Lost And Found Part 2
Part 2
For the rest of the week nothing unusual happened to me. I didn’t suddenly know where random people were. I didn’t drop dead of an aneurism or heart attack or have a seizure, I didn’t even have a headache.
Which was why I felt I could push my luck and went back to the post office to see if there was a new poster up with any missing people. There wasn’t. I could have left it at that but something inside me said that I wouldn’t know if the thing with Riley had been a fluke or if I was some kind of mutant or something now (I like the X-Men, both the comics and the movies).
So I thought, where would there be another community notice board like the one in the post office. The library was my first idea so that was where I went and sure enough there was a board full of papers. This one wasn’t nearly as full as the one in the post office. Someone must keep this one updated. Which is why when I saw the missing persons posters (there were two) they were recent.
Hope Shavies was a year old when she went missing in 2015 with black hair and brown eyes. There was no aged picture for her.
Jenny Mitchell had been thirteen when she went missing on her way home from school in 2010. She was blonde with blue eyes and had been wearing a blue dress. There was an aged photo of her and she was pretty.
I wondered what had happened to them and that strange focus and slowing down of everything happened again, like it had when I had seen Riley’s poster. This time I noted the phone number to call. It was the same on both posters and I hoped the same on Riley’s which I had kept and was tucked away at the bottom of my underwear drawer. Not the best place to keep a picture of a young boy who is no relation to you but it wasn’t like it was a dirty picture or anything. Still I should have known better and tossed it out. I wrote down the girl’s names so if I suddenly discovered I knew where they were I could give Danneel the correct name to go with an address.
As I left I was feeling both excited and apprehensive. Did I really want to try to find these girls or was I hoping to find these girls? Either way time would tell.
The next morning I knew that baby Hope was in New Mexico and was happy.
But I had tears running down my face because of Jenny and I struggled not to make noise as I cried for her. I didn’t have an address for Jenny. I had a location. Deep down in that place that gave me the details, I knew that Jenny was dead and that was why I had a location not a real address.
I was still crying when I took my morning shower and at least then I could do it right if I had to do it quietly. I think it helped me to be able to better compose myself for when I had to go to school. Chris noticed right away that something wasn’t right and asked me about it. I didn’t want to lie to him but I didn’t want to tell him the truth. At least not yet. I figured I would tell him if I continued to have the power (or was it the ability) to find missing people. I figured that I might have to tell Jared, too, if I wanted (and right then, needed) his help.
Knowing the addresses/location of missing people in the world meant nothing if I couldn’t give that information to anyone. To get it to where it needed to go, I needed an anonymous phone, and to get to that, I needed a car.
I didn’t have a car, or a driver’s license for that matter so I needed someone who did have those things. I had used a pay phone during a date with Jared just a few days ago. If I wanted to go back to ACES and use the phone I probably needed Jared. But I didn’t want to seem too easy by asking him to take me again so soon, because I did want to go again. With him of course, not just for the phone and I was not going to go by myself. I tried to think of anywhere there would be a working pay phone. It took me most of first and second periods to mentally go through most of my home town but I remembered at last that the auto wrecking yard on the north side of town had one. Now I just had to get there.
I skipped lunch (another headache was building killing my apatite on top of being depressed about Jenny) to debate who I should ask to drive me there, Chris or Jared and what excuse I would need to use to get them to take me. I finally settled on Chris with the explanation that I wanted to see if there were any cheap junkers that could run from point A to point B so that when I did get my license after begging my parents to let me take the test I could use my dismal paycheck to get something. My point-of-fact argument to my parents for this was the storm we had been caught in. Any car was better than no car and as much as I loved riding with Chris, I couldn’t do it forever. He might buy it and I would wheedle him shamelessly and continuously about it until he said yes. The sooner I could call Danneel and unburden my mind the better.
With most of my plan laid out I spent the rest of the afternoon debating and feeling depressed over what to do about Jenny. Hope was a no brainer, I would give that address over in a heartbeat. But I didn’t have an address for Jenny because, unlike Hope, she was dead.
How was I supposed to give the directions and by late afternoon, the coordinates of a grave I hadn’t seen, been to or had anything to do with to Danneel when I had just given her the address for a living person? I don’t know if I had been taken seriously from the first call or if my tip had been followed up and acted upon. I had hoped it would be, but I had no way of knowing. If they had checked and not found Riley, would they look into my new information? Would Danneel recognize my voice and write me off as some crazy loon looking for attention? Or if, as I knew in my heart, Riley was found where I said he would be, would they be concerned enough to look for me after I gave them the address of a new live kid and the location of a dead one?
I was so confused and sad that I had to skip my last class and hide down in the school’s basement for a freak out and a cry. I hid in a nook that the stoners used at lunch to hide and get in a few puffs of a joint. In late afternoon it was empty and no one would come down for fear of being caught by the janitor who would be in his office down here getting ready for when the students and teachers left to get to serious work. I took my chances with being found but I needed the solitude.
By now I had a few details of Hope’s house and whoever took her must love her from the comfort and toys they had.
I also had information about Jenny that I didn’t want.
She had been strangled after being…I was almost sick at that unspeakable thought, so I concentrated on Hope or when my mind went back to her what the land around her shallow grave looked like. At least she was by a flowering bush so if her ghost was around (if there were ghosts) she would have something nice to look at if she were stuck there. As much as I wanted to tell about where she was so she could be buried properly and her family could grieve, I was unsure if I wanted to step into what could be a quicksand mess that would swallow me whole.
If I didn’t tell, would my headache not go away like it had when I’d told about Riley? If I told only about Hope would it go away and I could forget about Jenny? What would happen if I never told about Jenny, could my headache get worse and worse until I was in the hospital or it affected me enough to kill me somehow?
I didn’t want to die and Jenny was already dead, I couldn’t save her. But I could help her family by finding her. If I told where she was and the people at missing people headquarters found her what would they do if I called again? Or even if I didn’t call again would they make an effort to try and find me? If they did and I used the pay phone at the wrecking yard like I had planned I was leading them to my town and closer to me.
I did not want to be found, that was for certain.
What would I say if they found me? What could or would they do to me if they found me? What would everyone think of me? (Yes, at that point in my life what people thought of me did matter even if I didn’t show it most of the time.) I was a seventeen year old boy in a small town with no immediate plans for anything but working my family’s restaurant after high school. I would likely end up staying in this town, so it mattered what people would think.
In the end I was cried out and wiped out by the time I used the janitor’s utility sink to clean up my face and head to detention. I didn’t want more detention but seeing Jared might life my spirits, especially if I could sit next to him. Also, he might know where another pay phone was.
When I entered detention right before the bell rang, he was in his usual seat, the one he had let me use when we sat together. To be fair, he had taken his seat back during the week and we hadn’t talked since our date. I was unsure of what he thought of it and if he liked me enough to ask me out on a second date. (I know it’s the twenty-first century and I could ask him on a date but I really wanted him to ask).
I got a few looks from the other students when I made my way to the back of the class instead of taking my usual seat. I sat next to Jared and he gave me a slow once over as I sat. I didn’t see the note book we had used to communicate before or any note book for that matter. Jared usually came to detention empty handed. So it was up to me to start any conversation and provide the note book.
I hoped I wasn’t being offensive or nosy, going for hopeful flirtation with my opening gambit.
Do you have a cell phone? I passed it over and waited.
Jared took his time reading the short message and then finding a pen in a pocket of his jacket to respond. No.
That was it, short and sweet. I wrote back, trying not to be exasperated by what might be like pulling teeth to get him to ‘talk’ to me today. I wasn’t sure if it was because his brief interest in me had died since out date or if this was just the way he was when he wasn’t in the mood to…well, whatever mood he was in that made him sociable.
Do you use pay phones when you need to make a call?
This time he gave me an odd look before shaking his head and writing something down that made the corner of his mouth facing me in profile, quirk up. Why do you have a fetish for pay phones?
Okay, so he wanted to be funny well two could play that game. I wrote my answer with a flourish on some of the words and felt a little better when I handed the note book over. We were flirting, I decided, which meant that Jared was still interested in me.
I enjoy the psychic hotline and don’t want my parents to see me blowing my meager fortune on the astral plain.
That got me a full smile from Jared as he faced me after reading and I smiled back. His answer was what I had hoped for.
So you need a pay phone for you addiction and want me to enable your habit?
I wrote back hastily, yes!
He was slow to write down what I needed and I wasn’t sure if it was because he needed to think of where all the pay phones were or if he was teasing me or both. In the end he passed back a whole list of places around town and outside of town with pay phones. One of them was circled and Jared can be found here was written next to it with a helpful arrow and all. The phone was at a car garage that was in the poorest part of town. Jared, I knew worked at a garage from time to time and I guess this was it.
Thanks. I wrote on a new page having torn out the previous one and folding it up before slipping it into my pocket. I would need it to ask Chris to take me to one and I didn’t want to have to drag out my note book or see any of our conversation. Chris would give me some grief about Jared and if I showed any indication of being serious about him Chris would get Steve and interrogate him. Jared might make him nervous with his height, build and reputation, but Chris would do it anyway to make sure I was in good hands. I just didn’t need him to do it until Jared and I had worked out exactly what it was we were up for.
Does this make me your dealer? Do I get benefits for supplying you with pay phones? Jared’s next note almost made me laugh as I pictured Jared standing on some street corner waving his hands ala Vanna White from Jeopardy at a pay phone and say it could be mine for the price of a date or a kiss-turn-make-out session.
Sure thing, as long as I can get a ride to go with my fix, I’ll let you feel up my flat chest and smooth tummy.
Now I was being forward and outrageous. I was in decent shape from having to work at the restaurant carrying things and moving in tight spaces but I wasn’t ripped like Jared. Yes, my stomach was flat but it wasn’t soft like a girls and my chest was flat, not a lot of muscle there to make anything defined or stand out. Still the idea of letting Jared touch me there if he really wanted made me blush and I ducked my head and leaned over to rummage in my bag. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular but I just wanted to hide my reaction to my flirting. I got back to normal or rather away from embarrassed quick when a pulse of pain shot through my head reminding me that the list Jared provided was not all about flirting. I needed to call the Center of Missing People today. When I righted myself, a book for English in hand, Jared was bent over the note book. He didn’t see how pale I was from the pain which faded when I was sitting upright again. I must have gotten my features and color back to normal by the time Jared handed over the note book.
His answer was long, for him anyway.
Any time you want to go for a ride we can go. Will you be working on Saturday? I know a great place to have a little fun and then we can have a different kind of fun after. Watch out for those psychic frauds or you won’t have any money to spend on gifts to thanks me for taking you to cool and far off places.
Jared wanted another date this weekend and he was willing to drive me around. This was great. The fact that we could kiss or (well, it would be an and, it was Jared and he was hot) make out, too, was nice. Jared was nice and from what little I’d seen of him (ignore rumors of what I heard for now, don’t judge a book by its cover and all, or in Jared’s case, a biker by his nice, worn, leather jacket) kind and I was willing to bet smart. None of the rumors had him flunking in class, not paying attention or on the rare occasion, sleeping, but not flunking. I wanted that second date and ride on his motorcycle. But I was busy with my shift at the restaurant and I had already begged off once this week. Twice and my parents would ask me questions.
Maybe some time next week. I need to earn the money to support my habit and now you. I figured I could go after one of our detentions or beg Mr. Morgan to let me have a day off to work which he wouldn’t know I wasn’t doing unless he showed up at the restaurant.
Jared mulled this over before picking a date that would work for him. Next Thursday cool?
It was and I confirmed we were on before the bell rang to release us from detention. I didn’t realize how the time had passed so quickly and I had to scramble to get my notebook and English book back in my bag before rushing out to meet Chris who would drive me to a pay phone. Or at least I hoped to convince him to drive me to a pay phone. He was waiting in the usual spot for me and before I could climb into the cab of his truck, Jared sped by on his motorcycle with a honk and a wave. Chris narrowed his eyes as he watched Jared’s tail light disappear down the road. I was seated in the truck like nothing unusual had happened when Chris turned that narrowed gaze on me.
“Something you want to tell me, Jenny?” He used a nickname I hated to try and get a rise out of me. By now he had to know I liked or had a crush on Jared and he didn’t approve. Plus, I had skipped a ride with him to go for a ride with Jared.
“No.” I let him get away without objecting to the nickname because I needed a favor and getting upset and arguing with him wouldn’t get me anywhere in that department.
Chris got into the truck and started it up but we didn’t go anywhere. “You want to date that riff-raff?”
“I’m not sure yet,” was my honest answer. We’d had a single date but we weren’t dating.
“He kiss you already?” Chris was blunt when he wanted to get information.
“Yes, but I was okay with it.” I blushed just a bit at the memory but it went away quickly. If I kissed Jared some more, maybe the next time anyone brought it up I wouldn’t blush at all. Once you got used to something you stopped reacting to it so much. Or should that be more severely because there would always be some kind of reaction or else the human race would be as emotional as robots after a while.
Chris just sat for another minute then shook his head. “Right. Well, let’s go” he put the truck in gear and we started to roll out of the parking lot.
“I have a favor. I need to go to Stilton” I blurted one of the names on my list of pay phones which caused Chris to break hard and us to come to an abrupt stand still.
“You want to go to Stilton? What for?” Chris sounded accusatory and he was probably thinking this decision had something to do with Jared.
“I want to call my grandparents and I don’t want Mom to find out.” It was a good lie and one that Chris might buy if I pressed. My mother’s parents had some money and had been angered when she had married my dad. They had refused to talk to her until Josh was born and they wouldn’t help her out money wise at all unless it was in the form of a loan of money. After Josh they did talk only seldomly, usually on big holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. They talked to us (Josh, Mac and I) to get an update on our lives as we got older and on the fourth of July to see what we wanted for Christmas when we were younger but now to ask us what we were going to do with our lives when we got out of high school. To return the sentiment of ill will from them to my mom my dad would only say a few words to them if he had to and didn’t like us talking to them. Mom fretted over this so in the end she didn’t like us talking too much to her parents either. I didn’t want to upset either of them so I did as they did and spent as little time as possible on any call. If I wanted to contact them for any reason it was a sure bet I wasn’t going to do it on the house phone, the restaurant phone, or any of our cell phones.
“Why do you want to call them?” Chris still hadn’t started driving again and I figured he would wait until he got a satisfactory answer.
“I want to ask them about money for the hospital bill.” I would never do so because the Ackles family was a proud family and Chris knew that but he also knew they had money.
“You want to go behind your parents back for a loan?” Chris’s voice was sarcastic and I knew he wasn’t buying the bullshit I was selling.
“No, I want to guilt them into giving money to the hospital which can be taken off the bill.” That way my parents wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t have to pay anything back plus…”They can take it as a tax write off.” I know from our Christmas call a few months ago that they hadn’t donated as much as they had the previous year to charity and commented that gifts would be smaller since they would end up paying more taxes. Dad called them penny pinchers and misers. Hey, now that I thought about it I should totally act on this plan. After I called about Hope and maybe Jenny.
Chris stared at me long enough I started to fidget then shook his head. “It’s your funeral.” But he started driving again. I wasn’t sure he was actually going to drive me to Stilton until we got on the main road out of town. “Where exactly in Stilton are we going?” He asked as we left the last building in town in the rearview mirror.
For that I did have to pull out Jared’s list and I checked it as quickly as possible. “Their library.” I didn’t associate a library with a pay phone but as I thought about it, it made sense. Anyone needing a ride home who didn’t have a cell phone would use it. Plus, when we got there it was on the same block as a car garage so people needing rides while their car was in the shop could use it, too. I told Chris I wanted privacy for my call since I might have to beg for the money and Chris told me he’d wait for me at the garage where he could talk shop about fixing cars.
I still had a lot of the quarters I had procured for my first call and used a handful before dialing the number as I had before, only faster, since I had studied it over the week. When the phone on the other end was picked up I jumped right in to get it over with in case Chris changed his mind and came back or someone in the library came to close to me to hear what I was saying.
“Danneel, I think I might know where Hope Shavies is,” but before I could rattle off the address I was interrupted.
“This is Anne, Danneel is off duty today.” The voice I now heard definitely wasn’t the soft southern lilt of Danneel.
Thinking back I now realized that if I had paid a little more attention when Anne was going through the whole Center for Missing and Exploited Children I would have noticed. Now I was stuck on what to do. I had planned on talking to Danneel and it hadn’t occurred to me that she might not be working today or even that the phone might be picked up by someone besides Danneel. It was a national organization after all, there had to be lots of people answering lots of phones.
“Hello, are you there?” Anne’s voice in my ear brought me back from my musings. I don’t know how much time had passed and I didn’t want my money to run out and possibly inform me I needed to add more quarters and let Anne know I was on a pay phone.
“Hope Shavies is in New Mexico,” I repeated the address twice so Anne could get it down even though I was talking in a rush. It only got worse when I suddenly went full steam ahead and damn the consequences and told them the location for Jenny and described the flower bushes next to her in brief, but nice detail. When I was done, Anne tried to ask for my name but I hung up. I felt good for having given the information to Anne and wired from the thrill of the act I was doing in public and not getting caught. Out of a handful of change I had put in the phone I got a single quarter back, unlike at ACES’s phone. I had taken too long and I grabbed the quarter before hurrying to get Chris and head home.
I didn’t think about missing people or rushed phone calls and random addresses all weekend as I worked hard and picked up an extra shift and a half at the restaurant. I needed the tips to replace the money I had spent on pay phones and would spend again on them as I decided I would hunt down another missing person’s poster. I had found three people and there wasn’t any indication I couldn’t do it again.
Also between Mac watching Lilo and Stitch and catching the end of Cast Away I felt good that I could help those missing people find their families and homes again, that they could be reunited with loved ones. Even Jenny whose parents could at least stop worrying about her now and move on with grieving and life like normal people.
I knew that Jared would take me out on Thursday and I could get him to take me to a pay phone and I didn’t want to have to deal with a headache for a week so I didn’t go looking for another poster until Wednesday. I had spent that detention in my own seat pretending to do homework when I was making a list if all the likely places in town to find missing person posters.
I also toyed with the idea of maybe picking up a missing pet poster. If I could find missing people could I find missing pets? While giving addresses to the Center (the name I was now calling the Center for Missing and Exploited Children because that was too big a mouthful) was the right thing to do, if I had the information and it made me feel like I was doing something good, there might be a reward for lost pets I could collect. I had no issues about doing it if I had the talent to find missing pets. In the area of Texas where I lived, most of the pets would be long gone by the time, or shortly after, any posters were put up. I would just have to be choosey about which pets I wanted or thought I could find in good condition. I also had to contend with the fact that not all places with poster boards would put up the missing person’s posters or that they might not be updated often and there could be duplicate posters around town. Would I be subject to the same addresses more than once if I studied or saw the same posters again and again or would nothing happen since I had already given up the addresses? It was all new to try like a science experiment (later I would cringe at this way of thinking, when I had for a brief time become the science experiment).
The post office and the library didn’t have any new posters and the grocery store only had a board up for their notices. There was, however, a poster I hadn’t seen in the town’s only laundromat. This one must have been ancient from how yellow and wrinkled it was. It was a split picture poster with an original on the left and an aged on the right.
Carlos Ramirez was seven when he disappeared in 1999 and the aged photograph showed him at age fourteen. He’d be about twenty-four or so now but I guess that didn’t matter. He had been a child when he went missing and a child when this poster was made. His family was still looking for him (I hoped) if they had okayed a poster a few years back (okay more like a decade ago) but missing was missing. I took the poster and left so I could focus on it at home since I hadn’t gotten that funny slow down feeling by glancing at it right there in between the washers and dryers.
I didn’t end up studying it right before bedtime since Mom and Dad wanted a family dinner that night. They both had the night off since Dad’s parents were covering for them. Dad’s parents love us and Mom and aren’t anything like Mom’s parents. They are a little better off than we are and chip in when they can, including running the restaurant for a few days or nights each month so that we can have some time besides when we are all working at the restaurant.
At dinner everyone got a turn to talk about what was going on in their own little spheres of our connected lives. Like me and Mac talked about how school was going and Josh hemmed and hawed about the possibility of maybe going to night classes at the community college a few towns over. Plus there was my minor role in Chris and Steve’s band, and Mac’s wanting to go to a camp this summer.
Money was tight with my hospital bill and while they would try to send Mac to camp she might have to wait another year. If Josh went to school could he get a grant or scholarship or financial aid because even though they wanted to, Dad and Mom couldn’t help him with tuition but he could still live at home rent free if he could commute.
They, Mom and Dad, were going to try out some new menu items during the summer. They also hoped to get an ad in some of the local papers to attract more customers. By the time everyone was talked out and dinner and dessert were eaten it was late. It was Mac’s turn to help Mom with the dishes so I went up to my room to study the poster I had picked up earlier.
I sat on my bed and held the poster in my lap. I really read the information this time as I studied it. Carlos Ramirez had been seven when he disappeared walking home from the park a block away from his house. He was supposed to be with friends but they had stayed behind. He was olive skinned with black hair and brown eyes. He had been tall for his age at four foot four and weighed a good fifty-five pounds. He had a nickel sized dark birth mark on his left outer forearm close to the elbow. He had been wearing a blue and grey striped polo shirt and tan khaki pants. I studied both pictures but time seemed to slow when I studied the original photo. When everything was back to normal I made sure the number on the bottom was the same and put it in my underwear drawer with Riley Van Galt’s poster.
I wondered if I didn’t go to sleep would I know where Carlos was in the morning. But that would be a different experiment as I was tired and I wanted to look good, not like a sleep deprivation tester when I had my date with Jared. I also didn’t want to fall asleep on our date that would just be awkward and rude. So I slept and when I woke up I knew that Carlos was in Los Angeles, California. I wondered how he had gotten all the way over there but he was an adult now and could have gotten there himself. I had no idea where he had grown up after he went missing, that knowledge was out of my reach I only knew where he was currently.
During the day I didn’t get a headache and that was progress. Maybe the more people I found and the longer I used my power the more used to it my brain would become and the fewer or lesser the headaches. Maybe they would even go away completely as I used my power to find people. And maybe I would develop a brain tumor or an aneurism and keel over dead one day in class.
The day passed quickly, and I was excited for detention instead of ambivalent about it for a change. Jared and I sat apart in our usual seats so the gossip mill wouldn’t start up about us. That was still a mystery to me since I was a bit of an outsider, if a bit nerdy (I did occasionally tutor kids) while Jared was the bad ass loner who was probably going to end up in prison if you took the gossip about him to be true. After detention he met me out front with his motorcycle and the spare helmet.
We went south and eventually ended up in a wooded marshy area I had no idea existed. Jared took me on a little tour of the place and I loved it. He knew all about the plants and animals we were seeing. After a while when both our stomachs were rumbling loud enough for both of us to hear we went to the nearest town to get dinner. Jared went through the drive through of a KFC and we ate in the towns green common. While we ate, Jared pointed out a pay phone which I could use while he cleaned up the remains of dinner and got the motorcycle ready to go home.
Putting in the usual handful of quarters I dialed the number for the Center by heart. It rang twice when it was picked up by none other than Danneel. I was very happy to hear her voice and decided to tell her so. “It’s good to hear a familiar voice, Danneel, I have an address for you.”
“Oh, it’s you!” she didn’t have a name to call me. “Where are you?”
It was an awkward question because I was calling to give her an address about someone who was missing and she was asking where I was. “Carlos Ramirez he’s at…” But Danneel cut me off before I could give the address.
“My supervisor wants to talk to you.” Danneel sounded a little stressed and I didn’t like this turn of events.
“But I have an address of a missing kid. Well, he wouldn’t be a kid anymore but still.” Again I didn’t get to give the address.
“How do you know where these kids are?” Danneel really did sound like she wanted to know and it was starting to bug me that I couldn’t finish what I had set out to do. Plus I was running out of time on the quarter meter.
“I just do, isn’t that enough?” I let her have one more pause then I was going to give her the address for Carlos weather I had to talk over her or not.
“You’ve been correct every time. Have you seen the news? We found all the kids and their parents all want to thank you. There was a reward, too, for Hope, that her parents want you to have.” Danneel was beginning to talk fast and there was an increase of voice background noise. I guessed that our conversation was attracting attention on her end. She had said that someone in charge wanted to talk to me. A honking got my attention and I saw Jared straddling his motorcycle, helmet already on. Psychic hotlines were expensive things and how much could you talk about besides getting generic advice. He must have thought I’d be done quicker or my quarters would have run out sooner. The reward for finding Hope was tempting but if I wanted to collect it I had to give up my anonymity and I wasn’t going to do that.
“The reward is five thousand dollars. If you would just tell me your name and where you are.” Danneel sounded almost pleading and I wondered if her boss had shown up by now.
“Carlos Ramirez is in Los Angeles” I said holding up one finger in Jared’s direction to indicate I needed one more minute. I gave Danneel the address twice like I usually did and hung up on her asking if I would tell her when who I was. It was good timing because I could also hear the machine asking me to put in more money on top of Danneel’s question about my identity. Since there was no change for me to collect I jogged over to Jared and hopped on the back of the motorcycle.
“What took you so long?” Jared asked as I strapped on my helmet.
“I was learning how many kids I’d have with this totally hot naturalist who liked bikes and picnics in far off places,” I replied smoothly as I wrapped my hands around his waist. “I just hope that you don’t lose your figure popping out all my babies.”
Jared laughed so hard that I shook from our joint body contact before he started the motorcycle and we were on the road. This time when he stopped a block from my house we kissed several times and his fingers found their way just under my t-shirt and skated over the skin at the bottom of my stomach.
“I think at the rate we’re going you’ll have a bun in that oven, soon” Jared said breaking off the last kiss and sliding me stunned (and blushing madly) off the back of the motorcycle. “See you tomorrow.” walked the motorcycle a few feet away from me and then sped off.
I stood and watched him go like an idiot for a minute before I began to laugh. When I finally made it down the block and into the house I was grinning hard enough my face began to hurt and that night I dreamer of kissing and rubbing against Jared. (Pretty PG stuff but I hadn’t seen Jared without less than two layers of cloths on and what I knew of his body was what I could feel was when I was pressed against him when were on his motorcycle and had my arms around his waist.
For the rest of the week nothing unusual happened to me. I didn’t suddenly know where random people were. I didn’t drop dead of an aneurism or heart attack or have a seizure, I didn’t even have a headache.
Which was why I felt I could push my luck and went back to the post office to see if there was a new poster up with any missing people. There wasn’t. I could have left it at that but something inside me said that I wouldn’t know if the thing with Riley had been a fluke or if I was some kind of mutant or something now (I like the X-Men, both the comics and the movies).
So I thought, where would there be another community notice board like the one in the post office. The library was my first idea so that was where I went and sure enough there was a board full of papers. This one wasn’t nearly as full as the one in the post office. Someone must keep this one updated. Which is why when I saw the missing persons posters (there were two) they were recent.
Hope Shavies was a year old when she went missing in 2015 with black hair and brown eyes. There was no aged picture for her.
Jenny Mitchell had been thirteen when she went missing on her way home from school in 2010. She was blonde with blue eyes and had been wearing a blue dress. There was an aged photo of her and she was pretty.
I wondered what had happened to them and that strange focus and slowing down of everything happened again, like it had when I had seen Riley’s poster. This time I noted the phone number to call. It was the same on both posters and I hoped the same on Riley’s which I had kept and was tucked away at the bottom of my underwear drawer. Not the best place to keep a picture of a young boy who is no relation to you but it wasn’t like it was a dirty picture or anything. Still I should have known better and tossed it out. I wrote down the girl’s names so if I suddenly discovered I knew where they were I could give Danneel the correct name to go with an address.
As I left I was feeling both excited and apprehensive. Did I really want to try to find these girls or was I hoping to find these girls? Either way time would tell.
The next morning I knew that baby Hope was in New Mexico and was happy.
But I had tears running down my face because of Jenny and I struggled not to make noise as I cried for her. I didn’t have an address for Jenny. I had a location. Deep down in that place that gave me the details, I knew that Jenny was dead and that was why I had a location not a real address.
I was still crying when I took my morning shower and at least then I could do it right if I had to do it quietly. I think it helped me to be able to better compose myself for when I had to go to school. Chris noticed right away that something wasn’t right and asked me about it. I didn’t want to lie to him but I didn’t want to tell him the truth. At least not yet. I figured I would tell him if I continued to have the power (or was it the ability) to find missing people. I figured that I might have to tell Jared, too, if I wanted (and right then, needed) his help.
Knowing the addresses/location of missing people in the world meant nothing if I couldn’t give that information to anyone. To get it to where it needed to go, I needed an anonymous phone, and to get to that, I needed a car.
I didn’t have a car, or a driver’s license for that matter so I needed someone who did have those things. I had used a pay phone during a date with Jared just a few days ago. If I wanted to go back to ACES and use the phone I probably needed Jared. But I didn’t want to seem too easy by asking him to take me again so soon, because I did want to go again. With him of course, not just for the phone and I was not going to go by myself. I tried to think of anywhere there would be a working pay phone. It took me most of first and second periods to mentally go through most of my home town but I remembered at last that the auto wrecking yard on the north side of town had one. Now I just had to get there.
I skipped lunch (another headache was building killing my apatite on top of being depressed about Jenny) to debate who I should ask to drive me there, Chris or Jared and what excuse I would need to use to get them to take me. I finally settled on Chris with the explanation that I wanted to see if there were any cheap junkers that could run from point A to point B so that when I did get my license after begging my parents to let me take the test I could use my dismal paycheck to get something. My point-of-fact argument to my parents for this was the storm we had been caught in. Any car was better than no car and as much as I loved riding with Chris, I couldn’t do it forever. He might buy it and I would wheedle him shamelessly and continuously about it until he said yes. The sooner I could call Danneel and unburden my mind the better.
With most of my plan laid out I spent the rest of the afternoon debating and feeling depressed over what to do about Jenny. Hope was a no brainer, I would give that address over in a heartbeat. But I didn’t have an address for Jenny because, unlike Hope, she was dead.
How was I supposed to give the directions and by late afternoon, the coordinates of a grave I hadn’t seen, been to or had anything to do with to Danneel when I had just given her the address for a living person? I don’t know if I had been taken seriously from the first call or if my tip had been followed up and acted upon. I had hoped it would be, but I had no way of knowing. If they had checked and not found Riley, would they look into my new information? Would Danneel recognize my voice and write me off as some crazy loon looking for attention? Or if, as I knew in my heart, Riley was found where I said he would be, would they be concerned enough to look for me after I gave them the address of a new live kid and the location of a dead one?
I was so confused and sad that I had to skip my last class and hide down in the school’s basement for a freak out and a cry. I hid in a nook that the stoners used at lunch to hide and get in a few puffs of a joint. In late afternoon it was empty and no one would come down for fear of being caught by the janitor who would be in his office down here getting ready for when the students and teachers left to get to serious work. I took my chances with being found but I needed the solitude.
By now I had a few details of Hope’s house and whoever took her must love her from the comfort and toys they had.
I also had information about Jenny that I didn’t want.
She had been strangled after being…I was almost sick at that unspeakable thought, so I concentrated on Hope or when my mind went back to her what the land around her shallow grave looked like. At least she was by a flowering bush so if her ghost was around (if there were ghosts) she would have something nice to look at if she were stuck there. As much as I wanted to tell about where she was so she could be buried properly and her family could grieve, I was unsure if I wanted to step into what could be a quicksand mess that would swallow me whole.
If I didn’t tell, would my headache not go away like it had when I’d told about Riley? If I told only about Hope would it go away and I could forget about Jenny? What would happen if I never told about Jenny, could my headache get worse and worse until I was in the hospital or it affected me enough to kill me somehow?
I didn’t want to die and Jenny was already dead, I couldn’t save her. But I could help her family by finding her. If I told where she was and the people at missing people headquarters found her what would they do if I called again? Or even if I didn’t call again would they make an effort to try and find me? If they did and I used the pay phone at the wrecking yard like I had planned I was leading them to my town and closer to me.
I did not want to be found, that was for certain.
What would I say if they found me? What could or would they do to me if they found me? What would everyone think of me? (Yes, at that point in my life what people thought of me did matter even if I didn’t show it most of the time.) I was a seventeen year old boy in a small town with no immediate plans for anything but working my family’s restaurant after high school. I would likely end up staying in this town, so it mattered what people would think.
In the end I was cried out and wiped out by the time I used the janitor’s utility sink to clean up my face and head to detention. I didn’t want more detention but seeing Jared might life my spirits, especially if I could sit next to him. Also, he might know where another pay phone was.
When I entered detention right before the bell rang, he was in his usual seat, the one he had let me use when we sat together. To be fair, he had taken his seat back during the week and we hadn’t talked since our date. I was unsure of what he thought of it and if he liked me enough to ask me out on a second date. (I know it’s the twenty-first century and I could ask him on a date but I really wanted him to ask).
I got a few looks from the other students when I made my way to the back of the class instead of taking my usual seat. I sat next to Jared and he gave me a slow once over as I sat. I didn’t see the note book we had used to communicate before or any note book for that matter. Jared usually came to detention empty handed. So it was up to me to start any conversation and provide the note book.
I hoped I wasn’t being offensive or nosy, going for hopeful flirtation with my opening gambit.
Do you have a cell phone? I passed it over and waited.
Jared took his time reading the short message and then finding a pen in a pocket of his jacket to respond. No.
That was it, short and sweet. I wrote back, trying not to be exasperated by what might be like pulling teeth to get him to ‘talk’ to me today. I wasn’t sure if it was because his brief interest in me had died since out date or if this was just the way he was when he wasn’t in the mood to…well, whatever mood he was in that made him sociable.
Do you use pay phones when you need to make a call?
This time he gave me an odd look before shaking his head and writing something down that made the corner of his mouth facing me in profile, quirk up. Why do you have a fetish for pay phones?
Okay, so he wanted to be funny well two could play that game. I wrote my answer with a flourish on some of the words and felt a little better when I handed the note book over. We were flirting, I decided, which meant that Jared was still interested in me.
I enjoy the psychic hotline and don’t want my parents to see me blowing my meager fortune on the astral plain.
That got me a full smile from Jared as he faced me after reading and I smiled back. His answer was what I had hoped for.
So you need a pay phone for you addiction and want me to enable your habit?
I wrote back hastily, yes!
He was slow to write down what I needed and I wasn’t sure if it was because he needed to think of where all the pay phones were or if he was teasing me or both. In the end he passed back a whole list of places around town and outside of town with pay phones. One of them was circled and Jared can be found here was written next to it with a helpful arrow and all. The phone was at a car garage that was in the poorest part of town. Jared, I knew worked at a garage from time to time and I guess this was it.
Thanks. I wrote on a new page having torn out the previous one and folding it up before slipping it into my pocket. I would need it to ask Chris to take me to one and I didn’t want to have to drag out my note book or see any of our conversation. Chris would give me some grief about Jared and if I showed any indication of being serious about him Chris would get Steve and interrogate him. Jared might make him nervous with his height, build and reputation, but Chris would do it anyway to make sure I was in good hands. I just didn’t need him to do it until Jared and I had worked out exactly what it was we were up for.
Does this make me your dealer? Do I get benefits for supplying you with pay phones? Jared’s next note almost made me laugh as I pictured Jared standing on some street corner waving his hands ala Vanna White from Jeopardy at a pay phone and say it could be mine for the price of a date or a kiss-turn-make-out session.
Sure thing, as long as I can get a ride to go with my fix, I’ll let you feel up my flat chest and smooth tummy.
Now I was being forward and outrageous. I was in decent shape from having to work at the restaurant carrying things and moving in tight spaces but I wasn’t ripped like Jared. Yes, my stomach was flat but it wasn’t soft like a girls and my chest was flat, not a lot of muscle there to make anything defined or stand out. Still the idea of letting Jared touch me there if he really wanted made me blush and I ducked my head and leaned over to rummage in my bag. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular but I just wanted to hide my reaction to my flirting. I got back to normal or rather away from embarrassed quick when a pulse of pain shot through my head reminding me that the list Jared provided was not all about flirting. I needed to call the Center of Missing People today. When I righted myself, a book for English in hand, Jared was bent over the note book. He didn’t see how pale I was from the pain which faded when I was sitting upright again. I must have gotten my features and color back to normal by the time Jared handed over the note book.
His answer was long, for him anyway.
Any time you want to go for a ride we can go. Will you be working on Saturday? I know a great place to have a little fun and then we can have a different kind of fun after. Watch out for those psychic frauds or you won’t have any money to spend on gifts to thanks me for taking you to cool and far off places.
Jared wanted another date this weekend and he was willing to drive me around. This was great. The fact that we could kiss or (well, it would be an and, it was Jared and he was hot) make out, too, was nice. Jared was nice and from what little I’d seen of him (ignore rumors of what I heard for now, don’t judge a book by its cover and all, or in Jared’s case, a biker by his nice, worn, leather jacket) kind and I was willing to bet smart. None of the rumors had him flunking in class, not paying attention or on the rare occasion, sleeping, but not flunking. I wanted that second date and ride on his motorcycle. But I was busy with my shift at the restaurant and I had already begged off once this week. Twice and my parents would ask me questions.
Maybe some time next week. I need to earn the money to support my habit and now you. I figured I could go after one of our detentions or beg Mr. Morgan to let me have a day off to work which he wouldn’t know I wasn’t doing unless he showed up at the restaurant.
Jared mulled this over before picking a date that would work for him. Next Thursday cool?
It was and I confirmed we were on before the bell rang to release us from detention. I didn’t realize how the time had passed so quickly and I had to scramble to get my notebook and English book back in my bag before rushing out to meet Chris who would drive me to a pay phone. Or at least I hoped to convince him to drive me to a pay phone. He was waiting in the usual spot for me and before I could climb into the cab of his truck, Jared sped by on his motorcycle with a honk and a wave. Chris narrowed his eyes as he watched Jared’s tail light disappear down the road. I was seated in the truck like nothing unusual had happened when Chris turned that narrowed gaze on me.
“Something you want to tell me, Jenny?” He used a nickname I hated to try and get a rise out of me. By now he had to know I liked or had a crush on Jared and he didn’t approve. Plus, I had skipped a ride with him to go for a ride with Jared.
“No.” I let him get away without objecting to the nickname because I needed a favor and getting upset and arguing with him wouldn’t get me anywhere in that department.
Chris got into the truck and started it up but we didn’t go anywhere. “You want to date that riff-raff?”
“I’m not sure yet,” was my honest answer. We’d had a single date but we weren’t dating.
“He kiss you already?” Chris was blunt when he wanted to get information.
“Yes, but I was okay with it.” I blushed just a bit at the memory but it went away quickly. If I kissed Jared some more, maybe the next time anyone brought it up I wouldn’t blush at all. Once you got used to something you stopped reacting to it so much. Or should that be more severely because there would always be some kind of reaction or else the human race would be as emotional as robots after a while.
Chris just sat for another minute then shook his head. “Right. Well, let’s go” he put the truck in gear and we started to roll out of the parking lot.
“I have a favor. I need to go to Stilton” I blurted one of the names on my list of pay phones which caused Chris to break hard and us to come to an abrupt stand still.
“You want to go to Stilton? What for?” Chris sounded accusatory and he was probably thinking this decision had something to do with Jared.
“I want to call my grandparents and I don’t want Mom to find out.” It was a good lie and one that Chris might buy if I pressed. My mother’s parents had some money and had been angered when she had married my dad. They had refused to talk to her until Josh was born and they wouldn’t help her out money wise at all unless it was in the form of a loan of money. After Josh they did talk only seldomly, usually on big holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. They talked to us (Josh, Mac and I) to get an update on our lives as we got older and on the fourth of July to see what we wanted for Christmas when we were younger but now to ask us what we were going to do with our lives when we got out of high school. To return the sentiment of ill will from them to my mom my dad would only say a few words to them if he had to and didn’t like us talking to them. Mom fretted over this so in the end she didn’t like us talking too much to her parents either. I didn’t want to upset either of them so I did as they did and spent as little time as possible on any call. If I wanted to contact them for any reason it was a sure bet I wasn’t going to do it on the house phone, the restaurant phone, or any of our cell phones.
“Why do you want to call them?” Chris still hadn’t started driving again and I figured he would wait until he got a satisfactory answer.
“I want to ask them about money for the hospital bill.” I would never do so because the Ackles family was a proud family and Chris knew that but he also knew they had money.
“You want to go behind your parents back for a loan?” Chris’s voice was sarcastic and I knew he wasn’t buying the bullshit I was selling.
“No, I want to guilt them into giving money to the hospital which can be taken off the bill.” That way my parents wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t have to pay anything back plus…”They can take it as a tax write off.” I know from our Christmas call a few months ago that they hadn’t donated as much as they had the previous year to charity and commented that gifts would be smaller since they would end up paying more taxes. Dad called them penny pinchers and misers. Hey, now that I thought about it I should totally act on this plan. After I called about Hope and maybe Jenny.
Chris stared at me long enough I started to fidget then shook his head. “It’s your funeral.” But he started driving again. I wasn’t sure he was actually going to drive me to Stilton until we got on the main road out of town. “Where exactly in Stilton are we going?” He asked as we left the last building in town in the rearview mirror.
For that I did have to pull out Jared’s list and I checked it as quickly as possible. “Their library.” I didn’t associate a library with a pay phone but as I thought about it, it made sense. Anyone needing a ride home who didn’t have a cell phone would use it. Plus, when we got there it was on the same block as a car garage so people needing rides while their car was in the shop could use it, too. I told Chris I wanted privacy for my call since I might have to beg for the money and Chris told me he’d wait for me at the garage where he could talk shop about fixing cars.
I still had a lot of the quarters I had procured for my first call and used a handful before dialing the number as I had before, only faster, since I had studied it over the week. When the phone on the other end was picked up I jumped right in to get it over with in case Chris changed his mind and came back or someone in the library came to close to me to hear what I was saying.
“Danneel, I think I might know where Hope Shavies is,” but before I could rattle off the address I was interrupted.
“This is Anne, Danneel is off duty today.” The voice I now heard definitely wasn’t the soft southern lilt of Danneel.
Thinking back I now realized that if I had paid a little more attention when Anne was going through the whole Center for Missing and Exploited Children I would have noticed. Now I was stuck on what to do. I had planned on talking to Danneel and it hadn’t occurred to me that she might not be working today or even that the phone might be picked up by someone besides Danneel. It was a national organization after all, there had to be lots of people answering lots of phones.
“Hello, are you there?” Anne’s voice in my ear brought me back from my musings. I don’t know how much time had passed and I didn’t want my money to run out and possibly inform me I needed to add more quarters and let Anne know I was on a pay phone.
“Hope Shavies is in New Mexico,” I repeated the address twice so Anne could get it down even though I was talking in a rush. It only got worse when I suddenly went full steam ahead and damn the consequences and told them the location for Jenny and described the flower bushes next to her in brief, but nice detail. When I was done, Anne tried to ask for my name but I hung up. I felt good for having given the information to Anne and wired from the thrill of the act I was doing in public and not getting caught. Out of a handful of change I had put in the phone I got a single quarter back, unlike at ACES’s phone. I had taken too long and I grabbed the quarter before hurrying to get Chris and head home.
I didn’t think about missing people or rushed phone calls and random addresses all weekend as I worked hard and picked up an extra shift and a half at the restaurant. I needed the tips to replace the money I had spent on pay phones and would spend again on them as I decided I would hunt down another missing person’s poster. I had found three people and there wasn’t any indication I couldn’t do it again.
Also between Mac watching Lilo and Stitch and catching the end of Cast Away I felt good that I could help those missing people find their families and homes again, that they could be reunited with loved ones. Even Jenny whose parents could at least stop worrying about her now and move on with grieving and life like normal people.
I knew that Jared would take me out on Thursday and I could get him to take me to a pay phone and I didn’t want to have to deal with a headache for a week so I didn’t go looking for another poster until Wednesday. I had spent that detention in my own seat pretending to do homework when I was making a list if all the likely places in town to find missing person posters.
I also toyed with the idea of maybe picking up a missing pet poster. If I could find missing people could I find missing pets? While giving addresses to the Center (the name I was now calling the Center for Missing and Exploited Children because that was too big a mouthful) was the right thing to do, if I had the information and it made me feel like I was doing something good, there might be a reward for lost pets I could collect. I had no issues about doing it if I had the talent to find missing pets. In the area of Texas where I lived, most of the pets would be long gone by the time, or shortly after, any posters were put up. I would just have to be choosey about which pets I wanted or thought I could find in good condition. I also had to contend with the fact that not all places with poster boards would put up the missing person’s posters or that they might not be updated often and there could be duplicate posters around town. Would I be subject to the same addresses more than once if I studied or saw the same posters again and again or would nothing happen since I had already given up the addresses? It was all new to try like a science experiment (later I would cringe at this way of thinking, when I had for a brief time become the science experiment).
The post office and the library didn’t have any new posters and the grocery store only had a board up for their notices. There was, however, a poster I hadn’t seen in the town’s only laundromat. This one must have been ancient from how yellow and wrinkled it was. It was a split picture poster with an original on the left and an aged on the right.
Carlos Ramirez was seven when he disappeared in 1999 and the aged photograph showed him at age fourteen. He’d be about twenty-four or so now but I guess that didn’t matter. He had been a child when he went missing and a child when this poster was made. His family was still looking for him (I hoped) if they had okayed a poster a few years back (okay more like a decade ago) but missing was missing. I took the poster and left so I could focus on it at home since I hadn’t gotten that funny slow down feeling by glancing at it right there in between the washers and dryers.
I didn’t end up studying it right before bedtime since Mom and Dad wanted a family dinner that night. They both had the night off since Dad’s parents were covering for them. Dad’s parents love us and Mom and aren’t anything like Mom’s parents. They are a little better off than we are and chip in when they can, including running the restaurant for a few days or nights each month so that we can have some time besides when we are all working at the restaurant.
At dinner everyone got a turn to talk about what was going on in their own little spheres of our connected lives. Like me and Mac talked about how school was going and Josh hemmed and hawed about the possibility of maybe going to night classes at the community college a few towns over. Plus there was my minor role in Chris and Steve’s band, and Mac’s wanting to go to a camp this summer.
Money was tight with my hospital bill and while they would try to send Mac to camp she might have to wait another year. If Josh went to school could he get a grant or scholarship or financial aid because even though they wanted to, Dad and Mom couldn’t help him with tuition but he could still live at home rent free if he could commute.
They, Mom and Dad, were going to try out some new menu items during the summer. They also hoped to get an ad in some of the local papers to attract more customers. By the time everyone was talked out and dinner and dessert were eaten it was late. It was Mac’s turn to help Mom with the dishes so I went up to my room to study the poster I had picked up earlier.
I sat on my bed and held the poster in my lap. I really read the information this time as I studied it. Carlos Ramirez had been seven when he disappeared walking home from the park a block away from his house. He was supposed to be with friends but they had stayed behind. He was olive skinned with black hair and brown eyes. He had been tall for his age at four foot four and weighed a good fifty-five pounds. He had a nickel sized dark birth mark on his left outer forearm close to the elbow. He had been wearing a blue and grey striped polo shirt and tan khaki pants. I studied both pictures but time seemed to slow when I studied the original photo. When everything was back to normal I made sure the number on the bottom was the same and put it in my underwear drawer with Riley Van Galt’s poster.
I wondered if I didn’t go to sleep would I know where Carlos was in the morning. But that would be a different experiment as I was tired and I wanted to look good, not like a sleep deprivation tester when I had my date with Jared. I also didn’t want to fall asleep on our date that would just be awkward and rude. So I slept and when I woke up I knew that Carlos was in Los Angeles, California. I wondered how he had gotten all the way over there but he was an adult now and could have gotten there himself. I had no idea where he had grown up after he went missing, that knowledge was out of my reach I only knew where he was currently.
During the day I didn’t get a headache and that was progress. Maybe the more people I found and the longer I used my power the more used to it my brain would become and the fewer or lesser the headaches. Maybe they would even go away completely as I used my power to find people. And maybe I would develop a brain tumor or an aneurism and keel over dead one day in class.
The day passed quickly, and I was excited for detention instead of ambivalent about it for a change. Jared and I sat apart in our usual seats so the gossip mill wouldn’t start up about us. That was still a mystery to me since I was a bit of an outsider, if a bit nerdy (I did occasionally tutor kids) while Jared was the bad ass loner who was probably going to end up in prison if you took the gossip about him to be true. After detention he met me out front with his motorcycle and the spare helmet.
We went south and eventually ended up in a wooded marshy area I had no idea existed. Jared took me on a little tour of the place and I loved it. He knew all about the plants and animals we were seeing. After a while when both our stomachs were rumbling loud enough for both of us to hear we went to the nearest town to get dinner. Jared went through the drive through of a KFC and we ate in the towns green common. While we ate, Jared pointed out a pay phone which I could use while he cleaned up the remains of dinner and got the motorcycle ready to go home.
Putting in the usual handful of quarters I dialed the number for the Center by heart. It rang twice when it was picked up by none other than Danneel. I was very happy to hear her voice and decided to tell her so. “It’s good to hear a familiar voice, Danneel, I have an address for you.”
“Oh, it’s you!” she didn’t have a name to call me. “Where are you?”
It was an awkward question because I was calling to give her an address about someone who was missing and she was asking where I was. “Carlos Ramirez he’s at…” But Danneel cut me off before I could give the address.
“My supervisor wants to talk to you.” Danneel sounded a little stressed and I didn’t like this turn of events.
“But I have an address of a missing kid. Well, he wouldn’t be a kid anymore but still.” Again I didn’t get to give the address.
“How do you know where these kids are?” Danneel really did sound like she wanted to know and it was starting to bug me that I couldn’t finish what I had set out to do. Plus I was running out of time on the quarter meter.
“I just do, isn’t that enough?” I let her have one more pause then I was going to give her the address for Carlos weather I had to talk over her or not.
“You’ve been correct every time. Have you seen the news? We found all the kids and their parents all want to thank you. There was a reward, too, for Hope, that her parents want you to have.” Danneel was beginning to talk fast and there was an increase of voice background noise. I guessed that our conversation was attracting attention on her end. She had said that someone in charge wanted to talk to me. A honking got my attention and I saw Jared straddling his motorcycle, helmet already on. Psychic hotlines were expensive things and how much could you talk about besides getting generic advice. He must have thought I’d be done quicker or my quarters would have run out sooner. The reward for finding Hope was tempting but if I wanted to collect it I had to give up my anonymity and I wasn’t going to do that.
“The reward is five thousand dollars. If you would just tell me your name and where you are.” Danneel sounded almost pleading and I wondered if her boss had shown up by now.
“Carlos Ramirez is in Los Angeles” I said holding up one finger in Jared’s direction to indicate I needed one more minute. I gave Danneel the address twice like I usually did and hung up on her asking if I would tell her when who I was. It was good timing because I could also hear the machine asking me to put in more money on top of Danneel’s question about my identity. Since there was no change for me to collect I jogged over to Jared and hopped on the back of the motorcycle.
“What took you so long?” Jared asked as I strapped on my helmet.
“I was learning how many kids I’d have with this totally hot naturalist who liked bikes and picnics in far off places,” I replied smoothly as I wrapped my hands around his waist. “I just hope that you don’t lose your figure popping out all my babies.”
Jared laughed so hard that I shook from our joint body contact before he started the motorcycle and we were on the road. This time when he stopped a block from my house we kissed several times and his fingers found their way just under my t-shirt and skated over the skin at the bottom of my stomach.
“I think at the rate we’re going you’ll have a bun in that oven, soon” Jared said breaking off the last kiss and sliding me stunned (and blushing madly) off the back of the motorcycle. “See you tomorrow.” walked the motorcycle a few feet away from me and then sped off.
I stood and watched him go like an idiot for a minute before I began to laugh. When I finally made it down the block and into the house I was grinning hard enough my face began to hurt and that night I dreamer of kissing and rubbing against Jared. (Pretty PG stuff but I hadn’t seen Jared without less than two layers of cloths on and what I knew of his body was what I could feel was when I was pressed against him when were on his motorcycle and had my arms around his waist.