by JB Dutton
Chapter 7
Dream #20 (while in Cilic’s limo): Mom has gotten us a puppy. A black lab. But it’s in a kind of cube inside a weird cylindrical fish tank. It looks like it can’t breathe so I let it out, but when I open the cube it runs around like crazy inside the apartment then returns to the cube and curls up inside it. I close the cube and put the puppy back in the aquarium.
Aranara’s plan worked perfectly. My grandparents disappeared into their bedroom after lunch, right on cue. I shoved my stuff in my bag and crept out. Cilic was sitting in the limo with the engine running right outside the gate. He took my bag without a word and opened the back door for me. The journey was going to be long and I tried to make conversation with him.
“Excuse me, Sir, but is Cilic your first name or last name?”
“My name,” he said with a heavy Eastern-European accent.
Silence for two minutes.
“Have you lived here for a long time?”
“Long time,” was the guttural answer.
Over the next few minutes I realized that something was bothering me. I didn’t know Noon’s surname! I had never thought to ask. And if Cilic was Aranara’s father, he must be Noon’s father too, right?
I shifted in my seat to get a better look at him. He was clutching the steering wheel at the top with both hands, the same way he had done the time I’d met him. I suddenly found it hard to concentrate. What did I want to ask him again? Oh yeah – about Noon.
“Can I ask you another question, Sir?”
He gripped the steering wheel tighter, didn’t acknowledge me. Wow, it must have been the hum of the engine or the rhythm of the road, but I was almost passing out from tiredness.
“Are you Noon and Aranara’s father?”
He looked at me in the rear-view mirror. Out of the blue, I had an almost irresistible urge to pee.
“Can we stop please? I have to go to the restroom.”
He nodded. “Two minutes.”
As I waited for him to reach the rest area, my mind wandered. Wasn’t there something I needed to know? It was like having a word at the tip of your tongue but you can’t think of it, no matter how hard you try. Or like trying to remember a dream that was so clear the moment you woke up, but then dissolves back to nothing by the time you get out of bed.
Cilic took the next exit and parked the limo outside a gas station convenience store. He stayed in the idling car while I went inside. On my way out of the restroom I grabbed some beef jerky, an iced tea and a gossip mag. Then I grabbed two more. It was gonna be a long ride if this was the level of conversation. I decided to text Cruz to make sure he was clear on the plan.
Crap, I must have left my phone in the car. When I opened the limo door, it was already ringing. It was a panicked Pops.
“Kari, honey! Oh my god, where are you?”
“On the... the bus to New York, like I said,” I answered as Cilic merged back onto the highway.
“Gran and I almost had a stroke.”
There you go.
“How could you do this to us?” he went on (but I could hear the relief somewhere underneath the panic).
“Don’t worry, Pops. Mom knows already.”
“I know she knows, but did it never occur to you how upset we would be?”
“Yes, Pops, it did. I’m sorry.”
Gran snatched the phone away from him.
“You’re just a child!” she squawked.
“Hi, Gran,” was all I said.
“You made me cry.”
I was starting to feel crappy.
“Okay, I know. It was bad. But didn’t you do anything crazy when you were young? Weren’t you ever a teenager in love?”
“Honey, I never ran away from home.”
Now I felt even worse because I was lying to her twice over. I wasn’t on the bus and I wasn’t running away to be with Cruz, like I’d told them in the note and told Mom in the email. I was running because there was something exciting going on. Something bigger than my life. And I just couldn’t resist. I hoped they’d understand one day.
“How about I call you when I get in? Would that make you feel better?”
“Sure, but don’t you ever do anything like this again, young lady,” she admonished me.
“Okay. I love you, Gran.”
“So do I. But please be careful.”
“Promise.”
As the word came out of my mouth, I knew I wouldn’t keep it.
I hung up and flipped through the magazines. I’d forgotten all about my questions for Cilic. It was warm in the limo, and as the afternoon went on, my head started bobbing. I found myself reading the same article three times. Eventually, I fell asleep.
Big mistake.
