Free Trying the Knot by Todd Erickson Page A

species.
    Poor Kate, Nick thought, she had been through
too much in the past year. First, her mother died of an extended
bout with cancer; moreover, she had failed to share the
inevitability of her prognosis. Kaye Hesse’s death messed over
Kate’s younger brother, Jack, so badly he spent the duration of her
funeral in the hospital recovering from alcohol poisoning. When
Kate’s father subsequently remarried, he failed to share with his
children the depth of his relationship with of all people, the town
floozy Evangelica’s mother.
    Understandably, Kate had not taken the news
of her father’s union very well, and Jack once again freaked out.
He hated Kate for being so far removed from their nightmare
homestead. No matter how often Nick tried to get close to the
misguided youth, Jack resisted. His resentment seethed below the
surface of his intense animosity. Also, Jack’s penchant for getting
into trouble put an unwarranted strain on Nick and Kate’s
relationship.
    More often than not, Jack found himself
clashing with local authorities. Last autumn, he was suspected of
having set a vacant building ablaze, and this spring his prom
date’s car collided with a deer. She died on a lonely country road,
and he was pulled from school in order to spend time in a mental
health clinic, where he perfected the intricate art of
self-mutilation.
    “He’s a cutter?” Kate asked. “What does he
cut?”
    “Himself,” Nick had to explain.
    When life became as bad as it could get,
Kate’s grandfather keeled over dead on Easter Sunday. Sparing her
from yet another bout of depressing sadness, he insisted she skip
the funeral and vacation in Cancun, Mexico.
    Kate’s family was not the only ones who
wallowed in stress-inducing antics. Nick’s parents obtained a
secret divorce, although they continued to live together, and his
sister Nanette changed her name to Tristana after striking up a
long distance love affair with the editor of the local newspaper,
the Portnorth Porthole. His sister’s sole purpose for setting foot
in town was to humiliate her family.
    Presently with Vange in a coma and Thad
knowing about their tryst in the bushes, life had become rather
complicated. Nick wished for expeditious removal from the present
turmoil, and he hoped Kate’s cousin had sense enough to keep his
mouth shut. Certainly, Nick thought, Thad would never intentionally
do anything to devastate Kate’s fleeting moment of happiness.
    He kissed her cheek, wiped the drool from her
chin and whispered, “I love you so much.”
    Nick thought it a wise idea to check around
town to make sure his groomsmen had not cut too wide a swath of
destruction, and he gently abandoned Kate on the bed. While he was
out and about he intended to drop in at the newspaper office to
have a well-meaning chat with his future cousin-in-law, Thad
Feldpausch.
    He never especially understood Thad’s
alienating remoteness or pathological indifference. Nick always
secretly suspected him of being gay, especially after the
half-serious proposition he once tossed his way. “If a body is just
a body, Nick, then why not have sex with every body?” The blunt
remark threw doubt on Nick’s past assertions Thad was merely
harmless and an inexperienced novice.
    Nick gave Kate a final kiss goodbye, and he
could not help but smile when he noticed her thick ankles. It was
one more of her little imperfections he found hopelessly
endearing.
     
     

 
    chapter five
     
    After several futile attempts to start the
rusted-out Datsun, Thad finally decided he might as well abandon
the vehicle in the diner parking lot and walk the five blocks to
work at the Portnorth Porthole newspaper. It was the last Friday of
summer, and the town was relatively bustling, especially with
minivans and SUVs piloted by mothers running last minute errands
before sending their kids back into school.
    Chelsea accompanied him, and the mid-morning,
lukewarm air tugged gently at her short blond hair as she