Danny sits in his van down the street from Stephen Small’s house. His eyes are bloodshot. He has a cigarette between his lips. The van’s window is open, but the smoke pools in the ceiling. Danny takes a drag and jettisons the butt out the window.
He glances around to make sure no one is watching him; then he lifts a pair of binoculars and spies the Small house. The Smalls aren’t particularly careful about closing their shades at night. Danny can see into their house quite well. Through an upstairs window, he sees both parents tucking their twins into bunk beds.
Danny can’t stand the look of this guy, with his receding hairline and goofy aw-shucks smile. He’s probably never had a hardship in his life. His wife isn’t bad-looking. Maybe a little homely. But she could do better than him, if he wasn’t rich, that is. That has to be the reason she’s with him.
After they tuck the boys in, they go to their other son’s room. Danny can’t see well into this one, but he imagines them going through a similar ritual.
One big happy family.
It makes Danny sick.
He has two children from a previous marriage, and now Nancy wants him to be a surrogate father to her son. He loves his children, and Benji is a cute kid. But the responsibility that goes with children is just exhausting.
He had liked living in a separate house from Nancy. He was able to go back and forth between the houses whenever he wanted. It was the best of both worlds. He had a girlfriend, but he could live like a bachelor half the time. If he had Stephen Small’s kind of money, he’d pay someone to tuck his kids into bed at night so he could go out and party.
After the other son’s light goes out, Nancy Small heads to what Danny assumes is their bedroom. Stephen trots downstairs and appears briefly in front of the glass window on the front door. He’s checking to make sure the door is locked, Danny thinks.
Stephen makes the rounds through the house, turning off lights; then he heads upstairs. He joins his wife in their bedroom and closes the curtains. Danny can’t make out anything but blurs behind the white drapes. Then the lights go out. The house is dark. Quiet.
Danny moves the binoculars over the rest of the property. He studies the detached garage. To leave the house, Stephen Small has to walk from one building to the other.
Danny wonders if the side door to the garage is unlocked. He doesn’t want to risk checking. There’s too much at stake for him to get caught snooping around the property.
Danny starts the engine and slowly drives down the street.
He doesn’t turn on his headlights until he is well past the house he’s been spying on.