There was a crack of thunder and a breeze that wafted the curtains around in front of the window. Carter didn’t realize that the window was open. Here we go again, he thought. As he approached the window, he saw that the window was closed. He looked around to see where the draft came from, but nothing in the room was exposed to the elements.
“Adam,” said Brenda. “This is not a joke. You need to tell us what’s going on here.”
The sound of pots and pans falling downstairs forced another retreat. Carter scooped up Adam again and carried him downstairs to investigate the further developments. When they got to the kitchen, there was nothing out of place. It had sounded like someone had opened a high cabinet and pans spilled to the kitchen floor. Nothing was there. The only thing that was out of place was the strange occurrences that began to take hold of the house. It was not normal, and Adam was not giving up anything from his mind. Nothing more happened, but they had Adam sleep between them for the rest of the night.
. . .
Carter was very tired and strangely nervous when he finally returned to work after missing seven work days due to Adam’s disappearance. Thankfully, it would not be a sad return. Adam was alive and well. As he pulled into the large parking lot at the office park which held his accounting firm, his nerves began to produce jitters. He knew that it wasn’t the caffeine, because he had yet to ingest it. He had overslept due to the activity of the previous night, and hit the snooze button too many times, so it was like a Benny Hill episode as he flew out to his car and blazed a trail to work. At least he had a free pass for now.
His mind was aflutter as he spun his way through the revolving doors. The guy behind him was a little too eager to get to his desk on this Monday morning, probably on Carter’s schedule, but without the free pass. When he reached the turnstile, he realized that he had left his access badge in his car, and would arrive back to work even later. As he was returning to his car to retrieve his access badge, he had thoughts of taking one more day, but then thought better of it. He really needed a day away from home and wanted to get back into the swing of things.
Up the elevator shaft he rose en route to the eighth floor. The elevator was jam packed and Carter was hard pressed to find a soul without a cell phone. Every single rider was scrolling through messages or texting or checking email because this couldn’t possibly wait until the other end of the shaft. Whenever there was a ding, all the users looked up in synch, and if they saw that it wasn’t their floor, they would look back down in synch.
Upon reaching the eighth floor, Carter stepped off the elevator, swiped his badge yet again, and gained access to his floor. There he was met by Alice Johnson, who was the right-hand woman of the boss. Carter smiled at her and wondered if her career had gone any further since he had last gained access. It was nice having a boss as a friend, but nobody trusted her because of it. She was sucked up into a phony world where the only person who believed that she’d be getting ahead by doing this was Alice Johnson.
“Hiiiii!” exclaimed Alice. She dragged out her vowels far longer than she should have. “Welcome baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!”
Carter noticed that her long blonde hair was a tad straighter than usual. She was in her mid-twenties, but going on forty. She was way too young to be acting like that, he thought.
“Alice…thank you. So good to be back. I missed a lot of work, but I didn’t miss it too much.” He gave it a good laugh, and breezed past her as she had an I don’t really get that type of look on her face. He moved on down the line.
He passed by Amelia Trebinskie, who was the young receptionist who patched all the calls through, and he only smiled because that’s all he ever did when he saw her. Their relationship was to smile at each other because there was rarely a free moment for Ms. Trebinskie, and her headset always seemed to be in use.
Next in his path was his work buddy, Sal Dahms. They had actually hung out together after hours, and Carter referred to him as an all-around wise ass. He was always pulling pranks and never seemed to be in a bad mood. He was a cool coworker, but you should tread lightly and carry a big stick if you hung around with Sal Dahms after hours. Sometimes his pranks would get him in trouble outside of the office.
“Carter, welcome home buddy!” Sal came in for one of those half man-hugs where there’s a cool right-handed handshake in the middle of it. It was something that had to be practiced, and when they orchestrated the handshake, it did not go well at all. However, that didn’t matter to Sal. He covered it up with a left hand touching down on Carter’s shoulder repetitively and a really smooth return message about how the office was not the same without him. He continued on about how he really needed to get back so that his mind can concentrate more on numbers and less on “depressing shit” as he put it. He was a master of words. Carter did miss him a bit, though. He was able to smile just from being around him again. That was a talent.
Enter the boss: Kevin Kudlach. This guy was all about the company…lived and breathed it, but that’s why he was in the position he was in. It’s obvious who has it and who does not. Alice does not. Kevin does. He was a very serious guy, although he loved to tell people that he would never forgive his parents if they gave him a middle name that began with a K. He probably worked 80 hours per week, and feels as if he should work 90 hours per week!
At the Christmas party, his boss brought his laptop to the restaurant so he could knock off a couple extra emails without being inconvenienced by an Accounting Firm function. Santa can wait. Numbers cannot. That seemed to be his motto. However, when he heard about Carter’s son, he called several times for a status update and sent a catered meal over to the search party. There was a heart in their somewhere, but you might get an argument from his three ex-wives.
When Carter made it to his desk and signed onto his computer, he was so busy going through his email that he made it to the other end of the day in no time. He was getting visitors all day, but the firm is a busy one, so the visits were brief, and the work day, rather productive. His major accounts were calm for the most part, and when issues arose, they were absorbed and handled by his team of coworkers. There were a lot of issues within the department, but when push came to shove, the work got done.
As Carter was wrapping things up, he received a phone call from home. He looked at the phone and saw his number and panicked. Brenda didn’t usually bother him at work, so before the second ring had gone through the full cycle, the phone was at his ear.
“Brenda what’s going on?”
“Carter, this is Evan.”
Carter was thrown first by the deep voice and second by the fact that it was Evan.
“Evan…what are you doing at my house?”
“Just wanted to stop by and see your boy. Didn’t know you were going back to work today.”
“Oh,” said Carter, still recovering from Brenda’s deep voice. “Evan, why don’t you wait until I get home before you talk to Adam? I’d really appreciate it if you waited till I got home.”
“Done.”
“What’s done?”
“Already spoke to the boy. He’s a smart cookie, that Adam.”
“Yeah,” said Carter. “He’s a smart cookie all right. So, are you going to be there for another 20 minutes or so until I get home?”
“Nah…I’m heading out now.”
“Oh, well I sure would like to know what you two discussed. Anything I should know about? Did he finally open up to you about things?”
“Little bit,” said Evan, “but I really gotta get going. Maybe I’ll catch up with you a little later.”
“Evan, jot your phone number down and leave it with Brenda because I’d really like to talk to you about this. We had another incident with Adam last night and I really need to know if he mentioned anyt
hing to you.”
“Oh that.”
“Oh that? What? Did Adam say something to you?”
“Yeah, he might’ve opened up about that a little, but listen…I got to take off and I’ll catch up with you later.”
“But Evan, I need…”
Click.
CHAPTER 13
Carter raced home just to make sure everything was okay. It was pouring rain outside, so he wondered why, of all days, would Evan and his damn dog venture out just to swing by and talk to Adam. He had to wonder if he went over there knowing that Carter was starting back at work today. He was no dummy, and yes, he certainly did a lot of good and continually tried to help, but Carter always remembered to keep his friends close and his enemies closer. That was an adage to live by, and he did live by it. Thank you for all you do, but I’m still gonna keep a close eye on you.
Carter made it home, but Evan was already gone. Brenda greeted him at the door and Adam was upstairs in his room.
“Hey, Carter, how was your day at work?”
“Fine…fine. Evan’s gone?”
“Yeah, he left about fifteen minutes ago. Why…what’s up?”
“He told me that he had a talk with Adam. Is that true?”
“Yes, why?”
“Were you there?”
“No, he said he wanted to talk to him alone. I figured it couldn’t hurt.”
Carter seemed frustrated, but tried his best to contain it so he wouldn’t upset Brenda. He wanted more information, though, so the questions did not stop there. He just had to ask in matter of fact fashion.
“So I just missed Evan, huh?” asked Carter. His eyes kept bouncing up to Brenda and back down again. He was trying to hide his nervousness, especially his fidgety hands.
“Yes…about fifteen minutes ago. He just stopped by because he was taking Skippy for a walk. He said that he talked to you and you told him it was okay to come over and talk to Adam.”
Carter whipped his head around and looked at Brenda, who had her back turned as she was putting dishes back in the cabinets. He never spoke to Evan and certainly didn’t give him the green light to talk to his son while he was at work. He didn’t know what that was all about, but it was all he could do not to blow his nonchalant cover.
“Evan said that?” asked Carter. His tone was much higher than he had intended and he hoped this didn’t alarm Brenda.
“Yes,” said Brenda, turning around to face him. “You didn’t give him permission to speak with Adam?” She was looking hard at Carter.
Carter balked, and then recovered quickly. “Ah…um…I…I very well could have and forgot…with everything going on and back to work and all.”
He couldn’t wait to have a conversation with Evan, and he would have taken a hike over to his house right then and there to confront him about this, but then realized that he didn’t even know where Evan lived. The man who comes and goes freely in and out of Carter’s house whether it is populated or not had never even mentioned where he lived. All he ever said was that it was around the corner, or just a couple streets down. Evan was pretty stingy with details, but it took a moment like this for Carter to realize that he didn’t know Evan very well after all.
“Are you worried?” asked Brenda.
“No…why?”
“You just seem worried. Is it Evan?”
Carter didn’t even know why he tried to fool Brenda. Whenever he thought he was a step ahead of her, he would regretfully discover that he was two giant steps behind. He did not want to worry her, but he also did not want her to think of him as anything other than trustworthy. He gave it another thought before realizing that he was not good at hiding things and it would be a hell of a lot easier if he just produced honest thoughts. He knew she thrived on trust, and he also knew that his sex life would take a hit if she discovered any sort of deceit within their marriage. She was a straight-shooter, and he was her target.
Carter wanted to find Evan, but he had probably made it home already, and not knowing where he lived made it seem like a futile effort. Next time he saw Evan, he was either going to ask him where he lived, straight out, or he would follow him home. Carter thought that it was only fair that he knew where this man lived, since this man knew everything about his family and certainly knew where the Spence’s lived.
The doorbell rang, and Brenda made her way to the door as Carter looked on. There was a couple at the door with a young boy.
“Hello, neighbor,” said the woman with long, wavy blonde hair and a big smile. “We just moved in next door and wanted to come over and say hello to our new neighbors.”
Carter and Brenda did not even recognize them close up, having only seen them from their bedroom window.
“Hello there,” said a surprised Brenda. “It’s so nice to meet you. We were going to meet you guys as soon as you got settled in, but didn’t want to get in the way too soon. There’ll be plenty of time for that.”
“We’re the Oldmans. I’m Victoria and this is my husband, Dan. My son Bradley.”
“So nice to meet you. Hey Carter, it’s the Oldmans. I’m Brenda and this is my husband, Carter.” Brenda looked back at Carter, and then called out to Adam, who soon appeared by her side. “And here is my little one. His name is Adam. How old is Bradley?”
Dan Oldman had short brown hair and a gold sweater buttoned to his chin. He stepped up one more step aside his wife and said, “Bradley is six years old.” He then extended his hand and shook hands with Brenda, and then Carter. Victoria Oldman then went to shake hands with Brenda, but her hand collided with Dan and Carter’s handshake, and she pulled it back with an embarrassed chuckle.
“I’m gonna try that again,” she said, and shook hands with Brenda and Carter without incident.
“Please,” said Brenda, “come in.”
“Don’t mind if we do,” said Victoria. As she entered the house, she looked up and around. “What a nice little place you have here.”
“Thanks,” said Brenda. “We like it.”
“Well, if you didn’t, you’d probably be living elsewhere, am I right?” Dan chuckled harder than anyone else after he said this.
They made it into the house and sat on the living room couch. Victoria ran her hands over the green leather armrest, then took notice of the matching love seat and recliner. Brenda noticed Victoria’s eyes trying to take it all in as if she was looking for something. She even spent some time with the tan carpeting, but mostly concentrated on the family photos through the ages as depicted by the frames on the walls and even on the coffee tables. She ignored no frame.
“Can I get you something to drink?” Brenda asked.
“No, thank you,” Victoria replied. “We just wanted to stop for a minute and say hey. We have our work cut out for us with that place, plus we’re still unpacking. Oh, there’s so much to do with that house, inside and out, but you get what you pay for.”
“Mr. Jenkins lived in that house for years,” said Carter. “He was there for as long as I can remember.”
“Oh,” said Dan. “We don’t know much about the owner. We bought it as a foreclosure and they didn’t tell us a lot.”
“Yeah,” said Carter. “He was a big gardener, although you wouldn’t be able to tell from what it looks like now. Are you guys into gardening?”
They didn’t answer right away, so Carter felt the need to ask another question, but as he was thinking, Victoria beat him to the punch.
“So what ever happened to that Jenkins fellow?”
“Oh,” said Carter. “Mr. Jenkins developed Alzheimer’s and he passed away a few years ago. He was out in the garden right until his final day. He to
ok pride and joy in gardening.”
As the parents were sharing stories about the old house next door and the old man who had spent his life in and out of it, the two six-year-old boys were noticing each other. It began innocently for the little boys upon first meeting. They were staring at each other. They were sizing each other up. However, they began communicating with each other as their parents were getting acquainted. Since their parents were so much louder, their conversation fell on deaf parental ears, until there was another lull. This is when the connection was noticed.
“Bradley,” said his mother. “Have you made a new friend?”
Bradley did not even look at his mother when she said this. He continued to look at Adam, and Adam continued to look at Bradley. All the parents took notice, and it began to reach the awkward stage.
Brenda decided to break the tension by having a word with her son. “Adam…it looks like you have a new friend named Bradley. You two will be able to be friends and play together. That should be fun.”
Adam did not acknowledge his mother. He continued to stare at Bradley, and Bradley continued to stare back.
“Guys,” said Brenda. “What’s going on?”
Finally, Adam broke the connection and walked out of the living room, and Carter and Brenda did not have it in them to stop his departure. They had enough going on with their son and did not want to add to it. The continued silence made the situation even more uncomfortable as seconds felt like minutes without conversation. The Oldman’s seemed to be at a loss for words.
During this moment of silence, Carter felt a hand on his back by his waist. He turned to look at his wife and noticed that her hands were folded together in front. He turned the other way and saw that the hand belonged to Victoria. They made eye contact and Victoria made a slight wink at him, but Carter wasn’t quite sure if it was a wink. He looked back over at Brenda, and she was still absorbed by the children. By the time he returned to Victoria, she had removed her hand and had moved closer to Dan.
Desert Son Trilogy: Desert Son, Wayward Soul, Spiritual Intervention (Books 1-3) Page 56