Missing Pieces (12 page)

Chapter 48

Ashley and I ducked and stayed down.
I thought we’d been spotted, but whoever it was kept coming slowly. Finally the vehicle turned into our driveway, and its lights went out.

“Who is it?” Ashley whispered.

“How should I know?” My heart pounded as a door opened, then closed.

Through the night-shot feature on my video camera I saw someone walk toward the house carrying something. I hit the Record button, thinking maybe the vandals were getting braver.

I scanned the back of the truck to look at the license plate, but it was parked sideways. The night shot made everything look green, so I couldn’t even tell the color of the truck. It looked just as beat-up as Randy’s though.

Ashley grabbed the walkie-talkie.

“Wait,” I said. “Someone’s on the porch, putting something by the door.”

“What if it’s a bomb?” Ashley said. She keyed the mike. “Sam, can you hear me?” Pause. “Sam, are you there?”

No response.
C’mon, Sam!

“It’s Randy,” I said, straining to see his lanky body trudging back to the truck empty-handed.

“You sure?” Ashley said. “What’s he doing here?”

“Maybe he came back to smash more than just our mailbox,” I said.

When Randy neared his truck, Ashley keyed the mike again. “Sam, it’s okay. Randy just left something. Probably for Leigh. Do you copy?”

I grabbed the walkie-talkie. “Batteries are shot. You want to go inside?”

“No, do you?”

I shook my head.

As Randy pulled away, Ashley said, “Come on, let’s see what it is.”

Chapter 49

The grass was wet
on my socks as Bryce and I stole back to the house. Pippin and Frodo growled from inside, and we shushed them.

A basket covered in plastic sat near the door. Inside was fruit, a small pack of homemade brownies, a box of chocolates, and other candy. A card with
Leigh
written on the envelope was taped to the plastic.

“Should we open it?” Bryce said.

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t know anything about love.”

After we raced back to the truck, I was so tired I went to sleep. I woke up cold, and it was still pitch-black outside.

Bryce was staring out at the road. “I can’t believe Randy didn’t come back to smash our mailbox.”

“You can’t be sure Randy’s involved in that.” I yawned.

“All the clues point to him,” Bryce said, putting his video camera away. “Plus, it would look suspicious if every mailbox on our road was smashed except ours.”

“Maybe we’ll catch him tomorrow night,” I said.

Chapter 50

I woke Ashley at sunup,
and we went in to our own beds. I got up a couple of hours later, just as Leigh was coming down the stairs. I wanted to tell her I was sorry about the driving test, sorry about the dog, sorry I hadn’t been a better brother, but all I said was, “Randy brought you something last night.”

She stared at me. “Were you spying on him?”

“No, we just happened to see him.”

Leigh rolled her eyes. I guess lots of big sisters do that to little brothers, but it makes me want to put slimy things in her bed. “What is it?” she said, hustling down the stairs.

Leigh rushed to the dining-room table to look at her basket. Mom was on the phone, but she smiled at Leigh. I could tell something had changed between them. Something good.

Mom turned back to the phone. “Ashley just doesn’t seem herself. She’s tired and irritable.” I realized Mom was talking to the doctor. “I haven’t heard anything from her teachers, but I can check. . . .”

Mom made an appointment to take Ashley back in the next week, and I had a sinking feeling that more was going on than I wanted to know.

Chapter 51

I usually went two or three months
between doctor’s visits. Mom hugged me, kissed me on top of the head, and said everything was going to be all right, but I wasn’t convinced.

Bryce got invited to a sleepover, so I called Hayley and asked if she wanted to camp out with me that night. Maybe I could get her to go to church with me in the morning.

As soon as Hayley arrived that evening, I grabbed some drinks and she pulled a bag of popcorn from the microwave. Then we headed for the truck. We also took a portable TV with a DVD player that hooks into the cigarette lighter, so we settled into our sleeping bags and started watching the second Lord of the Rings movie. When it got scary, I brought Pippin and Frodo out to sleep with us. It was hard to keep them away from the popcorn.

The truck battery must have gotten low because a bunch of squiggly lines appeared on the TV and Gollum looked like he had five legs instead of two. Finally the thing quit on us, so we just talked. Hayley brought up Duncan Swift and said she knew I liked him.

“He doesn’t even know I exist. He probably likes you. The only boy I know who likes me is Skeeter Messler, and I wish he didn’t.”

She asked about my doctor’s visits. I told her I was nervous because they’d asked me to come back in so soon, but I added, “I’m just really trying to trust God about it.”

“I wish I could believe as strongly as you do. Sometimes I don’t even know if I believe God’s up there, with all the bad stuff that happens.”

“The more bad stuff that happens, the more sure I am that he’s there,” I said. “Sometimes he’s the only thing we can really hold on to.”

“What’s he like? I mean, what do you think he’s like?”

I remembered the scene in
Anne of Green Gables
when Marilla asks Anne if she knows who God is. Anne says, “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” But I knew Hayley didn’t need to hear that. What would she think?

Before I could come up with a good answer, Hayley said, “I’m scared about dying and not knowing what happens afterward. Do you ever get scared of that?”

I nodded. “You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t. But that’s one of the best things about Jesus. . . .” As soon as that one name came out of my mouth, the whole mood changed. It was like
abracadabra
to a magician. I mentioned Jesus, and it was as if someone pulled the clouded-eye bunny out of Hayley’s hat. I tried to tell her that Jesus took away the fear of death because we could be sure of going to heaven, but it was obvious she had stopped listening.

She said she was tired and turned over in her sleeping bag, her back to me.

I prayed silently that God would help me say something that would grab Hayley’s attention.