"Maybe you left it at the Meaderses'," he says.
"No," Daniel says. "It was here. You didn't take it, did you?"
"Just because you can't find something doesn't mean I took it."
"Paul," Elaine says, stopping him before it gets worse.
Her parents stand in the kitchen-oblivious.
"Weird," Daniel says, coming to the top of the stairs.
"It happens," Elaine yells. "Chow's on. Get Sammy."
"Samster, the hamster boy," Daniel says. "Come and get it."
"This is great," Paul says as they squeeze in around the kitchen table. "Elaine doesn't usually make a real breakfast."
"Don't touch me," Sammy says, sitting down.
"It's early for tomatoes, but I'm a sucker," her mother says, loading her plate.
"A sucker for anything that costs double what it should," her father says, digging in.
"Does anyone need me to make eggs? I can make eggs if anyone wants them. I brought a dozen."
"This is fine," Elaine says. "We're fine."
"Could someone pass the onion?" her father says.
"Now, that's what you shouldn't be eating," her mother says. "All day it'll repeat on you."
Elaine listens to her parents "not fighting-talking." She has the sensation of something pecking at her, pinching, biting off pieces of her flesh. She hears her mother's voice and hates it.
"Sam, come here, I have something to show you," her father summons Sammy.
"Don't go," Daniel says. "He's going to make your ears excrete money."
"That's a big word," Paul says.
"'Money'?" Daniel says.
"'Excrete,'" Paul says.
Daniel squeezes the two halves of his bagel together-cream cheese oozes out.
The phone rings, it's Joan. "Will you be home later? I have a little something for you. I was thinking of dropping by at around six. How does that sound?"
Elaine watches her father pluck a quarter from Sammy's ear.
"Excrete," Daniel says.
"Fine," Elaine tells Joan. "Great."
In the living room, after brunch, Elaine's father pulls a cigar from his shirt pocket.
"Since when do you smoke?" Paul asks.
"It's his new passion," her mother says.
"For years I was too busy to enjoy anything. That's what retirement is about, discovering pleasure," he says, clipping the tip.
"We just had the house cleaned," Elaine says.
Her father slides the cigar back into his pocket. "I'll wait," he says. "I'll have it later, in peace."
Elaine watches her father lower himself onto the living room sofa; he's a little stiff, unsure of himself.
Her mother goes to him. "Are you tired?" she asks. "Would you like to lie down for a few minutes before we go home?" She puts her hand on his forehead and then sweeps it back through his white hair. Elaine has never seen her mother behave this way before-solicitous.
"I'm all right," he says, waving her away.
Her mother bends and kisses her father. She gives him a long good one right on the lips, and Elaine is shocked. The kiss is so tender, sexual, surprising. Elaine's parents are lip to lip in her living room, and she's watching them with her eyes popping out like she's a kid-grossed out.
"Come on, old man, I'll take you home," her mother says, helping her father off the sofa.
"All right, old woman, let's go," he says.
"I put the leftovers in your fridge. You have plenty for tomorrow," her mother says.
"Thanks," Elaine says. She can't bring herself to hug or kiss either of them. She is glad her parents are leaving. They have frightened her. They can go home and do whatever they want, but here in her house she doesn't want them being affectionate, she doesn't want them getting along, she has no concept of them that way.
"Willy's here," Paul says, looking out the window.
Daniel opens the door.
"You got lucky last night, leaving before the liver," Willy says, stepping in. "Organ meat, can't be beat."
Paul and Elaine are still sitting in the living room.
"Hello, Willy," Paul says over his shoulder.
"Hello," Willy says.
And no one says anything else.
"What's going on?" Willy asks.
"My grandparents just left. We're all kind of burned out," Daniel says. "Come up to my room."
Elaine pictures the two of them fondling the Ziploc bags, flipping through fat-girl magazines. "Why don't you go outside? It's such a nice day, play outside."
Despite the distractions, Elaine is thinking about yesterday, about Pat yelling "Freeze," about the cop with the red balloon, about the way she went racing to the school, looking for the guidance counselor. She thinks about the hammer and nails. She fixates on the idea that the police will investigate-they'll find the hammer with her fingerprints and bust her. She feels a sense of impending doom; something is about to happen, something she's not going to like.
"I've got to go out for a minute," she tells Paul. "Be back soon."
He looks at her.
"What?" she says.
"You tell me," he says.
They stare. Bastard, bitch, prick, cunt.
There is the constant fear of being found out, exposed. What does he know? What is she getting at?
"I just need a minute alone," she says.
"You are alone, Elaine, everyone has gone on their merry way."
"Just let me go," she says. "I'll be right back."
"Take the videos," he says.
"Can I go?" Sammy asks. "I want to go."
There's a pause.
"Sure," Elaine says. "Of course you can go." She offers Paul the same opportunity. "Would you like to come along for the ride?" "Absolutely not," he says.
Elaine goes. She gets in the car and goes with Sammy.
She passes Pat and George's house. They are home, both cars are in the driveway. She hovers in the middle of the street, idling with no particular plan in mind. She hovers until she feels conspicuous and then steps on the gas. She wonders why everything seems catastrophic, why she's always holding her breath, waiting for something to change her life.
"Where are you taking me?" Sammy asks.
"Video store."
"Why are we going this way?"
"For a change," she says.
"Are you kidnapping me?"
"What are you talking about?" Elaine asks.
"I don't know," he says.
"Well then, stop it," she says.
They return the movies, and on the way home Elaine swings by the vocational school.
"Have I been here before?" Sammy asks.
"Have you?" Elaine pulls into the empty lot and parks. "I have to check on something, about the house." She plants an explanation in Sammy's brain, something Sammy can repeat if Paul asks what they did. "Stay here," she says, getting out of the car.