Julien dropped back down, pressing his back to the wall, he hugged his knees to his chest and rested his chin on his hands. He blinked and blinked, fighting back tears, mingling with dark brown bangs, which fell into his eyes. He listened to his father bellowing and sobbing over the loss of the woman he loved.
Julien only knew of his mother as a woman in a photo on the fireplace mantle. His grandparents told stories of her now and then, and spoke of her great love for him and how proud she would be of Julien, but mostly he knew her as the woman who died because of him, and his father never allowed him to forget it. Julien despised his mother. He didn’t know her and he didn’t understand the concept of missing someone or losing someone. To him, she was a fictitious character who caused a lot of sadness. None of it made any sense to Julien.
He listened to his father cry out again, begging the heavens for answers and furious that the boy had been spared and not the other way around.
Julien buried his face in his folded arms, crying into his knees. He wished he could do something to earn his father’s love, but even at such a young age, he knew it would never be. That no one could forgive you for murder. He had ruined Jérome’s life and, as his father vowed, he would pay for that dearly for the rest of his life. A punishment he surely deserved.
Julien heard the footsteps approaching. He quickly wiped his face then looked up at the silhouette of his grandfather’s frame, made black by the late afternoon sun behind him. His grandfather stood silently extending his hand. Julien took it and got to his feet. Grand-père ruffled his hair then paused to look in on Jérome, wailing in the shed. He turned Julien around then led him to the house, pressing him close to his hip with one hand and carrying a milk jug in the other.
Matt stepped out of the shower then returned to the bedroom to get dressed. He looked down at the open drawer before him and turned to the closet. He reached up to the top shelf and removed a rolling suitcase. He put it down and felt a sneeze coming as the dust engulfed him. He sneezed with an exaggerated howl.
From down the hall, Lily’s muffled voice came through the closed walls, “Bless you!”
Matt used his damp towel to dust off the nearly brand new suitcase then flipped it open on the foot of the bed. He searched for some comfortable clothes and packed them into the case then covered them with some of his work attire, just for show. He figured Lily would check the bag, insisting he had packed it all wrong. He found the stash of cash he kept in his bowling bag and counted out twelve-hundred dollars. He slipped three of the one-hundred dollar bills into his wallet then went to his nightstand. He removed a condom and tore it open. In the bathroom, he wadded the wrapper in some toilet paper then flushed it. He unrolled the condom over the remaining money and knotted it tight then grabbed a bottle of shampoo and removed the cap. He slid the condom into the bottle and replaced the cap tightly. In the bedroom, he put the shampoo in the outside zipper pocket of his suitcase then added a few more toiletries. Satisfied, he zippered the bag and sat pulling on his sneakers, when Lily opened the door.
She stopped, pausing to stare at him.
“Wuh?” He sat looking back at her; his mouth agape.
“You’re packed,” she said.
Matt glanced at the suitcase still resting on the bed, “Oh, yeah.”
“Already?” she asked.
“Well, yeah, why not? Just get it done so I don’t have to do it tonight.”
“You in a rush to get out of here?” she asked, folding her arms and interrogating him.
Matt stood up, “No. What the hell, Lil? I just wanted to get it done so we don’t have to deal later. Geez…”
“Well,” she moved to the bed and unzipped the case, “you remembered ties?”
“Shit! No.” He walked to the closet and grabbed the first three ties on the hanger.”
Lily unzipped the outer pocket and removed the shampoo bottle. She stood talking with the bottle flailing through the air in her hand.
Matt heard nothing she said; his eyes locked on the shampoo.
“…and don’t eat garbage every night. Eat something green with each meal. I saw this thing on the news the other day. Your cholesterol level…”
“Lil?” he interrupted her.
“Yeah?” she stopped moving.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean, what am I doing? Fixing your suitcase.”
“With the shampoo…?”
“Oh, this bottle is too big. I’m going to pour some of it into one of those travel bottles we never get to use.”
“But, I don’t want a travel bottle, I want the big bottle.”
“Matthew, don’t be silly. It’s too big and it’s going to open when the idiots at the airport toss your case around. You know, on 20/20, there was this sting operation…”
“I want the big bottle, Lil. I mean, I don’t know how long I’ll be there and…”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said and walked into the bathroom to search for the smaller travel bottles. “They’re right in here somewhere.” On her knees, she searched deep at the back of the closet’s lowest shelf.
Matt reached over her shoulder and tried to take the bottle from her, “C’mon, Lil. I use it as body wash too. I want the big bottle.”
Lily, on the floor, looked up at him, upside, down behind her, “Fine. Just let me put it in a Ziploc, so if it opens…”
Lily moved to the doorway and yelled down the hall, “Christopher! Get me a Ziploc,” she paused then added, “Now, pleeease!”
She turned back to Matt, “And when you land, I want you to call me so I know you got there in one piece.”
Their middle child came running into the bedroom holding up a plastic sandwich bag.
Lily looked at the bag in the eight-year-old’s outstretched hand, “I said the big kind. The big, big one. The ones for the freezer.”
“Mom, no you didn’t,” he whined.
“Yes, I did. Or I meant to. Hurry up, go get me a big one. I need to fix this for your father before he has a mess. Go…and stop complaining.”
Christopher slapped his hands down at his sides, dropped the bag and picked it back up then ran from the room.
Lily placed the shampoo bottle down beside the suitcase and began rolling the three ties Matt had chosen.
“Put this back and get the grey one with the maroon things. This tie is for your black suit.”
Matt raised an eyebrow, “Maroon things? Does it really matter?” He found it, “Here.”
“Yes, it matters.” She smirked and took the tie from him, “Hey, take this one and put it back.”
Christopher returned, “Here,” he held up the bag to his father, “This kind?” he asked.
“That’s the one, kiddo. Good job! Thank you.”
“Will you bring me a magnet that says Chicago on it? To go with the magnets Grandpa brings me back from their trips?”
“Oh geez, Chrissy, I don’t know. If I see one…”
Lily interrupted, “They always have them right there in the airport at any of the little shops. Just get one for him when you land. You better get something for the other two too.”
Matt sighed, knowing he would have to say he forgot and get an earful from them all, upon his return. He changed the subject, “Get your brothers. Let’s go to the movies today.”
Christopher jumped up into the air, “Yeah!” he squealed and ran down the hall.
Lily placed the shampoo bottle in the Ziploc bag and sealed it, “Matt, too much money. Last time it cost us well over a’ hundred dollars for all of us to go to the movies…and all the junk they want to eat there.”
He grabbed her from behind and hugged her close, “Can you just stop worrying, for once. We’re okay. Let’s take the boys to the movies. I’m leaving tomorrow and won’t see them for a few days. We should have some fun today, okay?”
She turned in his arms and wrapped her own around his neck, “I’ll miss you,” she pouted and kissed him.
“I’ll be
right back,” he promised.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Jérome, having been instructed to carry a chair up to Julien’s room, completed the task then lumbered back down the steps. He found his place in the living room and sat quietly in the distance behind Lind.
Eating the last of the crumb cake, Lind sat at the kitchen table. He looked back over his shoulder and watched Jérome settle down quietly then returned to his late night snack, sipping coffee and thinking over Arlette’s plan. His mind wandered back to a simpler time, when the love he had for Arlette outweighed all else. Now he pondered whether his affection for her was not out of habit alone, and if he had any true affection left for her, at all. He thought about Julien and Rachael, and their young child. The sweet little girl who had been well guarded from violence and the depth of her power. Unlike Sarah, who had been used from the start and taught to wield her abilities at any cost, for the greater good of her masters. In the hands of loving parents, Jessica could learn to use her gifts for good, or maybe not at all. Rachael’s negative experience with her child could simply fade to distant, bad memories, from a time when the little girl was too young to understand consequences. Surely, over time, she could learn to trust her child again; or, she could go the way of Arlette and allow greed to drive her. Julien would have to keep a tight rein on his wife and her tendencies to act on a whim, but he was a stronger man than Lind, and regardless of what they had been through in the past, and their current emotional state, Rachael loved Julien and trusted her husband’s wisdom and instincts. Perhaps she had witnessed enough to now know better and to curb those tendencies. They could make it work, he thought. And while Julien’s arrival had brought havoc to Lind’s life, it hadn’t been his fault and Lind admired the man; envied him, even. The blame lay with Arlette. Even Sarah could not be held responsible.
He took another sip of coffee and picked up the last mouthful of cake. He pressed it down against the remaining scattered crumbs, collecting the buttery topping with the moist yellow cake then popping it into his mouth. He stood up and brought his plate to the sink. He swallowed the last sip of coffee and rested the mug in the basin. He turned to shut the overhead lights when his eye caught a glimpse of a wishbone, hidden beneath a toaster oven.
Lind slid his fingers below the appliance and dragged out the bone. He looked at the cabinet above, knowing there was a collection contained in a gift box behind the glasses. In all the chaos and cleanup, they had missed one, and now he had a decision to make; replace the bone in the box, or make better use of it.
Lind slipped the bone into his robe pocket and left the kitchen. He found his book in the living room then headed up the stairs to Julien’s bedroom. First, he checked on his patient, sleeping soundly, and then he retired to the cozy chair, now situated in the corner, between the fireplace and the windows. He put his legs up on the ottoman and sat back to read before the glowing fire. He was happy to have an excuse not to be in his own bedroom, listening to Arlette ramble about her tactics. He didn’t want to hear about it again. From now on, her schemes would be between her, Sarah and their maker. He wanted no part of it any longer.
Sarah kicked out a leg, nearly knocking Jessica off the mattress. Jessica woke up, sprawled across the foot of the bed. She sat up and looked around the moonlit room. Her mother, in a twin bed on the opposite side wall, and sleeping with her back to them. Sarah on her stomach; her face buried in the pillows, blankets kicked off to the side. Jessica slid down to the floor and looked back at Sarah sleeping. She walked quietly to the door and turned the handle. The knob clicked, loud against the silence, and she peered back over her shoulder then opened the door a tiny bit wider to slip through, closing it again, softly. She moved down the hallway as close to the wall as possibly, knowing the wooden floorboards would be less noisy there.
Her father’s door was closed and she paused for a moment. It was never closed. He always left the door open to listen for her. She stood debating her next step then turned the knob. She hadn’t been allowed to see him the day prior and she missed him. She closed the door behind her and turned around. Her eyes fell upon Lind, sound asleep in a chair. She froze still and waited, but Lind didn’t move a muscle. She looked at her father’s bed then snuck cautiously to its side, where she crawled up onto the mattress to be with him. She sat there for a moment looking at him in the dim light of the dying fire then pulled back the blanket to crawl in close. She pulled up the blankets and nuzzled her cheek to his shoulder. Within moments, she drifted back off to sleep.
Matt fiddled with his pillows then rested back beside Lily in bed. He reached for his phone and set the alarm then replaced the phone back down on the nightstand. He looked at it for a moment then tapped on the email app, yet again. He scrolled to Julien’s message and opened it.
No matter how this is looking to you…
Matt read the line to himself and reasoned, as he had on and off all day, clearly, how it looks is not the real story. I mean, why else would he put it that way?
…the man you knew is the man that I truly am.
Julien was one of the first people he met when he was hired by the firm; just a kid starting out, with his first real job. Julien had been a tough nut to crack. Hard on him from day one, but Matt sensed, he was hard on him because he saw potential, where others just saw a goofball kid who smoked too much weed and had been over-coddled by a doting mother; a kid with average grades from a local community college, who had to be told things multiple times, before they stuck. Now, staring down at his phone, Matt shook his head, stifling a laugh, as he remembered some of his early mistakes and Julien’s daunting glances and long lectures, where Matt would fear he was about to be fired; made more unnerving by his inability to understand half of what Julien was saying. Julien could have let him go for any of the dozens of mistakes and misunderstandings, but he never did, and when Julien moved up at the firm, he took Matt with him, every step of the way. When his then girlfriend, Lily, had become pregnant with their first born, Matthew, it was Julien who got him a raise and paid the deposit on their first apartment in Brooklyn. And when Matt finally paid back the borrowed money, he had come in to work to find a bank account in Matthew Jr.’s name, on his desk. An account with every penny he had refunded Julien, who then avoided him for two days, to keep from having to discuss the gesture, or even be thanked. Matt knew Julien. He knew him well. He would never hurt his family and he would never run away. Something awful had happened and the Grenier’s were in trouble.
…I hope to one day see you again.
Yes you will, he thought, sooner than you think. Matt closed the app and reached up to shut the light. He turned over and brought his arm over Lily, sleeping soundly beside him; Nicholas snuggled protectively in her arms.
Lind woke to the sound of Julien groaning. He watched him struggle to cover Jessica then fall back against the pillows to rest, again. It was just past 5 a.m. and Lind wondered when the little girl had snuck in. He got up from the chair and approached the bed.
Julien looked up at him, “Are you the warden tonight?” he said weakly.
Lind chuckled and sat down on the edge of the bed. He shook his head, “Nope. Just seeking refuge.” He smiled, “How do you feel?”
Julien shrugged, “You are a good doctor. It is a shame you ended up here.”
“Yeah, well, wisdom sprouts far too late in life, doesn’t it?” He reached for his medical bag on the floor beside the bed. He removed a glass bottle and a new syringe.
Julien shook his head, “No. I do not need it.”
Lind laughed again, “Yeah you do. Besides, in this place, you never know when you might need to run.”
Julien closed his eyes, “Why bother?” He gave in and allowed Lind to plunge the syringe into his hip. “Did she find the bone?”
Lind nodded, “Of course she did.” He tossed the bottle of pain medication back into his bag and slid it out of the way with his slipper. “That’s pretty mild. Just to take the edge off.”
�
�I’m fine,” Julien opened his eyes and glared at him.
Lind smirked, “Ah, Julien, you have got to be the most stubborn man I’ve ever met. Sometimes it works in your favor.”
“Is that so?” Julien asked with a patronizing tone.
Lind nodded, “And what were you planning to do with that bone then, if you don’t believe there is any use in trying to run?”
Julien shrugged, “A momentary lapse of sanity.”
“Or, a glimmer of hope,” Lind winked.
“Perhaps,” Julien offered, “but, there is no use. She will never allow me to leave here. At least, not alive. I keep telling myself to accept; to give in and find peace here, but this is very hard for me. Like you say, I am stubborn, and while this sometimes is working in my favor, it is also often my downfall.”
WISHBONE II: ...Some Wishes Should Never Be Made Page 26