by Ike Hamill
“I hope she’s okay. Do you have another contact for her? A sister, or parent, or something,” Greg asked.
“Nope, nothing,” she replied. “His dad doesn’t seem to know how to get in touch with her either. She can be pretty cavalier about things, but she’s never just disappeared like this before.”
“Oh, what about his brother?” asked Greg. “Doesn’t he have a job?”
“Ben said that he quit recently,” she said.
“Okay, I’ll get over there and meet you back at the house later,” said Greg.
“Well, you better call first. If he wants me to, I’m going to see if I can stay here,” she said.
“That chair will kill your back. Why don’t I stay?” Greg offered.
“I’d rather have you at the house,” she said. “But thanks.”
“I’ll call in an hour then, after I’ve checked out his house,” he said.
“Thanks, honey, talk to you soon.”
**********
An hour passed and Greg still hadn’t called. The boys watched TV and Kate sat staring at her book, but she hadn’t flipped a page in several minutes. After ninety minutes, she was about to pick up her phone and call her husband when he walked through the door.
He knelt down next to his wife’s chair and spoke softly — “Nothing — no sign,” he reported. “But I talked to the neighbors and one of them is picking up the mail and newspaper for her.”
“She gets a paper?” asked Kate.
“Yeah, I guess,” he replied. “Anyway, she said she would be gone for a couple weeks. Well, actually, she wrote she would be gone. They had a note from her.”
“Huh,” said Kate. “You think she would have said something before she went off like that.”
“Didn’t you say you had a note?” Greg asked.
“Yeah, but she didn’t say where she was going, or for how long exactly.”
“Maybe she expected to tell you that when she picked up Ben.”
“I guess.”
“Hey mom?” Jack interrupted.
“What’s up, Bub?” she asked.
“Can we stay here with Ben tonight?”
“Oh, I don’t think so honey — I think only parents and guardians are allowed to stay,” she replied.
“We could sneak back in when the nurses aren’t looking,” Jack offered.
“Jack, that’s not going to help,” she crossed over to Ben’s bed. “Ben, I’ll stay here with you tonight and the boys will be back as soon as we can in the morning.”
“That’s okay Mrs. Randolph — I don’t want you to have to stay here with me,” said Ben. “I’ll be asleep anyway.”
“Ben, I’m going to stay right here with you whether you want me to or not,” said Kate. “And nobody is going to stop me.”
“Thanks, Ms. Randolph,” said Ben.
**********
“Wake up,” Stephen said as he shook Jack.
“What’s going on?” asked Jack. He was groggy and thought he was still in a dream for a minute.
“Let’s get breakfast and get ready to go over to the hospital,” said Stephen.
“Yeah, okay, sure,” said Jack.
At seven in the morning Jack had barely slept. He kept having dreams that he had been the one swallowed into the floor. Tumbling down for minutes, his dream-hole was way deeper than the one Ben had fallen in to. Jack knew what to expect — at the bottom of Jack’s hole were the remains of Gabe Vigue. He was terrified of these dreams, but he still resented Stephen for waking him up. He was desperate to figure out how the dream would end.
Jack and Stephen made their way downstairs and fed themselves breakfast. Waiting for Jack’s dad, they sat in the kitchen and tried to pass the time by flipping through an old newspaper. Greg finally came down at eight o’clock, and Jack wanted immediate action.
“Can we go over to the hospital now Dad?” he asked.
“Didn’t you boys look at the signs when we were leaving?” his dad asked. “They clearly stated that visiting hours start at ten. How long did it take us to get back here last night?”
“Um,” said Jack, “about forty-five minutes?”
“That’s right,” said his dad. “And what time is it now?”
“About eight.”
“Excellent — so how long until we should leave?” his dad asked him.
“Probably about seventy-five minutes?”
“Excellent — good answer. Why don’t you two use that time to go get cleaned up? It’s a hospital, you know. They last thing they need is smelly boys running around, stinking up the joint.”
“Okay, Dad,” said Jack.
**********
Jack and Stephen came down the stairs an hour later to find a huge surprise — Jack’s mom walked through the door.
“Mom!” exclaimed Jack. “Did they release him.”
“They did,” she said. “They released him to his mom — she wants him to stay at home for a while.”
“What?” said Jack, surprised. “His mom? I thought you couldn’t get in touch with her?”
“I didn’t,” said his mom. “But I guess she got the message.”
Jack’s dad appeared from the kitchen — “Hey honey,” he said. “Sleep well?”
“Oh, you know it,” she replied. “I was just telling Jack and Stephen — Ben’s fine, but his mom wanted him to come home for a bit, so he was released to her this morning.”
“Did you actually see her?” asked Jack.
“Of course I did. Did you think I was going to let him go with just anyone?” she asked, studying Jack closely.
“It’s just that you hadn’t heard from her in so long,” Jack tried to downplay his previous question. “I just wondered if she looked okay.”
“Yes sir,” said his mom. She paused and then continued — “She looked just fine, and Ben looked good too.”
“Thanks, mom,” said Jack. “Can me and Stephen give him a call before we go outside?”
“Stephen and I, and yes,” she said.
The boys crossed through the kitchen and Jack pointed Stephen to the phone while he crept back to the doorway. His parents were talking about Ben at the foot of the stairs.
“I don’t know, she just acted so weird,” he heard his mom say.
“Was she driving?” his dad asked.
“No, thank God,” said his mom. “One of her neighbors drove her over. I didn’t really meet him, but he looked nice enough.”
“Do you think she’s on something again?”
“I hope not,” his mom sighed. “But she did have that same vacant look.”
Jack snuck back to Stephen.
**********
“No answer,” said Jack. They took the house phone outside to the patio to place their call in private.
“Which number did you dial?” asked Stephen.
“I did the house number,” Jack replied. “I’ll try his cell.”
“Good.”
“Weird. Straight to voicemail on that one,” said Jack.
“That’s really strange. Something must be wrong with the tower or something,” said Stephen.
“Could be,” said Jack. “Or maybe they just hate cell phones now.”
“Probably,” said Stephen.
“So, you want to go to the hotel today?” asked Jack.
“Seems weird without Ben, but I really want to know if there’s more money there.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Jack.
In the house, they met unexpected resistance.
“Why don’t you just play in the basement today?” asked his mom.
“Cause we don’t want to,” said Jack. “We want to go back out and see if we can find that reptile that Ben was chasing.”
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to find a particular lizard, Jack,” she replied.
“Well, not that exact one, but one like the one we were chasing, I guess,” Jack said.
“I think you should stay around the house this one time so I don’t ha
ve to be so worried about you,” she said.
“Yeah, but mom you’re always going to have to worry about something,” said Jack. “Why can’t we just do this one thing and then you can worry about something else later?”
“What did I just say, Jack?” barked his mom.
“But mom,” he protested.
“That’s it,” she said, really frustrated now. “You can spend the day upstairs, in your room. No computer. I want you reading one of your books for school and then I want five-hundred words on what you’ve read. Due by dinner.”
“What?” said Jack. “You can’t be serious, what’s Stephen going to do?”
“Same for you, Stephen,” she said. “Pick one of the books on Jack’s list. They’re all on his shelf.”
“Yes, Ms. Randolph,” said Stephen, dejected. He shot a sideways look at Jack.
“Shit,” said Jack under his breath.
“That’s it, Jack. That’s a free one. But if I hear language like that again, you’re going to get grounded for the summer,” she warned.
Jack turned and stomped up the stairs to his room. Stephen followed quietly behind him.
Up in Jack’s room, they grabbed books and conspired.
“We could go in the middle of the night again,” said Jack.
“That’s going to be tough from up here,” Stephen responded. “I’ve heard your dad wake up just from me going to the bathroom. His snoring stops until I go back to the room.”
“Yeah, dad always was a light sleeper. Unless he’s on his Xanax,” said Jack.
“What does he take that for?” asked Stephen.
“He used to get panic attacks,” said Jack. “He only takes them now if he’s got a lot of stress from too many jobs at once.”
“Maybe he should take one tonight,” said Stephen.
“He’s only going to take it if he’s stressed though. I think my mom’s the one who’s stressed right now, and she never takes the stuff.”
“No, I mean like maybe we should slip both of them some when they’re not looking. Then they’ll both be asleep and we can go whenever we want,” said Stephen.
“Jeez, I don’t know how we would pull that off,” said Jack. “Like put them in a drink or something?”
“Maybe we can just crumble them up in part of dinner, then we just won’t eat whatever that is,” offered Stephen.
“Sounds complicated,” said Jack. “Can’t we just hit them over the head with something?” he laughed.
“I thought you really wanted to get back to the hotel and figure out the maze?”
“I do, but I don’t think we’ll be able to drug my parents. We should just wait until tomorrow and I’ll apologize to my mom,” said Jack.
“Okay,” said Stephen. “I hope that works.”
“We better read these things,” said Jack, holding up his book. “My mom will know if we don’t.”
**********
Jack apologized before dinner and then let the subject drop. After breakfast on Friday, Jack decided the time was right.
“Hey mom,” Jack began, “do you think Stephen and I can play outside today?”
“What do you think?” she asked, and then continued before he could answer, “Do you think that one day of penance was enough for questioning my decisions yesterday?”
“I’m sorry,” said Jack. “I was just so worried about Ben, I guess I just overreacted.” Jack and Stephen had planned this line the night before. They hoped she would go easier if she thought they were upset about their friend.
“Yes, you did,” she said. “Regardless, I think you still need another day to cool off.”
“Okay mom,” said Jack. “We’ll be upstairs reading until lunch.”
Jack’s easy defeat confused Stephen. They got up to Jack’s room and Stephen asked his question — “What happened? I figured you would have worked on her some more.”
“I was going to, then I happened to see the calendar,” said Jack. Stephen was still confused, so Jack continued: “She had this day circled in red. That means she’s going to consult with the tax guy today, and it said eleven AM, so she’ll be gone from ten until three at least.”
“Oh cool — that gives us five hours,” said Stephen.
“Right, so we’ve got to finish a whole day’s reading and writing in just a few hours,” said Jack. “Let’s get going.”
CHAPTER 15
The Boy
The boy limped down the halls in a blind panic. The incision on his right thigh throbbed and oozed bloody pus. He could barely see as the batteries of the otoscope started to fail. He lost track of the turns. He paused at a door and wondered: had he come this way before? When he reached for the handle, he could barely see it beginning to turn on its own. He backed up slowly at first, and then picked up speed. When he saw the door begin to swing towards him, he turned and ran in earnest. The slippers on his feet offered no traction. He managed to kick them off and ran even faster.
At the end of the corridor, he crashed into the wall and pushed off, throwing himself down left the passage. This was new — he was certain. Ahead, an iron gate with a big padlock blocked the way. The vertical bars, topped with sharp points, had several cross-members holding the bars in place. The boy started climbing, hoping to squeeze between the top of the bars and the ceiling. Desperation drove him forward — he threw his knee up and got a foothold on the waist-high brace. He grabbed two of the points and pulled, climbing the gate like a ladder.
The boy squeezed his chest over the top of the gate and heard the approach of heavy footsteps. He had to concentrate. He pushed and pulled with all his strength. One of the points dug into the side of his right knee. Instead of pushing away from the bars, he managed to wrangle his panic and figured how to lift his leg off the snag.
From what he could see, the hall on this side of the gate was not in very good shape. The walls were discolored and unpainted, and the floors were littered with scraps of drywall, dirt, and dust. He rounded another corner and found a set of decrepit stairs, leading up. Thick, rough-cut planks with protruding nails took him up to a small landing and then turned left before ascending again. The boy suspected he had gone up at least two flights, maybe more.
At the top of the stairs, he found another small landing and then the hall continued off to his right. The boy bent over for a second to catch his breath, and in the darkness he saw tiny flashes of white until his heart rate slowed a bit more. With the last light of the otoscope, he saw that the construction looked older here, and even more run-down. The floors were stained, cracked hardwood, and the walls showed gaping holes through the plaster to the lath slats.
He straightened slowly, and started to walk down the hall. The boy waited to hear footfalls ascending the steps at any second.
The otoscope pulsed and then shut off completely. The boy twisted the handle on and off, and slowly realized that he could still see his feet.
He crouched and peered through the vent at his ankles. Set in the wall was a vent with a twisting, looping, pattern to its grate. The room on the other side had a faint blue light. The screw at the top of the grate anchored into nothing — the plaster above the vent had fallen away and the screw didn’t quite reach to the wood. It dawned on the boy that it might be big enough for him to fit through. It looked tight, but anything would be better than staying in the pitch black hallway with the crazy man somewhere behind him.
He tugged at the metal for a few seconds and then sat on the floor and braced a foot on either side of the vent and pulled with both hands. When it gave a little, he doubled his efforts. In a few more tugs he popped off the cover.
The light on the other side came through several windows. He put his left arm through first and then pulled until his head was on the other side. Turning his shoulders, he managed to get his chest and other arm free.
Suddenly, he imagined an unseen axe descending on his naked legs and he struggled to get his legs to safety. He scrabbled across the floor of the new room, desperately try
ing to free his feet. When he made it, he cautiously looked back but the hallway he had left was empty. The boy screwed up his nerve and then reached for the cover, back in the hall. He did his best to pull it back into position.
Relieved, he tiptoed over to one of the windows. The window was two or three stories up and overlooked an overgrown field bordered with woods. A nearly full moon hung low, just about even with the treeline. He pressed his face close to the window so he could look straight down; the ground looked a long way down. A door on the adjacent wall was open a crack, he walked as quietly as he could and swung it open.
CHAPTER 16
Jack
Planning to do extra errands before her appointment, Kate left the house at nine-thirty. She hung a note up on the fridge which told Jack and Stephen to eat leftovers for lunch. They snuck into the front room to listen for the garage door opening, and then they watched from there as she pulled away from the house.
“Let’s go,” said Jack.
They wore their exploring-clothes and already had their bags packed. Once out of the yard and safely out of sight of the neighbors, they moved fast — running to the hotel.
Their ladder routine didn't work well with two people instead of three. Jack helped Stephen carry the ladder, and then doubled back to inspect the fishing line stretched across the path. Up on the porch roof, Stephen was anxious to see if the money had been replaced. He fumbled with the trick clapboard, and yelled at Jack when he tried to help.
When Stephen finally got the section of clapboard loose, the sight of a new envelope delighted the boys.
Stephen grabbed it and tore it open. Squeezing the sides, he shook the contents into his hand. Another seven crisp hundred-dollar bills slid out of the envelope. “Sweet,” he said. “Now we’ve got seven hundred each.”
“What about Ben’s share?” asked Jack.
“Oh yeah,” said Stephen. “Still pretty good though.”
“Is there another letter?” asked Jack.
“Yeah, but it’s the same,” Stephen skimmed the letter folded up with the bills.