The Other Brother (Chop, Chop Series Book 4)

by L. N. Cronk

  “So, I called Amber’s social worker today,” I confessed.

  “I told you not to do that!” Tanner cried.

  “I know,” I said. “It was a disaster.”

  “Ohhhh,” Tanner groaned, leaning his forehead against the steering wheel. “What happened?”

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her anything,” I assured him. “But I really screwed things up.”

  “How?” he asked, exasperated.

  “I told her that this kid didn’t belong around Amber.”

  Tanner glared at me.

  “I didn’t give her any specifics!” I insisted. “She doesn’t know anything . . . obviously.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I threatened to call her supervisor.”

  “Oh, brother.”

  “And I told her she obviously wasn’t doing her job right.”

  “I’ll bet that went over really well.”

  “Yeah. She’s going to file a restraining order against me if I don’t quit calling her about Amber.”

  “She threatened you with a restraining order?”

  I nodded and Tanner chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing,” he said. “I just had this image of you in jail.”

  Now it was my turn to glare at him.

  “You wouldn’t last two days,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Thanks a lot.”

  “Don’t worry. If things don’t go well tonight, maybe we’ll be cell mates. I promise I’ll look out for ya.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You can be my girlfriend.”

  “No, thanks,” I said. “So anyway, after I made Amber’s caseworker so mad at me that she wants to disembowel me, guess what happened?”

  “I can’t imagine.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “You can’t.” And then I told him all about Jacob.

  “You’re kidding!” he exclaimed when I was finished.

  I just shook my head.

  “Does he look like Greg?” Tanner asked.

  “Why does everybody want to know that?”

  “Does he?”

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Maybe a little bit.”

  “Wow! I wanna meet him.”

  “Why don’t you and Laci invite him over for tea?” I asked. “Better yet, why don’t you let him move into your apartment and get him out of my old room?”

  “You’re a piece of work,” Tanner laughed. Then he asked, “You ready to walk over there?”

  “Turns out that stalking is definitely illegal in this state,” I told him.

  “You wanna chicken out?”

  “No,” I said, still feeling reckless.

  “Then let’s go.”

  We walked down the street and up the driveway, hopping the fence to get into the backyard. I was relieved to find that none of their outside lights had motion detectors on them – that’s what I had been most afraid of.

  Actually, that’s not true. I had been most afraid that we wouldn’t find anything . . . or maybe I was terrified that we would.

  We checked out all the lower level windows again, but – like Tanner had found earlier – they were completely covered up.

  It was a split level house and there was no main floor, so the only other windows were up way too high to look into. We could see that they weren’t covered up as much, though, and there was a large tree in the backyard, so I hoisted myself up into it. Tanner handed the camera up to me and then pulled himself up behind me.

  I put the camera strap around my neck and started climbing.

  “Don’t go out on that branch,” Tanner insisted when he saw where I was headed. “Come right out here.”

  “I’m not going out on the same branch with you!” I argued. “These things were designed to hold bird’s nests and squirrels, not mutant football players.”

  “I’m telling you,” Tanner warned. “That limb’s not gonna hold you.”

  “Refresh my memory,” I said, scooting out further onto the branch. “How many years did you major in engineering?”

  “Suit yourself,” he mumbled. That’s the last thing I remember except for the sound of my branch breaking.

  To find out what happened after that, I had to rely on what I was told when I woke up in the hospital.

  ~ ~ ~

  APPARENTLY AFTER I’D fallen to the ground in a crumpled heap, Tanner had carried me to the truck “like a knight in shining armor, rescuing a princess from a fire-breathing dragon.”

  My mom and Laci had enjoyed Tanner’s version of the evening’s events.

  “And you were playing Frisbee?” Mom asked. Tanner nodded.

  “In the dark?” Laci wanted to know.

  “Night Frisbee,” Tanner explained.

  “That’s the stupidest story I’ve ever heard,” Laci said after my mom had left.

  “The doctors bought it,” Tanner shrugged.

  “The doctors don’t really care what you were doing,” Laci pointed out. “For that matter, I don’t really care what you were doing.” She looked at me. “I told you this wasn’t a good idea. I told you that from the very beginning, but nobody ever listens to me.”

  “I don’t know what you’re so mad for,” I told her. “I’m the one laying here in pain.”

  I had broken my femur – the big, long bone in my upper thigh. The doctors had already set it and put me in a cast that ran from my groin to below my knee, but I was going to have to stay in the hospital until the next morning. Apparently, with this type of break, there was always the danger that the femoral artery had been damaged, so they were going to keep me for observation . . .

  “You need some drugs,” Laci said, reaching for the button that dispensed my morphine.

  “No!” I said. “I can’t think with that stuff in my head.”

  “But you’re in pain,” she reminded me.

  “Can you let me talk to Tanner alone first?”

  She looked hesitantly at me.

  “Please?” I begged.

  She glanced at Tanner and then back at me.

  “Make him take his drugs,” she told Tanner as she turned and left the room. I waited until the door shut behind her and then I looked at Tanner.

  “Did you get any pictures or anything?” I asked.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “You were moaning and hollering so loud it was all I could do to get you loaded up into the truck before somebody called the cops. Besides, you busted the camera.”

  “And the lens?”

  “Especially the lens.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll buy you a new one.”

  “Darn right, you will,” Tanner smiled, except that he didn’t really say “darn”.

  “What are we going to do?” I asked him desperately. “We’ve got to get Amber out of there!”

  “I know,” he said, turning serious. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “How?”

  “Let me handle it.” He reached for the morphine button.

  “No!” I said, trying unsuccessfully to stop him. “I want to know what you’re going to do!”

  “I’m going to take care of it, that’s what I’m going to do.”

  “We’ve got to help her!” I said, fighting to keep my train of thought.

  “I know,” Tanner said again, and the room drifted away.

  When I woke up some time later, I discovered that I had apparently been served lunch at some point. It sat on the TV tray next to my bed now, cold and unappetizing. I was shoving it away from me when a knock sounded at my door and Charlotte and her mom entered. Charlotte was carrying a huge balloon bouquet.

  “Here,” she said, giving me a quick hug before moving to tie them on the rail at the foot of the bed. “We thought these might brighten your room up a bit!”

  “They do,” I smiled. “Thanks.”

  “How are you feeling?” Mrs. White asked, also giving me a hug.

  “Dandy.”

  “And how exactly
did you do this?” she asked, looking confused. “You were playing Frisbee?”

  “It’s a long story,” I said. “I’ll fill you in some other time.”

  “Okay,” Mrs. White agreed. “What’s all that stuff under your eyes?”

  “And what happened to your chin?” Charlotte asked, glancing up at me.

  “I must have hit it when I fell,” I told her, reaching up to rub where Jacob had hit me and glaring at Mrs. White.

  “There!” Charlotte said as she finished tying the balloons and stepped back. “How’s that?”

  “Great,” I said. “Now I can’t see the TV.”

  “Oh!” she said. “Sorry. Let’s see if I can untie them.”

  “No,” I said. “I’m just kidding. They’re fine.”

  She smiled. Then she moved over next to her mom and positively grinned.

  “Guess what?!” she asked, beaming. “I’ve got a brother!”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “I heard.”

  “You already know?” she asked, her face falling.

  “I just found out yesterday,” I explained quickly. “Please don’t get mad at me.”

  She eyed me for a moment and then grinned again.

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll forgive you this time. Can you believe it? I mean, I just can’t believe it!!”

  “No,” I said. “I can hardly believe it either.”

  “As soon as we leave here we’re going over there so I can meet him!”

  “You are?”

  “Yeah! I’m so excited! I can’t wait!”

  I wondered if she had balloons for Jacob in the car.

  “I wish you could come with us and meet him!” she exclaimed.

  “I actually met him yesterday.”

  “You did!?”

  “Yeah. Just for a minute.”

  “What was he like? What did you think of him?”

  I cast a quick glance at Mrs. White.

  “He’s great,” I said, looking back to Charlotte.

  “Really?” Her eyes were bright and shining.

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “You’re gonna love him.”

  “I can’t wait!” she said again.

  I nodded.

  “So how long are they going to keep you in here?” Mrs. White asked.

  “I’ll probably get out tomorrow morning, if they decide I’m not going to bleed to death.”

  “Bleed to death?” Charlotte asked, worriedly.

  “I’m going to be fine,” I assured her.

  “Maybe you can come over and have dinner with us tomorrow night!” Charlotte smiled. “I’m going to make dinner for Jacob!”

  Where was my morphine button?

  “Maybe,” I agreed.

  Charlotte’s hands fidgeted and she rocked back and forth on her heels. Obviously, she could hardly wait to quit making small talk with me so she could go off and meet Jacob.

  “You two don’t need to hang around,” I suggested. “I’m getting kinda sleepy again.”

  “Okay,” Charlotte agreed eagerly. She started to leave, but then – as an afterthought – turned back around and gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

  “Bye!” she smiled cheerily. “See you tomorrow!”

  “Bye.”

  Mrs. White stepped up to my bed and shook her head in a disapproving manner.

  “You need to take care of yourself,” she said.

  “You need to take care of Charlotte,” I replied quietly. “I don’t like this one bit.”

  “Everything’s going to be fine,” Mrs. White assured me, leaning over my bed and kissing my forehead. “She’s very happy and excited.”

  “Oh, really? I couldn’t tell.”

  “Come on, Mom!” Charlotte called from the doorway.

  Mrs. White smiled.

  “Everything’s going to be fine,” she said again, patting me on the shoulder. Then, she turned and followed Charlotte out the door.

  The nurse came by after they’d left.

  “Where’s my morphine?” I asked her.

  “We weaned you off of it,” she explained. “If you’re still in pain, I can get you some Tylenol.”

  Tylenol.

  “Actually, could you get me my jacket?” I asked her. It was hanging on a coat rack near the door. “I want to call someone.”

  “No cell phones in the hospital,” she said, handing me a land line phone that was next to the bed. “You can use this, instead.”

  “I still need my phone,” I explained. “All my numbers are in there.”

  “Sure,” she agreed.

  She handed me my jacket.

  “Anything else?” she asked as I fished my phone out of the pocket. I shook my head “no.”

  “Turn that off as soon as you’ve got your numbers, okay?” she asked, pointing at my cell phone. I nodded.

  After she was gone, I looked at my phone. There were no messages, no missed calls.

  I picked up the room phone and called Tanner. I didn’t need to look up his number – he’d had the same one ever since high school.

  “Tanner, listen,” I began after his voice mail picked up. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but I really need you to call me. I’m not supposed to use my cell phone in here and my battery’s about dead anyway, so call me on my room line. I’m in room 592. I really need to know what’s going on. Hurry up. I’m going crazy here.”

  I hung up the phone and waited. By the time Laci showed up three hours later, it was dark outside and Tanner still hadn’t called.

  “Has Tanner called you?” I asked.

  “No.”

  I shook my head in disgust.

  “I need to talk to him!” I said. “Why hasn’t he called?”

  “David,” she said, gently, “you need to stop this.”

  “I can’t keep laying here doing nothing!” I protested. “I cannot believe this is happening to me! I’ve got to get out of here!”

  “Relax, relax,” she said, pushing my shoulder back down into the bed.

  “I can’t relax!” I said. “Amber needs me and I’m stuck here and I can’t do ANYTHING and Tanner won’t call me and–”

  “I’ll get in touch with Tanner for you, okay?” she asked.

  “How?”

  “I . . . I don’t know,” she admitted. “But after I leave here I’ll get in touch with him and I’ll tell him to call you, okay?”

  “You promise?”

  “I promise,” she said, giving me a little smile.

  “Well, go then,” I said, waving her away with my hand.

  “I’m not going to leave yet!” she protested. “I just got here!”

  I sighed.

  “How is your leg?” she asked.

  “Itchy,” I replied.

  “Itchy?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “And I can’t scratch it because of this stupid cast.”

  “Where does it itch?” she wanted to know.

  I tapped on the cast, showing her the spot above my knee that was itching.

  “I need something I can stick down there and scratch with,” I explained.

  “I wonder if a knitting needle would work? I think my mom has some of my grandma’s old knitting stuff.”

  “I need something,” I said. “It’s driving me crazy.”

  “I’ll see what I can find,” she assured me.

  “Why don’t you go home now and see what you can find?” I suggested. “And see if you can get in touch with Tanner.”

  “I’ll go in a little bit!” she argued. “I haven’t seen you all day and I’m not leaving after just two minutes. Now tell me about your day.”

  “Charlotte and Mrs. White came by after lunch,” I said, resigned to the fact that Laci wasn’t going to leave until she was good and ready.

  “Yeah, I know,” she nodded. “They told me.”

  “When did you talk to them?”

  “Over at your parents’.”

  “You went over there?”

  “I wanted to meet Jacob,” Laci s
aid, giving me a little shrug.

  “I can’t believe you! I can’t believe you went over there!”

  “Why not?”

  I shook my head with disgust.

  “How was Charlotte?” I finally asked.

  “She seemed great.”

  “Were there balloons?”

  “Huh?”

  “Nothing,” I replied. “Did she seem happy?”

  “Oh, she was ecstatic,” Laci said, laughing. “I don’t know when I’ve ever seen her like that before.”

  “So she likes him?”

  “She loves him!” Laci grinned. “She thinks he’s great!”

  “You think he’s great too?”

  “What?”

  “Do you think he’s great, too?”

  “He . . . he seemed fine, David. I didn’t get to talk with him all that long or anything, but he seemed like a really nice guy. I think that maybe the two of you just got off on the wrong foot or–”

  “You’re taking his side!” I said. “I can’t believe this!”

  “I’m not taking anybody’s side! There are no sides! You two just had a misunderstanding and you need to–”

  “HE PUNCHED ME!” I reminded her.

  “After you pushed him!”

  “He was going through my stuff!” I argued.

  “David, he was looking at your yearbook. He was curious about Greg. He wanted to find out more about his brother and–”

  “Half-brother.”

  “Think about it, David,” she said, shaking her head. “Imagine you’re staying in the room of the best friend of the half-brother that you’ve never met. You want to know more about him and more about your dad and there are all these boxes in the room that you know probably have pictures in them and yearbooks and stuff. Is it really that unreasonable to think that you might take a look and see what’s there?”

  “I can’t believe you’re taking his side,” I said, crossing my arms at her.

  She let out a heavy sigh.

  “Congratulations,” she finally said. “You’ve managed to make me want to leave.”

  “Don’t forget Tanner!” I said as she stood up and turned away.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Laci,” I pleaded, reaching out my hand to her. “It’s really important. Please.”