Fort Lupton (38 page)

“
Your house payout,” Max
said.

“
What?” Agent Angie
snatched the envelope from Max and ripped it open. She read the
amount on the check and looked up at him. “What?”

He opened his briefcase again and took out
another envelope.

“
Your retirement fund,”
Max said.

“
Did you keep these?”
Agent Angie asked.

“
I convinced those
involved to release the funds,” Max said.

“
Why would you bother?”
Agent Angie asked.

Max shrugged.

“
You want this situation
resolved,” Agent Angie said.

“
Don’t you?” Max
asked.

“
I. . .” Agent
Angie looked at Yvonne and Dionne. “Yes, sir, I’d love to catch
these fuckers, but. . .”

“
But?” Max
asked.

“
What about you?” Agent
Angie asked. “In my experience, if there’s a man in the room, he
gets the credit.”

“
I don’t exist,” Max
said.

“
You look pretty real to
me,” Agent Angie said.

Max smiled and nodded to the computer. Agent
Angie tapped away for a few minutes. She scowled and continued
typing.

“
How do I know you?” Agent
Angie asked. “
Why
do I know you?”

“
You met my sister,” Max
said.

“
She has a file,” Agent
Angie said.

“
She definitely has a
file,” Max said.

“
So I get to bag and tag
them,” Agent Angie said.

“
All yours,” Max
said.

“
And if you screw me?”
Agent Angie asked. “Take my house? My retirement?”

“
You’ll call my sister,”
Max said with a shrug.

Agent Angie gave him a wide smile. She
looked at Yvonne and Dionne.

“
Ladies?” Agent Angie
asked. “We have some work to do.”

Yvonne gave a little cheer, and Dionne
laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday morning — 9:12 a.m.

Denver, Colorado

“
Why are you here?”
Charlie was in so much pain he could only sneer at Ivy.

“
Tink has a meeting at
school,” Ivy said. “They threatened to kick her out forever if she
didn’t show up and make a plan for being out of school.”

“
That makes sense.”
Charlie rolled his eyes. “Go to school so you can make a plan not
to go to school.”

“
I know,” Ivy
said.

“
What about you?” Charlie
asked.

“
I’m at the Marlowe
School,” Ivy said. “I’ll stay there when they open the new
one.”

Charlie looked away from Ivy.

“
I thought you’d want to
see me.” Ivy’s voice was small and sad.

Charlie groaned at himself. He rolled onto
his side to look at her.

“
Pretty pathetic, huh?”
Ivy asked. “I can’t keep it together anymore.”

Charlie gave her a soft smile.

“
Why did you smile?” Ivy
asked.

“
You’re talking,” Charlie
said. “You used to just talk to Jeffy about this stuff.”

“
That’s what I mean,” Ivy
said. “I can’t keep it together.”

“
Telling people how you
feel means you’re getting better, Ivy,” Charlie said. “Not
worse.”

“
Oh,” Ivy said.

Charlie didn’t say anything for a
minute.

“
You sure?” Ivy
asked.

“
Pretty sure,” Charlie
said.

Dale appeared in the doorway.

“
Who’s your friend?” Dale
asked at the same time Ivy said, “Some dude’s here.”

“
This is my dear friend,
Ivy,” Charlie said. “She’s like a sister to me.”

“
Any almost-sister of
Charlie’s is an almost-sister of mine,” Dale said. He held his hand
out. “Dale. Nice to meet you.”

“
His girlfriend was killed
by Saint Jude,” Charlie said.

“
I met that dude,” Ivy
said.

“
Sorry,” Dale
said.

Ivy nodded.

“
Charlie here needs to get
in the pool to do his PT,” Dale said. “You wanna go in
too?”

“
Sure,” Ivy said. “Wait,
pool?”

“
It’s warm,” Dale said.
“For Charlie. I don’t have a suit for you. Do you care?”

“
No,” Ivy said. “Plus,
Charlie’s seen me before.”

“
Pervert,” Dale said to
Charlie. “She’s a little kid.”

“
Not like that,” Charlie
said at the same time that Ivy laughed.

“
We were homeless
together,” Ivy said.

Dale nodded.

“
You wanna help?” Dale
asked.

“
Sure,” Ivy
said.

“
We’ve got to get Charlie
into this wheelchair.” Dale gestured to the wheelchair in the
corner. “He says he’s in terrible pain, but mostly I think he’s a
whiner.”

“
Pan never whines,” Ivy
said.

“
Pan?” Dale
laughed.

He came up to the bed and held his arms out.
Charlie grabbed his hands.

“
That’s his name!” Ivy
said.

“
Try not to cry like a
baby this time,
Pan
,” Dale said.

“
You’re not being very
nice,” Ivy said.

“
Nice isn’t going to help
him,” Dale said. “Let’s go Panny-boy.”

Dale pulled while Charlie sat up. With Ivy’s
help, they moved his legs so they hung off the side of the bed.

“
No casts?” Ivy
asked.

“
Just these braces,” Dale
said. “He heals fast, but he needs movement to get
better.”

Dale picked him up, and Charlie whimpered.
Dale set Charlie into the wheelchair.

“
Good job,” Dale said.
“Ivy? You wanna get the door?”

Ivy opened the door, and Dale pushed
Charlie’s wheelchair through the den area and out into the
backyard. It was dumping spring snow and rain. Dale jogged to get
across the yard fast. Inside what was once the carriage house, Dale
helped Charlie to the bathroom where they changed, into pool
shorts. Ivy waited on a bench.

Ivy was sitting by herself when Maresol came
in.

“
Ivy?” Maresol asked. She
held up a cute one-piece bathing suit. “I got this yesterday when I
heard you were coming over.”

“
I can’t swim,” Ivy
said.

“
Time you learned,”
Maresol said.

She gestured and they went into a small room
to change. When they came out, Charlie and Dale were in the pool.
Charlie was attempting to move his legs. Not sure of what to do,
Ivy sat down on the side of the pool. Maresol got in the pool and
gestured to her.

“
What do I do?” Ivy
asked.

“
I’ll show you,” Maresol
said.

“
But. . .” Ivy
started.

“
I taught swimming lessons
all the way through high school,” Maresol said. “I was on the swim
team in high school. College too.”

“
Oh,” Ivy said.

Maresol got out and walked to the side of
the pool. She grabbed the girl by her sides and put her in the
water. Ivy squealed with surprise. Charlie and Dale stopped working
to gawk at Maresol.

“
Why did you do that?” Ivy
asked.

“
Because sometimes, with
some people, you just need to show that you see them,” Maresol said
with a smile and got in the pool. “I see you, Ivy.”

Ivy nodded. They stood in the water together
for a moment.

“
Well?” Ivy asked with a
smile and a shrug.

Charlie and Dale laughed. Maresol
smiled.

“
Now we learn to swim,”
Maresol said.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday morning — 12:12 p.m.

“
Well. . .”
Heather said.

“
You’ll tell us
eventually, so why not tell us now?” Sandy asked.

She, Heather, and Jill were sitting around
the table in Sandy’s back room. Tanesha was at school listening in
on her cell phone.

“
It’s complicated,”
Heather said.

“
Try us,” Tanesha
said.

“
How do you know about the
Sea of Amber?” Jill asked.

“
Everyone knows about the
Sea of Amber,” Heather said.

“
I don’t,” Sandy
said.

“
You did,” Heather said.
“You just forgot.”

“
So only kids know about
it,” Jill said.

“
I guess,” Heather
said.

“
You’re being really
weird,” Tanesha said. “Just spit it out. What is the Sea of
Amber?”

“
It is what it sounds
like,” Heather said. “It’s a sea of liquid amber.”

“
Where is it?” Jill
asked.

“
It’s everywhere and
nowhere,” Heather said.

“
What?” Tanesha
asked.

“
I told you that you
wouldn’t like it,” Heather said.

“
No,” Sandy said. “We
don’t dislike it. We just don’t understand.”

Sandy looked at Jill, and Jill nodded.
Tanesha could tell by the tone of Sandy’s voice that she was going
to take the lead.

“
How do we find the Sea of
Amber if it’s everywhere and nowhere?” Sandy asked.

“
You have to have someone
like me,” Heather said.

“
A half-goddess?” Jill
asked.

“
Or a full,” Heather said.
“We can find them, we just can’t go there.”

“
Okay,” Sandy said. “Who
can go there?”

“
Anyone,” Heather
said.

“
What?” Tanesha asked.
“That makes no sense.”

“
I know.” Heather
nodded.

“
What happens if you go
there?” Sandy asked.

“
I’d get stuck like Jake
and everybody,” Heather said.

“
Okay, we’re getting
somewhere,” Jill said. “You can find the Sea of Amber, but you
can’t go there or you’d get stuck.”

“
Right,” Heather
said.

“
Who can go there and not
get stuck?” Sandy asked.

“
A human,” Heather
said.

“
Like me?” Jill
asked.

“
Not like you,” Heather
said.

“
Like me?” Sandy
asked.

“
Like you and Aden and
Sam, Dionne, not Bumpy or Jeraine, or Mike, of course,” Heather
said. “Blane, Tink, Honey, MJ, um…”

“
Aden and I can go?” Sandy
asked.

Heather nodded.

“
And you can guide us?”
Sandy asked.

Heather nodded.

“
But?” Jill
asked.

“
Right, there’s got to be
a ‘but’ here,” Tanesha said.

“
What are you going to do
when you get there?” Heather asked.

Pink sparkly
pen

“
What do you mean?” Sandy
asked.

“
I can’t go there, but I
know where it is,” Heather said. “You can go there, but you can’t
do anything about what goes on there.”

“
If I try?” Sandy asked.
“I mean, we have to try!”

“
You’ll get caught in the
amber,” Heather said.

“
So humans can go to the
Sea of Amber, but they can’t do anything there,” Tanesha
said.

“
Who can?” Jill
asked.

“
No one knows,” Heather
said.

The women fell silent while they were
thinking.

“
Who created the Sea of
Amber?” Tanesha asked through Sandy’s cell phone.

“
We all create it,”
Heather said. “All the time.”

“
And that means?” Jill
asked.

Heather sighed. She shook her head and
scowled.

“
How come this Sea of
Amber isn’t in the books?” Tanesha asked.

“
What books?” Heather
asked.

“
Greek mythology.” Jill
reached into her purse and pulled out a thick, hardback book of
Greek Literature. “We’ve been reading.”

Sandy pointed to a thick, tattered library
book in the cubbyhole with her telephone and appointment book.

“
You’re reading those?”
Heather blushed.

“
Of course,” Sandy
said.

“
We want to know our
girl,” Tanesha said.

Heather’s eyes welled with tears.

“
They don’t talk about the
Sea of Amber in any of our books,” Jill said.

“
They don’t talk about a
lot of stuff in those books,” Heather said. She looked down at her
hands for a moment and then sighed. “The Sea of Amber is made by
our unconscious, stuck thoughts.”

“
Gods and goddesses or
. . .” Sandy asked.

“
Everyone,” Heather said.
“Animals too. You know — ‘You can’t do it’ or ‘Don’t bother’ or
whatever. They’re so familiar that they’re like a warm
bath.”

“
So Jake’s not in any
pain?” Jill asked.