Chapter 2 - “SHE MAKES MOMMY CRY”
Ari pointed toward the hallway.
"She makes Mommy cry."
Nobody moved.
Claire laughed first.
A thin, unnatural little sound.
"Oh, sweetheart."
My mother slowly lowered her coffee cup.
My sister Megan stared at Ari.
I felt as though someone had reached into my chest and squeezed my heart.
"Ari," I said carefully, "Mommy isn't here anymore."
"I know."
She looked frustrated that I had misunderstood.
"Picture Mommy."
My skin prickled.
"What picture?"
"The one in my room."
Sarah's photograph.
There was a framed photograph on Ari's dresser from the last month of Sarah's pregnancy.
Sarah was standing in our backyard in a yellow dress, one hand resting on her stomach.
Ari kissed that photograph goodnight almost every evening.
"What does Claire do to Mommy's picture?"
I asked.
Ari looked directly at Claire.
"She turns her down."
My mother whispered:
"What does that mean?"
Ari made a motion with both hands.
"Face on table."
Claire's smile disappeared.
I looked at her.
"Claire?"
She exhaled.
"Daniel, come on. She's four."
My name is Daniel Hayes.
Thirty-seven years old.
Software consultant.
Widower.
And until that night, I believed I had married the woman who brought sunlight back into my house.
"What else?"
I asked Ari.
Claire interrupted.
"Daniel."
I held up one hand.
"Let her speak."
The room changed.
Ari crawled down from her chair and hurried toward me.
I lifted her into my lap.
She whispered against my shirt.
"She says Mommy can't see."
My stomach dropped.
"Can't see what?"
"When monster comes."
Claire stood abruptly.
"This is ridiculous."
My sister Megan stood too.
"No, sit down."
Claire stared at her.
"What?"
Megan had always been quiet around Claire.
Polite.
Maybe too polite.
Now something in her face had hardened.
"Sit down and let my niece finish."
Claire looked at me.
"You're seriously allowing this?"
I didn't answer.
I asked Ari:
"What happens when Claire comes into your room?"
Ari's fingers twisted in my shirt.
"She checks under my pillow."
"What for?"
"My secret."
"What secret?"
Ari hesitated.
Then leaned toward my ear.
"The red phone."
I froze.
"What red phone?"
Ari slid from my lap.
"I show you."
She ran upstairs.
Every adult in the dining room followed.
Claire stayed behind for exactly three seconds.
Then came too.
Ari went to her bedroom.
The room looked normal.
Pink curtains.
Stuffed animals.
Sarah's photograph on the dresser.
Face down.
My heart stopped.
I walked toward it.
Picked it up.
Claire spoke behind me.
"I dusted earlier. I probably forgot."
I looked at her.
"You dusted Ari's room today?"
"Yes."
"So why is there dust around the frame but not under it?"
Silence.
Megan looked at me.
She saw it too.
The photograph had been face down for a while.
Ari climbed onto her bed and reached behind the wooden headboard.
She pulled out a tiny red plastic device.
My mother gasped.
I recognized it immediately.
It was an old child-safe audio recorder Sarah had bought before Ari was born.
Sarah used to record little messages during pregnancy because she knew her delivery would be complicated.
After Sarah died, I had forgotten the recorder existed.
Ari held it out.
"Mommy phone."
My hands shook when I took it.
"How did you find this?"
"In Mommy box."
Sarah's memory box.
Stored at the back of my closet.
Ari should never have been able to reach it.
Claire went pale.
"When did you take that?"
Ari flinched.
I saw it.
A tiny physical reaction.
Not imagination.
Not childish storytelling.
Fear.
I turned toward Claire.
"Why does she look scared when you ask her that?"
Claire folded her arms.
"Because you've turned dinner into an interrogation."
My mother stepped between us.
"Daniel."
I looked at her.
"Take Ari downstairs."
"No."
Ari gripped my leg.
"Stay Daddy."
I knelt.
"I'm staying."
I looked at the recorder.
"Is there something on here?"
Ari nodded.
"Monster voice."
Claire moved toward me.
"Daniel, give me that."
Every person in the room went still.
I stood.
"Why?"
"Because that's private."
My stomach turned.
"Private between you and my four-year-old?"
Claire stopped.
Wrong sentence.
Wrong answer.
I pressed the power button.
Battery alive.
The screen showed twenty-three recordings.
The most recent had been created the previous afternoon while I was at a client meeting.
I pressed play.
At first, silence.
Then footsteps.
A bedroom door closing.
Claire's voice.
Cold.
Nothing like the woman who kissed me every morning.
"Where did you put it?"
Ari's tiny voice:
"I don't know."
"You do know."
"No."
"Stop lying."
Then the sound of drawers opening.
Ari began crying.
Claire:
"If your father finds that recorder, he's going to think you're making things up again."
Again?
My heart started pounding.
Then:
"And if he thinks you're a liar, who do you think he'll believe? His wife or a little girl who talks to a dead woman?"
My mother covered her mouth.
Megan whispered:
"Oh my God."
I could barely breathe.
On the recording, Ari cried:
"Mommy says don't."
Claire replied:
"Your mother is dead."
A pause.
Then:
"And the sooner your father stops worshiping her, the sooner we can have a real family."
The recording ended.
Silence.
Absolute.
I looked at Claire.
She had turned completely white.
Then Megan said something I will never forget.
"Daniel... ask her what she was looking for."
Claire's eyes snapped toward my sister.
And Megan suddenly looked terrified too.
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That was when I realized Ari was not the only person in the room who had been hiding something from me.
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