All Fall Down Read online

  Her cell phone rang and she snatched it up, thinking it would be Sunny and realizing that was silly. Maybe Christopher. But no, it was Becka.

  “Hey, girl, what up?”

  Liesel had to laugh at Becka’s heavy-toned slang. “Working. You?”

  “Like a mother-effing-dog. Like a DOG.”

  They both laughed at that. Becka had quit her full-time job as a psychiatric nurse when Annabelle was born, because she’d said juggling work, child care and the house along with four small kids at home was driving her almost as crazy as the patients. Liesel knew Becka was full of it—she’d taken to staying home with her kids like she’d spent her whole life yearning to be Suzy Homemaker, complete with her own full-size version of the Easy-Bake Oven and Baby-Wets-a-Lot.

  “We’re getting a new fridge,” Becka said. “I had to pull this bitch out and clean underneath it. My God, you know what sort of crap ends up under the fridge? You don’t even wanna know. Believe me.”

  “What happened to your old fridge?” Liesel glanced at the clock and started typing in orders, glad she could multitask.

  “Nothing. But Kent had a boner about getting ice and water through the door, so who am I to deny the man something he wants? And the new fridge, not gonna lie, is sweeeeeet.” Becka drew out the word. “I might make sweet love to it, that’s what I might do.”

  Liesel snorted laughter, eyes on the screen, fingers tapping away as fast as she could go. “Um, ew.”

  “So…that’s not why I called. I just wanted to check up, make sure everything in Casa de Albright was on track.” Becka paused. “Today’s the first day you left them home by themselves, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “No frantic phone calls?”

  “No. Actually…” Liesel finished off one file and saved it, then opened the next. “I called home to ask Sunny if she could put some chicken in the oven because wouldn’t you know it, Rod needs me to finish up some things here.”

  “Why don’t you just order dinner? Save yourself the trouble?”

  “I thought about it, believe me. But Sunny’s kind of funny about eating.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Liesel paused, trying to think about how she could describe it without sounding as if she was a little nutso herself. “They taste everything before they eat it.”

  Becka laughed. “Doesn’t everyone?”

  “No. I mean…they taste everything before they eat it. Like it’s going to bite them back or something. They don’t like to eat when it’s not the right time. No snacking in between meals—”

  “Wish I could get my kids to do that.”

  “I know they’re hungry. That’s the thing. They’re hungry but won’t eat unless it’s the right time or the right things. They don’t eat candy. And yes,” Liesel said before her friend could interrupt, “I know that it’s better if they don’t eat candy. But isn’t it what kids do?”

  “I know lots of parents don’t let their kids eat candy.”

  “It’s not that she doesn’t let them. It’s that she looks at me like I’m insane when I offer them a cookie or, God, even a Fruit Roll-Up. She doesn’t come off as trying to be judgmental, but she is.”

  “Most people think they’re right about things, that’s been my experience. And they want to make sure you think they’re right, too.”

  Liesel rocked in her chair. “It’s not really that. It’s like she has all these secrets and we’re just not privileged enough to understand them.”

  “Ah.”

  Liesel sighed. “Yeah.”

  “Listen…I was thinking about something. If you think Sunny needs to see someone, I can recommend some great docs who specialize in younger patients.”

  It had occurred to Liesel that they all might need some sort of counseling, but honestly, she’d found the prospect so daunting she’d been unable to face it. “You think they need to see a shrink?”

  Becka paused. “Yes. I think that it would certainly help them. At least a psychologist, if not someone who has experience in deprogramming.”

  Liesel sagged in her chair. Deprogramming, God. “Yeah. Yeah, I think that would probably make sense.”

  “How does she seem? Sunny.”

  “Quiet. They’re all very quiet. The kids are amazingly well behaved.”

  “Compared to my monsters, most kids are.” Becka laughed. “But honey, you know they had to go through a whole lot of stuff you can’t ignore.”

  “I know.”

  “So if you want me to recommend someone who can just talk to her a little…anytime…I can do that.”

  “Thanks, Becka. Shit, I have to get this stuff done. I’ll call you later, okay?”

  “Fine, fine, I have to finish scrubbing my kitchen floor. So glam, I can’t even stand it.” Becka paused again. “And Liesel, hon, be careful.”

  “With what?”

  “Just…you don’t know what sorts of things Sunny might do, that’s all. Oh, shit, there’s the doorbell, I bet that’s the delivery guy. Gotta run. Call me.”

  Becka hung up before Liesel could say anything else. She ended the call and turned back to her computer, but the screen blurred and she had to blink rapidly to get her eyes to focus. She rubbed them, the clock her enemy.

  What sorts of things might Sunny do?

  For a second, Liesel imagined coming home to find her house emptied of every valuable, Sunny and the kids gone off on some wild adventure financed by Liesel’s grandmother’s silverware and her wedding ring, the one that had gotten too big and that she kept in her jewelry box on top of her dresser. Guilt instead of unease pinched her this time. She shouldn’t even think of such a thing.

  She dialed again. This time, the phone only rang three times. There was a click, then silence.

  Then, “Hello, Liesel.”

  “Hi, Sunny, it’s—” She broke off with a laugh. “How did you know it was me?”

  “The phone told me. I mean, it said it here in this little window. Your name.”

  “Oh, caller ID. Of course.” Liesel felt dumb. “How are you doing?”

  “We’re fine.”

  Liesel waited a beat, but Sunny wasn’t forthcoming with anything else. She cleared her throat. “Listen, hon, I’m really sorry. I know I said I’d be home by four, but it looks like I might not be home until five. I left a couple packages of chicken breasts out to thaw, do you think you could put them in the oven for me? There’s a small box in the pantry labeled Onion Soup, you just put that on top with about a cup of water.”

  Sunny hesitated but said, “I’m sure I could.”

  “Great. I’m sorry to do this to you on your first day there alone, but I know you don’t like to eat too late. How are the kids?”

  “Happy and Peace are playing that game you gave them. Candy Land?” Sunny’s voice had brightened. “Thank you, they like it very much. They want to know if they can have some candy now.”

  Liesel chuckled, but ruefully, the conversation with Becka still fresh. “Don’t kids always want candy?”

  “We don’t eat it,” Sunny said. “Candy’s very bad for our vessels.”

  “Oh.” Liesel bit off her laughter. There it was again, that nonjudgmental judgment. She couldn’t tell if Sunny was assuming she was some wild, rampant sugar fiend, or merely stating a fact. “Well, I’m glad they like the game. And you’re okay?”

  It seemed impossible to Liesel that Sunny could be anything like okay. Other than her outburst in Kmart, she’d barely shown any signs of grief. Christopher had said she didn’t even cry when she identified her mother, who’d been buried without anyone attending. Liesel was no expert on mourning, but it seemed a couple weeks was far too short a time to recover from losing everything you’d ever known.