Authors: K.T. Hastings
Diane smiled at Suzi in the mirror. “I think they may have had a relationship that was a bit more... close.”
Suzi looked puzzled. Bruce didn't. His eyes lit up. “Ohhhhhhhhh. It's like that, you think?”
“Like what?” Suzi said, turning to confront Bruce. “Like what?” she repeated.
“Diane thinks that Brandee and Janelle might have been bumping and grinding in the hotel room when Jake got there.”
Suzi turned back to look at Diane in the mirror. “Really? You think Brandee and Janelle were having sex? Gross!”
“Well, think about it, “Diane said. “Jake was flying high over the whole Tom Ferrari thing when he left the fairgrounds that night. He wasn't going to go back to the hotel room and pick a fight with Brandee over wanting her to have a baby. So, something else had to have happened. It had to have been something to devastate him too much for him to even be able to talk to us about it. I don't know any more than you guys do. I just wonder if Janelle was showing Brandee a little more than meditation technique.”
Suzi fell back in her seat, and buckled herself back in. She shook her head in wonderment.
“Wow,” she said. “Just, wow.”
***
Jake stopped on his way to the front register and picked up some supplies from the school and office aisle of the store. He carried his purchases to the counter and put them down. The checker asked him how he was.
“Fine,” he said.
***
Brandee had plenty of time on her hands as she drove north, so she took a bit of personal inventory. She hoped that she would be able to make things right with Jake. She knew that much for sure. She hoped that things would be better between them than they had been before. That was a long shot, though.
Brandee knew that Jake would believe that she had cheated on him the first time that she and Janelle had kissed. That being the case, she could understand the desolation he must be feeling having seen his wife and Janelle in flagrante delicto in Crescent City. She only hoped that he would understand that she was truly sorry for having done him wrong.
“I'm sorry, Jake. Please forgive me. I know that you and I have a sacred bond. I haven't become a lesbian, I promise,” she practiced to herself.
***
Jake picked his Walgreen's plastic bag off of the counter and walked outside. The summer night was warm, but Jake was cold.
***
When Brandee saw the sign that said, “Centralia - 12 miles”, she pulled her phone out of her bag and called Rebecca Flurringer. The phone rang just once before Rebecca answered.
“Hello.”
“Rebecca, Brandee. I'm about 10 miles from Centralia. I called a little early.”
“That's okay. I'll get up and make some coffee before I wake Jake. You're about an hour out.”
“How do I get there?”
“It's easy. Take the 72
nd
Street Exit in Tacoma. Turn right, go two blocks and turn right again. We're the 4
th
house on the right on Alaska St. 7308.”
“Thanks. I'll be there as fast as I can. Bye.”
Brandee clicked her phone closed. Rebecca had been more cordial than Brandee might have thought that she would be, especially if his sister had talked to Jake. Brandee was counting on Rebecca being a pastor's wife to make her at least a cordial hostess when Brandee arrived. Rebecca's husband Tad might be a different story, but that was all something to handle when Brandee got to their house.
Brandee pushed the accelerator of the Sprinter to the floor and swung into the far left lane, passing the Nissan and taking the lead. The needle of the Sprinter topped out at 89 mph.
“It's all I have,” Brandee said. “I hope it's enough.”
***
“I haven't seen a Washington State cop since we got over the border,” Diane said. “I hope that our luck holds out. I've never seen Brandee drive like this. Not even close. I didn't know that Sprinter had that in it.”
“If a cop stops her, she'll probably bat her eyes at him and promise him show tickets,” Suzi said.
“I hope she knows where she's going when she gets there,” Diane said.
“I hope she knows what she's doing in more ways than just that.” Bruce said, pulling his seat belt a little tighter and putting a protective arm around Suzi.
Brandee swept through the curves in Olympia, WA, passing within 100 feet of the main office of the Washington State Patrol. Still no multicolored lights in her rearview mirror. Brandee spoke to The Creator Spirit.
“Hide me from the cops, please,” she said.
She didn't get the same sense of comfort from her moment of meditation as she had before, so mostly she just hoped for good luck.
***
Jake walked across 72
nd
Street when he left Walgreen's, narrowly avoiding being hit by a car as it drove past. Jake's peripheral vision hadn't returned, and it was dangerous for him to be walking around. When Jake got to the corner of 72
nd
and Alaska, a right turn would have taken him back to Rebecca's house. Jake turned left.
***
Rebecca Flurringer puttered around her kitchen for a bit. She put a pot of coffee on and got some pastries out of the cupboard to heat up for a very early morning breakfast. Then, she walked down the hall and knocked on the guest bedroom door. No answer. Not wanting to wake up her children, she knocked again, but no louder than the first time. There was still no answer. Finally she rapped sharply on the door, saying “Jake, wake up!” at the same time. She listened carefully for an answer. Hearing nothing, she opened the door.
The Flurringer home had a bathroom attached to both the master bedroom and the guest bedroom, in addition to the main bathroom down the hall from the living room. Rebecca saw that Jake's bed was empty and glanced toward the open bathroom door, expecting Jake to emerge from there. When he didn't, she walked toward the bathroom near the guest bed. When she saw that the bathroom was empty, she went straight out of the bedroom and to her own room.
“Tad! Wake up! Wake up, Tad!” she said to her husband, shaking his shoulder.
Tad Flurringer was no stranger to being awakened in the middle of the night. He had been a pastor for almost ten years, and had made late-night runs to Tacoma's many hospitals more than a few times when he was called for a parishioner. He had learned to come completely awake as fast as he needed to.
“What is it Rebecca? What's up?”
“My brother was here last night but now he's gone.”
“Jake was here? When did he get here?”
“He got here about midnight. I picked him up at the bus station. Now he's gone!”
“What was he doing here?” Tad said as he was pulling his shoes on over his socks.
“He and Brandee got into some kind of big fight. It's a long story, but he's not here now. I'm worried about him.”
Tad hurried into the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his thinning, sandy-blond hair. As he left, he said, “Maybe he just walked up to the store.”
“That doesn't seem like something he would do in a strange town at night, Tad.”
“Okay, honey. I'll look around the neighborhood. Do you think that you should call Brandee?”
“Brandee is on her way here to see him. She'll be here in less than an hour.”
Tad shaved, all the while wondering about all that had gone on in his house since he had gone to bed last night. His biggest concern before he had gone to sleep was the current losing streak that the Seattle Mariners had fallen into. Now, he had a missing in-law and more company on the way. When he finished with his preparations for the day, he kissed Rebecca on the cheek.
“You've been busy, lady.”
Just then, there was a clatter in the kitchen. “What now?” Rebecca said as she went to see what that was all about. She saw her oldest son, Jimmy, trying to sweep some spilled Rice Krispies into a dustpan with a broom that was way too big for him.
“I was getting my own breakfast, mom,” he said.
“That's fine son, but do you need some help?”
Jimmy was almost seven years old, and he wasn't about to ask for help from his mom if he could figure a way around it.
“I've got it,” he said, putting his shoulder into the broom, trying to maneuver it around the spilled cereal. Rebecca saw that the bowl out of which the Rice Krispies had fallen was lying on the floor. It wasn't broken, though, so she decided to let Jimmy work it out for himself. She went into the boy's room to check on Jason. He was asleep.
“Thank you, Jesus,” she said under her breath.
She could tell by the smell wafting down the hall from the kitchen that the coffee was almost ready. Her new Keurig coffee maker was fast, and she was glad for that. It wasn't even dawn outside, and she already needed a hot cup of coffee. Tad came into the kitchen and quickly assessed the situation.
“Good job, buddy,” he said to Jimmy, ruffling the little boy's hair as he went by. Jimmy didn't answer. He was intent on the task at hand. Tad spoke to Rebecca by the coffee machine.
“I'll take a walk around the neighborhood. He's probably just looking around.”
Tad Flurringer walked out of the house and turned right. There was a shopping center and entertainment area to the south of the Flurringer home. The lights of the always-active area might have attracted someone with a lot on his mind. Maybe his brother-in-law had gone that way.
Tad Flurringer knew that it was several hours after the local drinking establishments shut down, so a tavern wasn't a likely place for Jake to be. Knowing that, he walked into the only place that he thought might attract Jake at this hour of the morning: Chips Casino.
Tad had been in Chips a few times. He was a pastor, but he was no bluenose. He knew that the best way to relate to people was to meet them more than halfway, wherever they might be in life's journey. He had shown off his own skill at blackjack, an ability he had picked up during a four-year hitch in the Navy, to prospective parishioners on a few occasions. He knew his way around a craps table, too. That's where most of the noise always was in a casino. He went there first, looking for Jake.
There was indeed a small but raucous crowd at the dice table, but Jake wasn't among them. Tad moved on, past the roulette wheel and poker tables, looking at the faces of the gamblers as he went by. Still no Jake. Tad headed for the lounge.
Jake was several blocks north of the Flurringer home. He didn't want to be where the lights were. He wanted to be alone. He came to the barricaded entrance to Wapato Park, stepped through the car barricade and past the sign that said, “No admittance after 10 PM”
***
Once Tad had established that Jake wasn't in Chips, he went back to the house to get his car. This search was going to have to be expanded. Tad told Rebecca that he would be back soon. He left Alaska Street and turned toward downtown, away from Wapato Park.
***
Something shiny in the distance caught Jake's eye as he entered Wapato Park. Unfamiliar with Tacoma, and its local park system, Jake didn't know that within the boundaries of Wapato Park is the largest man-made lake in the Puget Sound area. When Jake realized that Wapato Lake was directly in front of him, he walked to its shore.
***
“Tacoma: Next 7 Exits” Diane read out loud as the 2-car caravan finally slowed down a bit. “She must be checking exit numbers.”
Suzi stirred. In spite of her worry about Jake, she had fallen asleep in Bruce's arms during the last hour of the trip north.
“Are we there yet, Diane?” she said.
“Almost, I guess. I'm just following Brandee. I don't know where I'm going.”
Brandee saw a sign that said “84
th
Avenue”. She was slightly nearsighted, and couldn't see to read the exit sign that was a half mile ahead. As she got closer she read, “72
nd
Street East.” That must be it, she thought.
Brandee steered the overworked Sprinter into the exit ramp. She caught a break with the stop light at the top of the exit, and turned right. Another two blocks, another right turn, and she pulled to a stop in front of 7308 Alaska Street. Before she got out of the car, she took a few deep breaths and called on the Creator Spirit to help her with the task just ahead of her. She had no idea what she was going to say to her husband.