You Are Not a Stranger Here - Adam Haslett [53]
“If Penelope and Trevor want to go sailing, that’s exactly what they’ll do. And I don’t want to hear you’ve gone frightening your mother or brother about this nonsense, you understand? You’re a perfectly normal boy. Everyone has nightmares. They’re tough sometimes. You wake up and you get on with things. That’s just how it is. Now you go on into the house and forget about this. Go on.” He turned Samuel around and aimed him at the back door.
THEY RETURNED FROM the beach earlier than usual the next day, in the middle of the afternoon, people scattering into various parts of the house to shower or nap. Samuel wandered out onto the deck and found his mother reclining in a chair reading her book. The sun had gone in behind some clouds. She looked up from the page and smiled.
“It’s not so bad here, is it?” she said.
Samuel shrugged.
His mother gazed out over the water. “You looking forward to being a prefect next term? You know your father was quite proud when he heard that.”
“It’ll be all right, I guess.”
“Well, I think it’s quite something.” She turned to admire him. “Aren’t you going sailing?”
“Mr. West said he’d had it for the day.”
“No, Penelope’s taking the boat out, she and Trevor are going. You could probably tag along if you wanted.”
He felt a tingling in his hands, the air suddenly live with current. He’d tried to forget his dream as his father had told him to. But he felt sick to his stomach with the memory of it now, and it didn’t matter what his father thought.
“You can’t let them,” he said, nearly whispering.
“What are you talking about?”
“Mum. You have to listen. Trevor, he’s going to die out there. You can’t let them.”
His mother leaned sharply forward, the muscles of her jaw tightening. “How dare you say that,” she said. “How dare you say your own brother is going to die. You should be ashamed! What’s the matter with you?”
“I know about cousin William, Mum—Trev told me—and you can believe whatever you want about Mr. Jevins, but I knew, I fucking knew—”
“Samuel!”
“—and yesterday in the car, I dreamt, I did, I dreamt he was dead and there was a sailboat, and I heard him yell. God, Mum, why won’t you believe me!”
His words seemed to push her back into her chair.
“You dreamt it?” she asked, her tone suddenly flat.
“What’s going on here?” Samuel heard his father ask. He turned to see him standing on the deck behind them. “What’s that you just said to your mother?”
“Roger—”
“No, Elizabeth. I will not indulge this. This family is not going to be turned into a madhouse because of some bloody coincidence that happened ten years ago. It’s ridiculous. And you, Sam. I thought I’d made myself clear.”
His father grabbed him by the arm and pulled him through the kitchen, past Peter, who looked up in surprise from his plate of biscuits, and past Mrs. West in the hall, down the stairs to the boys’ room. He sat Samuel down on the bed.
“Now you’re going to spend the rest of the day in here, you understand? And you have a good long think about what you’ve just done—scaring your own mother.” His voice was so laden with derision, Samuel thought he might spit on him. But he turned instead and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Minutes passed. Samuel heard splashing; Penelope called something up to her parents; water sloshed under the dock. He felt as though his mind’s eye were being dragged through the wall to watch his brother step onto the boat. A dead, rattling sound filled the air of the room. He couldn’t bear it. He hurried to the window, cranked it open as far as it would go, and started yelling, he barely knew what, words coming too quickly, in a jumble. “Stay!” They had to stay here. “Trevor!”
In a moment the door opened behind him, and then his father had him up against one of the bunk beds. He slapped Samuel hard across the face, bouncing his head off the wood of the bed frame. Then he slapped him again, yelling words Samuel couldn’t make out. When his shouting stopped, he turned and left the room.
Later, a few minutes perhaps, a key