“Mama and Daddy couldn’t understand that?”
“No, Mother and Father couldn’t.” He acknowledged the distinction with raised eyebrows. Lara explained. “I came late in their marriage. In fact I was an unexpected and unpleasant surprise.
“But, since they were stuck with me, my parents decided to make the best of the situation and plotted the course of my life. Because I didn’t want to follow the path they had carefully chosen, they’ve never let me forget what a burden I’ve been to them. And sometimes I was,” she added with a reflective laugh.
“I once kept a friend in ‘intensive care’ for hours until her concerned parents came looking for her. They found her in my bedroom breathing through drinking straws that I’d poked up her nostrils. It’s a wonder she didn’t suffocate. I prepped another friend for brain surgery by giving her a very short haircut.”
Chuckling, Key blotted his mouth with a napkin.
“Then there was Molly.”
“What’d you do to her?”
“I cut her open.”
He choked on his swig of beer. “You what?”
“Molly was our next door neighbor’s golden retriever. She was a beautiful dog that I’d played with since I could toddle in the yard between our houses. Molly got sick and—”
“You operated?”
“No, she died. Our neighbor was disconsolate and couldn’t bear to bury her the same day she expired. So they wrapped her in plastic and left her in the carriage house overnight.”
“Good God. You performed an autopsy?”
“A crude one, yes. I coerced a friend of mine, who claimed to want to be a nurse, to sneak into the carriage house with me. We took along our housekeeper’s kitchen utensils.”
He laughed, running his hand down his face. “Most girls I knew played with Barbie dolls.”
Defensively, Lara said, “As long as Molly was feeling no pain, I didn’t see the harm in cutting her open and taking a look inside. I wanted to learn something about anatomy, although at the time I didn’t even know the word.”
“What happened?”
“As I began to remove Molly’s organs, my so-called frie
nd started screaming. Hearing the screams, Molly’s owner called the police. They arrived roughly at the same time my parents missed my friend and me. They stormed the carriage house, saw the carnage, and all hell broke loose.
“Naturally, my parents were horrified and began accusing each other of having undisclosed ‘bad seeds’ in their family trees. The neighbor declared she would never speak to any of us again. My friend’s parents told mine that there was obviously something dreadfully wrong with me and that I should have psychiatric care before I became a real danger to myself and others.
“My parents agreed. After weeks of expensive and extensive psychiatric sessions, the doctor’s analysis was that I was a perfectly normal eleven-year-old. My only unusual trait was an obsessive interest in human anatomy from a strictly medical viewpoint.”
“Bet your folks were relieved to know they hadn’t raised a ghoul.”
“Not really. They continued to believe that my desire to become a doctor was strange. To some extent, they still do.” With her finger she absently traced a bead of condensation that trickled down her beer bottle.
“My parents are very social. Appearances are important to them, and they resent cogs in their well-oiled lives. I’ve provided many, beginning with my birth and ending—” She raised her eyes to meet his. “Ending with the scene at Clark’s cottage. Like you, Mr. Tackett, they didn’t chasten me for having an affair. Only for making it public knowledge.”
At that moment, a body landed in the middle of their table.
Chapter Nine
Dirty dinner dishes clattered to the floor while rib bones scattered across the grimy planks like clumsy Pick-Up-Sticks. Four bottles of beer toppled. One broke, the others rolled away.
The man’s weight had tipped the table to a forty-five-degree angle. He was bleeding from his nose. Grunting curses, he struggled to his feet and charged the man who had punched him.
“Time to go.” Key calmly stood up and encircled Lara’s upper arm. “Your first time at Barbecue Bobby’s ought not to be spoiled with a fight.”
She was spellbound by the sudden outbreak of violence. As the two young men continued to slug it out, a ring of onlookers formed an arena for them, shouting encouragement. She watched and listened in horror as blood splattered and cartilage crunched.