Lost (26 page)

He stretched slowly, quietly, and tried
to work the cramps out of his sore muscles. He had gotten there just in time.

The Woman had
made herself known.

He’d seen her
in the kitchen and could smell her fear, but she stood her ground, and he
admired her for that.

He knew The
Woman would easily rip into her soft flesh. He knew The Woman could, and would
devour her if it meant getting what she wanted.

The fact that
The Woman ran away when she sensed him reassured him that he had indeed fully
healed. He was strong, powerful, and the change came easily once again.

His dreams still
haunted him, and though his body was once again strong, it didn’t escape him
that his memory was still fuzzy. Whatever he had lost, whatever was creeping
around in the depths of his damaged mind, he knew one thing—he needed to
protect them from The Woman.

He watched her
eat breakfast, content alone. A sort of peace seemed to settle around her. She
finished whatever was in the bowl and sat back with her cup. He watched her sip
it slowly, and he had to control the urge to go to her. He had to remember before
he could show himself to her. He knew that much.

It was cool in
the morning air, and he inhaled deeply. He could still smell The Woman, but it
was a lingering scent—one he found almost repulsive. The Woman was not near at
the moment.

He’d fallen
asleep on the ground, but the chilly morning air didn’t bother him, and he was
surprised at how alert and energized he felt.

She took one
last sip of her drink and stood to go back inside. She stopped and looked out
into the yard. He knew she couldn’t see him, but he stood still, didn’t dare
take a breath. She smiled softly and took her things back in the house.

He said a
silent “thanks” that she hadn’t come into the yard—and hadn’t seen the
footprints that The Woman had left last night.

“Really, Ethan?” Walt asked his old
friend, as they sat in the back of Flo’s.

It was Saturday
morning, and despite the fact that the food at Flo’s Diner was decent at best,
the place was packed. It was the perfect place to have such a conversation
because everyone was doing their own thing.

“I don’t know,
bud. Hell, I’m still not sure about the shit that went down 20 years ago. But
something ain’t right here, Walt. And that poor girl and her kids are smack dab
in the middle of it.”

Walt eyed his
best friend. They’d been through a lot together. Ethan had his heart set on
making detective, but that was never who Walt was. Walt had settled into the
life of a uniformed cop and was happy. He’d been married to his high school
sweetheart, Cindy, for over 20 years now. They’d never had children—tried, but
it just wasn’t meant to be. And, in the end, they both made their peace with
that.

All Walt wanted
was to crawl back into bed beside Cindy’s soft warmth and pretend that history
wasn’t going to repeat itself.

“Look, you got
Cindy,” Ethan said. “Back away from this. I got this, Walt.”

“Fuck that,”
Walt fired back. “You’re the best friend I got. You’re like a brother to me,
and I’m not walking away from this.”

Ethan breathed
a sigh of relief. There’s no one else in the world he would want by his side.
“We should’ve finished this 20 years ago.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” I handed
the young delivery men each a ten dollar bill. I hoped that was enough. It was
all I had on me since I gave Carey cash the night before.

“No problem,
ma’am. If you could just sign here.” He handed me his clipboard and pointed to
the dotted line.

I signed and
handed it back to him.

He looked at it
and smiled. “Thank you, ma’am. And thank you for shopping at Mattress
Discounters!”

And just like
that, I had my new bed! Thank God! I don’t think my aging body would take
another night in Jimmy’s bunk bed.

“Mommy! Your
new mattress isn’t as soft as your old one.” Maggie looked concerned.

“I know. That’s
because it’s new,” I told her, shooing her up the stairs so I could make the
bed. This night, I’d be sleeping in a real bed.

I walked into
my room and surveyed things. It was starting to look… normal again. It had lost
that war zone look.

“Won’t you just
have to move everything so Isaiah and Joe can put the new floor in?” Sam asked
me, coming in to check out the new bed.

“Yeah,” I told
him. “But that’s not until Monday. I’m not sleeping in Jimmy’s bed unless it’s
absolutely necessary.”

“Yeah, I
wouldn’t either,” Sam told me, coming over to help me put the fitted sheet on.

“Don’t you have
to work today?” I asked him, grateful for the help. As much as I loved a
king-sized bed, the mattress was so heavy.

“Yeah, but not
until 1. I have the late shift, so I probably won’t be home until 7 or 8.”

I nodded and
went to work on the flat sheet. “Not going out tonight?”

“I was hoping
Karie could come over tonight, if that’s okay with you? I saw on the fridge
that you were going to make spaghetti tonight.” He looked hopeful.

“Sure! That’d
be nice. I was thinking we could watch a movie.
The Hobbit
is on DVD.” I
fluffed my pillows after putting the pillow cases on.

“That’s a long
movie!” Sam told me, unzipping the bag containing my new comforter. “I don’t
know if the girls will like it.”

“Jimmy said it
was a good movie.” I opened up my new duvet cover. “Actually. Hold on. I think
I’m going to wash the cover first. I’ll throw it in before I run to the store.”

“Cool.” He took
the comforter out of the bag and laid it on my bed. “I’m going to jump in the
shower. See you tonight?”

“Yep! Love
you!” I blew him a kiss as he disappeared down the hall, and I ran down the
stairs.

“Carey,
please
take us to see
Iron
Man 3
?” Maggie was begging her older brother.

“Monkey, I just
saw it last night. I’m not gonna go see it again. Besides, didn’t Mom say she
would take you?”

“Mom is busy
today, and we want to see it today.” Maggie was starting to whine.

“If Jimmy wants
to see it, I can drop you guys off at the theater and come pick you up,” Carey
explained.

I shook my
head. “Nope, no dice. I need the van today, and Jimmy is coming with me so we
can get him a new mattress too.”

“Oh. If I take
them to see the movie, can I drive the Charger?” Carey sounded so hopeful.

But I guffawed
anyway. “Are you kidding me? Not happening, mister.” I was putting my duvet
comforter and the shams in the washing machine. “Asking to drive the Charger.”
I think I may have snorted. “What are you smoking?”

“Please!” Carey
now sounded like Maggie.

“Dude!
Not
happening.
Not yet anyway. I don’t even think Sam’s driven that car,and he has more
experience than you do.”

He turned to a
disappointed Maggie. “Sorry, Monkey. I tried.”

Maggie turned
to me and started in, “Mommy… will
you
please take us to the movies?”

She sounded so
sweet—manipulative little runt.

“Honey, look. I
need to get some groceries, and Jimmy needs a new mattress… badly. If you’re
good, I promise I’ll take you tomorrow.”

“Really?” She
asked me warily.

“Look, I’ll
even buy the tickets now,” I told her turning on my laptop. “You know Mommy
doesn’t like to waste money, so if I buy the tickets now, we’ll have to go!”

“Oh… if you
guys are going to the movies tomorrow, can Ant and I go see
Man of Steel
?”
Jimmy asked me, coming into the kitchen.

“I guess. Did
you ask if Ant can go tomorrow?”

“Yep. Karie said
she would drop us off, but if you’re taking the girls, can we just ride with
you?”

I was checking
the times. “Okay… here.
Man of Steel
starts at 1:20, and
Iron Man 3
starts at 1:45. That work for everyone?”

Jimmy texted
Ant, who responded with an affirmative right away. Maggie was bouncing around
happily, so I took that as a yes.

“Alright… let’s
see.” I pushed a few buttons. “Tickets bought. We’ll leave here tomorrow around
12:30. Tell Ant, okay?”

“Done,” Jimmy
fired back immediately. Ahh, the wonders of cell phones.

“Cool,” I
responded. “Jimmy go get your shoes on. Maggie, where’s Jessie?”

“She’s
upstairs,” Maggie told me as she climbed all over Carey. “Do we have to go?”

“No. You can
stay home if it’s okay with Carey. Sam has to work, so he can’t watch you.”

“It’s cool,
Mom. I can watch them,” Carey said.

“Yes! Can we
play your Xbox?” Maggie pestered him.

He shrugged and
said sure, so she took off upstairs. I thought I heard a “Bye, Mom.” But I
couldn’t be sure.

I grabbed my
purse, and went out to find Jimmy. I didn’t have to look far. He was waiting
patiently for me in the living room.

“Ready?” I
asked him.

“Yep.” He held
the door open for me. “So where are we going?”

“Might as well
go to Mattress Discounters again. They gave me a good deal on my new bed. And
then I need to run to Costco. Maybe Whole Foods, depends on whether or not I
can get what I need at Costco.” I climbed in the van, and waited until he had
shut his door, “Is that okay? Did you have plans today?”

“Nope! I’m
good, wherever you need to go Mom.” Jimmy settled in for the drive.

We didn’t often get time together like
this. Not because I didn’t enjoy it, but Jimmy was always off with his friends
or studying. So it was nice to have this time with him.

“How are you
doing?” I asked him, as we pulled onto the highway.

“Good! Ant and
I have three classes together this semester. Claudia and I have two,” he told
me. He was starting high school in a few weeks. I couldn’t believe it.

“Great! Just
what your teachers need!” I teased.

“Hey, I’m your
good
son,” he joked.

Jimmy and
Maggie were so low key. And it was true—they rarely got into trouble.

We drove along
making small talk. He told me about his fishing trip with Ant and Anthony, and
I told him about my shopping trip to the mall. I enjoyed the moment. Before I
knew it, we were at the strip mall with the mattress store. We went in, Jimmy
found a mattress, I paid, and they loaded it in the van. We were back on the
road in under 20 minutes.

“Boy, that was
awfully fast,” I told him. “Sure you got what you wanted?”

“Mom, it’s a
mattress. I’m good,” he assured me. “Thank you for getting it.”

I shrugged, and
then it was off to Costco. Ten minutes later, I had my list out, and Jimmy was
pushing an oversized cart for me into the giant warehouse store.

“Okay. Need
meat, veggies, bread… some juice—” I said, reading off my list.

“Can we get
some more peanut butter too?” Jimmy asked.

“Sure.” I added
it to my list. “Anything else you can think of?”

“Some Bisquick
so you can make pancakes tomorrow?” He asked me hopefully.

“I can do
that.” The list grew. “Let’s do this.”

We went up and
down the aisles, grabbing things we needed. Bread, ground beef, chicken
breasts, all made their way into the cart. By the time we got up to the
registers, the cart was overflowing.

“I don’t even
want to know,” I muttered as the cashier rang everything up.

“462?” Jimmy
told me.

Whenever we
came to Costco, Brian would conveniently walk away when it got close to payment
time. He joked that he never wanted to see the total, but we always threw out
numbers to see who was gonna be closest.

“398,” I
guessed.

“Hmm… right
down the middle,” the young man ringing us up said. “432.”

“Ohh… so
close!” I said as I swiped my credit card.

They had put
everything nicely into boxes, and we were ready to go. Jimmy rode on the back
of the cart as I pushed it out to the van, and though he was almost as tall as
I was, I was glad that some of the little boy remained. I ran through the
parking lot, and he laughed. Jimmy loaded everything up, and put the cart away
while I got the van going.

“Still need a
few more things. Mind if we stop at Whole Foods?” I asked him.

He shook his
head and just turned up the radio.

“The sauce was amazing, Mrs. J!” Karie
told me as she helped me with the dishes.

She was such a
beautiful girl, so sweet and smart. I’m actually surprised that I never
pictured Sam and her dating before. But she fit right into the family.

“Thank you!
When Brian and I got married, I think spaghetti was the one thing I cooked with
any kind of confidence.”

“Really? But
you’re such a great cook,” Karie continued to adulate me. “Your Thanksgiving
turkey is legendary!”

I laughed, the
kids didn’t know that Brian did all the hard work. He trussed it up and put it
in the brine. This year was going to be a first for me—doing it all by myself.

“Thanks. Your
mom is no slouch,” I told her.

“No, she isn’t.
That’s probably why she hates letting anyone else in her kitchen.”

Karie was
right. Bee gave territorial a new meaning when it came to her kitchen. We had
been friends for over a decade and only within the last year or so did she seem
comfortable letting me in her kitchen to actually do anything besides drink.

“Okay. Are you
ladies done or what?” Sam asked, coming into the kitchen. “The natives are getting
restless.”

Oz the Great
and Powerful
had come
out on DVD a few weeks before, so I had bought it. We just hadn’t gotten around
to watching it yet.

I shooed them
both out of the kitchen. “Go. You guys go ahead and get settled. I’m just gonna
start the dishwasher, and I’ll pop some popcorn.”

“You sure, Mom?
We can wait.” Sam said, though he already had one foot out the door.

“Yeah, go
ahead. If I miss anything, I can always watch it some other time.”