Crumbling Walls (Jack and Emily #1)

by Laura Strandt

Emily just stood there, praying her quivering lip would go unnoticed, but, of course, it didn’t. Elizabeth put her hand on Emily’s back, “Come here for a minute,” and gently led her into the front room, “are you okay?” Not trusting herself to talk, she just nodded, but Elizabeth wasn’t letting her go just yet, “Because you know, if you need to talk about something and your mom’s not around, you can always find me. I may be surrounded by boys, but I think I can figure out a few girl things if you give me a shot.”

  She was so close to pouring her heart out that she actually had to bite her tongue to keep it all in. Swallowing hard, “I’ll remember that.”

  Elizabeth felt the inexplicable urge to take the girl in her arms and hug her for a good two hours. She could almost hear her silently pleading to talk, “I’ve got a few minutes now.”

  Emily’s face crumpled for a second and Elizabeth watched her wall begin to crack. She also watched her harden up again a second later. Blinking back her tears, Emily squared her shoulders, “I’m fine, but thanks.”

  Not pushing further, she motioned back towards the kitchen, “Well then, ever make a fruit salad?”

  Shaking her head, “Nope. But I’m a fast learner.”

  “Okay then.” Resting her arm briefly on Emily’s shoulders, “Ready to face the masses?”

  “Yup.”

  “Then after you.”

  Once back in the kitchen, "If you wouldn’t mind running down to the basement, you’ll find all the fruit cocktail and other things down there, right at the bottom of the stairs on the left.”

  Without a thought, she opened the door to the basement and froze solid. She held onto the doorknob in a vice-like grip and sweat began pouring down her face and back. Over and over in her head, her voice kept screaming, "Shut the door! Shut the door!”

  So she did. She managed to get enough air in her lungs, then up to her brain to command her fingers to let go of the doorknob. Then she simply backed up and shut the door. Turning to Elizabeth, “Is there a bathroom upstairs?”

  Elizabeth nodded, “Yeah. Top of the stairs on the right.”

  In a frighteningly calm voice she barely recognized, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Since Jack had just finished getting orders to bring up something else from the basement, Elizabeth tacked on some more ingredients to the list and called after Emily, “I’ll just have Jack grab everything for you.”

  Still talking in that odd, detached voice, “Okay.”

  ▪▪▪

  Her breakfast stayed in her stomach until thankfully she had the door shut and her head over the toilet. When she had finally finished, she sat back against the wall, calming down. Rinsing her mouth well and opening the window to let in the frigidly fresh air for a few minutes, she stood in front of the mirror and, for the first time, hated herself.

  There were eight people who actually cared about her.

  And she was lying to every last one of them.

  It was enough to have her back kneeling on the cold tile but, by now, her stomach was empty and there were nothing but dry heaves.

  Dry heaves and tears.

  Cleaning up as best she could, she knew her eyes were red, but hopefully no one would look too closely. Blowing her nose for a final time, she shut the window, dug deep and opened the door.

  ▪▪▪

  Back in the kitchen, she began mixing all the ingredients as directed by Elizabeth and, soon, something resembling a fruit salad emerged.

  By the time she had finished this and managed to avoid looking anyone in the eye in the last ten minutes, the younger boys came tearing into the kitchen, “Mom? Can we go outside? It’s snowing hard and it’s sticking.”

  Elizabeth, surprised by the talk of snow, moved to look out the kitchen window, which had the curtains drawn against any draft. Seeing the blinding blizzard raging outside, “When did that start?”

  Emily answered from the sink, “It was just starting when I was walking over here. I didn’t know it had gotten bad though.”

  With the boys hopping and jumping around her in excitement, she chuckled, “Yes, go. Just don’t freeze or fight okay?”

  In a chorus of “okays” the boys ran away to dig up boots and other snow accessories.

  Elizabeth caught sight of Emily’s red eyes and still slightly blotchy cheeks, “Hey, why don’t you round up Jack and go play?”

  “Outside?”

  Tossing the dishcloth at her, “Yes, that’s generally where the snow’s kept.”

  Gesturing towards the counter, “But don’t you need more help?”

  “That's what I've got Will for. Playing in the snow is something that shouldn’t be missed.”

  And all of a sudden, Emily felt wonderful and free, “You don’t mind?”

  “Not at all. You can borrow my boots if you’d like and I’ve got an old coat on the hook in the garage. Jack’ll show you.” Giving her a grin, “Jack? Get in here and take your girlfriend out to play.”

  Jack popped his head around the corner, “What?”

  “I said stop what you’re doing and take your girlfriend out to play in the snow.”

  He turned a scarlet shade from ear to ear, “Mom?!?!?”

  She just pointed towards the door, “Get out. That's an order.”

  ▪▪▪

  The seven of them trooped inside an hour and a half later, Tim having joined late in the game, but still getting in a few good snowballs and several Sam tosses into the drifts that were building up.

  Shedding piles of wet clothes, everybody began tossing things in the dryer and the younger ones, given they had forgotten about the singular girl amongst them, were down to their long underwear before remembering Emily.

  Immediately, there was a lot of yelling and laughing and poking and chasing each other upstairs to get away from ‘the girl’.

  Jack and Tim, however, remained clothed while they stuffed the dryer full of discarded items. Once the machine got started, the three of them made their way back to the kitchen where Will was standing in a daze, “What in the world just happened?”

  Tim laughed, “First, they realized Emily was a girl. Then they remembered they were in their underwear.”

  Finally understanding, Will laughed, “Oh lord.” Looking over at Emily, “We may need you to come over more often, just to acclimate this bunch to another female.”

  Given she couldn’t help herself, she gave Will his first smile ever, “I’d like that.”

  He returned it with his normal, quiet smile, “We’d like that, too.” Clapping his hands together, “But first, you should probably find some dry clothes or else you’re all gonna catch pneumonia and the last thing we need is three more runny noses.”

  Jack took her by the sleeve, “Come on. I’ll find you something to wear upstairs.”

  Following him up, he went into the room he shared with Tim at the end of the hall. Digging in his drawer, he pulled out a pair of jeans and tossed them to her, “Think these’ll fit or will they be too big?”

  Opening them up, “As long as I can borrow a belt, they’ll be fine.”

  “Okay, well, you can change in the bathroom or in my mom and dad’s room if you like. It’s at the other end.”

  Nodding, she turned and ran smack into Tim, “Oops, sorry.”

  “S’okay. Rarely do I run into a girl in my room. Kinda nice actually.”

  Jack came up to him and dragged him into the room, “Get in here, idiot.”

  ▪▪▪

  Even as she was changing, Emily could hear the wind beginning to slam the side of the house. It whistled around the eaves and the low howling made her shiver. Gathering up her soaked pants and socks, she headed down to the living room to put on her new socks and see if she could actually warm up her toes.

  She felt strange enough walking around in Jack’s pants, but to make matters worse, they were still falling down even with the belt on the tightest setting. Elizabeth laughed when she saw her, “Nice pants.”

  Turning slightly red
, she just hitched them up a little and sat on one of the kitchen chairs to pull the socks on, “At least they’re dry.”

  “Very true.” Picking up her small, damp pile of clothes, “I’ll just put these on top of the dryer for the next load.”

  “Thanks.”

  The rest of the boys had gathered back in the large living room. Will was wrestling with the back of the TV, attempting to hook up the PlayStation while the others began their thorough examination of the games.

  Jack found her there, sitting quietly and watching from her vantage point slightly hidden by an arm chair. Crooking his finger, he beckoned her over, “Want to come back upstairs with me for awhile? See if we can get some of my CDs transferred.”

  Nodding, she stood and nearly lost her pants in the process, “I think I need another hole in this belt.”

  With a grin, he held up another belt, a braided one this time, “I found this in the back of Tim’s closet. It’ll work better than the one you have on.”

  Grateful, she quickly switched belts, relieved that it did indeed work much better. Once her jeans were secure on her hips, he took her hand, stopping by the chair Elizabeth was lounging in, “Did you need us for anything right now?”

  “Not at the moment. Why, what’s up?”

  “We were just gonna go up and see what I can do with some of my CDs.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll call if I need you for anything.” Sitting up, “And Emily, are you sure your mom can’t join us for dinner? Maybe she’ll be getting out early because of the weather?”

  It killed her a little to have to lie, especially after everyone had been so nice to her all day, but she shook her head, “Bad weather usually means they’ll keep her longer, but thank you for thinking of her.”

  Settling back into her chair, “Well, at least you got to spend last night together.”

  With that, Tim and Jack shot each other a look that, thankfully, both their mom and Emily missed. Tim cocked his head sideways for a second, then gave a slight shrug, returning to the game controller as he tried to keep his racecar on the track.

  Heading upstairs, Jack sat down at the computer he and Tim shared (which they had pooled birthday, Christmas and allowance money to buy) and began installing software. Motioning to the boxes that were peeking out from under his bed, “Want to find a few things to put on here so we can try it out? Our CDs are under there.”

  Settling on the floor, she pulled out the boxes and was confronted with row after row of CDs, “All these are yours?”

  “Well, mine and Tim’s. We pretty much have a community collection going on. Whenever we buy one, it goes in the box and we both share and if it gets lost, whoever lost it buys it again, after asking, of course, because it may be one we don’t really want anymore anyway or we’d prefer something else.”

  “You two have your own little democracy set up in here, don’t you?”

  With a grin, he turned back towards the computer, “Well, when you’ve shared a room with somebody since you were two, you kinda have to.”

  She began examining the contents of the boxes and it became glaringly obvious that she was about as current with her musical tastes as she was with movies, “Would you call me pathetic if I told you I haven’t heard of 90% of these people?”

  Hitting one final key, he came over next to her, “More like woefully underexposed. Sounds better than pathetic.”

  Bumping shoulders with him, “Thanks a lot.”

  “Hey, you asked.”

  After digging for a minute, he handed her a small stack, “These are some of my all time favorites. Now let’s see if we can make that beautiful little machine bend to my will.”

  ▪▪▪

  Succeed they did, and soon the iPod was charging in the wall, contents waiting for its owner.

  Jack turned around to tell her it would be an hour or so until it was charged and found her half-asleep leaning on the bed. With a smile bordering on sappy sweet, he crouched next to her, “You can lay down you know? My sheets are clean and that comforter is the warmest thing you’ll ever sleep under.”

  Emily shook herself awake and scrambling off the floor, stretched, “That’s okay. I just need to move around for a minute and I’ll be fine.”

  “You really can take a nap though.”

  For the first time, she reached for him, sliding her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest, “I’d prefer a hug if you don’t mind.”

  Never one to turn down touching her, “That’s one thing I’ll never mind doing.” And so they stood in the center of his room, surrounded by CD cases, listening to the wind howling around the roof and enjoying the warmth of each other.

  After a few minutes, “We should probably go back downstairs or Mom’s gonna send a posse looking for us.”

  Making no effort to move, “Yeah, probably.”

  He held her for another few minutes until finally they heard the rumble of feet pounding on the downstairs hall. Kissing the top of her head, “Here they come.”

  They had time to break apart and start putting the CDs away when Sam and Tucker slid into the room, “Mom says to come down and peel some potatoes.”

  “All right. Tell her we’ll be down in a second.” And as the boys thundered back downstairs, “They have got to be the loudest people ever, but they do give advanced warning.”

  Making their way into the kitchen, “How many potatoes do you want done?”

  “They’re all in the sink. Peel away boy.”

  He just grinned at her and shook his head as his mom took Emily by the arm and led her over to the cranberries on the stove, handing her a spoon, “Now, you keep stirring until all the berries have popped open and it’s kind of jelly-y looking.”

  "That's a real technical term you've got there, Mom."

  She calmly took the spoon back from Emily and hit him lightly on the arm, then she gave the spoon back to Emily, "Okay with the technical terms?"

  Taking the spoon, “Sure am.”

  Then she turned to Tim, who was leaning against the railing, “And you, oldest son and favorite, can you set the table and see if you can dig up the good silverware from your grandma? I think it’s in the basement somewhere.”

  As Tim walked by, sneaking a cranberry from Emily's pot, “I’m always the favorite when she needs me to dig for something.”

  Flicking him with the towel, “And Jack’s my favorite when I need cookies. It’s just the way things happen.”

  As he opened the door to go downstairs, “Then I guess I’ll take it. Be back up in about two months or so.”

  Jack leaned over to her, “Dad’s kind of a packrat. Who knows what’s down there.”

  She just continued to do her assigned duty, trying to think about anything but that basement stairway.

  ▪▪▪

  Dinner was a veritable feast. Food spread for miles across the table and carried over onto the kitchen counter. Emily had honestly never seen so much food in one place before except at the restaurant, but then, a spread of rice, bean sprouts, Sweet and Sour chicken and Moo Shu pork definitely did not hold the appeal that this table did.

  Given her stomach had been emptied hours earlier, she was starving and kept pace with the rest of the boys until after she’d cleaned the plate a second time. Finally sitting back, “That’s it. I just can’t seem to get past the second plate.”

  Jack nudged her as he helped himself to yet another spoonful of cranberries, “You’ve gotta train for these kinds of things.”

  Elizabeth leaned over and patted her arm, “It’s okay honey. I’ve been with them for years and I've never been able to keep up.”

  Exchanging a smile, Emily studied the rest of the table while at least three different conversations went on around her. It was only then that she realized Jack’s dad was watching just like she was, smiling at his wife, helping his youngest cut his food, handing a dropped napkin to someone else. She watched him longer than she thought she could, but the panicked flutter that usually over
took her was barely registering.

  That is, until he locked eyes with her, then she felt the wave rush through her, but also, for the first time, she didn’t look away. She held the gaze and, swallowing hard, nodded at him.

  He gave her barely a nod back, then expertly caught Tucker’s glass before it spilled. But as he was doing it, she saw the barest hint of relief cross his face. She also had the sudden and passing thought that he might just understand what was in her head.

  Chapter 11