to feel guilty for lambasting his best friend. Dave was going to be late for work—again. How the hours seemed to slip away from him these days was unfathomable.
So what someone left Robb a message—it could have been anyone. Robb hung out with all sorts and there were still a few friends around from their days of childhood. It could have been any of them, so why was Dave being the one harassed? He took a few inhales of air. Robb was his best friend. He hadn’t upset him on purpose.
Dave wanted to kick himself by the time he pulled into the firm. In his surprise to see Robb and have new information thrown at him, he’d completely forgotten to ask about their latest pizza delivery. It was another thing he had no answers for. Dave hated when he had no answers.
Dave tried fruitlessly to justify his ill feelings, but the moment he stepped into the office, his attention was focused elsewhere.
He was almost an hour late and Desiree was nowhere to be seen.
Dave dropped down to his desk and carefully looked around—just to make sure she wasn’t hiding in plain sight. After another hour passed and he still hadn’t caught wind of her, he figured he was in the clear.
Dave got to work, his thoughts avoiding the confrontations of his home life—instead he delved into the lives of others. He attempted to remain focused on work but a small niggling thought kept poking against his psyche—why wasn’t Desiree here? Where was she? In court, or perhaps she was sick...or maybe she was plotting against him.
Dave was attempting to quell these unwelcome thoughts when he was interrupted.
“Hey.”
He glanced up.
“What are you doing here?” Dave asked, taking in his thoroughly out of place sister in her baggy sweat pants and converse sneakers.
“I walked. Thought we could grab lunch.” Dave was already shaking his head no, but his sister continued, “We need to talk.”
Something in her tone made the hairs on the back of his neck stand. As much as his sister was always in crisis mode, he could see that this time was different. She hated crowds of people. Coming to his office was the last thing she would do unless she was desperate.
Dave stared at her for a moment, before nodding and getting to his feet.
They headed to the diner, where Dave knew they wouldn’t be likely to be overheard through the din of the usual lunch crowd. As he drove, his sister sat quietly. Dave was just beginning to appreciate the silence when she switched on the radio.
Rape Me!
Dave jumped with a start, the volume had been turned to maximum (he figured Sam must have done this in an attempt to give him a heart attack) and the sound of Nirvana once again came blasting into his eardrums.
Dave slammed it off as he turned to look at his sister. She looked equally startled by the music. He ejected the CD and flung it into the back seat in annoyance.
Even after arriving at the diner, Harmony continued to watch him as they sat down in the window booth and ordered. When they were finally left alone, Dave brought up her apparent urgency.
“What is it, Har?”
“Can you feel it?” she asked quietly, looking around with suspicion.
“Feel what?”
“Someone is watching us.”
Dave took a shrewd glance around the joint. There were too many people congregating for him to get a full look, but his instincts told him his sister was just being her overly dramatic self.
“I don’t see anyone watching us,” Dave commented blandly.
Harmony scratched her eyebrow—a tick she always reverted to when she was nervous. “I was thinking about what you said the other day. About you and I...not being the same. Why do you think we ended up so differently?”
The change in subject matter brought his attention back to his frail and somber looking twin. He felt his cheeks grow red with shame—it had been a low blow for him to distance himself from her in that way, but he was going to follow his truth. He was going to be honest.
“God, I don’t know. Genetics?”
She nodded along thoughtfully, “Maybe. Maybe you got all the happy genes, the ones that allow you a bright future and a loving family.”
“Loving?”
“Georgie.”
“Yeah, she’s about the only one who loves me these days.”
“Don’t say that, Dave. It’s not true.”
“Feels that way. I’m sick of being taken advantage of, Harmony.”
“Who takes advantage of you?”
“To start? Mom.”
“Fuck June.”
Dave laughed.
“I’m serious. She spends all her time either butting into other people’s lives or completely ignoring mine,” she frowned. “I mean, I know you’ve always been the favorite, but it’s to the point where I just feel invisible these days, to them at least. Doctor H. sees me, though. She believes in me.”
Dave reached across the table and grabbed his sister’s hands, feeling a pang of guilt at her attempt to convince herself she was more.
“And she’s right to do so, Sis. You’re so smart, you have so much to offer.”
“Yeah, if only I could get out of my own way.”
“Hey, at least you recognize that. That puts you ten steps ahead of most people.”
She smiled her small smile, casting her eyes down as she did whenever someone gave her a compliment. It was so rare. Dave was never sure which Harmony he would get—her moods and thoughts shifted so rapidly she was hard to keep up with.
“So, tell me. What’s this all about? You walked all the way to my office to talk about our differences?”
Any trace of delight drained from her face immediately.
“Dad wasn’t feeling well this morning,” she began, lowering her voice even further. So much so that Dave had to lean forward to catch the ends of her wispy sentences. “They didn’t go to church. Stayed in and had prayer in the living room instead.”
Dave nodded along, knowing it was difficult for his father to get going most days. The stress he continued to put on his body was eventually going to wreak havoc.
“The wind woke me early, I was up late painting again...it really helps the anxiety.”
Once Harmony captured his attention, she was known to keep it on her for as long as possible. Dave was the only one who gave her stories the time of day and she savored the ability and privilege to be heard.
“So I couldn’t sleep, figured I might as well raid their kitchen for leftovers. I left the guest house, it was terribly foggy, and when I got to the back door of the main house, there was a note taped to it.”
“A note?” Dave repeated, as to make sure he’d heard the word correctly.
Harmony nodded, leaning even further into his space, her eyes moving rapidly about for eavesdroppers. For a split second, Dave entertained the thought that his sister was losing her grip on reality.
“Something bad is coming, Dave,” she stared directly into his eyes, as if she were seeing through him. “And it’s coming for you.”
“What did the note say? Harmony?” He grasped her cold hands in his own, squeezing them tightly. She squeezed back.
“Just that. That’s what it said.”
“Verbatim?”
She nodded again.
“Where is it?” he asked.
“I burned it.”
“Why?”
“It scared me,” Dave dropped his head into hands with a groan, “And I didn’t want June to find it,” she said defensively. “You know how she’s always snooping about, even going through the damn garbage!”
“Was it written out? Typed?”
Harmony shook her head, “What does that matter?”
“Never mind.” Dave sucked down the anger he was experiencing—his sister was scared, that was intolerable. “Listen, I want you to forget you ever saw this message. Alright?”
“Dave, please. Tell me you aren’t in any trouble,” she begged, her grip on his hand once again becoming vice-like, her nails close to breaking his skin.
“I’m not. You know I’m not.” He forced a laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. “Someone is just messing with me. Probably Robb or Samantha, I’m sure she’s still furious with me over the disaster last night.”
“I thought Alex was handsome,” his sister mused, her mind once again darting into another space. “He seemed nice enough.”
Dave wasn’t in the mood to explain to her why that wasn’t the problem. He couldn’t. His mind was filled with the newest “prank” from this unknown source. He would confront Samantha about it. This petty behavior had child written all over it.