Chapter 4
four
. . .
The flight was awkward. I’d gotten a seat across the aisle from my sons and husband, so I could have reached out and held his hand if I’d wanted to.
Not that we did that kind of thing anymore.
I kept my sunglasses on and a big scarf wrapped around my shoulders.
Planes always made me cold, or maybe that was zombies.
Not that there seemed to be any zombies on the plane.
I kept looking. I hadn’t been able to bring my knife, which made me nervous.
I’d started thinking of Tom’s old knife as mine. That was probably a bad sign.
“Do you want to sit by the window?” Hazen asked, leaning over the aisle.
“No.”
“You must really be feeling festive with all the fall drinks you’ve been getting. Do you prefer the chai or the decaf latte?”
I looked down at my drink. They shouldn’t have let me on with it, but my husband had been particularly persuasive to the flight attendant. He was so handsome, and so charming when he wasn’t stealing your children.
“Well?”
Oh yes, he’d asked me a question. Chai or decaf latte.
Here we go on our new drink-based romance.
“I like them both.” Not really. “But I prefer the chai over the other one.” Would we make it to the hotel in time to take a shower before we went on the school tour or would I need to sponge down in the airplane’s bathroom?
“We missed you during the movie last night. We watched an old martial arts show that you would have liked.”
“Sorry.” I’d been busy researching how to break into houses, you know, so I could practice on my house and see if it worked. There’d also been this weekend’s itinerary to plan. There hadn’t been a lot of hotels close enough to the school to shower.
“None of the other kid’s parents will be there,” Wat said with a scowl. I still hadn’t addressed the issue with him, you know, disrespecting his mother, lighting someone on fire, that issue.
“And…?” I said, giving him a look that he couldn’t see behind my sunglasses.
“It’ll be embarrassing.” He added a defiant glare to that.
“How rude of you to admit that you’re embarrassed by your mother. Wat, I didn’t raise you to be rude, so please apologize. If you aren’t well-behaved, I’ll be the most embarrassing parent you could ever hope for, starting with lighting my bra on fire.”
His face went blank with shock, and I went back to my quiet meditation after he mumbled an apology. Maybe I’d light my bra on fire anyway.
“That won’t be necessary,” Hazen said in a low voice. “Will it, Wat?”
Wat gave his father a look that I would call pure hatred, which was unusual, because my husband was as good at persuading him as anyone else. “No, sir.”
Lock elbowed his brother.
“What was that for?” Wat yelled, rounding around on him.
Hazen sighed and the other first-class passengers pretended not to notice us.
“Keep it down, Wat. Lock, shall I sit between the two of you? That does sound companionable. I won’t get any father son bonding for a few months. Wat, move.”
Hazen stood, and so did Wat, taking the seat on the aisle across from me. He shot me a sullen look that sent a pang through my chest. He’d gotten so difficult seemingly overnight.
“Are you still excited about boarding school?”
“Not that you care.”
Hazen put his arm around Wat’s shoulder and squeezed. “You will be polite.”
Wat sighed and some of the anger eased out of him. “Sure. It’ll be a lot of fun, but I’ll miss you.”
It sounded so rehearsed. Had Lock or Hazen coached him on what to say? I almost reached for his hand, but then adjusted my jacket instead. He did not need zombies at his new school. “I appreciate that. I hope that you feel better about things.”
“Are you going to keep hiding in your closet?”
“Maybe.”
“Why?” He turned his big blue eyes on me, piercing.
I was glad I had the sunglasses on. “Sometimes when things are changing too quickly, it’s nice to have a small space to stay in where you can brace yourself against each wall.
Maybe I’ll build a closet in the closet.
It’s still too big.” That was an idea. How much would a steel cage cost?
I could lock myself in at night. Maybe silver would be better, but just imagine the expense.
Would it be more or less expensive than a car?
“Dad is worried about you.”
“That’s strange. He doesn’t usually worry, just moves us to a more secure location.”
“You could move to the boarding school with us, work in the cafeteria or something.”
I shook my head and pulled out a romance novel I’d grabbed in the shop where I’d gotten the pumpkin spice chai.
“I’d like that, but I’m sure all the people there have cooking degrees.
I could go to cooking school.” I opened the book to the first page and stared at it while my mind spun.
It would be too awkward to stop at the hotel for a shower before we went to the school, but I should bathe every twelve hours.
The plane ride was three and a half, then driving from the airport to the school…
I calculated in my head and tried to relax.
I should be fine. Everything should be fine. I was just stressing out a bit.
“Do you want to have dinner with the headmaster?” Hazen asked, leaning forward to look at me past Wat.
“That might be a good idea. Maybe after we get the boys settled into the school, and then get into the hotel, then we could go out for dinner with him.”
“If you’d like.” He sat back and I exhaled the breath I’d been holding for some reason.
“I thought you hated romance as much as horror,” Wat said after a few minutes.
That reminded me to turn the page. “I’ve been trying new things lately.”
“Shouldn’t you wait until after we’re gone to have your midlife crisis?”
“Probably, but no one thinks to schedule these things in advance. Also, that was rude, Wat. Don’t be rude. Last warning.”
He rolled his eyes and flopped back in his seat, stretching out his legs as far as they could go and dislodging the bag of the passenger in front of him.
I closed my eyes and tried to relax, but I couldn’t help but go over worst-case scenarios.
What if zombies were on this plane? Where would they hide?
How would they strike? How could I save myself and my children without any weapons?
Maybe I could break off the folding tray in front of me.
That would provide a good blunt side and a narrow edge that would work for decapitation.
How would I hold it? I’d need something to grip it with.
I ran my hands over the metal, checking it for tactile grip, and passed the rest of the incredibly stressful plane ride in a similar way.
By the time we came down for a landing, I was mostly hyperventilating, but quietly. We got off the plane and exited through the airport, which was very small, and did not have any seasonal pumpkin drinks. Good thing I still had half of my first one.
“Can I take that?” Hazen asked, like he’d heard me thinking about it.
I put it to my chest protectively. “I’m fine.”
Hazen gave me a look that I tried not to really take in. It helped that I was wearing sunglasses. “All right. I’m sure we can find you more pumpkin spice something while we’re here. You don’t need to carry around the cold one.”
“I just don’t want to waste it. No sense in that. Maybe I’ll just reheat it when we’re at the hotel.”
“Gross,” Wat said and then darted ahead of us, dragging his large suitcase on rollers behind him.
“He’s having a difficult transition,” Hazen said, watching Wat, thoughtfully.
“Aren’t we all? No, I suppose some of us are just fine.” I walked faster to catch up to Wat, well, not catch up, but get closer to him and further from Hazen. We should talk it out. After I no longer smelled like nutmeg.
The school was like Harry Potter, only more of a fortress, less pretty.
I appreciated that. I liked the moat, and the spiked pickets just outside the walls, jutting outward so nothing could get up the stones without getting skewered.
I stayed at the gate with the security people while Hazen took the boys to the office to check in.
They were telling me all about motion sensors on the fields to minimize night excursions when they all came back.
“We’re ready to take them to their rooms. Do you want to come?” Hazen asked, almost like he didn’t know what my answer would be. He’d expected me to go to the office with him, but the office was not nearly as important as safety.
“Of course. Thank you for your time,” I said, smiling warmly at the man and woman who had been so helpful.
We walked from the central area located in the front wall of the structure and into a wide field, the one with motion sensors, probably.
It was like a small village, some areas fenced off for horse riding, and other fields where they were playing soccer.
“You can’t see the spikes from here. It looks quite safe, and it would take a lot of effort to climb to the top of those exterior walls. It’s not bad at all.”
Hazen gave me a slight smile. “It is a very safe and secure place. You know how I like my family to be protected.”
I nodded and took a small sip of the cold chai.
It wasn’t terrible. We went to the boys’ dorms, which were on the opposite side of the field from the girl’s.
They were quite boring, everything built solid, simple, to withstand the wear and tear of teen boys, but clean, and the couple who ran the dorms were solid, kind yet strict people who I could see giving a homesick kid a hug and a cookie.
I was in one of the boy’s adjoining rooms helping Lock put away his laundry. “You’ll call me every day,” I said, whirling around to face him.
He jumped a little then nodded and gave me his beatific smile. “Of course. We’ll both miss you, even if Wat won’t admit it.” He moved in to give me a hug. For a second, I hugged him back, but then I panicked and stepped away. Zombies.