Providence

JANUARY 2023

The medical examiner walked up to them and spoke to Mari. "Mrs. Foster, I need you to identify and give me the names of these people here. I'm sorry to have to ask you this indelicately, but we need this information to move forward."

Mari just nodded. She fought to swallow an ever-growing lump in her throat, unaware that Liza had moved behind her and Don stood next to her.

The medical examiner, looking uncomfortable, thought, "Damn. Ten years in and this shit does not get any easier."

He motioned for his diener to move the white sheet off the first body. A bruised, mangled face was the first thing Mari saw. Then, slowly, the rest of his body came into view.

Whoa, her first thought. Then, who is that? Third, that's not him. That's somebody else.

Liza's gasp broke Mari's train of thought. "Oh my god," whispered Liza behind her hand.

Then Mari saw Don's jaw clench, and she knew, without a doubt, that that was her husband laying on that metal table. Curiously, she felt nothing. No tears came to her eyes. Just the lump in her throat that wouldn't go away.

"Mrs. Foster, can you identify this man?" asked the examiner, ready with a clipboard and a pen to confirm.

"Uh... that's, that's, um... that's uh, K-Kenzo Foster," she replied.

"Date of birth?"

"Um... hang on a minute... It's July 2nd, 1991."

"Thank you, ma'am. Are you ready for the next one?" he asked.

He hated asking them to identify one, let alone three damn bodies.

I need a fucking cigarette after this. Goddamn it, he thought.

------------------

OCTOBER 2022

"Hey man, would love for you guys to come to dinner. The house is done," said the text.

Kenzo saw the message come through and turned to Mari. "Hey, Isaac wants to invite us to his house for dinner on Tuesday."

"Oh yeah? What can we bring?" asked Mari.

Kenzo texted back and a minute later, Isaac sent "Just yourselves. I know how hard it is to just get the kids out the door."

Mari shrugged and said, "Ok, but I feel weird coming empty-handed."

"Babe, it's okay! The man said not to worry about it," Kenzo said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

Sometimes his wife could get too nice, he thought. Just give it a rest and relax for once, woman, jeez!

On Tuesday before Kenzo came home from work, Mari took a shower and started getting ready. She took a curiously long time deciding what to wear, which surprised her. Probably because it's been a while since I was the guest in a dinner party, she mused.

Still, she thought, why do I feel like I have to look... desirable? He's not too bad on the eyes and I guess I should be nicer to him in his own house. She finally settled on a black T-shirt, a pair of tight flare jeans, and sneakers. Hope this doesn't show my mom pooch as much, she thought, deciding that casual was a better way to go for this dinner.

Tuesday night came, and of course, they got to Isaac's house late for some reason or another, Mari couldn't remember anymore. Probably something with the kids, she thought. They pulled up and the house took her by surprise. It was huge and beautiful, spanned by six columns and a full balcony on the top level.

"Wow," she marveled.

They all got out, the kids running to his steps before she could stop them. Isaac opened the front door and greeted them, bidding them all to come inside.

"Welcome! You guys don't have to take your shoes off," he said, just as Mari was instructing Lucas to remove his sneakers and was working to take off her own.

"Oh, you know, it's okay, we wouldn't want to get your floors dirty. You have a beautiful home, Isaac," Mari said.

"Yeah man, it looks good," said Kenzo.

Isaac took them on a tour of the main level first, remarking, "This is certainly the biggest house I've ever been in." He showed them the kitchen, the media room, his living room, and the dining room. Then he led them upstairs, with Lucas bounding upstairs and leading the way.

"This is where I...sleep," said Isaac, gesturing to his bedroom.

"Oh wow, Isaac, that's nice," said Mari, wrangling Elise in her arms as the little girl tried to get down. Suddenly she felt as if she was privy to something extremely private.

Well of course, girl, duh, that's his bedroom, she chided herself. Of course it's going to be private, you idiot. But why did she feel somehow, she just stepped into a room she wasn't supposed to be in? She's seen plenty of her friends' bedrooms before, but what struck her was that she hadn't been inside a single man's bedroom since her college days.

Shoving that thought aside, she followed Isaac, Kenzo, and the kids as they explored Isaac's kids' rooms.

"Oliver, Jade, and Henry. Those are his kids' names," said Kenzo, breaking her out of her reverie. The tour over, they went downstairs for dinner.

Isaac started to heat the pan for the salmon, then seasoned the fish. He was chopping up the broccoli when Mari realized her family was elsewhere and she was alone with him.

"Um, can I help you do anything? I feel kind of out of place here. I'm usually the one doing the dinner prep. Not used to someone else serving me," she said with a nervous chuckle.

"Here, can you keep an eye on the salmon? Just fry 'em in the pan and we can get the first batch started," replied Isaac.

He turned around and despite herself, Mari couldn't help but look. He wore a grey sweater and grey joggers.

Typical for someone who just got off work, but he made those clothes look good, she thought. Is this how bankers are supposed to look? she mused. Do bankers typically have strong, broad shoulders, a tapered waist, salt and pepper hair, and a nice ass? Shit! Girl, get a hold of yourself! Mari tried to rein herself in, but her flesh was winning over her spirit right now.

They worked like that for what seemed like eternity to Mari, when in reality it was only probably no more than five minutes before everyone else piled into the kitchen.

"Mmm, that smells good, man, whatcha got cookin'?" asked Kenzo.

"Let's see... some salmon and then broccoli. Do the kids eat 'em?" asked Isaac.

Mari nodded meekly, feeling guilty and relieved at the same time that her family entered the room.

Get a grip, Mari, she told herself. What the hell are you doing? You're a married woman with two young children and your husband here. It's just dinner being made by a guy from church you barely know.

She knew that, but another part of her suddenly piped up and said, "Yeah, but he's hot." The rational side of her argument disintegrated, and she marveled how such an inane response could win her flesh over.

Dinner was finally ready, and they had good conversation. Mari found herself enjoying the conversation and tried to hold eye contact with Isaac without being weird, which she couldn't have judged to save her life.

Isaac told her about Lena, his ex-wife, and the hell he endured for 18 years of marriage. Lena, he said, was convincing enough about her faith that he thought she was a real Christian, and so he married her. Three months into the marriage, (wow, only three months? thought Mari) she dropped all pretenses and started insisting her way on every little thing.

According to Isaac, she would nitpick everything he would do, from parenting, to cleaning the dishes, to taking out the trash, to their finances, everything. He did not want a divorce, and so resolved to stick it out. She tried to force him to file several times, and when he didn't, she finally gave up and served him herself. He was convinced before the ink was dry that she already had a boyfriend waiting for her.

Mari was surprised that such a contentious marriage produced a child, let alone three, but she kept those thoughts to herself. Halfway through dinner, Elise started throwing food on the floor, so Mari stopped eating and cleaned up. Afterwards, Lucas announced he was full and ready for dessert, so Mari flashed an apologetic smile at Isaac and excused her children.

Isaac surprised them all by whipping out five different cake slices ("from my favorite bakery," he said) and let the kids pick first. She didn't know why that simple gesture pricked her heart, as she reasoned that any good host would have probably done the same thing.

Finally, as dinner and dessert were done, she helped clean up and shooed the men away to talk and the kids to play. She looked around his kitchen, and curious as to how real-life bachelors lived, looked in his pantry.

Hmm, she thought. Lean foods, clean snacks, protein shakes, supplements, and granola. Seems about right, she concluded.

After about fifteen minutes of the kids running around, Elise started crying, which signaled to both parents that they'd probably reached their limits.

"Uh oh, looks like it's someone's bedtime," said Isaac.

"Yep, probably. Here Mari, I'll get Lucas ready," replied Kenzo, handing Mari a squirming Elise.

Mari held Elise and got her sneakers back, sitting on the staircase. She was balancing the baby on her knee and had almost gotten her first shoe open enough to slip her foot in when Isaac cradled it with both hands and opened it up.

Is he... thought Mari, going to slip it on my foot like Cinderella? He didn't, and instead picked up the other shoe the same way and presented it to her so she didn't have to strain.

"Here you go," he said.

Of course not, you idiot! She thought. Why would you even think that? Because that's what was absolutely going to happen and it would have been inappropriate for him to do that, the other part of her answered.

Her heart hurt and her stomach fluttered, and then she looked at her husband, oblivious to what just happened. She observed that he hadn't lifted a hand to help her, and a twinge of anger flared up in her.

Shit, shit, shit, she thought. What the hell is happening to me?