by Cheri Lewis
“It’s Jacob Skinner,” he says exasperated but quiet.
“Jacob? What’s going on?”
“I need your help.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Can you come get me, please?”
My heart begins to speed up as I hear the desperation in his voice. “Where are you?”
“I’ll be at the old depot station. You know over near the high school.”
“I don’t know where that is but I’ll figure it out. Jacob, are you okay?”
“Yes. I have to go. Meet me in thirty minutes.”
I glance at the clock on the radio. “I’m over an hour away.”
“Just come.”
The line goes dead and I sit tapping my fingers on the steering wheel at what to do. I open the truck door and go back inside. Heath is still lying back against the couch. I kick his shoe. “Come on. I need you for a bit.”
He doesn’t hesitate getting up but does run over and gives Maybelle a hug before he leaves. “I’ll be back to get my truck.”
“No problem sugar. I’ll have you both some supper when you get back.”
My stomach aches at the thought of eating anything else at the moment but I’m sure I’ll make room by then at least for more banana pudding. Heath waits until we’re loaded up and driving out of her drive way to ask, “What’s up?”
“Remember the boy I told you about living with the snake people?”
“Yeah.”
“He just called asking me to come get him.”
“Get him?”
“Yes.”
“You know you can’t right?”
“I know.”
“Willow he’s a minor.”
“I know.”
“Willow, listen to me.”
“I am.”
“You’re still driving and not listening to me.” I hit the brakes skidding to a stop at the end of the Maybelle’s graveled driveway and look over at him. “You can’t take him anywhere. It would be considered kidnapping.”
“I know Heath. That’s why I’m bringing you.”
“So we’ll both be charged with kidnapping? I need my job. I won’t walk away with community service.”
“Heath shut up. I’m not going to take him anywhere. I’m going to meet him to make sure he’s okay then I’m going to call the chief and let him get involved. He was calling me from a church I think.”
“Call the number back or give me the number and I’ll call it back saying I got the wrong number.”
I take my foot off the break and take a left onto the street. “It forwarded through from my office so I don’t have the number.”
“Where are you supposed to meet him?”
“Some old depot station near the high school.”
“I don’t like this. Not one bit.”
I hit the break again. “I’ll take you back to Maybelle’s if you don’t want to go.”
He gazes out his window then shakes his head. “Let’s go. But please—”
“You have my word Heath. I am not going to kidnap anybody today.”
Once we’re on the open road I have Heath google the high school and pull up a map to get there. We find the train tracks nearby and that’s where we’re going to start. We’ve driven about fifteen miles when I give in and ask, “Were you serious about Wade?”
“Yeah. Well some of the stuff I think people are embellishing on. If he had really threatened to punch him I’m sure that weasel Charlie would have pressed charges.” I nod my head and think about Wade being suspended for a week because of me. “Willow, I really was kidding around about you two. I can’t really see you with him because he’s so bossy and you don’t do well being bossed. But he’s a good guy.”
“I’m not with anybody.”
“That smile last night says different.”
“About that. Do you know how creepy and weird it is that you were waiting outside my house for me to get home?”
“Oh don’t get all crazy with me. I really was working that zone last night and I had just got done pulling someone over for flying through your street. Yes I did wait around because it was well after midnight but I was only there fifteen or twenty minutes. I was worried about you but I knew better than to call you and distract you in case you were still out there in that part of town.”
“He asked me if I wanted to shoot an AR-15 automatic.”
“He has an AR-15?”
“That’s what he says.”
“Damn, can I come?”
I glance over at him and smile. “He hasn’t invited me yet.”
I take a left onto highway 67 and look for the giant cross out by the road. When I begin to slow down Heath turns toward me. “What are you doing? The school is…” I point and he looks. “Holy shit.”
“That’s their mailbox.”
“Holy shit,” he says again and as I speed back up continuing down the road he looks back at the cross until it’s out of sight. “I’m not getting a good feeling about this.”
“Truthfully Heath, I’m not either.”
We’ve made good time thanks to no cops being out and speeding like I’m in a NASCAR race. It takes us a little bit to find the old depot station sitting off the side of the tracks. It’s an old white abandoned building with kudzu running wild providing plenty of camouflage on the unkempt dirt road. We are left with no choice but to abandon my truck walking a quarter of a mile down a sloped hill to get to near the depot. Thankfully I wore sandals today so it wasn’t too hard to maneuver. We both freeze as we hear a strange noise putting us both on high alert. I raise my finger to my lips indicating to keep quiet. He nods. I make motions with my hand for him to go around the left and I’ll go around the right. We break off from each other, I try to look through broken glass left hanging on the window but it’s blocked by wood that’s been hung on the inside. Which I find very odd. I ease up to the next one when I hear the strange noise again. I reach into my pants pocket and grit my teeth when it finally hits me I’m wearing slacks, I’ve left my cell phone in the truck and have absolutely no method of protecting myself besides hand to hand combat. When I reach the corner I lean back flat against the wall peeking around the edge. I see Heath and I’m relieved to see he has his gun. I hear what sounds like a moan. Heath and I lock eyes and we both ease to the front door of the building.
I whisper pointing to a path leading from the front door to the railroad tracks, “Somebody has been coming and going.”
We jerk back around when we hear yelling coming from inside. Heath doesn’t waste time. He kicks the makeshift plywood door open. I hear a scream when I run in I see small camp lantern burning in the far back corner of the room.
“Why!” screaming and crying from what sounds like a girl.
I run closer and see a naked figure crawling off a mattress on the floor. “Jacob?”
He covers himself and I realize I’m staring at a naked teenager and immediately look away. “Yes ma’am.”
The girl is still crying. I feel Heath right behind me. I can barely make the girl out but it’s enough that I recognized she looks very, very familiar. “Please tell me this isn’t Sasha?”
“We need your help.”
“Damn it Jacob. She’s been here the whole time?”
“Get your clothes on both of you.” Heath says from behind me making me wish I had thought to say that myself.
“We’re going to right there to give you both some privacy.” I point to the area right near the front door. Heath turns around first and I follow him. “Holy crap.”
“We gotta call this in Willow.”
“Would you stop… You act like I don’t know the law. I know, okay. I’m not stupid but would you give me five minutes to talk to them first.”
Jacob clears his throat from behind me and Heath and I turn around.
“Let’s step outside where we can see each other and it’s not so damn hot.” The girl looks really good considering she’s been missing for a couple months and living in a shack
. I place my hands on my hips and sigh. I ask even though I have a pretty good idea, “Okay tell me what’s going on.”
Sasha begins crying again and Jacob places his arm around her and she leans into his chest. “I helped her runaway to be here near me.”
She jerks up and out of his arms arguing, “No don’t lie. This is all my fault. I did this. I ran away on my own.”
“Okay the who ran away isn’t important. Let’s get to the why.”
“He moved and left… He left me a note saying he was moving in with his grandparents.”
“I already told you the lady said I had ten minutes to pack.”
That doesn’t sound to unfamiliar, when they move you from one home to the next it’s normally right then and if you leave something behind, to damn bad. I try hard not to roll my eyes and force myself to be sympathetic. “So you guys were seeing each other?”
“Yes ma’am. I’m sorry I lied to you.” Jacob answers.
“And you did this because you are in love and didn’t want to be away from each other?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“So she’s been living in this shack since she left home? Wait, she went missing before you moved with your grandparents.”
“We snuck her in at my old foster parents. It wasn’t hard they weren’t around much. When I moved she had to figure out how to get here and did. She stole a friend’s car and came here. I helped her take the car back.”
“Let me guess you stole your grandparent’s car to return the first car you stole?”
Heath hasn’t said a word so I glance back over my shoulder at him. He’s standing with his hands on his hips scowling.
“Yes ma’am.”
“Why though? She had a car. It’s only an hour drive. What I’m I missing?” Sasha beings to bawl more and neither answer my questions. I’m losing my patience with them and I have to remind myself they are teenagers. Stupid, stupid teenagers. “How have you been eating or taking a bath? You look clean.” I ask looking back to Sasha.
Jacob looks to the floor. “After I got here and joined the football team we had to clean up the stadium to get it ready for the games coming up. I left a window unlocked at the locker room down at the field. You know, the one the visiting team uses during games. There ain’t no alarm going to that one. There are bathrooms and showers there. I’d sneak food from home. Canned foods or go buy them. She had some money but we’re out now and…”
My eye begins to twitch when I think back to all the scheming and conniving these two have had to do to make this happen. Not only that, her poor parents have been worried sick about her. Spending God knows how much money trying to find her. I have to hand it to them though. They were smart. No cell phone. Only cash. Were they that smart or did they have help? Unbelievably lucky? My head begins to hurt with all this crazy information.
“Ms. Matthews, I knew I could trust you once those people came and questioned me about J and T.”
“J and T?”
“The Stroghns. You know my old foster family.”
“Please tell me you didn’t lie about that.”
“No ma’am. Everything I’ve told you has been the truth except about Sasha.”
“This is a pretty big damn lie,” Heath says from behind us.
“Okay. So tell me this, what exactly did you expect me to be able to do to help you?”
“To fix this. Make this right. It’s…”
“Gotten out of hand?” I ask finishing his sentence. Neither say a word so I continue. “Stupid maybe? Dangerous? Selfish?”
Sasha begins crying again and Jacob looks emotionally beaten. I reign back my temper and try to put myself in their shoes for a moment. Two kids in love. Can’t live without each other. So they think. Nope I can’t see this as being a smart choice unless she was being abused. The report found no evidence of abuse or discord at home. Desperate to get away? Pregnant?
“Are you pregnant?”
“No we use protection.” Jacob answers sounding proud of themselves. “We bought plenty condoms plus the health clinic at school gives them to you for free if you ask for them.”
“Well at least they thought that through,” Heath mumbles.
“Here’s the deal. You called me and now I’m involved. We have to get you home Sasha, your parents are worried sick. As for what happens after that I can’t promise you anything. What I can do is make sure everybody knows you did call and wanted to make this right. Where are your grandparents right now?”
“My grandfather is at home, he doesn’t get out much anymore and my grandmother is taking care of stuff.”
I wonder if stuff is code word for snakes. I shiver thinking about them. “How are you here and not at home?”
“I told her since we lost Friday night’s game that we had an extra practice today. So I took her home after church we ate lunch then drove back to the school and walked over here. Grandma wasn’t happy about it but I hadn’t seen her since Friday after the game and...”
I let out a long exhale and say to Heath without looking at him, “Make the call.”
Sasha cries then turns running back into the building. I’m not really worried about her escaping since all the windows are boarded up.
“Can I go sit with her?” Jacob asks.
“Yes but keep your clothes on. It won’t be long before this whole place will be surrounded with folks and please if she tries to convince you to run away before they get here, don’t do it.”
I guess Heath hears me and begins walking around to the back of the building. I stay out front and lean against the wall. Trying to figure out how in the world they’ve been able to manage to pull this off. I guarantee the school will have an alarm on the locker room now. Somebody has had to have seen her, maybe they didn’t recognize her or thought she looked familiar and didn’t put it together she was the missing girl.
I’m right. It doesn’t take but about four or five minutes before the first police car arrives. Heath meets them halfway down the hill and I’m assuming explaining what’s going on. Another thirty seconds and two more cars pull up, city and county sheriff. The first cop on the scene tells me not to leave that I’ll need to be questioned. I nod my head even though I already knew that and begin my trek back up the hill to my truck to retrieve my cell phone. Once I have it I look for Tank’s number and call him.
An overly animated male voice answers the phone. “Tank’s Fabulous Investigation Services where he makes a point to always…”
“Give me the damn phone,” a voice I recognize as Tank growls then it sounds muffled as if his hands over the phone but I can still hear him. “I’ve asked you not to answer my cellphone especially like that.” His voice sounds normal again when he says, “Hello?”
“Tank?”
“Yes sorry about that. My girlfriends’ best friend loves to do stuff like that to irritate the piss out of me.”
“No problem. Hey I’m just giving you a heads up we found Sasha.”
“You found her? Is this Willow?”
Well duh, I’m calling from my cell phone. “Yes I should have identified myself. It’s Willow and yes we found—”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes. Actually, she’s quite well.”
I tell him the story or as much of it as I know. He listens a few minutes then gets off the phone with me to call her parents. I climb into the passenger seat of my truck watching all the police officers even what seems to be city officials walking around like there’s something to do. I have to wait another thirty minutes or so before I have to give my statement. I actually feel sorry for Jacob’s grandparents. They’re waiting at the end of the dirt road you have to travel on to get to the old depot when Heath and I drive by to go back to Brooksfield.
I stay with Maybelle about twenty minutes and eat more banana pudding even though I’m still not hungry. I don’t have much desire to talk and Heath seems to be the same way. I give her an extra hug before I leave. As I’m driving down the road my phone rings and I see
its Heath. I press the button on the steering wheel.
“Hey.”
“You want to meet me at Jimmy’s?”
“I would but I promised Joe I’d take him to the dog park if he’s good while I’m gone.”
“So you want to meet me in thirty minutes then?”
“At the dog park?”
“No Jimmy’s. Ain’t no way in hell Joe has been good.”
I laugh a little and sigh. “I’m sure he’ll have something with his mark on it… chewed or pissed, either way it’s his mark. He’s actually gotten really good about waiting to go outside but I’ve been gone way longer than I anticipated. So I’m hoping for chewed but it will probably be the other.”
I realize I’m rambling so I hush. “I think I might go home then and get in the pool.”
“Have fun.”
“I will.”
The silence between Heath and I goes on several moments. I’m still not over how dumb those kids were and the conditions she had been living in. Was it really so bad at home that she’d rather live like she was just to be near someone?
“Those kids were pretty dumb,” Heath says echoing my thoughts.
“It’s today’s society I’m afraid as you well know. Instant gratification… consequences, be damned.”
“Her poor parents.”
“I know.”
“I’ll call you later.”
“Okay.”
The line goes dead and the radio comes back on playing a commercial. I reach over pressing the button to turn the radio completely off and drive the rest of the way home in silence.
****
Joe and I go to the dog park and I throw him his favorite ball until my arm feels like it’s about to fall off. I sit on a park bench while he runs and plays mingling with the other dogs allowed to run free. My phone begins chirping repeatedly in my pocket. I ignore it at first because it’s normally emails that come through like that, but then it keeps chirping. I pull out my phone and see they’re from Heath. Sixteen texts from him. What in the hell? Now another one comes through. I click the screen and roll my eyes as I scroll up to start at the top.
Oh
My
Gosh
Willow
Your
