Crumbling Walls (Jack and Emily #1)

by Laura Strandt

  She came out of her fog, “What?”

  “I asked if you were going to help me figure out a way to cheat.”

  “Um, sure, yeah, I’ll, uh, I’ll be around after work. We can think about it then.”

  Realizing she looked like she’d just swallowed a pound of rocks, “You okay?”

  “Uh-huh. Just thinking about the assignment.”

  The bell rang, and, after grabbing his books, “This should be an easy one. It’s just you. You don’t have to figure out how NOT to draw seven portraits and still get a passing grade.” Heading out the door, he called over his shoulder, “See you tonight.”

  Still not moving, she gnawed on her bottom lip for a few seconds, “Yeah, an easy one.”

  ▪▪▪

  For the first time in her life, Emily dutifully ignored an assignment. She sat for hours trying to do the project but something kept standing in her way. The problem, however, was she couldn’t figure out what that something was.

  Tim though, found the angle he needed at Emily’s suggestion and managed to finish a week early. He also began his week-long ribbing session of her, because she had let it slip that she hadn’t finished yet.

  By the Friday before the assignment was due, Jack finally had to tell him to back off while they were comfortably jammed on the couch, watching sci-fi movies with Nate, Dave and Tucker. Tim had been laying it on fairly thick and, finally, he broke her. Getting up, she left the living room and Jack turned to his brother, fire in his eyes, “Goddammit, you’re such a jackass sometimes. Would you just back off already?”

  Tim, feeling instantly horrible, followed him in to the kitchen and found Emily standing at the sink, “Em, I’m sorry. I guess I forgot you’re not used to … well, I’m sorry.”

  She just shook her head, “I’m just annoyed with myself I guess, for not finishing yet.” Turning to Jack, “Walk me home? Maybe I can make a dent in it tonight,” aiming a forgiving smirk in Tim’s direction, “seeing that if Tim can do it, I certainly ought to be able to.”

  ▪▪▪

  Later that evening she sat, stared and thought until her brain hurt. The night passed slowly and watching the sun come up, she knew what she had to do and she knew who she wanted to go with her. Since it was Saturday, she knew Jack probably wouldn’t be up yet, but she got dressed and walked over anyway.

  Tapping lightly on the door, she was surprised to have Jack answer. Still in his pajamas, he rubbed his head and yawned, “I was just coming down to get something to drink and I heard you knock.” Standing aside, he motioned for her to come in, “Is anything wrong?”

  “Do you have to work today?”

  Caught completely off-guard, “I’m supposed to, but I can call off if I have to.” He looked at her more closely, “You okay?”

  “Would you maybe like to take a road trip with me?”

  Now he was really awake and extremely curious, “A road trip?”

  She nodded, “I need to go someplace and I think I need to go now.”

  Expertly moving her aside so they could avoid being trampled as the four younger kids came down the steps in a stampede, each passing and yelling hello as they made their way to the kitchen, then to the TV, “Where do you need to go and why do you think you need to go now?”

  She shook her head, “I just need to do this. If you can’t go, I can take the bus, it’s okay.”

  He made his decision, “Let me call work, then ask if I can get one of the cars.”

  In that instant, both Elizabeth and Will came down the steps, “Em, morning.”

  “Morning.”

  Jack turned to them, “Do you think it might be all right if I borrowed the car for the day?”

  “Don’t you work?”

  Emily spoke up, “He does, but I asked if he’d take me somewhere. It’s about a five hour drive.”

  Will looked at her in surprise, “Where’re you going?”

  Biting her lip, she looked him square in the eye, “I need to go home.”

  ▪▪▪

  They were in the car about an hour later, Jack driving, Emily in the passenger seat and a bag of munchies and sandwiches in a cooler in the back.

  They had a GPS, Jack’s iPod and their cell phones.

  It would have been a blast had they had nothing to think about but each other.

  But of course, they did not.

  “Do you really want to go back? I thought things were getting better. Why do you want to mess with that?”

  She sat silent for so long that Jack figured he had pissed her off somehow and was about to start apologizing when she finally answered, “Remember when I was over last week and Tim and I were trying to figure out how he’d represent all of you for our assignment. He didn’t think he’d be able to actually do portraits of all you, so he wanted to draw one thing that represented each of you instead. He came up with items that fit all of you perfectly and he’s actually really excited about how it turned out.”

  Jack, confused, “But how does that have anything to do with where we’re going?”

  “I don’t think Tim ever thought about what kind of problem I’d have with the homework. He mentioned off-hand when we got the assignment about how I was lucky ‘cause I really only had to draw myself.”

  “What an ass.”

  Touching Jack’s leg, “No, that’s the thing. I think he figured I’d be happy that my only family was me. He knows my father hit me and my mom died years ago, before I ever really knew her, so in his mind, I was okay with this assignment.”

  “He’s still an ass.”

  Swatting him lightly, “Would you stop saying that please?”

  With a nod, “Okay, but that still doesn’t explain why we’re going here.”

  “I sat up all last night and I realized that even if I could be, I didn’t want to be the only one in my family picture. But the problem is, I need something I think I left behind. At least I hope I did.”

  “What’s that?”

  Staring out the window, “My mother.”

  Chapter 19

  It took them a little longer than expected to get there and as they approached, her stomach began to twist. By the time they saw the exit sign for Daley, her leg was jiggling and she was chewing on her bottom lip. Seeing this, Jack slid his hand over and rested it gently on the bouncing leg, “Hey, we can always just stop for some pancakes, then go home.”

  The bouncing stopped, “Pancakes sound perfect, but after, okay?”

  The GPS bought them to a fairly nice neighborhood, but told them that the exact address did not exist. Figuring she was remembering wrong, “Just drive down the street and I’ll tell you when to stop.” After a minute or two, she pointed to the curb where she wanted him to park, “Right there is fine.”

  Stopping, he turned the car off, “You okay?” She didn’t answer at first, given she was staring past him at the house across the street. She stared so long that Jack tapped her thigh lightly, “Hello??”

  It still took her a second to come back to him, “Sorry, um, that’s where I lived.”

  He’d been expecting some run-down, slightly gross neighborhood with uncut lawns and dilapidated cars on the grass. This place looked like your average neighborhood, maybe even a little nicer. There were a couple kids out playing in the semi-spring like air, tossing snowballs from the few small drifts that remained. It all reminded him of his own house, which made him shudder. For a split second he wondered if the same thing that happened to Emily could be happening to one of the families on his street.

  Shaking off that unnerving thought, “Did it always look like this?”

  She nodded, “For the most part. He didn’t let me out much.”

  Realizing something, “Wait, you went to school, didn’t you?”

  “Not as much as I should have and the last two years, I didn’t go at all.”

  “Didn’t someone notice you weren’t there?”

  “No. He called and told them we had to move and asked if he could come pick up my
school records. He waltzed in, got the papers, left and came home. He thought there was too much chance that I’d talk.” Watching as a taller man came around from the back of the house and headed towards the car, “But that’s not important right now.”

  Jack turned his head as the man crossed the street carefully and put his hand up in greeting. Rolling down the window, Jack called a friendly, “Hi.”

  The man’s voice was pleasant enough, but there was a cautious edge to it, “Hello. Can I help you with something? My wife noticed you out here and thought maybe you were lost?”

  Emily undid her seatbelt and climbed out of the passenger door. Coming around to the street side of the car, she put her hand out and he shook it, “My name’s Emily Ward. I used to live here, a while back.”

  Jack was out of the car by now as well, “I’m Jack. We, um, just drove in from Cavendish ... Pennsylvania.”

  The man nodded, “Bit of a long drive.”

  “About 5 hours or so.”

  “Well, I’m Tom and I didn’t mean to sound mean. It’s just my wife’s a little skittish of a couple of teenagers staring in her windows.”

  Emily went red, “I’m so sorry. We didn’t mean to scare her.”

  Smiling, “Would you like to come in for a second? Show her you’re not some serial killing stalkers; have a look at the house?”

  She nodded, “If you wouldn’t mind?”

  “Not at all. Follow me.”

  They crossed the street and went through the now open front door. Emily stood silent as she looked around the radically changed house. Things were neat and tidy, the carpet and paint were new, the furniture was actually whole. She’d never seen the house this perfect before.

  Tom’s wife, Gretchen, shook hands with them both and let go of the panic from her face, “Would you like to show Jack around?”

  Emily shook her head, her chest tight, “No, thanks. This house has more than a few bad memories for me.” Both Tom and Gretchen now looked slightly embarrassed as people usually do when the situation catches them by surprise and Emily caught the look. Smiling reassuringly at them, “I really just wanted to ask you a question.”

  “Okay.”

  “Did you find anything under the floorboards in the back bedroom? The one on the right?”

  Looking at each other, they both shook their heads in unison, “No. Should we have?”

  “I left in a hurry and I’m hoping I left something behind. Would you mind if I took a look?”

  At such an odd request, the couple didn’t really see a way to say no, nor did they want to, “Um, sure. Mind if we come along?”

  “Of course not. It is your house after all.” Emily waited while they led her down the hall and Jack, who was bringing up the rear, could almost see her harden up as she squared her shoulders and tightened her jaw.

  The room was, of course, nothing like she’d left it. Ignoring the bed, which happened to be in the same place as hers, she immediately knelt down and, asking for Jack’s keys, she gently pried up the floor board to reveal an old plastic box wedged in tight. Putting her hand in, she shut her eyes and felt for something she’d been missing for years.

  A lone tear squeezed itself out as her fingers found what she’d been looking for. Pulling out the picture, she sat back on her heels and stared. In her zeal to get out of the house three years earlier, she hadn’t thought to check whether she had grabbed the picture. She had just assumed it was in one of the Ziploc bags with the money but, once she looked, it wasn’t.

  She knew she couldn’t go back to get it and had resigned herself to that fact. But it was that stupid family assignment that made her begin to churn out her plan. And finally, finally, she had back what she missed most in the world.

  Her mom.

  It had been the only picture she’d ever found in the house. She was in it, two years old at most and her mom was smiling because her world must have been perfect at that point. She knew her father could never have been like he was while she was alive. He told her as much, saying it was Emily who had messed everything up, that things had been perfect before she was born.

  Standing up, she cradled the picture, “We’ll get out of your hair now. Thank you for letting us in.”

  Tom looked befuddled at the apparent treasure hidden in the floor, “Was there anything else you wanted?”

  With an enormous smile, “Nope. I’ve got everything now.” And with that, she put the floorboard back in place and, thanking them, took Jack by the hand and headed out the front door.

  Tom turned to his wife after waving good-bye to the pair, “I’m glad she made it.”

  Gretchen agreed, “Who knew she’d ever come back? Remember the story the neighbors told us? I honestly figured she was dead somewhere.”

  “Well, I’m very happy to see that she’s not.” With a smile, he shut the door and returned to the kitchen to help his wife with the dishes.

  ▪▪▪

  Jack drove them away but only a few miles, then pulled into the parking lot of a local diner. “You could have told me that’s what we were here for, you know?”

  Still staring at the picture, “I know. I'm sorry. I just thought that if I talked about it, I’d jinx it. What if they hadn’t offered to let us look around, what if the picture hadn’t been there, what if …?”

  He stopped her with a kiss, “But everything worked out exactly how you deserved it to.” Lingering on her lips for another second, he pulled back, “so, you think maybe I can look?”

  She held out the picture but kept her fingers firmly gripping it, not about to let go just yet. Studying it closely, he looked from it, to her and back again, “Do you have any idea that you’re the spitting image of your mom?”

  Nodding, “I didn’t know it until now and I’m so glad I am. I don’t think I could handle looking like him.”

  Running a finger along her jaw line gently, “Well, you’d be beautiful no matter who you looked like.”

  They sat for another minute in the lot before he asked her quietly, “Did you want to get those pancakes now? I’m starved and conveniently, there’s a diner right here.”

  Emily shook her head, “If it’s all right with you, can we maybe hit the next town? I really don’t want to stay in this place any longer than we absolutely have to.”

  With a nod, he turned the car back on and pulled onto the road, “Will do. Next stop, ten minutes.”

  Chapter 20

  While they were plowing their way through stacks of pancakes, the snow started.

  It was light at first, soon switching to really big flakes then turning heavier. By then, they were back in the car and trying to navigate their way home. Listening to the news, they heard about the blizzard that seemingly came out of nowhere and had plans to dump at least a foot of snow on them. Temperatures were dropping and wind chills were already in the teens.

  It was going downhill fast, so to speak. After visibility completely disappeared and the wind began nudging the cars on the freeway back and forth, Jack took the first exit he found. Slipping his way down the exit ramp and muttering about the asinine amount of snow this damn state seemed to receive, he pulled into a gas station, dialing home once he came to a stop, “Mom?”

  “Jack? I tried to call, but it said you were out of area. Has it started snowing yet?”

  “Mom, I can’t see more than a foot in front of me and the wind’s trying to blow us into on-coming traffic.”

  “Then stay put, find someplace to sleep and wait it out. I don’t need the two of you dead on the side of the road somewhere.”

  Jack was kind of surprised at the ease with which she told him not to come home, “Are you sure?”

  “Honey, I don’t think I could take it if something happened because I told you to come home.” He could almost see her twirling the old-fashion phone cord on her fingers, “Just call me back when you find a place to stay and let me know where you are. Okay?”

  Nodding, he smiled when he realized she couldn’t see him shaking
his head, “Okay. I’ll call back in a little while. Love you.”

  “Love you too, honey. Did you get done what you went for?”

  Watching Emily still gripping the picture, “Yeah, we did.”

  “Good.”

  ▪▪▪

  Once they slid their way to a hotel, Jack registered with his emergency credit card, which he had never actually used until now and felt rather scared at the prospect for some reason. He could just imagine the look on his parents faces if they saw a hotel charge to their card that they didn’t already know about.