Free Swans Landing #1 - Surfacing by Shana Norris Page B

front lawn and I think she just called you a barnacle sucker.” The woman still stood in the middle of our lawn, her hair waving in wild curls around her head. When she spotted me, her shouts grew louder and she tossed a few more rocks toward the house.
    Lake took two wide steps toward the door and slammed it shut again. “Oh, that? That’s nothing.”
    I crossed my arms over my chest. “What’s going on?”
    “I told you, it’s nothing,” Lake said. But he wouldn’t meet my gaze and outside the shouting grew louder.
    I didn’t say anything as I stared back at Lake, unwavering. He walked to the kitchen and turned on the faucet, letting water run until it was warm and then started rinsing off the bowls stacked inside the sink. Even when he attempted to do housework, he wasn’t very good at it, apparently unconcerned with things like soap or wash cloths to actually clean anything, as if the water would take care of the germs on its own.
    “If you’re not going out there, I am,” I said, pulling the door open again.
    Lake shut off the water and turned to me, twisting the silver pendant he wore around his neck. “It’s a misunderstanding.”
    “Which is what exactly?” I asked.
    Lake moved past me toward the door. “Nothing. I’ll go talk to her.”
    I stepped onto the porch after him, hugging my arms over my chest to block out the chill in the air. The woman—Silvia, I remembered Lake had called her—had to be about the same age as Lake, though she looked haggard and had a permanent downward curl to her lips. Today she wore an old ragged sweatsuit, a house coat hanging off her shoulders and dirty slippers on her feet.
    As Lake walked across the yard toward her, she became even more frenzied. Her hands scratched at the ground for anything she could arm herself with even though Lake held his hands up in a surrendering pose.
    Dodging a clump of sand Silvia threw at him, Lake reached for her to try to calm her down. She twisted out of his way, stumbling backward. I could see Lake’s lips move as he spoke to her, but I couldn’t hear anything he said. Across the street, the neighbors that I still had yet to actually meet peeked out of their front window to see what was going on. But no one came out to help and after a moment, they turned away, pulling their curtains tight.
    I wandered down the stairs slowly to keep from upsetting Silvia again. She had calmed down and stood in front of Lake, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she sucked in gasps of air. She looked poised to take off running at any moment.
    Lake held up a hand to stop me from coming any closer. “I’m going to take Silvia home,” he told me.
    “Do you need some help?” I asked.
    “No, it’s fine. She lives a couple blocks away.”
    When Lake reached for her hand, Silvia jumped back. “Don’t touch me, you vile chum eater,” she spat. “You think you can walk around here innocent of his blood after what y’all did?” She pointed a crooked finger at Lake. “You’ll get what’s coming to you, I promise you that.”
    “Go back inside,” Lake told me, trying to steer Silvia toward the street without actually touching her. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
    It wasn’t long before Lake returned, alone. His shoulders slumped and he looked exhausted as he ran a hand down his face, pulling at his chin. I sat at the island counter, waiting.
    “Well?” I asked when he’d closed the door behind him.
    “Yes?”
    I waved my hands in a wide gesture. “Explain.”
    Lake shrugged and walked over to his table of shells. “I took Silvia home and there’s nothing to worry about.”
    His movements were rigid as he picked through the shells. “I think I deserve an explanation as to why there was a crazy woman screaming at us from our front yard,” I said.
    “She’s not crazy. She’s confused. I told you it was a misunderstanding.”
    I rolled my eyes. “I’m not stupid, Lake. If that was a misunderstanding, it was a pretty big