Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kim
“I Feel Pretty” from Lext Side Story, sucks up all the air in the truck. There is no escaping. Natalie Wood, or whoever dubbed her, sings at the top of her lungs about how witty and gay she is. And pretty. Landon rubs it in, hitting replay.
“I’d like to hear it one more time.”
I bring down my visor and look in the mirror at my son. Hunter looks like he wants to jump off a cliff while shooting himself in the head. Just to make sure he doesn’t have to hear any more.
“Can’t we please stop this insanity?” he yells over the music.
I turn the volume down and meet his gaze in the mirror.
“Sure. Let’s talk.”
Shoulders slump. “I am in hell.”
Landon interrupts the conversation.
“I just thought of another thing. I bought a twelve inch combination square a few months ago. Write it down.”
Hunter brings his cell up and enters the information.
“How much?”
“I think it was about two hundred.”
“Really? For one square?”
“That’s nothing. Good tools can run in the thousands.”
Hunter goes silent real fast.
“What’s the tally?” I say.
The question bothers him. That is why I am asking. I want to drum it in his head. Each time something new is added to the list of stolen items, it is like a drum beats. The relentless reminders must be annoying. But he knows better than to challenge either one of us right now.
“About twenty seven hundred. God.”
And that isn’t counting the bike, which Landon doesn’t want to add. That cannot be measured in dollars. Neither Landon or I offer him any false hope he won’t have to pay up for the rest of it. The fact he can split the bill with Bing’s the only ray of light.
Passing the Entering Kentucky sign, Hunter speaks up.
“Are we there yet?”
The bored child question makes all three of us laugh. It releases all the things Hunter has wanted to say since we left Memphis.
“Come on! I am smashed back here, and the friggin’ music,” he puts the word in quotes, “is eating my brain cells. Really, how do you guys like this stuff?”
“You mean quality music with fantastic lyrics?”
“Says we have a little over an hour till we’re there,” Landon answers.
“Thank God.”
“So what’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get back to school?” Landon asks.
“Sell my blood, I guess. Straight up.”
“You’re going to get a part time job and start paying off your debt,” I say, making sure he knows there is no other option. “What about Bing? Is he planning on doing the same?”
“Yeah. Dominique and Colter didn’t give him a choice. He thought they’d spot him until he can figure it out, but they’re not gonna do that.”
“Ha! What is there to figure out?”
My son’s deep sigh escapes.
“What kind of work are you going to look for?” Landon says.
“I don’t know. I’m not trained to do much. I’m not going to flip burgers though. Maybe I can find something that pays better.”
“You would be lucky to flip burgers. Do you think that’s beneath you?” I feel my blood pressure rising.
Of course he doesn’t answer. But Landon saves his ass.
“I’ll start you off. When we get back we need to put cameras up around my place, and your house too. I don’t know if your mother told you, but I mentioned it to her before. I didn’t get to it myself, because of all the jobs I’ve had around my dad’s property. What do you think?”
“Yeah. She mentioned it last month. Sorry, Mom. As soon as we’re back. Promise.”
“Okay, honey. I’d appreciate it.”
Landon moves around a slow car in the fast lane.
“You and I can maybe add a few motion lights too. There was an animal under her window. It took out one of the small bushes. Landon looks back for a beat. “I’ll subtract what you would earn from the total.”
“How about Ring? That would be the best thing. She could see who is at the door and talk to them.”
Hunter’s suggestion brightens all three of our attitudes. My son feels his ideas are valued. Landon looks happy to know there’s more synapsis firing in Hunter’s brain than he previously thought. For me, the two people I love most in the world are beginning to really see each other.
I add my entire wealth of knowledge about Ring to the conversation.
“Holly loves theirs.”
“I know how, because I helped Beth’s dad install theirs.”
“Good. That’ll help make the job go faster.”
“What other things can we do for you, Kim? Before we go. All the windows and doors working right? Need anything done you’ve been putting off?”
“Let me think about it.”
“So what’s the deal with you two anyway?”
Hunter’s question flies in from left field and hits me on the head. It must have bounced off Landon’s too, because he is silent. Seconds seem like minutes.
“In what way?” I say.
“I mean are you going to see each other after he goes back to his real life?”
Now it’s us under the microscope.
“Of course,” Landon answers. “And this is my real life. We have to do the long-distance thing. Lots of people do. I have a big job starting and I’ve hired a crew. I just bought a house. Your mom has her own things to consider.”
“All due respect, but you’re dug in there, dude. The house. Your career. You’re not going to be able to be here much that I can see.”
Quit telling the truth, son.
“We will do what we can to be together,” I say, looking at Landon looking at me. He squeezes my hand and gets his eyes back on the road.
“I guess if you want it bad enough, it’ll happen,” Hunter adds, looking out the window.
We sit with his comment for a few minutes. I close my eyes and try to forget what is ahead.
“Oh shit!” Hunter hollers.
“What? You scared me!”
“That guy that followed you into the bathroom at the bar, you said his name was Oscar, right?”
Hunter holds his cell between the seats turned toward me. A chill runs up my spine when I see the familiar face of the man being led away in handcuffs, and the headline’s text.
“What about him?” Landon says.
“The man’s a serial rapist! Holy shit!” The cell is angled for Landon to see.
“What does it say?”
“Oscar Delong was arrested and charged with twelve counts of forcible sexual assault and is being held without bail. The alleged “Quiet Man Rapist” was under surveillance when he was apprehended attempting to break into a victim’s home.
Authorities across four counties have searched for the suspect for ten years. ”
“Under my window. Could it have been a man standing there?”
“Maybe. I didn’t see a footprint, but there was a lot of standing water from the storm.”
“Oh my God.”
“DeLong is alleged to have started his string of violent crimes in the summer of twenty-thirteen. But it was information gathered in a botched attempt in May of this year, which allowed the police to track the suspect.”
“Jesus!”
Landon reaches for me, and our fingers thread.
“You stopped him,” Hunter says, putting a hand on Landon’s shoulder for a moment.
In a surprising move, my son does what I want to. It brings tears to my eyes. He hides behind his hands and tries controlling the emotions that threaten to burst. Landon looks through the rearview mirror and sees what’s happening.
“Hey, it’s okay man. They got him. We’ll both keep her safe now.”
I reach back and take his hand.
“Honey! I’m okay.”
“I should have put the lights up when you asked,” he says, shaking his head. “I fucked up.”
“We fucked up,” Landon says.
Hunter raises his head and our eyes meet. I feel the love.
The Hop Hotel looks as the name suggests. The exterior, the décor, the front desk, everything looks like nineteen fifties America. It is just what we needed. Distraction. Landon hands his credit card to the senior citizen beebopper in a poodle skirt.
“Thank you, sir.”
“This is the hotel you requested, right Hunter?“
“Very funny.”
“This place is charming.”
“We’re in the Matrix,” Hunter says, picking up an old record leaning against a planter.
“Who’s Connie Frances?”
The desk-clerk with a gray ponytail looks at him like he has been living in a cave.
“’Where The Boys Are?’”
“Nope.”
“’Stupid Cupid’ or ‘Lipstick on Your Collar?’”
“Never heard of them. Are those real songs?”
He looks from my face to Landon’s, waiting for someone to say, “psych”. She slides the keys across the counter and chooses to ignore the question. He has committed sacrilege against The Big Bopper in the sky.
“Each room has two keys. You’re down the hall to the right, a few doors past the statue of Elvis.”
That’s a sentence I never thought I would hear.
“Okay, thanks,” Landon says, passing two keys to Hunter.
He walks ahead of us, all the way to his room. As he turns the key, there is a one word message.
“Later.”
“This was a long day for everybody,” Landon says, putting an arm around my shoulders. He kisses the top of my head as we get to our room.
“All I want is to take a shower and get in bed,” I say. “I want the image of that man out of my head.”
He tosses the key on the entry table and I put my purse down too.
He takes my hand.
“Come on, babe. Let’s wash the day away.”
Driving toward Mabel’s place, I am getting a little anxious. Hunter is happy the show tunes and jazz have stopped playing.
“Who are you going to say we are? Am I supposed to be your kid?”
“No. I think we should keep it simple. I’m just going to introduce you as Kim and Hunter. Let her fill in the blanks. If anyone questions what our relationship is, I’m telling the truth. My girlfriend and her son.”
“This is so fun! I think you’re going to get it. I do,” I say. “You nervous?”
“No. Well, kind of. I really want this for my dad. I’d do anything for him.”
Landon’s words settle, and without even looking back, I know what Hunter is feeling.
It breaks my heart to know he won’t have a father to make proud, or share a laugh with.
No dad when he graduates college, or gets married.
Not if the babies come. It has affected his life in big moments and small ones.
It is a great loss. I hate that I can’t fix it.
“Your dad worked for the post office, right?”
Landon’s question comes gently. I wait.