“Just four? That thing was huge,” said Jack.
“Yup, just four,” said Ben. “But I have a concussion.”
“No wonder,” said Stephen, “you hit that tree
hard.
”
“Yeah,” said Jack.
After a small tap on the door, Jack’s dad poked his head in. Seeing that he had the correct room, he came in. “Hey Ben, how are you feeling?”
“Pretty good, Mr. Randolph,” Ben replied.
Kate smiled at her husband as Greg crossed the room and leaned over Ben. “They taking good care of you here?”
“Yeah, so far,” Ben said and smiled.
Kate stood up from her chair, “Ben? Are you getting tired?”
“A little, I guess,” he replied.
“Honey,” she turned to her husband, “why don’t you take Jack and Stephen out for a bit and come back later.” she turned back to Ben, “I’ll stay here with you for a bit so you can get some rest,” she said.
“Thanks,” said Ben.
“Okay boys, let’s get going,” said Jack’s dad. “What can we get you from the outside world, Ben?”
“I’m okay I guess, I don’t need anything,” said Ben.
“Nonsense, we’ll bring you back an after-dinner milkshake. What flavor?”
“Chocolate!” said Ben.
“Anything for you honey?” he asked his wife.
“I’m fine. I have my book,” she said.
“Great, see you soon,” he said. Greg herded Jack and Stephen out of the room.
“Bye Ben. See you later,” called Jack.
**********
After dinner, Jack’s dad brought the boys back to Ben’s room. Ben finished eating his dinner and Kate ran down to the cafeteria for a snack.
Jack’s dad had taken the boys out for ice cream after dinner and they had brought milkshakes to the hospital—a large chocolate for Ben, and a small strawberry for Kate.
Sipping her milkshake, Kate took her husband aside to update him on her communication—“I talked to his dad this evening and told him that everything was okay. He was relieved and he’s not going to come out just for this,” she said to Greg privately.
“That’s good—anything from Sheri?”
“No answer, but apparently there’s something wrong with her phone, so she might not get the message,” said Kate.
“Why don’t I go over there and track her down?” asked Greg.
“Oh, would you? I would feel better if she were here,” said Kate. “And if she’s not there, can you leave a note?”
“Sure, sure, do you think she’s out of town?” he asked.
“I don’t know. She sent me a note the other day and said something about having to take Ben for a couple of weeks, but then I didn’t hear from her again, and Ben said he hasn’t heard anything either.”
“I hope she’s okay. Do you have another contact for her? A sister, or parent, or something,” Greg asked.
“Nope, nothing,” she replied. “His dad doesn’t seem to know how to get in touch with her either. She can be pretty cavalier about things, but she’s never just disappeared like this before.”
“Oh, what about his brother?” asked Greg. “Doesn’t he have a job?”
“Ben said that he quit recently,” she said.
“Okay, I’ll get over there and meet you back at the house later,” said Greg.
“Well, you better call first. If he wants me to, I’m going to see if I can stay here,” she said.
“That chair will kill your back. Why don’t I stay?” Greg offered.
“I’d rather have you at the house,” she said. “But thanks.”
“I’ll call in an hour then, after I’ve checked out his house,” he said.
“Thanks, honey, talk to you soon.”
**********
An hour passed and Greg still hadn’t called. The boys watched TV and Kate sat staring at her book, but she hadn’t flipped a page in several minutes. After ninety minutes, she was about to pick up her phone and call her husband when he walked through the door.
He knelt down next to his wife’s chair and spoke softly—“Nothing—no sign,” he reported. “But I talked to the neighbors and one of them is picking up the mail and newspaper for her.”
“She gets a paper?” asked Kate.
“Yeah, I guess,” he replied. “Anyway, she said she would be gone for a couple weeks. Well, actually, she
wrote
she would be gone. They had a note from her.”
“Huh,” said Kate. “You think she would have said something before she went off like that.”
“Didn’t you say you had a note?” Greg asked.
“Yeah, but she didn’t say where she was going, or for how long exactly.”
“Maybe she expected to tell you that when she picked up Ben.”
“I guess.”
“Hey mom?” Jack interrupted.
“What’s up, Bub?” she asked.
“Can we stay here with Ben tonight?”
“Oh, I don’t think so honey—I think only parents and guardians are allowed to stay,” she replied.
“We could sneak back in when the nurses aren’t looking,” Jack offered.
“Jack, that’s not going to help,” she crossed over to Ben’s bed. “Ben, I’ll stay here with you tonight and the boys will be back as soon as we can in the morning.”
“That’s okay Mrs. Randolph—I don’t want you to have to stay here with me,” said Ben. “I’ll be asleep anyway.”
“Ben, I’m going to stay right here with you whether you want me to or not,” said Kate. “And nobody is going to stop me.”
“Thanks, Ms. Randolph,” said Ben.
**********
“Wake up,” Stephen said as he shook Jack.
“What’s going on?” asked Jack. He was groggy and thought he was still in a dream for a minute.
“Let’s get breakfast and get ready to go over to the hospital,” said Stephen.
“Yeah, okay, sure,” said Jack.
At seven in the morning Jack had barely slept. He kept having dreams that he had been the one swallowed into the floor. Tumbling down for minutes, his dream-hole was way deeper than the one Ben had fallen in to. Jack knew what to expect—at the bottom of Jack’s hole were the remains of Gabe Vigue. He was terrified of these dreams, but he still resented Stephen for waking him up. He was desperate to figure out how the dream would end.
Jack and Stephen made their way downstairs and fed themselves breakfast. Waiting for Jack’s dad, they sat in the kitchen and tried to pass the time by flipping through an old newspaper. Greg finally came down at eight o’clock, and Jack wanted immediate action.
“Can we go over to the hospital now Dad?” he asked.
“Didn’t you boys look at the signs when we were leaving?” his dad asked. “They clearly stated that visiting hours start at ten. How long did it take us to get back here last night?”
“Um,” said Jack, “about forty-five minutes?”
“That’s right,” said his dad. “And what time is it now?”
“About eight.”
“Excellent—so how long until we should leave?” his dad asked him.
“Probably about seventy-five minutes?”
“Excellent—good answer. Why don’t you two use that time to go get cleaned up? It’s a hospital, you know. They last thing they need is smelly boys running around, stinking up the joint.”
“Okay, Dad,” said Jack.
**********
Jack and Stephen came down the stairs an hour later to find a huge surprise—Jack’s mom walked through the door.
“Mom!” exclaimed Jack. “Did they release him.”
“They did,” she said. “They released him to his mom—she wants him to stay at home for a while.”
“What?” said Jack, surprised. “His mom? I thought you couldn’t get in touch with her?”
“I didn’t,” said his mom. “But I guess she got the message.”
Jack’s dad appeared from the kitchen—“Hey honey,” he said. “Sleep well?”
“Oh, you know it,” she replied. “I was just telling Jack and Stephen—Ben’s fine, but his mom wanted him to come home for a bit, so he was released to her this morning.”
“Did you actually see her?” asked Jack.
“Of course I did. Did you think I was going to let him go with just anyone?” she asked, studying Jack closely.
“It’s just that you hadn’t heard from her in so long,” Jack tried to downplay his previous question. “I just wondered if she looked okay.”
“Yes sir,” said his mom. She paused and then continued—“She looked just fine, and Ben looked good too.”
“Thanks, mom,” said Jack. “Can me and Stephen give him a call before we go outside?”
“Stephen and I, and yes,” she said.
The boys crossed through the kitchen and Jack pointed Stephen to the phone while he crept back to the doorway. His parents were talking about Ben at the foot of the stairs.
“I don’t know, she just acted so weird,” he heard his mom say.
“Was she driving?” his dad asked.
“No, thank God,” said his mom. “One of her neighbors drove her over. I didn’t really meet him, but he looked nice enough.”
“Do you think she’s on something again?”
“I hope not,” his mom sighed. “But she did have that same vacant look.”
Jack snuck back to Stephen.
**********
“No answer,” said Jack. They took the house phone outside to the patio to place their call in private.
“Which number did you dial?” asked Stephen.
“I did the house number,” Jack replied. “I’ll try his cell.”
“Good.”
“Weird. Straight to voicemail on that one,” said Jack.
“That’s really strange. Something must be wrong with the tower or something,” said Stephen.
“Could be,” said Jack. “Or maybe they just hate cell phones now.”
“Probably,” said Stephen.
“So, you want to go to the hotel today?” asked Jack.
“Seems weird without Ben, but I really want to know if there’s more money there.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Jack.
In the house, they met unexpected resistance.
“Why don’t you just play in the basement today?” asked his mom.
“Cause we don’t want to,” said Jack. “We want to go back out and see if we can find that reptile that Ben was chasing.”
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to find a particular lizard, Jack,” she replied.
“Well, not that exact one, but one like the one we were chasing, I guess,” Jack said.
“I think you should stay around the house this one time so I don’t have to be so worried about you,” she said.
“Yeah, but mom you’re always going to have to worry about something,” said Jack. “Why can’t we just do this one thing and then you can worry about something else later?”
“What did I just say, Jack?” barked his mom.
“But mom,” he protested.
“That’s it,” she said, really frustrated now. “You can spend the day upstairs, in your room. No computer. I want you reading one of your books for school and then I want five-hundred words on what you’ve read. Due by dinner.”
“What?” said Jack. “You can’t be serious, what’s Stephen going to do?”
“Same for you, Stephen,” she said. “Pick one of the books on Jack’s list. They’re all on his shelf.”
“Yes, Ms. Randolph,” said Stephen, dejected. He shot a sideways look at Jack.
“Shit,” said Jack under his breath.