Roger's Case (F)

The first jolt struck 47 seconds after Roger Davis eased himself into the hot tub.

What kind of day had it been, his wife Laura asked.

“The sales meeting disintegrated into a bitching match between Philip and David, so Clark sent us home. And three potential clients rescheduled until after the holidays. Yours?”

Laura picked up her purse. “Not that exciting. Lasagna’s in the oven. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

Roger draped his jacket over the arm of the couch. “Jen home?”

“Upstairs. Doing homework.”

“Right.”

Laura shrugged. “I’ll be back.”

“Well, I’ll be here.”

Roger paused at the bottom of the stairs and thought to call up to his daughter. Instead he went to the bedroom and changed into swim trunks. After grabbing his towel from the hook on the bathroom door, he went to the bar and poured a double scotch.

The back yard was terraced so one stepped onto a large patio, then three steps down to the hot tub which was three steps above the infinity pool.

Roger slid the glass door open and stepped out into a cool breeze. From the patio he could see a portion of the town and the famous beach and the waves and beyond that the great wide ocean and so much sky.

Jenny begged him for a pool and throughout the last 7 years a steady parade of friends could be seen whacking each other with noodles and doing cannonballs to slosh the water over the side and down the steep slope behind their lot.

At 15, somehow, somehow a huge chunk of their lives together disappeared. Now, mostly in her room. Mostly wearing headphones when not. Where were her friends? What the hell happened?

Roger shook his head and mumbled to himself. He turned on the heater and jets for the tub and slipped off his Crocs.

Maybe it was the lockdown. It screwed with everyone’s heads.

He eased into the water. He took a sip of the scotch. Closing his eyes he allowed himself to imagine how it might be when he retired. A sigh. 

Would Jenny be married? A career woman? Both? Would grandkids be splashing in the water with him? Would Laura stop working when he did?

Roger took a deep breath. All that would be whenever, now was just now.

“Dad! Dad!”

Roger half-turned and looked up. He shielded his eyes. “Hey, Jen! Coming in?”

“No. The network is down. Can you fix it?”

“Do you really need it right now?”

“Yes, really right now. I’m working on a project.”

He stood facing her. “Okay, okay.” He took another swallow and set his glass down.

The first sound came just before Jenny turned away as Roger stepped toward his shoes. A loud bang, but more than a bang. Something explosive, more a boom.

Next came a deep shattering of rock and concrete. Father and daughter locked eyes. A fissure sheared off half the patio from one end to the other and with it hot tub and pool.

And for a part of a second Roger was still there, and then he was gone.