Teaser Tuesday excerpt

Today's Teaser Tuesday excerpt is from "Inheritance," the short story that's being published in the upcoming anthology Harlan County Horrors. This is the opening:

The kitchen reeked of lilies and Jania's diaper. I scrubbed Becca's lasagna pan with steel wool and stared through the window at a patch of early-turned leaves.

Becca thunked a laundry basket onto a clear space of kitchen table. “Baby needs changed,” I said.

“You can't do it?”

“I'm washing your dishes.”

“So? I was washing your shirt.”

“Where is it?” I half turned to look at the laundry basket.

Becca scooped up her youngest and tickled her. “In Mark and Tommy's room.”

“Is that where I'm sleeping?”

“Unless you want the attic.”

“No,” I replied too quickly.

“You still afraid of the attic?”

“Not afraid,” I said, running fresh, steaming water over the pan. “The stairs are too narrow. Too steep.”

“I put the boys up there,” she said, turning her back to me.

“Do they go up there much?” I tried to cover the crack in my voice with a cough.

“You are still afraid of the attic.”

I began to protest but she'd already taken Jania up the stairs.

 

That night, I read while the boys watched an obnoxious movie on DVD. Becca knitted a sock, her first, and she constantly wrinkled her nose at the book providing the instructions. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her sigh, close the book and coil the half-knitted sock around its needles. She stashed everything in a canvas bag and popped back the recliner.

“What're you reading?”

“It's for work,” I say, not looking at her.

“About what?”

“Selkies”

Her sons turned around. “What's a silky?” Tommy asked.

“Selkie, not silky. It's like a woman with a seal skin she can take on and off, kinda like a mermaid.”

“Never heard of that,” Becca said.

“We got a report of some sightings in Scotland.” I decided to keep my transfer to myself. The timing was perfect and I'd been raised too superstitious to do anything to jinx it.

“Cool,” Matt said.

Becca threw her feet over the edge of the chair. “How do you study all these things and you don't believe any of them?”

“Because I study them.” I turned a page I hadn't really read.

Matt opened his mouth but before he could speak, Becca announced that it was bedtime. The boys groaned. “We have to get up early for Grandma. I don't want any fighting or sass tomorrow.”

Soon as the three of them headed to the attic, I flipped off the TV and followed their footfalls. The boys settled in the back of the attic, near the door for the steps. That was good. It was the front of the attic that concerned me. I hadn't yet figured how to get Becca to allow me to poke around but I needed to see the trunk. Better yet, I needed to see that it wasn't there.