Lost (28 page)

Breakfast went well, considering the
looks that Carey and Jimmy shot at their little sister.

“Okay! Jimmy,
tell Ant to run up here. And, Carey, you’re working today, right?” I asked as
we were getting ready to leave for the movies.

“Yep. 1
o’clock.”

“Sam, what’s on
your agenda today?”

“Gonna do some
laundry, and then I think I’m gonna go meet some friends.”

Nice. He hadn’t
spent much time with his old friends this summer.

“Okay. Well,
you guys are on your own for dinner. We’re going to the movies, and then I’ll
probably take the kids out for an early dinner.”

“Mommy, are you
wearing that?” Jessie was tugging on my arm.

I looked down
at the short sleeve blouse and printed shorts I’d bought at Loft the other day.
“Umm… I am. What’s wrong with this?”

“You look so
pretty in blue,” Jessie told me, taking in the black top and red printed
shorts.

I just shook my
head and shooed them out the door. Ant was jogging up the street, and he and
Jimmy climbed into the back of the van. Jessie and Maggie sat in the seat
closest to me.

“Buckle up!” I
told them. I waited until I heard four clicks, and we were off.

He was stiff. He’d fallen asleep and
didn’t wake up until she did.

He heard her go
into the bathroom and saw her open the blinds. He watched the window for a
while, and then he saw her stand up.

He saw the
water slide down over the slope of her breasts. She had put her hair up, and it
was curling around her face. She wrapped a towel around her and adjusted the
blinds again.

She had no
makeup on, and her hair was a mess, but she was the most beautiful woman he’d
ever seen.

I was heating up leftovers for myself.
The girls, Jimmy, and Ant were at the table scarfing down pizza rolls—
not
the best dinner, but at least they were all eating some fruit I had cut up. The
kids hadn’t been able to decide on a restaurant, and rather than listen to them
argue, I just drove on home.

“
Man of
Steel
was… AWESOME!” Jimmy dragged out the word.

“Yep. Best
Superman movie, hands down,” Ant agreed.

“I don’t know…
Christopher Reeve was a very handsome Superman,”I told the kids, coming in with
plate of spaghetti.

The boys looked
at me like I’d grown another head. The girls just continued to eat.

“Mom! Really?”
Jimmy made me sound like a moron.

“Yeah, really!
His Clark Kent was hilarious.”

“Mrs. J, you
need to see
Man of Steel
before you can say anything. I’m telling you,
best Superman movie ever,” Ant said this to me as a way to back up his best
friend.

“I’m sure I
will, when it comes out on DVD. I’m just saying.”

“Can we not
even get into the lame special effects,” Jimmy reminded me.

“Jimmy, it was
the late 70’s, early 80’s. What do you expect?” I wondered.

“Umm… that’s my
point, Mom.”

Obviously, I
was out of my league, so I just shut up.

The kids all
had a great time. Obviously, the boys enjoyed
Man of Steel
, and
Iron
Man 3
wasn’t as ridiculous as I thought it would be. Ant was spending the
night, and the kids were all eating an early dinner.

“So what’s the
plan for tonight?” I asked them.

The girls
shrugged. They would no doubt find something to occupy their time.

“Okay. Hear me
out before you say ‘no,’” Jimmy said. “Please?”

I gave him a
sideways glance and nodded, so he continued.

“The new
Friday
the 13th
is on Netflix Instant Queue. Can we watch it?”

“It’s Rated R.
17 and up.” That was my standard response to this type of question.

“Carey saw it,
and he’s only 16.”

Touché
‎
.

“Ant, what do
your parents say?” I wasn’t going to say yes, and then have my friends pissed
at me.

He shrugged and
told me he hadn’t asked them.

“Ask them, and
we’ll go from there.”

Ant pulled out
his cell phone and called his mom. He spoke with her for a few minutes, and
then hung up.

“My mom said
it’s okay with her, but if I have nightmares, that’s my problem.” It sounded
like something Bee would say.

I took a deep
breath. Brian, Sam, Carey, and I all loved horror movies, or rather, I guess
Brian did. Why should Jimmy be any different?

“Alright, but I
don’t want to hear about any nightmares. And no, you girls aren’t watching it.”
I turned to the girls and cut them off just as they were opening their mouths.

“Fine, but that
means their gonna be on the TV. I wanted to play a game on the Wii U.” Maggie
pouted.

“Nope, sorry.
We can play a game in the living room, or we can hang out in my room, watch a
movie in my new bed,” I suggested.

“Oh… can we
play
Trivial Pursuit
in your room?” Jessie asked. “Please!”

“Sure! But
first we’re gonna clean up the kitchen,” I told them, standing up to take
plates in.

She’d been out most of the afternoon
with some of the kids. She was finally home. He could see her through the
windows, sitting at the kitchen table, talking to the kids. It was only the
younger three and another boy. He figured the two big boys were not home.

He caught
something in the wind, and he immediately tensed up. The muscles in his
shoulders and his powerful legs coiled, as if he was ready to strike. His head
jerked up, as though he heard something that disturbed him.

The Woman was
close.

He growled and
let the change come. And then he took off in the direction of The Woman’s
scent.

Maybe he could
finally finish this.

The next two weeks flew by. No crazy
dreams. No nightmares. No trees taking shape in the backyard.

The older boys
had all gotten their schedules for school, and we’d done the whole “Meet and
Greet” for Carey and Jimmy.

Carey had saved
enough and bought a beat up truck. He was so excited. It was a mess, but it ran
and passed inspection. Sam was helping him work on it. Since Carey had gotten
the car and was paying half of his insurance, I said he could drive to school,
and I bought him a parking permit.

The girls had
also met their teachers, separate classrooms—thank God!

And we even
went out and bought all the school supplies.

Sam was busy
looking over the course catalog. Between the AP classes he took in high school,
what he was able to finish at Duke, and the classes he finished last semester,
he only had a few more credits before he got his associate degree. We had
talked briefly about his transferring to a local university to get his
bachelor’s degree. He was still expressing an interest in becoming a vet, and I
wanted to encourage that, so I tried to push, without being pushy. It was
harder than I thought.

My room was
back to normal, or as normal as it could be. The new flooring had been laid in
only a few hours, and it looked like a pretty good match to the rest of the
house to me. My new bathroom mirror and shower doors were up, and they looked
great.

Detective
Jeffries was very nice. He called me every week. Unfortunately, he never had
anything to tell me. I was starting to think I had been right—it was a crime of
opportunity. Some junkie or a bunch of stupid kids had seen an empty house and
thought it would be a rush. With no further incidences, it was difficult to
think otherwise.

And now we were
getting ready to head up to the lake house. The party was on the 10th, but we
were going up a few days before to relax, do some swimming in the lake, and I
wanted to get up there and give everything a good cleaning. We hadn’t been
there in almost a year.

Sam had gone up
a few times to check on things, and so had Anthony. But I hadn’t stepped foot
in the house since Brian died.

Anthony and Sam
had gone up the previous weekend to pour the concrete for the countertops, and
they claimed that they looked great. I couldn’t wait to see.

Ant and Karie
were coming up with us. Ant could help Jimmy keep the girls busy, and Karie
would be an extra set of hands. I had
no
problems asking for help
cleaning. It was just something I hated to do.

“Get UP!” I
stuck my head in Carey’s room. It was 10:30. I had wanted to be on the road at
11. Didn’t look like that was going to happen.

“WHY?” Carey
mumbled from under the pillow I had thrown at him five minutes before. “Can’t I
just come up later?”

“No. I could
use your help. Get up, or I’ll drag your ass out of bed.” I shut the door and
heard him grumbling, but at least he was up.

Karie and Ant
showed up ready to go, so Karie was helping the girls, “Okay, girls. Have
everything? Got your bathing suits? Toothbrushes? Underwear?”

“We do!” The
girls adored Karie, so they were being extra cooperative, which was a
huge
help to me.

“Sneakers?” She
reminded them.

“Oh, no. I
forgot mine.”

I heard Jessie
rummaging around in her closet.

Satisfied that
the girls were in good hands, I yelled for Jimmy.

“Down here,
Mom!” He called up. I ran down half the stairs and poked my head out.

Jimmy was ready
to go, and he and Ant were sitting with their bags and playing their PSPs.

“You guys got
your chargers for those things?”

They nodded at
me.

“Got your cell
phones? Chargers for them too?”

More nods.

“Swimsuits?
Sneakers?”

“Mom, we’re
cool. Got everything.” Jimmy smiled at me, and I ran back up the stairs.

“Are you up?” I
barged into Carey’s room, figuring if he wasn’t up that this would scare him
enough to get out of bed.

No dice. He was
finally up.

“I’m up, Mom!”
He was standing in front of his closet looking for a T-shirt. “I packed last
night. Yes, I have my cell phone and my charger. I have my bathing suit and my
sneakers. I have plenty of underwear. I’m bringing my laptop, and I have the
power cord for that too.”

“Okay, smart
ass,” I told him, smirking. “Be downstairs in 10 minutes.”

I shut the door
and walked over to Sam’s room. “Almost ready?”

He was standing
by his bed, zipping up his duffel bag. “Yep. I’m good to go. And yes, I have
what I need.”

I held up my
hands. “I’m just making sure. Habit.”

“You know we’re
going to be less than an hour from home, right Mom? And Target’s what, like 10
minutes from the lake house?”

“Hey, I’m
trying to avoid trips to the store, okay? This is supposed to be a fun trip—not
me going to the store cause y’all forget stuff.”

The phone rang,
and I yelled to Jimmy to grab it. Just as I was about to see if the girls
needed help carrying down their bags, Jimmy yelled back to tell me I had a
phone call.

I ran down the
stairs. “Okay. Coming, coming.” I took the phone from Jimmy. “Hello?”

“Mrs. Klevan?
This is Detective Jeffries. How are you?”

“Morning,
Detective. I’m good. Heading up to the lake for a long weekend.”

He was silent.

“Detective?” I
said into the receiver.

“What? Oh,
sorry. The lake, huh? Family trip?” He sounded off, but I ignored it.

“No, my husband
used to throw a big party for the guys that worked for him, and I decided to
continue the tradition. It’s gonna be a packed house.”

I thought I
heard him breathe a sigh of relief. “Oh… crowded then? Great. Umm… I’m just
calling to tell you that unfortunately, we still don’t have any new leads.”

I wasn’t
surprised, and at this point, I had chalked the whole thing up to bad luck. “I
understand. Thanks for trying so hard. From what I understand, most cases like
this just aren’t solved.”

“True, but I
want you to know that we do give it our best,” he told me.

“I have no
doubt you do. Thank you again,” I told him, waiting to see if he had something
else to tell me.

“Ok… Umm… Well,
you be safe out there. Oh, and have a good time.”

I laughed.
“We’ll do our best. Bye now.”

I ended the
call and handed the phone to Jimmy. “Okay. Put this up. Then go grab my keys,
and you guys start lugging your stuff out to the van.”

Sam was coming
down the stairs, and he had his bag and the girls stuff. Karie was behind him
with the girls. I just pointed to the door, and Sam nodded, taking the bags
out.

“Carey! Come
on!” I yelled up at him.

“I. Am.
Coming.” He punctuated each word, and I could tell he was annoyed. But I
enjoyed egging him on, so I kept it up. He walked slowly down the stairs, hair
uncombed and eyes barely open.

“Damn, you’re
slow. Everyone’s waiting for you. Come on.”

“Mom! It isn’t
like anyone’s waiting on us up there. Chill out.” Carey dropped his bag and
gave me an exasperated look.

“You’re too
easy,” I told him. “Pick up your bag and let’s do this.”

I had my bag in
my hand, and I let him go out before me. “Here take my bag,” I told him,
handing it to him.

“Jimmy, I need
my keys,” I called to him, and he ran them over to me.

I took one look
around, satisfied that everything was locked up tight. I locked the door and
headed on over to the van.