The Good Neighbor - Bettes Kimberley A.. Страница 13

14 Jill

I heard Andy speed away. I had no doubts that Owen was with him. I wasn’t sure what they were trying to prove, but I didn’t really care.

I held my hair back with one hand and steadied myself with the other. When the heaving finally stopped, I pushed myself away from the porcelain bowl and fell against the wall. My forehead and the back of my neck were damp with sweat. My hands trembled. My stomach gurgled.

I waited a few minutes to be sure I wasn’t going to be sick any more. When I was fairly certain I would be okay, I got up and took a careful, slow, cold shower. It made me feel better immediately, but I still wasn’t myself. I was positive I’d be able to get through the day once I ate breakfast. Just in case, I had dry toast and water. I didn’t want to push my luck.

I left Andy a note telling him I loved him before I headed out the door to work.

Thinking it was a fluke that I’d been so ill earlier, I assumed the worst was over. It was a sudden onset of sickness. I didn’t have the flu or anything. I just woke up sick. But I felt better now.

Until I got to work.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I was overcome with nausea. I didn’t even make it to my parking space. I had to slam the brake and throw open the door. I leaned out and barely avoided ruining the interior of my car. I struggled to undo the seatbelt while leaning my head out the open door, and keeping my foot on the brake.

That was me; always multitasking.

When I was sure I was finished. I pulled my head in and shut the door. I turned the air conditioning on full blast and turned all the vents toward my face. The cool air made me feel better, but I was still weak and shaky. I continued on to my parking space. I sat in the car, unsure what to do. I should go in. I hated to miss work. But I couldn’t work like this. Vomiting every few minutes was not library etiquette. And even though I felt a little better now, I could feel that the worst wasn’t over.

I called my boss, telling her I couldn’t make it. She was worried, but I assured her I’d be fine. It was probably just a bug that would go away in a few hours. At her insistence, I agreed to go to the doctor. I wanted to go home and go back to bed, but I was already dressed and out. I knew my boss wouldn’t let up until I agreed to go. She worried too much. But I finally agreed to go just to shut her up.

15 Owen

Andy was careful to not be obvious as we followed Jenson up one street and down another. We kept a few cars between us when possible, and when that wasn’t possible, we stayed a few car lengths back.

“Where the hell is he going?” Andy asked, more to himself than me.

“I don’t know.” I yawned.

“I’m glad we don’t live in a big city. This would take all day.”

“You’re the one who wanted to stalk him,” I reminded him. Then I yawned. “Nobody said stalking was easy. If you want, we can go up to the prison and you can ask someone. They’ll tell you.”

“You don’t even know anybody in prison,” Andy said.

“I know somebody who’s about to be in prison,” I retorted.

“Oh, you know you’re having fun. This is the most excitement you’ve had in a long time. At least, that I know of.” He looked at me and winked, which told me he was referring to Carla.

I was getting ready to tell him how big a pervert he was, but before I could, he hit the steering wheel and cussed.

“What?” I asked.

“We lost him!”

“We what?”

“I looked at you for a second, and when I looked back, he was gone. We lost him. Damn it.”

We looked for him for quite a while. We circled the block several times where we’d last seen him. Then, we started working our way around to nearby streets. Finally, we spotted his car.

Andy straightened up, both hands on the wheel, eyes locked on the road ahead of us. “I’m not losing him this time.”

Andy didn’t have to be so tense for very long. Jenson pulled into a parking lot and parked his car. We parked at the far end of the lot where we could still see him, but he would never suspect us.

“Am Vets?” Andy asked. “Is he a veteran?”

“I don’t know,” I said, yawning. “Maybe.”

I struggled to think of what war he would’ve been in. Apparently, Andy was doing the same.

“Korea?” Andy pondered aloud.

“Maybe.” Then I added, “Maybe he just knows some veterans and comes here to see them.”

We were silent for a while, watching the door. Jenson remained inside.

“This doesn’t solve our puzzle at all. We must’ve missed something. He must’ve ditched the bag when we lost him.”

“Andy, he didn’t know we were following him. It’s not like he saw his opportunity and hurried up and ditched it. He didn’t have time to go anywhere far. Besides, how do you know he doesn’t still have the bag in his car?”

I could see Andy mull this over. “Yeah, maybe he still has it.” He slowly turned his head toward me, and I knew what he was thinking.

“No,” I said. “I’m tired. We’re not going to sit here and wait for him.”

“Why not?” Andy asked, as if he were a child.

“I’m exhausted, guy. I’ve been up all night, which by the way, I don’t usually do. I don’t work nights, remember? And I want to get some rest so I can go to—“

“Carla’s? Is that what you were going to say? You’d rather spend time with her than your best friend. I can’t believe you.”

“You know that isn’t true. Besides, it was you and your wife who insisted that I begin seeing someone, and as I recall, that someone was Carla. You both said so.”

“Whatever. The point is you want to rush back home so you can hang out with her when we’re on to something here, man. We could solve this riddle in a matter of minutes and put everyone’s mind at ease.”

“Or it could be hours, Andy.”

“He’s never been gone that long, has he?”

I thought about it. “I don’t know. I’ve never really paid that much attention. I’ve noticed him come and go, but never paid attention to how much time passed in between.” Another sad reminder of how caught up in my misery I’d been.

Andy was silent for a while. I tried to figure out whether or not he was really mad or just frustrated that we were so close and had still found nothing. I didn’t think he was mad. We’d never had a fight before. We’d never even had an argument. That’s not saying we’d never disagreed with each other, but we’d always done it civilly. Looking at him now, seeing the way his eyebrows were rumpled together and the intensity in his stare, I knew he wasn’t mad at me. He couldn’t be mad. It’d been his idea to hook me up with Carla. He was only wishing he could understand this Jenson thing.

As he drove me home, we talked about Jenson mostly, trying to better guess his age. We’d both known people who were a lot older than they appeared. It was possible Jenson was older than we thought. But it was also possible for him to be younger than we thought. We just couldn’t be sure. It didn’t really matter, though. The question wasn’t why Jenson was at the American Veterans building. The real question was where was the bag?

I couldn’t stop yawning.

“Man, we’re a couple of gut rumblers,” Andy said, referring to our empty stomachs. He was right, though I’d been too tired to notice. We stopped for breakfast, and it was all I could do keep from falling asleep in my pancakes.

It was almost ten o’clock before we got back to Andy’s house. I looked longingly at Carla’s house before dragging myself to mine. I fell across the bed, nearly asleep already. I wanted to call her before I was out so she’d know where I was. I managed to grab the phone off the nightstand and dial her number, which I’d fortunately memorized. I wouldn’t have had the strength to go find it.