The five of us sit around the kitchen table: Suzy, Justin, Joy, Charlie, and me. It’s been a very emotional few minutes. The food Justin summoned up for everyone to eat is still on the table, a table set for nine.
“Ethan can’t be evil,” Suzy says. “You got that wrong.”
“I looked into his eyes,” Joy says. “I looked into his eyes when he tried to kill me once. Then twice. And I looked into his eyes when he killed Charlie’s dad.” Charlie looks down with sadness in his eyes. “He was happy to kill. He wanted to kill everyone in his dream!”
“It’s a religious thing, Mom,” Justin tells her. “We know he believes in God. That’s not the thing. The thing is he thinks he deserves punishment. Maybe for being evil, I don’t know. And in his dream he’s the angel in Hell, burning everyone’s souls. He was so happy to do it. He was so ruthless. That is who Ethan is, deep down.”
Suzy shakes her head. “He’s such a nice man.”
“He’s the father of your grandchildren,” Justin says. Then he looks at Joy quickly, as if having been caught with his hands in the candy jar. “Two of your grandchildren. And he’s Angela’s husband. How could we have missed this. How could she have missed it? And the sad thing is, is that when I wake up, I won’t remember it. I won’t remember to talk about it with Angela. I’ll look into Ethan’s eyes and I won’t remember. He and I will joke around like we always do.”
There is silence around the table. “And you won’t know anything’s wrong,” he gestures with his chin towards Suzy. “And you won’t know it,” he gestures at me.
“Um…” Charlie says quietly, afraid to give his opinion on a family matter. “Do you really think it’s possible for someone to marry someone else and not know who they really are?”
Joy shakes her head in response.
Justin shakes his head. “She had to have known. She has to know. She has to.”
“It’s possible to not know who you’re married to,” I say. “I mean, theoretically. Suzy?”
She nods. “It’s possible.”
And once again there is silence around the table.
(To be continued…)
—Told by Grampa Walt