Page 97 of Charlie
Holding out his hand, Nathan took the key from Maximum and tiptoed to a large closet that was placed against the opposite wall next to a beautiful antique mirror.
There were three closet doors and first he unlocked the one to the right. I held my breath as it opened and revealed five shelves full of clothes and a few boxes.
I pointed to a black box hoping one of the kids would be curious enough to look inside it. River moved forward and took it out for me to open the lid. As soon as I did, I put it back on. It was full of sex toys.
River looked confused and I hoped she hadn’t gotten a good look.
“What was it?” she whispered.
I put the box back and gave a dismissive swing of my hand. “Adult stuff.”
Disappointed with the content of the first closet, Nathan moved on to the second and I spotted five binders on the top shelf that I’d like to look at. What if they contained incriminating information that he was hiding? Of course, such boring stuff didn’t interest the children and they moved on to the last closet door.
The jolt of Nathan’s body- and his soul-crushing scream made us all react very fast. Atlas moved forward to cover Nathan’s mouth and hissed for him to be quiet while Maximum bent down to pick up the key that Nathan had dropped.
Everything happened so fast. With one hand still covering Nathan’s mouth, Atlas picked him up and carried him back to his room. River retreated too.
I held up my phone and snatched a picture just before Maximum closed the closet door and locked it with shaking hands. He was moving to the connecting door when I hissed at him. “Put the key back.”
He ran to the bed and stuck his hand under the mattress and then sheer panic spread on his face when we heard Conor’s dark voice in the hallways outside the room.
“Lumi, what are you doing out here?”
I stabbed my finger through the air pointing to the connecting door but Maximum moved to turn off the light. Afraid that the change in light would be visible to Conor from under the door, I grabbed Maximum’s arm and nudged him away,
“I’m waiting out here for Atlas’ smelly fart to be gone. He did it on purpose. It was disgusting.”
“Hmmm… is that why someone screamed?”
“Yeah, that was me.”
Maximum and I made it into the children’s room, and I could have kissed Lumi when she shouted:
“Atlas, you better not have farted again. Dad and I are coming in.”
Her loud voice covered the small creaking sound of the connecting door closing after us.
Maximum let himself fall onto my mattress where he’d been before. I fell to my knees and reached for a strand of River’s hair, pretending to be playing with it. Nathan was back in his bed with his face to the wall. His shoulders were bobbing like he was crying without sound.
“Are you done farting?” Lumi asked when she walked in with Conor behind her.
Atlas sat on the floor against Nathan’s bed, blocking the view from the door to Nathan. His performance was worthy of an Emmy Award when he pointed to the window and spoke in an annoyed tone. “Why don’t you just let in some fresh air if it’s that bad?”
Conor gave me a smile. “Hey, Liv, if you get tired of teen drama come join us downstairs.”
I smiled back in pure relief that he hadn’t caught us red-handed in his room. “It’s fine. I promised River that I’d braid her hair and I think I’m going to try and sleep soon.”
“How is Nathan doing?” Conor craned his head to look behind Atlas.
“Much better. He’s just tired.” I lowered my voice a little. “He had a nightmare but fell asleep again.”
“All right. I was going to discuss the consequences of his foolish behavior with him, but I can do that tomorrow.” He waited for a moment as if I might have a comment, but I didn’t and just focused on braiding River’s blonde hair.
“Sweet dreams then. Don’t let them stay up too late.”
“I won’t.”
The moment Conor closed the door and left, we held our breath and listened for his footsteps. They stopped outside his room.
