Free Floating Staircase by Ronald Malfi

died.”
    Adam sucked on his cigar, then pulled it from his mouth to watch the ember glow red. “Elijah drowned in the lake behind your house last summer. That’s why Veronica and David moved out in such a hurry and why the place was such a steal. I guess it was too hard on them. They needed to get the hell out of there.”
    I felt my palms go clammy. I couldn’t speak.
    â€œYou probably noticed the floating staircase, the one coming up through the lake.”
    I nodded. “What is it?”
    â€œAn old fishing pier. A storm came through a few years ago and uprooted it, tossed it on its side. No one ever knew whose pier it was, so no one ever had it removed. Neighborhood kids congregate around it in the summer, dive off it, whatever. Last summer Elijah was out there playing on it.” Again, Adam shrugged. We could have been talking about the weather or the worsening economy. “We worked the investigation and concluded he fell off the staircase, injured his head, and drowned.” His voice had taken on an eerie monotone, as if he were trying hard to sound disinterested in the whole story. “Someone should have been watching him.”
    â€œChrist. Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
    â€œBecause I didn’t want to ruin this move for you guys. The last thing I wanted to do was burden you with this morbid fucking thing. It’s a nice house, a nice neighborhood. What happened to that little boy is not your cross to carry. And anyway, I know how your mind works.” He sighed and sounded like he could have been one hundred years old.
    Again, I thought of our father. I thought of the way he’d beat me with his belt after Kyle’s funeral service, then disappeared into his study where I could hear his great heaving sobs through the closed door.
    â€œWhat do you mean you know how my mind works?”
    â€œFuck me.” Adam pulled the cigar from his mouth and examined it as if he’d never seen a cigar before. “Are you really going to make me say it?”
    I didn’t need him to say it. I knew the reason he hadn’t told me about Elijah Dentman was because of what had happened to Kyle. It didn’t take a brain surgeon. Nonetheless, I was a irritated at his overprotection. I wasn’t a little goddamn kid anymore. “Do you think I wouldn’t have bought the house if I’d known?”
    He looked at me. His eyes were hard and piercing. Sober. “Would you have?”
    I shook my head in disappointment and gazed out at the black woods. “Sometimes I think you don’t know me at all.”
    â€œI’m worried about you.”
    â€œDon’t.”
    â€œI’m your older brother. It’s my job.”
    â€œStop doing it.” A thickening silence simmered between us for the length of many heartbeats. “Smells like Christmas,” I said finally, eager to shatter the silence and change the subject. “The air. It’s smoky here.”
    â€œIt’s the pines.”
    â€œWe used to have a real tree every year in the house at Christmas when we were kids. Remember?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œJodie and I, we started putting up a fake tree every year in London. It became its own tradition. Or some bastardization of tradition, I guess. A fake tree . . .”
    Adam chuckled. “We got one now, too.”
    â€œThey don’t smell the same.”
    â€œNot like Christmas,” Adam said.
    â€œNot at all,” I said. “Don’t tell Jodie about it, okay? The drowned boy?”
    â€œI wouldn’t.”
    â€œYou’re right. It’s not our baggage to carry.”
    â€œI’m glad you think so,” he said and put a hand on my shoulder.
    Ahead of us, the blackness of night seemed to make up the entire world. For all we knew, at that moment we could have been the only two people on the cold, dark face of the planet.

PART TWO:
THE BEAUTY OF THE MYSTERY

CHAPTER