The Seventh Day Read Free

the crazy man at the school and now my father is panicking. My father who has never yelled at me before—ever.
    I blink a single tear as Mom drops the rag
she is scrubbing with into the trashcan and pours bleach onto our SUV. It’s
like she doesn't hear me. She’s stuck on the man and the blood. The floor is
flooded with bleach. She pours it on her hands and walks to the utility sink.
There she scrubs like she is Lady Macbeth. Her eyes are wild with smeared
makeup and something I have never seen before, maybe a loss of control. I can
hear my father screaming from the phone I am holding out to her but she is in a
trance. "MOM!"
    She turns, suddenly realizing what is
happening. "Hold-hold it up to my ear."
    I can honestly say I have never met the
woman in front of me. My ball-busting lawyer of a hateful mother is gone and in
her place is a simpering, feeble, scared woman. She is weak and frightened. I
hold the phone up to the side of her face. I can smell her perfume, but it
mixes with the bleach and nauseates me.
    Her lips quiver. "Baby, there was a
man and a child and the child was hurt badly, and the poor thing’s feet
twitched and there was no one. No one was there. I almost let Joey go
in—" She sobs, shaking. “I was on the phone and I didn't see. I
didn't see. I should have seen.”
    I hear him bark and she stops nattering on.
She nods, making noises I assume mean she understands
what he is saying. She sniffles. "I need you now! I can’t do this. I need
you. I can’t do this."
    He barks again. She shakes her head as
fresh tears fill her eyes. I don’t know what to do to make her stop being
crazy—to make her get control of herself. I hear something outside of the
garage banging, and something else. I look back at the garage door as the noises get louder.
    Oh God,
is it the man? Did he follow us home?
    Her eyes dart wild and crazed-like to the
sounds, like she too thinks the man is on the other side. She backs away,
bringing the phone and I follow. She shakes her head. "I can't, Steve. I
can't do it. Your children need you." Her eyes are crazy and her mouth is
a tight line. She gives me a look. "He wants to talk to you."
    I take the phone back, uncertain of what he
wants me to do, beyond maybe call the police. "We never called the cops
yet—we couldn't get through. It was busy and then there was just a
recorded message."
    "Listen to me, Lou. I have
minutes—seconds even.” He’s calm again. He sounds like himself. “The
whole thing is going to be widespread in hours. You have about thirty minutes
before this goes televised and then the world will be in a panic. Right now they
have been jamming signals, in hopes of stopping the panic. But it’s a Band-Aid
situation. Get to the store. Get as much as you can. Be smart—water,
batteries, canned food, and dried food. Forget fresh and forget things that
need a ton of work. Drag the camping barbecue inside. Fill the tubs with water
and the sinks. Get hand sanitizer and bleach. I'm texting all of this to you
right now. When you get back from the store, stay in the house, and board up
the windows. There is plywood in the backyard. I bought a ton when I was home,
for the shed. I want you to get my hammer and my nails and board up the
windows. Do the main floor and the windows near the garage. The back of the house isn’t that big of a deal. Touch no one and stay away from
people. Bring Furgus inside—don't let him outside at all. Let him go to
the bathroom in the garage if he gets desperate."
    My mouth is dry so when I speak, it sounds
funny. "Dad, Dad, I don’t—I don’t know what you mean. Why would Gus
use the garage as the bathroom?"
    "We don’t know for sure what it is,
but hear my voice—I am coming for you. Talk to no one and touch no one.
Right now the guess is that it’s viral."
    My heartbeat is so high I feel like I might
pass out. My mom has stripped naked, leaving her clothes on the floor. She
walks into the house, leaving me in the