“I’m with you there,” Lauren said. “Don’t hold your breath, though.”
It was Sunday night, which meant that Edwina had the night off and was most likely with her family, which also meant that Lauren would have to fend for herself in the kitchen. That was bull. Because Lauren couldn’t even begin to fathom where Edwina would stash the raspberry tea, though she figured she could venture a guess if she thought about it hard enough. But now that they were here, the cramps were coming fast and hard, and really, Lauren just didn’t want to be bothered with the microwave and the sugar and the teabag, let alone walking back up the stairs. She snatched open a cupboard or two—saw canned vegetables, pasta and taco boxes, seasonings, cereal. “Where in the hell?” she muttered under her breath. And then, just as quickly, she found the teabags.
Box in hand, she headed for the cupboard and pulled out one of the heavy Salty Dog mugs her mother collected on their last trip to their condo in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
And then she heard them.
“Yeah, well, I know this much. They better have gotten into their thick little heads that this ain’t a game,” Keisha groused from the study, which was just off the kitchen, next to Altimus’s office.
“They making things hot, fo sho,” Altimus grumbled. “I hope they really heard you, but I didn’t know the extent of how much they’d figured out. Ain’t but one way that happened; somebody’s been snitching. You know we can’t afford snitches, Keish.”
Lauren’s knees began to wobble, but somehow, she found the strength to tiptoe a little closer to the side of the kitchen closest to the study.
“So I take it you didn’t find him?” Keisha continued.
“But I’m on it,” Altimus replied. “He won’t be able to hide for much longer. I got a friend at Telecom, gonna be telling me everyone he’s talking to. It won’t be long, trust. I’ll get his ass, find out just how much he knows.”
They were talking about Jermaine—Lauren knew it. She felt light-headed and wobbly as the combination of the over-heard conversation and killer cramps started to get the best of her. She grabbed at her stomach, forgetting she had the coffee mug in her hand. Until, that is, it came crashing down on marble floor.
The footsteps came rushing around her, first Keisha’s, then Altimus’s.
“What the hell are you doing in here—spying?” Keisha snarled.
“I…I…was, um…”
“You was what?” Altimus demanded.
“I was just getting a cup of tea,” Lauren insisted, her eyes swelling with fresh tears as she finished throwing the last pieces of the mug in the trash. “Edwina is off and I have cramps. I just took some Aleve but it wasn’t working and so I just came down to fix myself some tea but I couldn’t find the teabags and the mug just slipped—it just…slipped out of my hand, and I didn’t know you two were down here…”
Keisha looked Lauren up and down and laughed. “Damn, girl, seems like you get your period every other week. Running around here trying to be Inspector Gadget and can’t even fix a cup of tea right,” she said. “Look at you.” Then, turning to Altimus she said, “Look at her.”
Altimus didn’t say anything—just glared.
“I’m, um, I’m going to go on back up to my room now,” Lauren said. “I don’t, um, really want any tea.” She had to will her legs to carry her out of the room slowly, even though every part of her being wanted to race back into her bed, under her covers, in the darkness, where it seemed that nothing—and nobody—could touch her.
“What the hell was all that?” Sydney whispered as soon as her sister got to the top of the stairs. Lauren put her finger to her mouth and pointed her sister to her room. The two speed-walked into the room and quietly closed the door behind them.
“No light—no words,” Lauren implored, tucking her hair behind her ear so she could hear whether Keisha and Altimus were making their way upstairs. She heard nothing. And then, all of a sudden, there was a buzzing sound, made more pronounced, no doubt, by the fact that her room was absolutely silent.
“What the hell is that?” Sydney said, jumping.
“That’s my phone,” Lauren said, diving onto her bed. She reached into a tiny hole inside her massive Brookhaven teddy bear and fished out the KRZR. “My boo” flashed across the screen. “It’s Jermaine.”
“You gonna answer it?” Sydney inquired.
“Look, I just heard Altimus tell Mom that he tapped Jermaine’s phone. If I answer that, they’re going to trace it straight back to me, and then they’ll find him for sure. I can’t let that happen, Syd. I just can’t.”
Lauren held the vibrating phone next to her heart until it stopped moving; tears dripped onto her hand, between her fingers, and onto the phone.
“Don’t cry, Lauren,” Sydney said, fighting back her own tears. “Please, don’t cry.”
“Jermaine is in serious trouble,” Lauren said quietly. “And it’s all because of me.”
“It’s not you—don’t put this on yourself,” Sydney said, hugging her sister. “This isn’t us. It’s our stepfather. I don’t know how we’re going to make it right, but I do know we can’t do this alone.”
“Well, unless you got a direct line to The Man himself, it doesn’t seem like there’s anybody who can help us without getting hurt themselves. Dad’s in prison. Jermaine is on the run. Keisha is on Altimus’s side. We can’t trust anybody,” Lauren cried.
“Wait, shhh,” Sydney whispered. “I think I hear something.”
The two of them were as still as statues—didn’t even take a breath or blink their eyes. There was nothing but silence.
Sure their parents weren’t listening in, Sydney said, “Why don’t we call Uncle Larry.”
“No, no—ain’t no way,” Lauren said almost as quickly as Sydney finished throwing out her suggestion.
“Look, I’ve been up here going through it in my mind, and the only person that Keisha doesn’t know we reached out to—the only person she didn’t mention earlier today—was Uncle Larry. She doesn’t know about him.”
“And you want to take the chance that she finds out?” Lauren said incredulously.
“L, he’s the only one who knows all the players,” Sydney said. “He knows Jermaine, right?”
“And he practically kicked him out of his house when we showed up with him last weekend,” Lauren said. “Didn’t seem like Uncle Larry was interested in helping him out. Why would he change his mind now?”
“He may, or he may not. But at least he can help us out, give us some advice on what to do.”
“I don’t know, Syd,” Lauren said. “If they have a trace on Jermaine’s phone, they could have one on this phone, too. I’m not one hundred percent sure, but Jermaine is probably the one paying the bill.”
“Look, we don’t even have to call him. We can have someone else we trust do it,” Sydney said.
“Like who?” Lauren asked. “No offense, but Carmen and Rhea? Not. And all of Brookhaven Prep was on hand to see the Duke family saga unfold before their very eyes at the lake house, and everyone is just waiting for more juice to pour into the gossip cup. Ain’t no way…”
“Donald,” Sydney said simply.
“Donald?” Lauren asked.
“Donald. He’s clever, discreet—at least when it comes to your business, right? He could call Uncle Larry. Keisha and Altimus would never know,” Sydney said. “We can tell him what to ask, and Donald could call, and he can tell us what Uncle Larry said. It’s that simple.”
Lauren thought long and hard about it. “Seriously, you don’t think they’ll find out?”
“How could they?”
“I don’t know, Syd,” Lauren said. “I don’t know.”
“Look, what’s Donald’s number, dammit,” Sydney asked, pulling her own old-school flip phone from her bathrobe pocket.
“Where’d you get that?” Lauren asked.
“Let’s just say I learned a few good lessons from my little sister,” Sydney laughed. “I got this
a few days after I saw the phone Jermaine gave to you.”
“Alrighty then,” Lauren said, taking the phone from her sister’s hands and punching in Donald’s number. “Let’s give it a shot.”
Donald answered on the first ring. “Who?”
“D, it’s me, Lauren,” Lauren whispered into the phone.
“Wow, I didn’t realize they had phone service underground,” he said.
“What the hell are you talking about, Donald?” Lauren asked.
“I figured that by now, Keish and Al had you and Sydney buried in the backyard under the magnolias and crepe myrtles,” Donald said. “You must have stellar service. Who’s number is this, anyway?”
“Donald, shut up and listen, okay? I don’t have a lot of time.”
“Tell me about it,” Donald said. “The way Altimus was looking at the lake house…”
“D!” Lauren whispered a little louder. “Shut up and listen!”
“Okay, okay, geez,” Donald said. “Go.”
“I need you to do me a favor,” Lauren began.
“Anything,” Donald said simply.
“I need you to call my Uncle Larry and get a read on what Sydney and I need to do to help Jermaine,” she said.
“Help Jermaine? Don’t you think you better focus on yourself? After that damn disappearing act, seems like Jermaine can handle his. You, I’m not so sure about…”
“Donald, please—” Lauren began.
Sydney snatched the phone away from her. “Donald? This is Sydney. Look, I need you to put on your listening ears, okay? No talking. We’re in the middle of some really shady stuff that I can’t get into right now, but one consequence of it all is that Lauren’s boyfriend could get hurt. We need you to call our uncle, who is about the only sane grown-up on the planet who we actually know, and get him to give us some advice on how to protect Jermaine. Do you think you can handle this mission?”
“Come on, baby, do a bear pee in the woods?” Donald asked. “Who’s Uncle Larry?”
“Keisha’s brother,” Sydney answered easily.
“Keish got a damn brother?” Donald yelled. “Good God, what the hell?”
Sydney pulled the phone away from her ear and rolled her eyes. Then she put the receiver back to her mouth. “Donald. Focus,” she said tensely.
“My bad,” he said.
“We need you to tell him that Altimus and Keisha ran into Jermaine at our party, and that they’re looking for him. And then we need you to ask him what we should do to help him get out of this mess, and if he can help.”
“Trouble. Looking. Help. Got it,” Donald said.
“Are you sure?” Sydney questioned.
“I’m sure,” Donald said. “When do you want me to call?”
“Right now,” Sydney said, eyeing the clock. It was 10:40 P.M. She gave Donald the number and wished him good luck. “Call me back at this number when you’re done, okay?”
“Bet,” Donald said, and hung up.
Sydney pushed END on her KRZR and sat silent. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness by now, so much so that she could make out her sister’s sad eyes in the moonlight, shining through the massive half-circle window floating at the very top of Lauren’s twelve-foot wall. The architect who designed the room must have been a stargazer, for sure, because he positioned the windows in both the room and the bathroom to create the perfect frame for the moon in the evening and the North Star in the early morning. Lauren would often be much too groggy in the mornings to appreciate its positioning, but on occasion, when the star hung low enough and the sky was dark enough and the clouds were quiet enough, that star practically spoke to her—its shape so clear it almost looked like someone had come along and painted it with glitter against the midnight blue background. Tonight, the full moon was just as clear, providing the glow the two sisters needed to get them through the darkness.
Not even a minute and a half passed before Sydney’s vibrating phone rattled them out of their moon-induced haze. It was Donald. Sydney flipped the phone open, pushed the green button, and said a tentative, “Hello?”
“Your uncle said about the only thing you can do for Jermaine,” he whispered, “is pray.”
17
SYDNEY
“Lauren,” Sydney whispered for the third time as she gently shook the mound in the middle of her sister’s queen-size bed. “Lauren, wake up!”
“Huh, what’s wrong, Syd?” Lauren asked groggily as she finally poked her head out from under the comforter. Clearly disoriented, she propped herself up to turn and look at the black iHome clock on her nightstand through half-closed eyes. Turning back to Sydney, she continued hoarsely, “It’s five-thirty in the morning. What are you doing up already?”
“Lauren, listen to me,” Sydney continued urgently. “I need you to cover for me.” Mid-sentence, Lauren suddenly plopped back down on her bed with securely closed eyes as if she’d just been shot. “Lauren, this is serious,” Sydney hissed as she started to shake her sister again. Now it was Sydney’s turn to look at the clock. With every passing minute her window of opportunity was closing and she knew it.
“Relax, I hear you—you want me to cover for you,” she mumbled even as she started burrowing back under the covers. “Cover you for what? Where are you going, to meet Jason or something?”
“I’m going to see Dad.”
At that, Lauren sat straight up in the bed with her eyes wide-open. “You’re going to jail?” she exclaimed.
“Shush! Lower your voice,” Sydney quickly admonished her twin as she covered Lauren’s mouth with her hand. “You know Altimus is a light sleeper. I’m already cutting this close. He’ll be up in a couple of hours for his morning run, so nine out of ten, he’s not even in deep sleep anymore.”
Lauren tugged Sydney’s hand off her mouth. “Um, and how are you planning to make it to the jail, Harriet Tubman?” she immediately questioned. “Last time I checked, Dad is locked up at least an hour or two away and, hello, our car privileges are suspended indefinitely. Not that I could really explain a missing vehicle and what not.” She paused to look at Sydney’s fitted all-black outfit and was immediately reminded of the lead character from Alias, who was a secret agent. “Hmm, good outfit.”
“I’m not driving,” Sydney whispered back, ignoring the fashion critique. She threw a nervous glance over her shoulder before detailing her plan. “Last weekend when I was volunteering at the shelter, I asked one of the women how she used to go see her boyfriend in jail since he never allowed her to get a driver’s license. She told me about this van that drives women and kids up to the correctional facility for about twenty dollars round-trip. Every Tuesday and Thursday, it picks them up at six-fifteen in the morning in front of the City Court and then drops them back off at three-thirty in the afternoon.”
“Okay…” Lauren started as she wiped the sleep out of her eyes. “But that’s still all the way downtown. How are you getting there from here?”
“Well, that’s where you come in,” Sydney responded. “I’ve already called for a cab to pick me up down the block in front of the Whittinham’s house. When I get back, I’ll just have the cab drop me off at school. That way, Keisha will see me riding home in the car service with you.”
“Okay, so basically you need me to keep Keisha from being suspicious of not seeing you this morning?”
“Pretty much,” Sydney replied, grateful it was making as much sense to Lauren as it did to her when she concocted the plan in the wee hours of the morning. “All you have to do is tell her that you think I mentioned Carmen picking me up early this morning for an English project we’re working on. You know, just be vague and then change the subject or something. But to avoid Altimus being suspicious about the alarm being off before he leaves for his morning run, I thought you could come down and reset the alarm after I leave.”
“I don’t know, Syd,” Lauren hesitated. “I’m not saying it won’t all work, but do you really think it’s a good idea to try to sneak all the way up to t
he jail?” Lauren questioned with obvious apprehension that was becoming common in her once-confident devil-may-care voice. “What if Keisha still has that ‘friend’ of hers spying on us at school? She’ll totally find out that you were—”
“Listen,” Sydney cut her off sharply. “I don’t care. I cannot deal with Brookhaven right now. I mean, did you not see Dara wearing that tacky ‘Surprise Inside’ T-shirt yesterday? Who does that?”
“Yeah, that was kinda messed up,” Lauren agreed sheepishly. She vividly recalled the gloating look on Dara’s face as her former best friend walked down the hall in the too-tight pink T-shirt, rubbing her stomach as if she was due any minute.
“Okay, then,” Sydney said. “And I’m not even going to tell you how angry Jason is with me. Every time I try to explain what happened, he just rolls his eyes and walks away. Shoot, truth be told, it felt like the entire football team was giving me dirty looks.”
“Yuck, forget those wannabe thugs,” Lauren immediately defended her sister.
“I mean, it’s just too much,” Sydney sighed. “And we both know there’s no way Keisha is about to let me stay home from school. So instead of wasting the day at the mall or something, I’m going see Dad. I just, I really miss…” Sydney’s voice cracked.
Lauren swung her legs over the side of the bed and put her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Don’t get upset, Sydney. I get it. I got you. Just make sure you make it back to school on time for the pick-up. I’ll tell the driver to pick us up at four-thirty instead of four o’clock. That should give you plenty of time.”
“Thanks, Lauren.” Sydney sniffled one last time as she stood up and offered her hand to Lauren. “You ready?”
Lauren accepted her sister’s hand and stood up to join her. “Let’s make it happen.”
“Keep the change,” Sydney offered over her shoulder as she hopped out of the red taxicab. Clutching her bronze-colored Gucci bag tightly under her arm, she hurried across the empty downtown street toward the line of women and children waiting to board a nondescript maroon-colored van with the words B. BROWN’S TRANSPORTATION SERVICE written across the side.
If Only You Knew Page 16
