He was the type of man who always appeared to be doing the right thing. But it always seemed to happen that he did so at great consequence to Aly. For instance, he’d hung onto that stupid little computer shop for far too long. He needed to get it together and get a real job, really support Aly.
And he was always off on some errand, helping out that deadbeat friend of his, whatever his name was. Bailing him out of jail, picking him up from work, even buying clothes for job interviews that he’d certainly never go to.
Jim helped that friend of his so much that Aly was often left at home. Sure, she could take care of herself, but she needed to spend time with her husband. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Jim hadn’t sunk so much of his time and energy into that computer shop.
There was a loud knock on the door.
“Judy!” called out a familiar voice.
Judy sighed and went to open the front door. She did so quickly, worried that whatever was happening out there in the street might somehow bleed over into her own home. “Quick,” she said, in a hushed voice.
A tall, thin young man scuttled around her and crossed across the threshold into Judy’s house.
It was Tim, a twenty-something who lived in the basement of his aunt’s house next door. He was a good kid, but he didn’t exactly have a stable job. His aunt tolerated his presence due to some long forgotten familial arrangement.
“Do you know what’s going on out there, Tim?” said Judy, shutting the door quickly.
Tim shook his head. “People are starting to get mad, though.”
“Who?”
“The people in the street. Their cars just stopped there.” Tim swept his long hair back from his face, tucking it behind his ear. “Is Aly here?”
Judy shook her head.
She knew well why Tim asking. It wasn’t hard to tell by the way that he looked at her daughter that he had a crush on her. Of course, he’d have been even worse than Jim for her daughter.
“She’s with Jim.”
“Her husband?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s weird,” said Tim. “I saw her last night.”
“You saw her last night?”
“Yeah, and they were putting her in the back of a squad car.”
“What?”
“It looked like they were arresting her.”
“You must have the wrong person. Have you been smoking that stuff again?”
Judy took a whiff of the air, as if to test to see if she could smell anything on him that would cause him to entertain such a wild idea. Her daughter, after all, would never get arrested.
“I’m positive. I just wanted to come by and make sure she got out OK.”
“Well, she would have called if there was anything the matter,” said Judy.
Tim nodded. “Anyway,” he said. “While I’m here, do you think I could borrow some tools from the basement?”
“Well…”
Except for this brief period with her daughter staying with her, Judy had lived alone ever since her husband had died ten years ago. She’d decided to keep the house, even though it was too big for just her.
All of her husband’s things were still there. She’d never been able to part with them, no matter how often her daughter offered to help.
Now she was well aware that Tim often took advantage of her generosity. He’d taken many of her husband’s tools already, and he’d only returned some of them. What he did with them, she didn’t know.
But she found it difficult to say “no” to him. After all, if she upset him, he’d probably stop coming around. And sometimes Tim was the only person she spoke to few days on end.
Life for the elderly in Pittsford could be lonely at times.
Tim was looking at her expectantly.
“Well, OK,” said Judy. “But don’t take too many things this time, OK? And make sure to bring them back.”
“Sure thing, Judy,” said Tim, already headed towards the basement.
There’d been times where other things in the house had gone missing. Some money from her purse had disappeared after one of Tim’s visits, along with some medication. But she’d never had the courage to bring it up.
Judy moved back to the window, shifted the curtains carefully, and peered back out.
It was the same scene as before.
“If only the sun would come out,” she muttered to herself.
The grayness of the sky seemed to hang over Pittsford like a thick blanket. And Judy had always believed that the weather affected people’s moods more than they were aware. On a grey day like today, people were more on edge.
Judy didn’t know what to think of Tim’s claim that he’d seen her daughter getting arrested.
But she didn’t have much time to think, because something was happening in the street.
There was a station wagon that had just appeared. The driver was honking the horn.
Someone was standing in the station wagon’s path, waving at it.
Suddenly, Judy made sense of the situation.
It was Jim, Aly’s husband. Yes, that was definitely his car.
Whoever was standing in Jim’s path was shouting at him.
The door to the station wagon opened, and Jim stepped out, looking tall.
In his hand, there was a pistol.
And he pointed it right at the men in the path of his car.
Judy could barely believe her eyes.
She took a sharp intake of breath and her heart started to pound.
Towards the back of the house, Judy heard Tim’s steps on the creaky basement stairs. And she heard him knocking something against the walls.
6
It had been a difficult decision, but Jim had decided to go right to his wife, rather than stopping at the hospital first. He’d even pulled over to check on the woman in the back. Her condition hadn’t worsened.
The way over to Pittsford had been the same as driving down Park Avenue. Plenty of cars stopped on the road.
They’d only seen a couple other cars that still seemed to work. One was a Subaru, for sure, and one was some ancient car that Jim hadn’t recognized.
On the drive, Jim had tried to explain the situation to Rob as best he could. Rob trusted Jim implicitly. They’d been friends forever, and Rob had always looked up to Jim the way a younger brother might an older brother. In their adult lives, Jim had gotten him out of more jams than he could count.
But Rob still resisted the idea, even if he was slowly coming around to it. He offered up a dozen or so half thought out counterarguments, which Jim shot down one by one.
Jim could see the Aly’s mother’s house from where the Subaru was.
Someone was blocking his path. An overweight man in his forties. He was making strange motions with his arms that made no sense.
And no matter what, he wouldn’t get out of the way.
“Jim, we can just walk from here!” hissed Rob, from the passenger seat.
“Not if we’re going to have to load up the car,” said Jim.
“Load up the car? With what?”
“Supplies,” said Jim.
Jim was under no illusions that the his emergency bag would be enough to last them.
And he also didn’t know if they’d be able to make it back to his and Aly’s own apartment, which was about a thirty minute drive.
If not, they needed to take what they could from Aly’s mother’s house. And fast. He couldn’t waste time carting things out to the street. They were, after all, still a few houses away.
“And we can’t leave her in the car, either,” said Jim. “Everyone’s getting frantic. Who knows what they’ll do. How they’ll react.”