The Aging: A Novel

by Jack Hunt

  Ryan glanced at Josh who was hurrying to finish his food so he could get out of there. “So was your mom seeing anyone?”

  “What kind of question is that?” Josh asked.

  “Just curious.”

  “Does it matter?” He replied.

  “I guess not. Just wanted to ask.”

  “Yeah. Well, maybe if you’d picked up the phone once in a while you wouldn’t need to ask.”

  And the hits just kept coming.

  Ryan nodded. “Right. So your mom. She sent you this way?”

  “Apparently so,” Josh said with a mouth full of food. “Had I known I wouldn’t have come. I was wondering why she never told me. Should have figured.”

  Ryan shifted in his seat. “Look, Josh. I know—”

  “Let me just stop you there,” he said, setting his cutlery down. “This,” he pointed at Ryan and then back at himself and Lily. “This isn’t a family reunion. You don’t need to make small talk or explain anything. We’ll be leaving soon and you can go back to whatever the hell you were doing before this. Okay? You don’t owe me anything. I’ve done perfectly fine without you.”

  Lily nearly choked on her food. Ryan got her a glass of water.

  “I guess what I’m asking, Josh, is did your mother say anything? Did she give you a message for me?”

  Still chewing, he reached for his bag and opened it. That’s when Ryan caught a glimpse of a handgun. He didn’t say anything. The streets outside had become dangerous. Josh handed him a flash drive. “She sent a file to me, I put it on this.”

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. I never looked.”

  Ryan took it and backed out of the kitchen.

  “She said you would know the password. Something about the location of your honeymoon? Obviously didn’t trust me.” He was angry. It was to be expected. So many years with no father figure, it couldn’t have been easy. There was a lot he needed to explain to him but now wasn’t the time.

  “By the way, if you want more food there’s plenty on the stove. Help yourself.”

  Ryan retreated into a bedroom and pulled out an old Windows laptop and powered it up. He stuck the flash drive in the side and clicked on the file that was password protected. She’d certainly gone to great lengths to prevent Josh from knowing where she was sending him. He glanced down the hallway. This whole thing felt very out of character for Elizabeth. For so long he thought she hated him. Hated him for how things fell apart, hated him for the embarrassment that came from the allegations, hated him for the way he handled it.

  A dimly lit video appeared on his screen. After a few adjustments, Elizabeth appeared on camera. She sat down on the edge of a bed but it wasn’t the Elizabeth he remembered. She looked older, much older. She had been three years younger than him, which would have made her forty at the time of making this video, but this woman looked as if she was in her early seventies. Her long dark hair was now silver, there were hard crow’s feet at the corner of her eyes and mouth, and her skin was no longer tight. There were blemishes on her face and neck, and her hands were trembling.

  “Hi, Ryan. I know this will come as a shock to you. The way I look. But by the time you see this, you will already know what we are facing.” She dabbed an already bloody tissue underneath her nose as blood trickled out. “I don’t have much time left. There is so much I wish I could say to you. So much I wish I could change about the decisions I made concerning you and me, the custody of Josh, and visitation rights. I’m sorry about the way it went down.”

  She released a nervous laugh. “Crazy, isn’t it. I’m apologizing when I didn’t do anything wrong.” She looked away from the camera and this time touched the tissue beneath her eyes. Ryan had always wondered what she would look like in her old age. They’d had dreams of growing old together. She’d wanted a home with a wraparound porch and two Adirondack chairs. She’d talk about looking forward to having grandchildren. So many dreams. All of them shattered. “Listen. For all the mistakes made, one thing I know is that you were a good father in the few years we were together. I couldn’t think of anyone else to send Josh to who I trust. I have been in contact with my parents over the past few days and they’ve told me that there are groups of people who are riding out this event on an island in the Gulf of Mexico. At least until things improve. I want you to take Josh and Lily to my parents. Get them on a boat. I want them safe and while I can’t be sure if they will even make it to you, if they do, I would ask you do this for me, for Josh, and Lily.” She reached for a glass of water and took a few sips, almost choking in the process. She disappeared for a second. All he could hear was coughing then she returned. “Ryan. I should have told you sooner, but... Lily is your daughter. I never remarried, I didn’t date anyone after you. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I know I should have told you but I figured with everything that happened it would have only made things worse and those kids needed stability. I needed stability. I couldn’t deal with another argument, or lawyers, so I just kept it to myself.”

  He remembered all the conversations with her in those final days were done via phone. Never in person. All communication went through lawyers and even the day in court when they gave the ruling regarding custody and denial of visitation rights due to his alcohol use, he never saw her. Years passed and without seeing Josh, he had no reason to think that she was pregnant with another child.

  “I’m sorry, Ryan. I can’t change the past but I can give you time with them now. Be patient with Josh. He’s been through a lot. He’s a really good kid, just a little lost and damaged. Like both of us.” She took a deep breath. “By now you will have seen how this event is playing out. I’m not sure what it is exactly but I’m going to die because of it. I just want to get things in place before the end. I haven’t told Josh that I’m sending him to you because he wouldn’t go. He’s so bent out of shape over this. I need you to look after him. Lily as well. Do what I can’t do. Be there for them.” She drew a long breath. “You remember the cottage in Franklin County…” She reeled its location off just in case he’d forgotten. He hadn’t. How could he? He didn’t need to scribble it down, it was responsible for some of his best memories. “You’ll need to get there before July 10 because that’s when the boats will be leaving for the island. If you miss that slot, they won’t be back for a month.” She sighed and looked down. Ryan glanced at his watch. It was the fifth. He had five days. Elizabeth continued. “This wasn’t how I intended things to end. I plan to go out on my terms. I don’t want to suffer. I won’t do that. Look after them, Ryan. I’m trusting you. Please forgive me. Thank you.”

  And that was it. She switched off the camera.

  Ryan sat there chewing over what she’d said and thinking about the past and the first time he’d met Elizabeth in college. He was studying to be a teacher, and she was taking nursing. He’d seen her on the way to his classes and had approached her on a day she was stressed out from all the studying. They began dating and within a few years, they were engaged and then married. Their firstborn, Josh, arrived four years later. Ryan adored that kid. Life seemed almost too good to be true. They were both in professions they enjoyed, making good money, living in a nice neighborhood, and making their way in the world as parents.

  Then it happened.

  The incident that changed it all.

  In many ways, his life ended back then, ten years ago.

  It destroyed his marriage, his career, his reputation and sent him spiraling down into depression and heavy drinking as a means to cope.

  Those were dark days. He’d eventually pulled himself out from the abyss with the help of AA meetings, medication, and moving away to where he could start afresh. He’d even gone as far as to change his name. His second job wasn’t even close to what he had done before but it paid the bills.

  Ryan took out the flash drive and pocketed it. He would watch that video another three times just so he could see her. He’d never stopped loving Elizabeth. He knew every decision she ma
de was done out of pain, out of a need to shield Josh. For that, he didn’t blame her. He went back into the kitchen and glanced at his kids. They were done eating. Lily was drinking a glass of water, blissfully unaware of the life-changing event that was unraveling around her.

  “Josh says we have to leave soon.”

  Josh never met his gaze. It was like he was uncomfortable even looking at him. What had he learned about his past? What conclusion had he come to about his father? Did he know the truth? “Well… it’s dark out,” Ryan said, looking out the window.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Josh replied, rising and placing his plate in the sink.

  “Where will you go?”

  “That’s not your problem. It’s mine.”

  “No, it’s mine now. Your mom wants me to take you to your grandparents.”

  “We don’t need a babysitter.”

  He had no filter when it came to saying how he felt.

  “No you don’t but it’s what she wanted.”

  “Yeah, well, maybe she should have asked me what I wanted. Seems you and her have a habit of deciding what you want.”

  He knew he wasn’t just referring to now.

  “You were six, Josh.”

  “Now I’m sixteen. Funny how quickly time flies,” he said, collecting his bag and slipping his arm through it, and adjusting it on his shoulder. “Lily, get your coat on.”

  “Thank you for the food, Ryan,” Lily said in a small voice.

  “Josh. Listen. Wait. Think about Lily here.”

  “I am.”

  He took hold of her hand and led her toward the door.

  “Josh, I’ve got plenty of room for both of you here. Now it’s dark out and this area is not where a ten-year-old should be right now.”

  “How would you know what a ten-year-old needs?”

  “Look, you can be as angry as you want at me. You have every right but I’m still your father.”

  Josh chuckled. “You stopped being that ten years ago. Now the agreement was to stay for a meal. I didn’t want to do that but for Lily’s sake, I did. But now it’s time for us to leave.”

  “Yeah, well that was before I listened to what your mother wanted.”

  Josh fired back. “Our mother is dead! Okay? What she wants now means very little.”

  He knew he didn’t mean it. He was speaking out of his pain.

  “I would beg to differ.”

  Josh narrowed his eyes. “Lily, go wait outside.”

  “Why?”

  “Just do it,” he said loudly. Lily looked at Ryan and he nodded. Lily stepped out onto the lit-up porch and took a seat. Josh closed the door. As soon as he knew she couldn’t hear them, he opened up on Ryan. “I don’t know why my mother sent us to you. I never wanted to come here. I wouldn’t have come here if I knew where she was sending us. Now if she wants us to go to our grandparents, fine, we’ll go but not with you. Lily is my sister and I’ve always watched out for her.”

  “And she’s my daughter.”

  “Like I said. If that really mattered to you, you would have visited us. Where were you, man? Huh? Where were you when I needed you? When we needed you? That’s right. Nowhere. From what I heard you were too busy.”

  “That’s not the truth.”

  He shifted from one foot to the next. “Oh no, that’s right, you were dealing with sexual assault charges of a minor. A student of yours, right?”

  It was like someone had opened the wound again.

  Ryan blew out his cheeks. “So she told you?”

  “She didn’t need to, man. I found the articles online. It’s all out there.”

  “I guess you never read the one where I was cleared of all charges a few years after the allegations.”

  “Whatever, man. We don’t need you. I don’t want you around me. And I sure as hell don’t want you around Lily.” He turned to head out and Ryan placed his hand against the door to stop him for just a second.

  “Really? You’re going to hold us captive now? Is that it?”

  “You don’t know the whole truth, Josh.”

  “And I don’t care to know. If it mattered so much, you would have shown up a long time ago and told me. So just move out of the way.”

  Ryan hesitated to lift his hand. He had every right to play the father card, especially after hearing what Elizabeth wanted, but where would that have gotten him? Josh would just leave the first chance he got when he wasn’t looking. He removed his hand from the door and Josh exited.

  “Are we staying?” Lily asked.

  “No. Let’s go.”

  “But…”

  “Lily.” He urged her down the porch steps. She looked back at Ryan and gave a small wave. He stood on the porch in the dim lighting and watched as they went over to his dirt bike and tried to start it. A few failed attempts, a quick check of the engine and it fired up, a growl almost as angry as the look Josh was giving him. Josh glared at him as he flipped down his visor and tore out of there, into the darkness, into the unknown.

  Chapter Six

  15 days earlier

  June 20

  It was fifteen days before they would leave home for good. Josh had been inside the house for six days watching the unexplainable event unfold before his eyes. His mother still hadn’t come out of her room. All communication was done through the door or by way of texting but by now he knew what was afflicting her and how she’d gotten it. The frequency of reported deaths was increasing by the day. State officials had instructed people to stay in their homes and only come out for necessities. The National Guard in every state had been deployed to all the affected areas to keep law and order while the CDC dispatched Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officers to handle the infected. They were told they were there to stem the outbreak by responding to the emerging pathogen, nothing more.

  People weren’t buying it.

  The online tracker continued to reveal more cases from the west of California through to the tip of Cape Cod. Callie sent him links to videos released on social media of people going out of their way to spread it to others. Spitting purposely, or touching people like it was nothing more than a game of tag. The worst video was of a man bursting into the home of a single woman and killing her just so he could spread it to her child. What did he have to gain?

  At first, the reports were confusing.

  That’s when he began to learn more about why the government was having a hard time containing it.

  Callie’s text said, “They’re saying it stops in those who spread it.”

  If that was true, it certainly made it clear why people were acting desperate.

  With so much misinformation being shared online, he wasn’t sure what was real or just a hoax. It was hard to know what to believe. And quite frankly, he didn’t want to believe it.

  The stories online changed from day to day.

  Josh kept Lily busy with video games and Netflix but eventually he’d have to tell her the truth. She was already asking questions about mom. He didn’t want to scare her any more than his mother did so they’d agreed to hold off and say that she’d caught a bad cold and didn’t want either of them to catch it.

  Before the conversation turned to leaving, his mother had told him the best course of action was to stay home. Venturing out would only place them in harm’s way and that made no sense. Still, that didn’t stop people from fleeing the large cities and heading for small towns.

  Towns like his.

  That’s why he’d taken precautions. Josh had locked all the doors. He barricaded all entry points and slept less. It was beginning to catch up with him. “You need to sleep,” his mother said through the door as he rested his head against the door frame. He struggled to keep his eyes open and his emotions in check. “Lily needs you.”

  They argued about the future, about her not wanting to get help, about the syndrome.

  “If they come for me, Josh, you know as well as I do they will take you and Lily. I don’t want that for either of you. I don’t know how
they are handling this.”

  “You make it sound like they’re going to execute us.”

  She went silent.

  “Look, Mom, they’re probably coming anyway if you’re right about contact tracing.”

  “That’s why I need you to act now, son. Collect what you need for the journey.”

  “Journey? To where?”

  “I’ve sent a file to your phone, and provided you with an address. When you get there, give the person the file. They’ll help.”

  “Who is it?”

  “A friend.”

  “Does this friend have a name?”

  “Josh, that’s not important.”

  “Maybe not for you.”

  His phone dinged with a text message of a place to download a video file, and then another followed with an address, and a list of items she wanted him to get.

  His mother told him he would have to be strong. This whole thing was over his head. He couldn’t deal with it. But it didn’t matter what he said. Josh realized fast that his mother couldn’t help.

  “Listen, we’re almost out of food.”

  “Right. Well…” she replied.

  There was a long stretch of silence. He knew what he had to do. He’d have to venture into town but that was like putting a single bullet in a revolver, spinning it, putting it to his head, and pulling the trigger. There was a high chance he wouldn’t survive. He’d seen the videos online. People being tackled to the ground. Residents being robbed. The looting. The chaos. He’d spent hours poring over articles. Regardless of martial law or curfews, it was out of control.

  “You’ll have to go,” she said.

  “And Lily?”

  “She can stay here. I’ll talk to her.”

  “She’s asking more questions, Mom.”

  “I know. You’ll tell her when it’s the right time but I want to spare her the pain.”

  He nodded. Everything inside him wanted to lash out for so many reasons. “Mom, I was thinking. Perhaps there is an alternative to reporting your infection. Callie sent me another video. People are saying this can be given away. I mean, that it stops the aging process in the carrier once they come in contact with someone else who doesn’t have it.”