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“I think you’re being naïve, and I think you know that you’re being naïve. Yes, we are lucky enough to happen to live in a country with a decent justice system for people who are like us, but that’s it. Being a good person is a guarantee of nothing. I mean, it’s possible that you can tip the scales, right? I agree with that. Same with health. I can eat my five fruits and vegetables a day or I can only eat cheeseburgers, but it’s no guarantee of anything. Healthy people drop dead all the time.”
The lights were off on the porch and Wendy couldn’t see the expression on Thom’s face, but he didn’t immediately respond. “Another drink?” he finally said.
“Are we done with this argument?”
“It’s not an argument. I think it’s a fundamental difference between us.”
Wendy felt a pulse of anger go through her. It had always bothered her that every argument they had led to Thom sulking about it. “Look,” she said. “It bothers me because I know, down deep, that we are on the same page here. Or very close to the same page. I just think the big difference is that you wish the world were a different place.”
“And you don’t?” He had leaned forward in his spring chair, and his voice had gone a little shrill.
“Of course I wish the world had more justice and equality and all that stuff. That’s not the point. It doesn’t.”
“If the world had more justice, then you and I would probably be in prison right now.”
“Okay,” Wendy said. “Jesus. Maybe right now is not the time for this conversation.”
“I’m going to get another drink. Do you want more wine?”
“No, I’m fine,” Wendy said.
He went to the kitchen and Wendy looked out at the cove, still dark, although she could make out a faint line of lights across the other side of the harbor in West Essex. The wind must have turned, because she could smell the low tide. She heard Thom returning to the porch and turned to him. But it was Jason, in his pajamas. “I can’t sleep,” he said.
“Come here.”
He came and slid onto her lap, something he hadn’t done in a year, at least. “You scared us tonight,” she said.
“What did you think happened to me?”
“I don’t know. Lots of things. That you fell off a boulder and hit your head. Oh, wait, thatdidhappen.”
“Did you think I was kidnapped?”
“Honestly, we didn’t know what had happened, honey, and that was what was so scary. But no, I don’t really worry about kidnappers around here.”
Thom came back onto the porch and quietly returned to his chair.
“What do you think would have happened to me if I’d been trapped out there all night?” Jason said.
“I think we would have found you in the morning. But I think that all of us would have had a very scary night.”
“It would have been a better story.”
“What do you mean? If you’d been out there all night?”
“Yeah.” Jason had a big grin on his face. “It might have made the news or something.”
Thom said, “We can take you back out there if you’d like, stick you between those rocks, and come back in the morning. How does that sound?”
“Eh,” Jason said, a new expression of his, usually said with both his hands out with his palms up.
“You’re happy here at home?” Wendy said.
“Eh,” he said again.
“How’s the head?”
“It doesn’t really hurt anymore. My ankle does, though.”