Authors: K.T. Hastings
Back at the Greentree, the group gathered for another meeting in Brandee's room, and the three-year contract with Arista was not on the agenda.
“I'm scared for Jake, and I would think you would be too,” Suzi said, with an accusatory stare at Brandee.
“Get off your pulpit and help me think,” Brandee said. “I'm worried, too. I thought for sure he would be here sometime today.”
Diane sat down on the bed beside Brandee, moving Janelle out of the way with her hip, and put her hand on Brandee's. “It's none of our business what you and Jake said to each other to bring things to this point. It is our business, though, if Jake is in some kind of trouble... or some kind of danger. You do understand that.”
“I know,” Brandee said. “It just doesn't do any good to have Suzi glaring at me every time I look at her. I wish I knew where he was every bit as much as you guys do. More, really.”
Diane patted Brandee's hand. “Can you think of anywhere that he might go or anybody that he might talk to?”
“The only person that I can think of is his sister.”
“Rebecca? Up in Tacoma?”
Brandee nodded. “He calls her Becks. I can't think of anyone else.”
“Do you know her last name?”
Brandee reached for her purse. It had addresses and phone numbers of emergency contacts among its many other items. After a search, she held up a small black book. She riffled through it before saying, “Here it is. Her last name is Flurringer.”
Diane spoke gently to Brandee. “Good job. Don't you think you should call her?”
Brandee nodded and dialed the number that was written down for “Rebecca Flurringer.”
***
Rebecca knew that there was trouble in the Evans camp before Brandee called since she had spoken to her brother a couple of hours earlier. Jake's bus had stopped in Portland, Oregon for a meal stop and to swap out drivers. Jake still couldn't eat, but he had used the stop to call Rebecca. She had, at first, been thrilled to hear from her brother.
“Jake! What a nice surprise! How are you?”
“I'm not good, Becks.”
“Are you all right, Jake? Is Brandee all right? What's going on?”
“It's not good, Becks. It's not good at all,” Jake said. It was all that he could get out before starting to cry again. He had thought that he had spilled all of his tears on the bus, but that didn't turn out to be the case. Hearing his sister's concerned voice started the flow all over again.
“Oh Jacob, I'm so sorry. What happened?”
“Can I come see you?”
“Of course you can. Where are you? When will you be here?”
“I'm in Portland right now. I'll be there in about three hours.”
“Okay, honey. Is Brandee with you?”
“I'm alone.”
“Okay. You're not alone, though. God is with you, and so am I.”
“I'm alone.”
“I'll pick you up at the bus station, Jake. I love you.”
Jake hung up and re-boarded the bus. Part of him wished that he hadn't called Rebecca at all. As soon as he had asked if he could come see her, he wished that he could take the words back. He wasn't interested in hearing her tell him that God had a plan for him and wouldn't give him a burden that he couldn't carry. He knew that she would say things like that, and mean well, but she didn't understand what Jake was going through. No one could. Jake thought that maybe he would get off the bus at the next stop, call her back, and say that he wasn't coming after all.
He might have done just that if he had been awake at the next stop. He had fallen into a fitful sleep just outside of Portland and hadn't awakened until the driver shook his shoulder at the stop in Olympia, Washington.
“Next stop, buddy. Tacoma.”
***
Rebecca was friendly to Brandee when the singer called.
Goodness knows, I don't know the story,
she thought as she heard Brandee identify herself.
“Rebecca? This is Brandee, Jake's wife.”
“Hello Brandee. How are you, dear?”
“I'm okay. Have you heard from Jake in the last day or so?”
“As a matter of fact, I heard from him just a little while ago.”
“Did he say where he was?”
“He's on a bus that will be here in about a half hour.”
Brandee covered the mouthpiece of her phone and spoke to the members of the band.
“He's on his way to Tacoma.”
The musicians let out a collective breath. At least they knew where Jake was. It wasn't the same as him showing up to be with them, but it was something. Brandee resumed her conversation with Rebecca.
“When he gets there, will you tell him that we'll be up there tomorrow? We'l--”
That was as far as she got before Suzi stepped forward and forcibly yanked the phone from Brandee's hand, scratching the singer in the process.
“Rebecca, My name is Suzi Limbaugh! I'm your brother's friend. Tell Jake that we'll be up there tonight. We're leaving in five minutes!”
“I'll do that Suzi,” Rebecca said. “Where are you now?”
“We're in Eugene, Oregon.”
“Okay Suzi. It's about a five hour drive. I'll see you at--”
“We'll be there in four hours, Rebecca. Thank you. Give Jake our love.”
Suzi tossed the phone back to Brandee and turned to the rest of the group. “Let's go, gang. Pack your gear.”
***
Jake got off the bus at The Tacoma Dome bus terminal shortly after his sister had hung up from her call with Brandee. Rebecca hugged Jake tightly. He returned her hug and gave one to his nephew, Jason, who at three years old had been too young for Rebecca to leave at the house. There wasn’t much feeling behind his hugs.
“Do you have a bag?” she said to Jake.
“I don't have anything.”
“Okay, then. Let's go back to the house.”
“Thank you for picking me up,” Jake said when they were underway.
“Stop it, Jake! Of course I'm going to pick you up. Now, tell me what's going on.”
Jake recounted the tale of what had happened to him and Brandee. Given the presence of Jason in the back seat, he didn't go into graphic detail about what he had seen at The Northwoods Inn, but he told Rebecca enough to give her a good idea. She was appalled.
“Who in the world is this Janelle creature anyway?”
“It's someone that we met in Colorado. She's a big fan.”
“I still don't understand. I'm sure that Brandee has fans everywhere you guys go! You don't take them with you, do you?”
Jake shook his head. “No. Janelle is different, though. She has Brandee all messed up in some kind of religious hokum. Something about spirits and meditating.”
“To the point that Brandee had sex with her?”
Jake couldn't speak for a moment. He swallowed the sob that rose in his throat, before managing a strangled “Yes.”
Rebecca shook her head in wonderment at what had become of the world. “I'll be.”
Jake suddenly realized that something was wrong with his vision. It was the dead of night, but even at that, things seemed darker than they should have been. The lights of the city weren't registering in his peripheral vision. He was staring in front of him, with darkness on both sides. It took a moment for him to realize that Rebecca was talking again.
“...Jesus is your friend, even now.”
Jake said, “I love you, Becks. Please don't give me that Jesus stuff right now. I believe in heaven, but I don't think Jesus gives a damn what happens to me here on earth. Brandee and I were supposed to be soul mates! Soul mates! What a crock of shit that is!”
“I know you feel like that right now Jake. Let things play out. Maybe something good will come out of this.”
Rebecca decided to go with her gut and not to tell Jake that Brandee and the group were on their way to Tacoma at that very moment.
He needs to get some rest
, she thought.
He'll be better able to talk to her if he's rested.
Jake was quiet the rest of the ride to the Flurringer home. He loved his sister completely, but she had already tried to “Jesus” him about Brandee. How could she understand the darkness that was inside of him? He knew that she couldn't. He knew that no one could. He was alone.
Rebecca pulled into the stylish Flurringer home on Alaska Drive in Tacoma's south end. Jake got out of the car and followed his sister to the front door. After Rebecca opened the door and hung her keys on the hook beside the door, she turned to her brother.
“I know that Tad is going to want to talk to you first thing in the morning. Why don't you get some sleep? I've made up the guest bedroom.”
“Thank you. Becks. Thanks for everything.”
Rebecca kissed him on the cheek. “Everything's going to be okay, Jacob. God loves you. So do I.”
Rebecca went into the master bathroom, not wanting to wake her sleeping husband. She pulled out her phone and dialed the last number from which she had received a call.
“Hello?”
“This is Rebecca Flurringer. Is this Brandee?”
“Yes it is, Rebecca.”
“Jake's here at my house. I just sent him into the guest bedroom. He's safe, and he doesn't know you are coming. I'm afraid he would leave again if he knew. Where are you?”
“We just passed Albany, Oregon. We're driving like the wind, trying to get there.”
“Call me when you get to Centralia, Washington. You'll be less than an hour away.”
“I will... and Rebecca?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you for everything.”
“You're welcome. You two have some things to work out, but God will guide you if only you will let Him. Take care.”
“Bye,” Brandee said, and quietly clicked her phone closed as she focused on the road ahead of the Sprinter.
***
“Can't this crate go any faster?” Suzi complained to Diane in the Nissan.
“Suzi, I'm doing 85! What more do you want from me?”
“I want faster! I have a really bad feeling and we need to get up there!”
“Well, it won't do us any good to go faster and get stopped by a cop. Sit back and relax.”
“I'm not going to relax! If you're going 85 and a cop stops you, you get a ticket. If you go 95 and a cop stops you, you get a ticket. What's the difference?
“The difference is, I'm going as fast as this thing will go! If it would do 95, I would be going 95! I'm as anxious to see Jake as you are, so sit back and let me drive!”
Suzi sat back and watched the darkness rush by. The bad feeling was only getting worse.
***
Janelle had decided that the best thing to do would be to let Brandee take the conversational lead. In her perfect world, Brandee would have seen already that she and Jake shouldn't be together. The singer would go public that Janelle was her new lover, and everything would be great forever. That wasn't the way it was working out, though, and Janelle saw that things could get messy.
She didn't know what it meant that Jake left. Maybe it meant that he was giving up. That would be good. Maybe it was just a temporary thing, and he would be sniffing around her Brandee when they got to Tacoma. That would be bad. Maybe Brandee wanted to tell him in person that they were finished. That would be good. There were too many maybes for her to try to figure them all out.
In spite of her earlier decision to let Brandee initiate conversation, after almost an hour on the road, the maybes in her mind and the silence in the car were too much for her. She touched Brandee's arm.