by Elle Casey
Jonathan shook his head, climbing down and going over to stand next to Sarah. “No, we won’t. We’ll just drive over to the other side of town and leave the SUV there. Hopefully, they won’t connect the issues together. And we’ll park it in a bad area with the keys in it. Maybe someone will just take it.”
“Sounds like a plan. It’s not like we have any other choice,” said Kevin, climbing into the driver’s seat of the SUV. “Candi, get in. Sarah, you ride with Jonathan.”
Candi went along with his instructions not saying a word. She just kept putting her finger in her right ear and wiggling it around.
Jonathan opened the passenger door of the Camry that he’d left running in the gas station parking lot, holding it open for Sarah.
Kevin’s window came down. “Drive the speed limit,” he said. “And stick right behind us. If a cop comes up, I want him looking at your car, not this one.”
Jonathan nodded, running around to the other side of the car, getting in and putting on his seat belt. “Ready?” he asked Sarah.
She just nodded, looking out the side window.
He shifted into drive and followed Kevin out onto the road, careful to use his turn signal. “Please don’t be sad, Sarah. Everything’s going to be fine, you’ll see.”
She sniffled. “But I messed up.”
“No, you didn’t. It’s no big deal.”
“We’ll get caught because of me. Murdered. Our throats slit open!”
She was openly crying now, which made Jonathan’s anxiety level go through the roof. Something about hearing that noise come out of her mouth made him want to do anything he possibly could to make it stop. “No, we are not!” he said loudly. Taking a moment to calm himself before continuing, he said, “I am going to protect you and that peanut, and we’re going to be fine.”
Sarah turned to him, wiping her nose with her hand. “Peanut? What peanut?”
“The peanut-shaped embryo in your uterus.”
She either choked or laughed, Jonathan wasn’t sure which. “Awww … you just called our baby a peanut.” She turned sideways in her seat to face him.
“Yes, I did. It really looks like one right now. I could show you a picture if we could go to a library or get online.”
Sarah reached over and tickled the hair on the back of his neck. “I love you, you know. You’re like my knight in shining armor.”
Jonathan smiled, happy that she wasn’t crying anymore, and satisfied to know she felt the same way about him as he did about her. “Well, I don’t know about the knight part, but I’ll take the rest of what you said.”
“Tell me you love me back.”
“I love you back. And the peanut, too.”
Sarah leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“Get back in your seat. We don’t want the cops pulling us over.”
Sarah sat back down. “Bossy. So, where are we going?”
“I don’t know. I’m just following your brother. He seems to know his way around.”
“He’s played rugby all over this city. He’ll know where to go.”
Jonathan glanced nervously in his rearview mirror, happy to see that there was no one behind him, but very unhappy to see the beginnings of a sunrise glowing on the horizon.
***
Kevin pulled onto a street filled with houses surrounded by chainlink fences. The sun was coming up, and people would be stirring from their homes soon. Luckily it was Sunday morning, and he didn’t have to worry about people getting up for work. The clock read six in the morning.
“This place makes me seriously nervous,” said Candi.
“We’re only going to be here for five minutes. Just relax and go to the other car as soon as we stop. I’ll move the stuff over.” He looked over at her, taking in her pale complexion and shaking fingers. “Did you wipe the car down? Take off all the fingerprints that you could?”
“I did my best. I think I got everything. Here’s the t-shirt so you can do the things you’ve touched over there.” She sighed as he pulled into a spot on the side of the road, in front of a house that looked abandoned. “I don’t even know why we’re bothering, though.”
“Just to be sure we can slow down their process of finding us, that’s all.”
“But don’t our fingerprints need to be in the system for it to matter?”
“Yeah. Maybe. I don’t know. But what if someone has our fingerprints? Didn’t your parents ever do one of those things at the school? You know, the free fingerprint thing?”
Candi frowned as he shut off the car. “I’m not sure. I can’t remember.”
“Better safe than sorry,” said Kevin. “You go. I’m going to wipe this down and leave the keys here.” He took her hand and pulled her over, kissing her once quickly on the lips. “See you in a minute. Don’t miss me too much.”
She reached up and tugged his earlobe. “Don’t you miss me.”
He smiled as Candi’s door shut behind her, leaving him alone in the mostly silent car. He could hear them whispering and talking in low tones behind him, through the hole in the roof. They’d done the best they could to hide the damage from the outside, but there was no way you could miss it on the inside. The first time it rained, this car was going to get full of mildew, thanks to Sarah. He shook his head thinking about how lucky they’d gotten, with her shooting the car instead of herself or Candi. He was glad he hadn’t been there. He probably would have been seriously tempted to throttle her.
He finished wiping off all the spots he thought he might have touched, and left the car, shutting the door as quietly as he could. The keys stayed in the ignition and the locks remained open. By the time he slid into the driver’s seat of the Camry, everything had been transferred from the SUV into the trunk of their new ride. “Ready to hit the road?” he asked, looking at Candi next to him and then his sister and Jonathan in the back seat.
“Yep,” said Jonathan.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” said Sarah, leaning over to put her head on Jonathan’s shoulder. She yawned wide.
Kevin shifted into drive. “Let’s hit it. Tennessee, here we come.”
“Tennessee?” asked Candi.
“Yep! We can get a cabin in the woods, do some fishing, take some hikes … relax.”
“If we’re going to be out in the middle of nowhere, we need to have some sort of security system in place,” said Jonathan. “It’s the perfect place to murder a group of kids; no one would hear a thing.”
“So we get some security. Or we make our own. I’ve been thinking about it, and I really think this is our best option.” Kevin pulled out of the neighborhood and onto a main street.
“Why not a big city we can get lost in, like Atlanta?” asked Candi. “Or we could really go for the gold and drive all the way to Seattle.”
“Too many people to see us on a wanted poster,” said Kevin.
“Okay, small town, then,” said Candi.
“Nope. We’d stick out like sore thumbs … four teenagers just hanging out when they should be in school. We need to go off the grid.”
“I guess I agree with you, but it could be because I’m exhausted and my reasoning skills are compromised,” said Jonathan.
“Or, it could be because your reasoning skills are top-notch, and I’m just a genius who figured out the best plan,” said Kevin, smiling in the mirror. He noticed his sister was already asleep. “Jon, better watch out. The drool monster’s coming for ya.”
“That’s okay. She drools on me all the time now.”
“I don’t drool,” said Sarah, her voice sounding drugged.
Candi giggled, inspiring Kevin to take her hand and pull it over to rest on his thigh. “Tennesseeeeeee, here we coooooome,” he sang, making up the lyrics and the melody as he went along.
“Oh my god … have I died and gone to hell?” asked Sarah.
Everyone laughed, including Kevin. “Don’t be jealous, little sis,” he said. “Not everyone can have vocal cords of a god like me.”
“Thank Mount Olympus for that,” she said, before letting out a small burp. “Oops. ‘Scuse me. It was the peanut.” A few seconds later she began snoring.
“Where did she get peanuts?” asked Candi.
Kevin waited for the answer as he pulled onto the interstate. Peanuts sounded pretty good right about now. He was so hungry anything would probably sound appetizing.
“She meant the baby. That’s his nickname. Peanut.”
“It’s a she, not a he,” said Candi.
“No, he’s not,” said Kevin. “He’s a boy, and he’s going to be the smartest, handsomest kid ever born … until you and me have a kid, that is.” He looked over at Candi, a little surprised at himself that he’d said that out loud, but very happy to see her grinning like a fool and very pink in the cheeks.
“Yeah, someday in about ten years,” she said.
“Yeah. Exactly,” he said. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back.
“We won’t know until she has an ultrasound at twenty weeks, but even then it could be wrong. I’m just picking an arbitrary gender. I don’t care which it is, just that it’s healthy and looks like Sarah.”
“How do you know so much about that stuff?” asked Kevin.
“I cannot believe you just asked that question,” said Candi very quietly.
Kevin smiled. She was right. What had he been thinking?
“Well, you know, I’ve done some research.”
The car went silent.
Kevin looked at Candi and she stared back, shrugging her shoulders.
“Aaaand…?” asked Kevin. There had to be more to the story than this. There was always more to the story than this when Jonathan was talking.
“That’s all I can say.”
Candi laughed. “Why?”
“Because Sarah told me I need to learn to curb my TMI tendencies, and that if I felt the need to TMI someone, I should come TMI her instead to get it off my chest.”
Kevin held up his hand, twisted around for a high five from the back seat. “Give me some skin on that, man.”
Jonathan gave him a tap. “I don’t want to wake Sarah.”
Kevin nodded, putting his hand back on the wheel. “Good enough, dude. It’s good enough for me.”
***
Sarah woke up, rubbing her neck. It had a crick in it from sitting sideways on Jonathan’s boney shoulder for … she squinted at the clock … I’ve been asleep for four hours? “Where are we?” she asked Kevin. Everyone else was sleeping.
“About five hours out from our destination. I need to stop though and trade with someone. I’m about to fall asleep at the wheel.”
“Let’s go to a rest stop and get some food.”
“No. No rest stops. They have cameras. We’ll just get off the highway and hit a diner or something.”
Sarah nudged Jonathan. “Babe. Get up. We’re going to stop for breakfast. Or lunch. Or brunch. Or all three maybe, if I’m lucky.” For the first time in days she wasn’t feeling morning sick. She knew it was probably temporary, though. It came and went at various times during the day. She had to take advantage of sick-free moments whenever she could, especially since they seemed to be coming less and less often. “Oh, look!” said Sarah, excited. “A greasy spoon. I can smell it from here!”
All three of the other heads in the car looked over, two of them with some seriously messed-up hair.
“Wow, Candi … Jonathan. You two need to fix that hair of yours, like soon. No way can we walk around incognito when you guys look like you just escaped from a mental institution.”
Candi turned around. “Yeeeeah. You may want to check your look in the mirror before you go judging like that.”
Sarah’s eyes widened as she thought about the side-effects of car-sleeping on her own hair. “Oh, no. Stop the car.”
“I’ll stop the car in that Wal-Mart parking lot. We need to get different clothes before we let anyone see you two. Jonathan and I will go in wearing our t-shirts and pants only. They’re still tuxy but not too tuxy. No way can you even get out of the car in those dresses.”
“But why?” asked Candi. “We’re so far from home.”
“It’s in the FBI’s jurisdiction. Everywhere is. They could put wanted ads up all over the towns near the highways or ads on TV. All they’d have to say is they’re looking for four teens in prom formal wear, and we’d be busted no matter where we went … unless there happened to be a prom going on. Which there isn’t,” said Jonathan. “Just tell us what you want and what size and we’ll buy it for you.”
“Ha! Like we can trust you to shop for us,” grumbled Sarah. She could only imagine what a full-on dork she was going to look like with either of them doing her shopping.
“We’ll get you something basic, and you can go in after and get yourselves something nicer, okay?” asked Kevin. He sounded exhausted.
“Deal,” said Candi. “All I need is a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.”
“I’d recommend jeans,” said Jonathan. “We’re going to the mountains where it will still be cold at night. You want something that will work in all weather.”
“I’ll use the shorts for pajamas later. I can’t have you buying me jeans; I need to try them on. Just get me size small gym shorts and a small t-shirt. And a pair of flip-flops.”
“Make that two of each,” said Sarah, preferring her clothes to fit tighter than Candi’s. “Size eight for my shoes.”
“Six for mine,” said Candi.
“Oompa loompa,” said Sarah quietly while smiling devilishly.
“Clown,” said Candi back, not even looking at Sarah.
“Okay, girls. That’s enough.” Kevin pulled into the back end of the parking lot. “Come on, Jon. Take off your formal shirt.”
Jonathan complied and the two guys left the car, wearing short-sleeved undershirts, black tux pants, and shiny black shoes.
Sarah sighed. “What do you think they’re going to buy?”
“Something hideously embarrassing would be my guess.”
Sarah nodded. “My thoughts exactly. If I had known my life was going to come down to this, I wouldn’t have worn this disaster,” she said slapping at the long, tight, formal dress she just wanted to cut off her body with a pair of scissors at this point.
“What would you have worn instead? A track suit?”
“No. A short, black cocktail dress. Preferrably Chanel. And shorter heels, too. I could have waltzed into Wal-Mart and bought an entire wardrobe for all of us in less than thirty minutes.” Shopping was one of her special skills.
“Oh, right. Like a Chanel cocktail dress wouldn’t stand out in Wal-Mart. You so know how to blend, Sarah.”
“Thhpppbbtttt.”
“Mature.”
“Thhppbt.”
Candi changed the subject. “I was thinking something when Jonathan was telling us about the wanted posters.”
“Oh, yeah? What? How delicious that bacon smells, sizzling across the street? Because that’s what I was thinking.”
“No. I was thinking that we have two problems with standing out.”
“Like …”
“Like it’s not just the FBI looking for us. It’s that Baskov guy, too. And I’ll bet he has more money than the FBI does. What if he sends one of his hired assassins out after us? All the guy has to do is ask questions around places like this and he might get lucky and find someone who saw four kids in prom clothes when there was no prom going on. And he may have access to FBI resources since we know there was at least one mole in there. Baskov probably has more than one traitor on the payroll, don’t you think? They could totally have access to the leads the FBI comes up with around the country. They’re everywhere, did you know that? It’s not just Washington, D.C.”
Sarah listened to everything Candi said and the more she heard, the farther her heart sank down into her stomach. “Damblammit, Candi! Now I’m feeling sick again! Way to go. I was going to have bacon and sausage and … oh, god … shut up, Sarah … stop talking about foo
d.” She moaned and slid down in her seat.
“I’m sorry,” said Candi, sounding very contrite. She turned around backwards, gripping the headrest with both hands as she looked at Sarah. “I just didn’t want to be the only one with the nightmare in my head. I actually was hoping you’d tell me I was nuts.”
Sarah shook her head, rubbing her hair into a knot on the seat behind her. “No. You’re not nuts. You’re totally right, and we’re totally screwed. The guys were right, too. We need serious security if we’re going to be in a cabin. Like death traps and guns and … attack dogs.” She sat up, suddenly inspired by the idea of Cujo coming out and biting a bad guy’s nutsack off.
“Attack dogs?” Candi laughed. “Where are we going to get an attack dog?”
“Humane society. They have tons of dogs, even some that are biters. Let’s get one of those - one of the biting kind.”
“I’d prefer one that didn’t bite but looked like it could bite. Intimidation factor.”
“I think an actual bite is much more intimidating than a hard look.” Sarah sat up. “As soon as we get to that diner, let’s look up dog adoption in their phone book. I’ll bet there’s one near here somewhere.” She looked around the parking lot and the places beyond. “It’s a pretty big town, looks like.”
“I think it’s a good idea. No, a great one. Not only will we rescue a dog that might get put down, it’ll give us something to do so we don’t get too bored. Training takes a lot of time and patience.”
“Oooo, good idea. Let’s make a list of all the things we can do to not be bored in the middle of nowhere.” Sarah looked around the car for a piece of paper but gave up about three seconds into the process, her stomach telling her she was better off just relaxing.
“I’ve always wanted to learn how to knit,” said Candi.
Sarah laughed. “If we get that bored, I’m just going to turn myself in.”
“No, I’m serious,” said Candi, smiling. “I want to make a scarf. If I get good at it, I could make you one too.”
Sarah shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat. I want to paint. I’ve always wanted to learn how to paint landscapes and portraits.” She waved her hand in front of her face, already seeing a vision of greatness. “I could create the next Mona Lisa.”
