Chapter 2
Audrey's Flashback (to a few hours earlier, late Saturday night):
Audrey and Walter had returned home from an enjoyable evening out with the Schneiders just before midnight. The house was dark and silent. Her SUV and the boys' VW beetle were in the garage, so the boys must have kept their curfew. As she was checking to see that everything was put away in the kitchen, Walter got himself a glass of milk. "Why don't we check on the tree house before we turn in?" He put the empty glass in the sink and took Audrey's hand, leading her outside to their neighbor's back yard.
The scene that greeted them was disastrous. The tree house, freed from its supports, lay on its side. Walter let out a long, low whistle, which triggered movement and noise from inside the tree house. "Megan," called Josh in a low, hoarse voice, "I am begging you on my knees to help us get out of here. The raw meat you gave us didn't agree with Drake and he's been puking his guts out. And when the tree house fell, he got hurt. I think he needs to see a doctor. I know you've never cared anything about me, but, p-l-e-a-s-e, for the sake of the brother we both love, have some mercy. I know you're mad about missing Janie's party, but you've kept us in here over seven hours now."
Walter's jaw dropped in amazement as he exchanged a horrified look with his wife. Audrey blurted out in a rush of words, "Josh, it's us. We're home now. What is wrong with Drake? What happened? What's Megan got to do with this?"
With an equally rapid flood of words in reply, Josh quickly explained their predicament, about how the uncut door in the 4th wall had trapped them, how a vengeful Megan had unplugged the drill and refused to give them the saw, a squirrel had bitten him, then, after the first few hours they had tried to break down the wall, which instead caused the tree house to fall off the posts onto its window side. The work light got broken in the fall, and the heavy, metal toolbox had fallen onto Drake, slicing open his chin. Being trapped in the dark with no ventilation made them so crazy, they managed to use their combined weight to turn the tree house, again, onto its side, with the window open to the air, while Drake kept feeling sicker as the night continued to settle over them.
Walter found the orange extension cord on the ground and passed it inside to Josh, along with a working battery-powered light, saying "If you can't see well enough to undo the screws with that power drill, I'll saw an opening from this side myself." He wondered how the drill had become unplugged but couldn't bring himself to believe that nonsense about Megan. However, he was prepared to reserve judgment, and possibly punishment, until the present predicament had been resolved.
When the fourth wall of the tree house came down, Audrey and Walter were overwhelmed by the smell of vomit and urine and at the sight of a semi-conscious Drake curled up in the corner, blood smeared all over his face, breathing rapidly and groaning. Taking command of the situation, Walter said, "Audrey, I'll get these guys to the hospital and have them checked out. You'd better stay here in case Megan wakes up. She'll be afraid if she's in the house all alone." Josh was crouching over Drake, waking him.
Audrey couldn't believe what she was seeing, what she had already heard: the tone of Josh's voice, plaintive and humble, when he didn't realize to whom he has speaking, begging his own little sister for mercy. As Walter and Josh assisted Drake, stumbling, through the yards and into Walter's convertible, Audrey traipsed behind them, her eyes filling with hot, stinging teardrops. Audrey waved good-bye as Walter drove away with her sons.
Once the men were gone, remembering the reference to the uncooked hamburger, Audrey checked to see that the grill had indeed been used. Then she looked in the refrigerator. The beef patties had come frozen in a box, so she knew how many needed to be accounted for. Four patties were gone, along with three buns; the rest of the meat was cooked and neatly covered with plastic wrap. She went to the backyard garbage bins. Near the top of one, she saw two perfect cheeseburgers, placed in their fresh white buns, lying uneaten amongst the other trash.
Distractedly, Audrey returned to the living room, where she noticed the flashing message light on the answering machine. Pressing the button, she heard a very cranky Eric, "Those dates you set us up with, Megan, some joke. They ditched us right after we paid for the meal. Very funny. Ha ha. We sat there for two hours waiting for them to come back from the ladies' room. By any chance did your brother Drake put you up to this?" Beep. Audrey noted the call had come in after Megan's bed time. Why on earth would Megan be so vindictive towards her brothers? How could it be possible?
Audrey sat down on the couch, in the dark, to ponder these things and to wait to hear from Walter. She remembered a few incidents from the past, for instance, the birthday cake for Josh that had mysteriously ended up in the trash, smashed to crumbs, before she and Walter came home from work. Walter called from the E.R., to report that Josh had a bruised shoulder and collarbone, did not need rabies shots and was otherwise fine and presently drinking some Gatorade, while the doctor was working on Drake as they spoke. With the phone still in her hand, Audrey continued to sit in the darkness while her mind rapidly mulled over the recent chain of events.