked.
”Almost,” she said. ”I wanna finish this movie first.”
”Record it and watch it tomorrow while Joey's taking his nap.”
”Hey,” she said, ”you want this house to look nice, or not? I'll be in in a little bit.”
”Well then,” he said, leaning up off the couch. Her feet dropped from his lap. ”I'll go play some more.”
He blew her a kiss and disappeared into the bedroom. The door closed behind him.
He didn't bother plugging in. Instead, he leaned back against the headboard, Lily cradled in his lap, with her neck resting against his bent left knee. Jack's hand went to the fretboard, fingered a G chord, and he strummed. The high E string snapped.
”s.h.i.+t,” he said, looking down at the broken string. He removed his fingers from the fretboard and strummed again. He shook his head; he'd heard right. The other five strings were out of tune. They'd been perfect earlier.
Jack turned the guitar toward him, staring at the snapped string hanging dead from the tailpiece, the other end dangling from the tuning head. A broken string doesn't knock the rest out of tune.
He'd just been in here twenty minutes ago . . . It didn't matter anyway how the others were knocked out, the high E was broken. He reached under the bed and pulled out his case. There was a compartment inside where he kept his extra strings, but when he opened it, they were gone. He knew he had them. He'd just bought them, what, two weeks ago?
He got on the floor and looked under the bed. Not there. He turned on the bedroom light and looked around the room, but didn't find them.
He went into Joey's room.
Joey turned his head, still awake.
”Hi, Dad.”
”Joe,” Jack asked, ”do you know where Dad's guitar strings are? They're in a little square package.” He held his fingers up to the show the approximate size of the pack.
Joey answered, ”Huh-uh.”
”You didn't see anything lying around and picked it up to play with it?”
”No,” Joey said, rubbing a tired eye.
Jack scratched his head.
”Hmm. I just bought them and now I can't find them.”
”Are they upstairs?” Joey asked.
Jack looked at him for a second and wondered why he would think they'd be upstairs.
”No,” he said. ”I don't think so. Well, I'll just get some more, and if I find them I'll have them, I guess.” He leaned over and hugged Joey, kissed his cheek, and squeezed the boy's face in his hand. His fingers grazed the wrinkled bit of skin above Joey's neck, at the juncture of his neck and jaw, a thin pink birthmark. Jack had always thought it looked like a scar, but it had been there since Joey was born. He ruffled his son's hair, then went back to his own room. He stood Lily against the stand and went into the living room where Liz had dozed off during the end of her movie.
The phone rang and he s.n.a.t.c.hed it up.
”h.e.l.lo?”
He held it to his ear a minute, silent, then hung it up again, shaking his head, a disgusted look on his face.
”Same thing as earlier?” Liz asked.
”I thought you were out,” he said.
”No, just dozing off a little bit. The phone woke me up. So was it the same?”
He nodded and said, ”I can't believe we've been in town three weeks and already we've got to put up with stupid s.h.i.+t.”
”Every town's got teenage kids,” she said.
”Yeah, I know.”
Heading into the bedroom, they heard a soft click and a whoosh. They looked at each other, confused.