by Becky Durfee
“I know, right?” he said with that smile—the smile that made it nearly impossible for Jenny to focus. “I even surprised myself. But I guess I’m not really early if you’re sitting here waiting for me.”
“You’re still early,” Jenny assured him. “I was just super early.”
“Are you hearing anything from Lena?”
“Actually I am,” she confessed. “A very low murmur. It’s not urgent by any means, but she’s chatting.”
“Can you understand what she’s saying?”
Jenny lowered her head. “No. I’m afraid I can’t.”
“Well, are you ready to go in?” Zack posed.
“Absolutely.”
Zack gestured for Jenny to go into the restaurant ahead of him. The buzzing in her head did get louder as she entered the building, making her painfully aware that Archer must have been present in there somewhere.
As they stood in the lobby waiting to be seated, Jenny looked around the restaurant, noticing all of the photographs and memorabilia hanging from the walls. There were some autographed pictures of people she didn’t recognize, all posing with an incredibly happy Archer.
“Wow,” Zack noted. “That’s quite a collection.”
“Who are these people?” Jenny asked.
“Basketball players. Football players. There are a couple of professional teams here in Charlotte, and it appears just about the entire roster has been in here. Both rosters.”
In a way, Jenny was happy for Archer. The fat kid with a passion for cooking apparently learned a thing or two along the way and made a pretty good life for himself. Once again, chalk one up for the underdog.
The hostess appeared, guiding Zack and Jenny to a booth big enough to fit four people. The restaurant was largely empty, which was something Jenny had counted on at that hour. With a quick comment that the waitress would be right over, the hostes disappeared, and Jenny continued to admire the décor.
“Check it out,” Jenny said, subtly pointing to a picture hanging above their booth. “I think that was Archer from a long time ago.” The photograph featured a very large man surrounded by patrons, all of whom were smiling broadly. No autographs graced this picture, so Jenny assumed these were not famous people, but rather Archer’s friends or regular customers. Or both.
“Is that the same guy?” Zack asked in dismay. “My God he lost a lot of weight.”
“Yeah, he had mentioned that he had gastric bypass surgery while we were at the reunion. That’s probably a good way to gauge how old these pictures are. It appears this one’s pretty old.” As Jenny scrutinized the photograph, Lena’s buzzing grew more agitated; Jenny couldn’t help but feel there was something important about this picture, but its relevance eluded her. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of the photograph so she could access it later if need be.
“What was that about?” Zack asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” she confessed. “Maybe nothing, but better safe than sorry.”
At that point the waitress approached, and Jenny asked if Archer was available to come out and say hello. The waitress said he was there and she’d see if he was free.
“Are you nervous?” Zack asked once the waitress was out of sight.
“A little bit,” Jenny confessed. “But I have it all planned out. I spent a good deal of the trip here formulating what I was going to say and how I was going to say it. Hopefully my plan will work.”
Before long Archer appeared around the corner, wearing a shirt, tie and latex gloves. He looked quizzically at Jenny and Zack, apparently trying to determine where he had seen either of them before. Sensing his confusion, Jenny spoke up. “Archer,” she said extending her hand. “Jenny Watkins. From the reunion last night…”
A look of familiarity washed over Archer’s face. “Oh, yes. You were with Pam and Elijah.” He looked down at her hand and said, “I’m sorry. I’m still not feeling one hundred percent. Forgive me if I don’t shake hands.”
Disappointed, Jenny voiced understanding. She introduced Zack to Archer, at which time Archer said, “So what on earth are you doing here?”
“Well, I had to drive through Charlotte to get back to Georgia, and my friend Zack here is from the area, so I figured it would be a good place to stretch my legs. And after hearing this is the best restaurant in the city, I knew exactly where I needed to go.”
“Well I’m glad to have you,” Archer replied with a smile.
“Thanks. And to be honest, there is another reason I wanted to talk to you today.” Jenny looked sheepishly down at the table. “I wanted to apologize for Elijah’s behavior last night. I feel like he was being quite unfair to you.”
“I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt that way,” Archer said bitterly.
“You’re not. Believe me. Some of the things he said to you were downright mean. Just so you know, I was one of the less popular kids when I was in high school, too, and it was very narrow-minded of him to think that an unpopular boy couldn’t be friends with a pretty girl. Honestly, I think he was just jealous that you were friends with Lena and he wasn’t. Apparently he and Jacob tried to be, but she was smart and chose a real friend. She chose to hang out with you.”
“Exactly,” Archer began. “Do you mind if I sit down?”
While she remained stoic on the outside, Jenny was doing cartwheels on the inside. Apparently her strategy was working. “By all means,” she replied with an inviting gesture. Archer took a seat next to Zack.
“Lena was a much smarter girl than anyone gave her credit for,” Archer continued. “In fact, she was a little bit nerdy; she just had pretty packaging, so everybody made assumptions about her…Especially your friend Elijah’s crew.”
“Oh, he’s not my friend,” Jenny replied. “Believe me.” She held up both hands as if to distance herself from the comment.
“Really?” Archer replied with a gleam in his eye. He folded his arms over his chest and added, “I thought you two were a couple.”
“No. Not at all.” Jenny shuddered. “Elijah went to college with my brother, that’s all.”
“So then how did you end up going to the reunion with him?”
“My brother conned me into it. I had gone to Richmond for my father’s funeral last week, and Elijah came to pay his respects. While he was there he noted how embarrassed he was going to be going to the reunion without his wife—who left him I might add—so my brother suggested I go with him so he wouldn’t look so desperate and pathetic. I did it because I love my brother. But now he owes me one, because I had no idea just how pompous Elijah was.” Jenny felt like an absolute bitch saying these things about a man she believed to be a good person, but she knew Archer hated Elijah. In order to befriend Archer, she had to make it appear as if that was something they had in common.
“Yes! Pompous! That’s such a good word for him. It’s funny how you could figure that out in such a short time.”
“It was fairly obvious,” Jenny noted. “And another thing...” she waved her finger at Archer. “He calls himself a detective? He was more like a bully. You were obviously friends with Lena, and you were the last person who would have wanted her dead, but he wouldn’t listen to you when you tried telling him that. It was like he had already decided you were guilty and wouldn’t even consider any other options.” She sat back in the booth and folded her arms. “He didn’t even bother to ask you if you had an alibi for the night she was killed.”
Archer threw his hands in the air. “I know!” he declared. “And I did have a solid alibi, if he had cared to ask. I was home playing video games like I was every Saturday night. My parents could vouch for that.”
“And he had told me they had a description of the car the suspect was driving. He didn’t even ask you what you drove back then and if the car even matched.”
Archer’s tone grew softer to the point of being a near whisper. “They have a description of a car?”
“That’s what he told me.” Jenny was unsure what to make
of Archer’s demeanor change.
“I didn’t think they had any evidence at all.” Archer sounded bewildered.
“Apparently they have some.” Jenny, too, softened her tone. “Hopefully that will get your friend’s case solved once and for all.”
A distant smile appeared on Archer’s face. “That would be great.”
Jenny leaned forward on her elbows. “Archer, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“You said Lena had a secret…”
Archer became rigid, so Jenny made her voice sound even more sympathetic. “I think I might know what that secret is. Don’t worry—I have no plans to tell Elijah. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.” She looked square at Archer with eyes full of empathy. “I just have the sneaking suspicion that Lena couldn’t speak, and she was horribly embarrassed about that.”
“Lena could speak,” Archer replied defensively.
“But did what she say make sense?”
Archer opened his mouth to reply, but no sound came out. Looking defeated, he sat back in the booth and said sadly, “Please don’t tell Elijah.”
Jenny smiled compassionately. “Like I said, I have no desire to share this information with Elijah. In fact, Lena’s plight is very close to my heart. My cousin had the same condition.” She snapped her fingers. “What was it called again?”
“Verbal Apraxia,” Archer said softly.
“That’s right. Apraxia. I couldn’t think of the word.” Jenny tilted her head to the side. “Was she born with it? Lena, I mean.”
Archer shook his head. “She fell down the steps as a toddler. Her older brother had left the basement door open, and she tumbled down an entire set of wooden stairs onto the concrete floor. She hit her head so hard that she got brain damage. Fortunately, the only part of her brain that was affected was the part that controls speech. It could have been so much worse. But from that day forward, she was never able to correctly form the sounds she intended to. On occasion she could, actually, but only with short words, and only one word at a time.”
“That sounds just like my cousin, but my cousin was born with it. She could understand anything you said to her, but she couldn’t speak in response.”
Looking like he might cry, Archer nodded silently.
“So how did you communicate with her?” Jenny posed.
“In writing. With hand gestures. We had our ways.” He covered his face with his hands. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this. I’ve never told anybody.”
“It’s okay. Truly,” Jenny said. “It’s not like I’m about to laugh at her.” Jenny interlaced her fingers and placed her hands on the table. “Tell me, Archer…do you think Lena would still be afraid to let people know about her condition if she were alive today? Adults wouldn’t be as cruel about it as kids would be.”
“It’s hard to say,” Archer speculated. “I’d hope she wouldn’t still be embarrassed at our age. I’d prefer to think that she would have come to terms with it by now and she could have liberated herself. You know, it’s funny…the apraxia itself wasn’t a prison sentence, but her debilitating embarrassment of it was. She put herself through hell trying to hide it from everyone.”
“Everyone except you.” Jenny smiled sweetly.
“Everyone except me.” Archer’s distant expression reflected the bittersweet nature of his memory.
“So how did you figure out she could speak English?” Jenny asked, her chipper tone designed to snap Archer out of his impending sadness.
“I used to walk home with her from the bus stop in the afternoons. I’d talk to her, even though I didn’t think she could understand me. I figured hearing the language would help her master it. Anyway, one day I said something funny and she laughed. That’s when I realized she could understand me. She still wouldn’t speak, so I came to the conclusion that she was mute. I told her that was okay with me—I didn’t mind. So she was mute? Big deal. She gestured for me to come into the house with her, where she wrote on a piece of paper please don’t tell anybody. I promised I wouldn’t, and I kept that promise. Until today.
“Anyway, after a few more weeks of us walking home from the bus together, she invited me into the house again, where she showed me a letter she’d written to me. It told the whole story of how she’d gotten hurt as a baby, and that her parents moved to the Richmond area to get her medical treatment.”
So much for the Russian mob theory, Jenny thought.
Archer continued. “So after that we became friends. We agreed not to socialize in school because people would probably notice she never talked to me. If everyone just thought she didn’t understand the language and didn’t associate with anybody, her secret could have remained safe.”
“So did she hang out with your other friends?” Jenny posed. “Or just you?”
“Just me.”
Wheels started turning in Jenny’s head. “Were those your high school friends at the steakhouse with you?”
“There was only one friend. My friend Larry.”
Note to self. Larry. “Oh, I’m sorry. Somehow I thought you were at that big table with a lot of people.”
Archer made a face. “No, I was in a booth with just one other person.”
“Oh, silly me. I must be remembering it wrong,” Jenny said, although she honestly hadn’t remembered him at all.
“Well, let me get Valerie over here with some complimentary rolls for you fine folks,” Archer said as he stood up. “You’ve come a long way; you must be starving.”
“Rolls sound great,” Zack said. Jenny had to laugh at his ever-present preoccupation with food.
“Yes, Archer, thank you,” Jenny added before he disappeared into the back of the restaurant.
Jenny’s eyes focused intently on Zack’s. “Remember the name Larry.”
“Sure thing, boss.” He flashed her a subtle smile. “How in the world did you know Lena had apnea? Did she tell you?”
With a giggle, Jenny said, “Apraxia.” The waitress appeared with rolls and took their drink orders. After she walked out of earshot, Jenny explained, “I pieced it all together. I knew she could speak, because she’s been speaking to me, and I’d always just assumed that since I couldn’t understand her she was talking in Russian. When I learned she was fluent in English, it didn’t make sense that she would choose to speak to me in a language I don’t understand. But on the drive here, I remembered Roddan told me she had trouble communicating, and that she had some kind of impairment. I originally assumed he’d picked up on the language barrier…but there wasn’t one. Then it hit me. She does have trouble communicating, and she’s trying to speak to me in English. She just can’t form the words correctly.”
“And did your cousin really have the same thing?”
“No.” Jenny opened her menu.
“Then how do you know so much about it?”
“I don’t. I have no idea if you can be born with that or not. I was completely making it up.”
Jenny scoured the menu, but Zack’s lack of motion caused her to look up. He sat still, looking at Jenny with awe. “I’m impressed,” he confessed, “and maybe a little bit frightened. You’ve become quite the bullshit artist.”
With a shrug, Jenny said, “When I feel like I’m doing it for a good cause, I can BS with the best of them.” She reached across the table and tapped Zack’s menu. “Let’s get a move on, shall we? Lena is giving me a headache.”
As Zack and Jenny walked out into the parking lot, awkwardness ensued. Jenny looked at her feet, stating, “I’d actually like to pick your brain about this a little more, without the danger of Archer hearing us.” She glanced up at him and squinted in the sunlight. “Is there anywhere we can go?”
As if reading her mind, Zack stated, “We could get a hotel room if you’d like. To be honest, the thought of driving another five hours back to Georgia isn’t very appealing.”
Before she could stop herself, Jenny found herself saying, “You said that if I agreed to buy a house
with you, we wouldn’t…um…be together again. I’m not sure we’ll be able to stick with that arrangement if we get a room.” She wished she could suck those words back in as soon as she said them. The truth was that she wanted to sleep with Zack again. She wanted to sleep with him now. Why did she always have to be so practical?
“But it’s the out-of-state rule,” Zack explained in a child-like tone.
“The out-of-state rule?”
“Yeah. Things that happen in other states don’t count.”
He sounded so matter-of-fact that Jenny had to laugh. “Is that so?”
“Yeah. I’m actually surprised you’ve never heard of it.” With a sinister grin he placed his hand on Jenny’s waist, causing a tingle to generate throughout her whole body.
“Oh, that out-of-state rule.” She smiled slyly and added, “I think I passed a nice little hotel on the way here…”
Jenny remained awake in the bed, comfortable and satisfied, as Zack slept soundly next to her. Her mind was too preoccupied with her latest theory about Lena’s murder to allow her to sleep. She wanted to call Elijah and discuss the details with him, but she didn’t want to wake Zack.
She wished she had foreseen this rendezvous and had brought a suitcase. Having brought only the clothes on her back, she longed for a more comfortable outfit. And a toothbrush. Suddenly she figured out a way to solve both of her problems at once.
After leaving a quick note for Zack, she got dressed and slipped out the hotel room door. She paused for a moment in the hallway and fiddled with her phone, assigning Elijah’s number to a speed dial number before dialing it. Pinning the ringing phone to her ear with her shoulder, she rummaged through her purse as she walked down the hall, trying to find her car keys.
Elijah picked up after the third ring. “Hey, Jenny,” he said. “How did it go?”
“Great. How about you?”
“Not so great.”
Jenny flashed a polite smile to the desk workers as she walked through the lobby and out the sliding glass doors into the parking lot. “No luck, huh?”
“Well, it appears our friend Archer had already called his parents and told them not to cooperate with me. I guess he anticipated I’d be paying them a visit.”