As Darkness Falls

18

Mary, Zoe’s mother, opened the front door of the house, and then stepped back, out of the way, so Zoe and Sara could go inside.

Zoe went in. She seemed calm. Subdued, but calm. She glanced back at Sara as she went up the steps, and Sara smiled, trying to be reassuring.

Zoe smiled back.

Zoe’s family was waiting in the hallway, as if they had all got up when Zoe and Sara arrived. As well as Mary, Zoe’s two sisters and brother were there, and also a guy who turned out to be the boyfriend of the older of the sisters. Sara knew their names and faces from the police files, and could work out who was who, even though they’d all aged a little. Zoe was the oldest. Beth, short for Bethany, was the middle sister, then Joel, the brother, and then Faith who was the youngest.

It was a subdued family reunion. No-one said hello or that it was good to see each other again, or anything obvious like that. It was almost as if they were hoping to skip straight past that part, Sara thought, and so avoid talking about why Zoe had been away for so long. None of them spoke for a moment, and none of them seemed to know how to act. They all just stood there looking at Zoe, seeming uncertain, which made Sara suspect they already knew not to try and hug.

Sara was glad, if they knew.

She stood there, watching, ready to do something if Zoe got upset. Or if anyone upset her, which Sara half expected. No-one did, though. They all seemed to be being careful, and Sara was relieved.

After a while, Mary said that Zoe looked older. Zoe said they all did too. Mary introduced the sister’s boyfriend, who was Dean, and said that he and Beth were engaged. Mary said betrothed, but Sara got the idea, although she almost wanted to glance around for top hats and hansom cabs.

They were doing introductions, so Zoe said that Sara was Sara. Sara said hi, and that she and Zoe weren’t betrothed, but that fell kind of flat. They all just looked at her, confused, as though she’d said something completely obvious. She realized why, after a moment. Marriage equality probably wasn’t a very big thing around here. She didn’t bother caring, though, not for people like this.

She didn’t care, but Zoe squeezed her hand anyway, and Sara grinned at her, grateful.

Zoe grinned back, then looked at her family some more. She was apparently thinking, and happy enough with that, so Sara kept looking too.

The sisters and brother looked like Zoe, Sara decided, enough Sara could see they were related. Beth, the older one, was dressed more like Mary, slightly frumpy and self-consciously plain. She had clothes that were a bit too baggy, and a dress that went a little past her knee. No makeup, and long hair, but nothing particular done with it. Beside her, Faith looked more like someone Sara would see anywhere else. She was dressed more like Sara, in jeans and flat shoes and layered tee-shirts under a jacket. She still had no makeup, but it felt like no makeup for the same reason Sara had no makeup, because she was busy and couldn’t be bothered, rather than she thought it was a sin or something.

Sara felt like she might get on with Faith a little better than the others.

She looked at the men. Joel and Dean seemed oddly similar to each another, in a way Sara couldn’t quite place. They had something of a small town about them, she thought. Even though they must both live in Melbourne, they seemed more Newcastle or Bathurst. Somewhere run down, with mostly labouring jobs, and not much else to do at the weekend but drive around in circles. They had cheap haircuts, and cheap jeans, and were still wearing older clothes despite several small tears and stains. Sara thought they probably had a bit more money than it seemed, though, but were making a thing of frugality. Joel had a new phone, she noticed, and the cars parked outside were fairly new as well.

Frugality might be something the family’s church was into, Sara suddenly thought. It might be frowned upon to wear too-fancy clothes. That might be why the old jeans.

Sara wasn’t especially used to religion, and so she wasn’t quite sure. She glanced around at the house, and decided it looked frugal too, so perhaps it was religious thing, something their church approved of.

She looked further. The house seemed frugal, she decided, and as if it was intentionally avoiding looking too modern as well. Most of the furniture was quite old, and the TV she could see in the lounge was as well. Everything seemed a little run down, she thought. It didn’t look like anything was new. Perhaps money had been tight with Robert in prison, she thought, so perhaps it was real frugality, but it might still be a religious thing, because the religion was quite obvious in the decor. There were a lot of embroidered wall-hangings and posters with inspirational sayings she assumed must be from the bible, and at least two crosses in sight from the front door, as if they were worried about vampires.

Maybe they were worried about vampires. She really had no idea.

She stood there a little longer, and decided the house was actually a bit creepy. There was too much frilly shit everywhere, and the religious stuff was a little overdone.