“No?”
“If he so much as farts he lets the world know about it.”
“I kind of got him riled up. Maybe he couldn’t let it go and he was such a jerk to his parents when he got home they cut him off.”
“Like that’d stop him. He’s too much of a creep. ‘A creep always finds a way’.”
“What was that?”
“What?”
“The British accent.”
“That was my Richard Attenborough. You know, from Jurassic Park. ‘Life finds a way’.”
I grunted.
“You like it,” he said. “You just don’t want me to get egotistical. And I appreciate that, Luce.”
To end the silence he said, “Sorry. I overestimate my entertainment value. I’ll shut up.”
“No. It’s just…How likely is it that Nick and Geoff would do something really stupid? And I don’t mean ordinary ‘let’s pants a 7th grader’ stupid, but let’s do something that ruins the assembly or something like that. Do you think they would?”
“Nick, yes. Geoff…I don’t know.”
“Should I tell-“
“What?”
I’d been pacing my bedroom. I sat down on the edge of the bed and then just flopped onto my back.
“I don’t know. I’m just wondering if I should tell someone what might happen.”
“Like who?”
“The security people that are here.”
Sherman laughed.
“If your house is bugged, and your phone is bugged, then they already know, Lucy.”
“Right.”
After a moment passed he said, “We probably shouldn’t have said any of that, right?”
“Probably not.”
Another intrusion of silence. Usually we rattled right along, or had been, with increasing distance from the SharDi incident.
Finally Sherman said, “Well now I’m just waiting to see if I can hear someone busting into your room and your screams as they drag you away.”
“Funny. That’s the same thing I’m doing.”
He laughed.
I told him I’d see him tomorrow, but I ought to go talk to one of the security people. I didn’t mention that the only one I felt comfortable talking to was Dina. But that was the truth. All the others were carbon copies of Trent, only variation being some had hair. The basic intimidating upper torso thing held true for all of them, Trent to Sam (or Other Sam).
Walking downstairs I ran into Aster coming out of the guest room. She had a bag in her hand.
When the guests first arrived all the bags went into the guest room – what had been and for at least a couple days would be Maddy’s room again.
Then once they’d arrived Dad insisted Aster take his room. He’d sleep on the couch. He’d done it a hundred times before he insisted. Not a problem.
“Getting a bag,” said Aster. “Didn’t move all mine out yet.”
“Oh right.”
I motioned she ought to go down the stairs ahead of me. She smiled and started down.
“Hey Aster? Do you…Is Dina still here?”
“She should be. I think it’s getting close to when she and Trent leave for the night. She’d probably be just down in front, talking to the night shift, giving them their marching orders.”
There aren’t lampposts out in the country. Dark is dark. Alternatively, when they're there, lights stick out against the black background like a fully lit baseball stadium.
From the front porch you could see the light show. The satellite relays on some of the news vans protruded upwards and lights came from inside the vans. And one or more of the tents set up on Skinny Arbogast’s land featured a generator of some sort. Multiple sedentary lights glowed from within tents, distinguishing themselves from the flashlight glow and the headlamps floating in orbit around the makeshift camp, squatters doing their best to navigate the lumpy earth.
Earlier in the evening we’d watched a news report on ‘Camp Maddy’ and one of the people from the camp, a Lewis, had told the reporter he was just going to screen Jack and Maddy movies on his iPad while waiting for the chance to actually see them live and in person. The reporter had asked him what he’d do if that chance didn’t materialize.
“Not gonna happen,” said Lewis.
“You’re going to see them.”
“Absolutely.”
“Meet them? Get an autograph?”
“Don’t need it. Maddy’s already signed my heart a thousand times every second of one of her movies. She’s the best.” The fan turned to look at the camera and then directly at the camera. His left eyelid drooped. His face was sunburned. And he had a pronounced gap in his teeth.
“We love you, Maddy,” said Lewis. “We love you.”
Watching that, and given my exposure to Sherman’s sense of humor, I’d totally expected Jack to start laughing his signature laugh or Maddy to kick into high school Maddy mode – denigrate the poor soul on looks alone. She was sitting on the couch next to Dad. Waiting for her to turn evil I’d been surprised when instead she made noises like Lewis was a helpless kitten or an old and kind of sad dog.
“What a sweetie,” she’d said.
Jack and I had shared a brief look that seemed to say the same thing: let’s see how sweet Maddy thinks Lewis is after he’s had her alone in a room for 5 minutes.
Later, when I followed Aster downstairs, Dad and Jack sat in the living room, Dad providing color commentary while Jack looked at old photo albums. From the way Jack laughed and the way Maddy playfully glared at the two, I could guess at whose expense the commentary came.
Since returning from our walk, Maddy had been on her best behavior. She’d hugged Dad and apologized and then even helped Jack make dinner, the two insisting as guests their hosts couldn’t help.
Outside, just like Aster had predicted, Dina had gone down to the end of the driveway to leave instructions with the night shift. Waiting for her to come back up to the house I wondered if Lewis was still awake at the camp. What movie he was watching right now, 60 autographs a minute forming on his heart.
I’d rather have had Jack or Maddy act as intermediary with Dina, but I didn’t want them to know one of my classmates might try and foul up their visit.
Our porch light was strong enough a figure coming up the driveway was recognizable long before pulling alongside the house. When I saw Dina, I was relieved Trent wasn’t with her. I guessed he might be in back, getting their SUV ready to go.
I stepped off the porch and headed towards her. Looking right just to make sure Trent wasn’t looming in the dark, waiting for her.
“Hey Dina.”
She stopped walking.
“Ms. McCall.”
I felt nervous. I looked back towards the house and then at the shadow the moonlight daubed onto the lawn at the side of the house. I imagined Trent would find out even if I swore Dina to secrecy. I kept having horrible visions of Trent picking up Nick and Geoff and snapping both boys over his knee effortlessly. I wanted Dina to be the only one to know.
I told her about Nick’s prediction that Small Town Girl would bomb and how he’d said it and what a jerk in general he was and then also what he’d posted online. After I was done I waited for her to respond. In the silence it felt like suddenly I’d made a horrible mistake. I was wasting her time or worse, she’d go tell Trent they had 2 fires that needed to be put out, now, before they turned into blazes.
A smile formed on her face.
“He sounds like kind of a jerk.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
She sighed.
“Sorry. I’m tired. I’m not supposed to say I’m tired. But I am. This has been a long day.”
“You guys have a lot to deal with.”
“Mm.” She nodded. “Trent, the others, we put up a good façade, but underneath it…It’s just been a long day.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean t
o add to your stress.”
“Absolutely not. Intel is good. It makes the job easier.”
“I don’t have Nick as a friend on Facebook. My friend, Sherman, he does. If you want, I could probably get him to give you his log in info and you could look at the post.”
“Let me think about that.” She yawned. “I’ll let you know. But I might ask you tomorrow, before the assembly, to point out this Nick character.”
“Sure. I have a yearbook lying around somewhere. I’ll try to find that.”
She thanked me once more then walked off to the back of the house. Just a minute later one of the SUVs pulled out from behind the house, drove down to Jennings, and signaled and turned right, back towards town.
Chapter 19
Friday morning, just a little after 6 a.m., Aster paced the front yard, wearing moccasins, a short skirted bathrobe with a Chinese dragon motif, and a towel wrapped around her freshly showered head. She was smoking. She looked tense like movies always make expectant fathers pacing outside delivery rooms look tense.
She looked at me. Shook her head. Went back to concentrating on her pacing and smoking and occasionally looking down the driveway towards Camp Maddy.
“They’ve been down there for 20 minutes already,” she said as I walked up alongside her. “He wants the stress to kill me. He does.” She continued to pace. “I have a Master's in International Business. I do. Really. And the stress is going to take me out. I’m going to die because he has a genetic need to be the nicest person on the planet.”
Staring at Camp Maddy she drew on the cigarette and blew out a stream of smoke.
“Asshole,” she said.
Soon as I’d come downstairs Dad had told me that Maddy couldn’t stop Jack from ‘going Bone-Oh’, and she’d decided to join him rather than stay in the house and fret.
Later on, the news reports would say that Jack shook everyone’s hand and both he and Maddy fulfilled every last autograph request. Even the people that had signs claiming Lucentology led to deviltry seemed star struck. And as a bookend to the previous night’s story Maddy not only met Lewis, she gave the guy a hug. He looked about to burst into tears. In almost every shot of Maddy and Jack meeting people at Camp Maddy there was a security person just at their shoulder, as attentive as a president’s security detail.
Maddy had also told Dad to tell me that my plan was still a go.
Just to make sure that was going to play out the way Uncle Bob and I had planned it, I left Aster and walked around the house and ran from the backyard through the field behind the house far enough until I could see down into the draw.
Sure enough, there was Uncle Bob on a horse, and one more horse with him, covered with a blanket big enough to seat two riders. Mojo had come along with Uncle Bob. She barked happily at sight of me and started to run up the hill towards me until Uncle Bob called her back. I waved at him and headed back to the house. I’d wolfed down breakfast by the time Jack and Maddy returned from their surprise meet and greet.
“That was fantastic,” said Jack. “Those were the nicest people you could hope to meet.”
Maddy stared at the back of his head like he was nuts.
“If you say so.”
“What? You’re just not awake enough Madeline.”
Headed for the coffee maker and yawning she said, “I’m plenty awake.”
Dressed, Aster hovered at the edge of the dining area. Her eyes remained slightly bulged out.
After swallowing a sip of orange juice Jack ticked his movie star chin at the assistant and asked, “Is that a new blouse, Aster?”
Her brow was squeezed tight above her disbelieving eyes.
“It looks nice,” Jack said.
“You have to clear that sort of thing before you do it, Jack.”
“What sort of ‘thing’?”
She tipped her head back and made a sound half sigh half laugh.
“What else could I possibly be talking about right now?”
“Dina wouldn’t care.”
“You did it because she isn’t here yet,” said Aster. “Why didn’t you wait and clear it with her?”
“We have a schedule to keep.” He pointed at me. “If we’re going to keep to schedule, if we’re going to do what Lucy came up with, then what I did, what Maddy and I just did makes sense.
“One, I’m always happy to meet fans. There is now practically zero chance that when what looks like a convoy carrying us heads for town that any of those people are going to try and block the road.” He pointed at Aster. “You don’t have to worry about that now. You’ll get to town and the school free and unfettered.
“Two, no one will suspect us of having an alternate route planned. At this point I don’t think we even have to take an alternate route to get into town. But I think we should for no other reason than Maddy likes horses, I like horses, we both like riding horses, and both Lucy and her uncle have gone to all this trouble.”
It almost felt like watching him in his Quantum movies, playing the commander of a special operations unit, explaining some plan to break into a high security complex. He finished the orange juice and made several yummy noises.
“I think this might be come of the best orange juice I’ve ever had.” He washed out the glass and set it inside the dishwasher. “Tastes so fresh. It was amazing. Thank you, Senate.”
“Yeah,” said Maddy. “Dad bought it fresh from the grocery store cooler. Probably shook it up fresh from the refrigerator this morning and poured it fresh into your glass.”
Jack walked over to her and smooched her cheek.
“The acid tinged remarks, that, that’s what keeps our marriage alive.”
Grunting, Maddy shook her head as Jack clapped his hands together. Looking directly at me he said, “Now who’s up for a little horse riding action? Saddle up!”
I couldn’t help but smile, mostly because over Jack’s shoulder Maddy continued to look so sour and Aster, maybe drawing on skills imparted by her higher education, looked like she was trying to make Jack’s head combust through sheer will power alone.
Chapter 20
Horse riding had always been more a thing for Mom and Maddy. Maddy even rode a horse in For Love of Country playing a farm widow whose soldier husband was killed in Afghanistan.
I rode with Uncle Bob while Maddy and Jack rode the other horse. Mojo would run off ahead of us and then run back, occasionally trotting on behind the horses, barking, some of her cow dog genes flaring.
Both horses were older and hard to spook. I spent the ride listening to Jack pepper Uncle Bob with questions about his farm and the country. Maddy seemed content to simply ride.
A green Honda Civic was parked at Uncle Bob’s. The car had been rented in Ashmond by one of the security personnel late Thursday. The keys were hidden under the driver side sun visor.
Jack and Mojo became instant best friends once we arrived at Uncle Bob’s. Mojo was in heaven because in Jack she’d found someone who would seemingly never tire of throwing the increasingly slobbered upon tennis ball the length of the lot.
The truck Uncle Bob was working on was still in the garage bay. I offered to help put one of the horses in a stall, but Uncle Bob said he had it.
As we got ready to leave, Uncle Bob shook Jack’s hand as Jack thanked him for the use of his horse. Uncle Bob and Maddy hugged. He told her he might show up for her premiere, but not to count on it. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the prospect of managing the crowds.
Per usual he didn’t make much eye contact with his niece. It didn’t even matter that he’d known her since she was in diapers. She was a fully- grown woman, one of those creatures he couldn’t quite bear to look at straight on.
Maddy used her cell and called Dina. Let her know we were getting into the rental and leaving. At the same time two SUVs would drive out from behind our house and turn down East Jennings towards town, allowin
g the news vans and any other sort of on-looker or well wisher to follow, thinking they were right on the tail of Maddy and Jack.
I got to drive. Maddy was too dreamy having just gotten off a horse and Jack wanted to look at the scenery.
One of the films he was considering doing had a rural setting. After the school events they were going to spend some time location scouting, returning home with enough time to prep for the premiere.
If Jack did the film, Maddy might potentially play a part and Jack might potentially direct. He’d thought of directing before, but nothing had gelled. That was kind of the name of the game when it came to the movies, he said. A lot of things got thrown into the maybe pile and the actual number of things acted upon was teeny tiny.
“I could spend days out here in this country,” said Jack. “It’s so peaceful. It’s just…There’s so many pretty spots I could put in the movie. Don’t you think, Mads?”
“Sure.”
Her lack of enthusiasm didn’t derail him.
“All of this would be perfect.” He nodded. He even did that thing you saw actors playing directors do – held up his hands and framed the view, looked out at it like it was the dimensions of a movie theater screen.
The car got quiet.
Out of sheer nervousness, just to think of anything other than the probability that I might wreck, either out of my own stupidity or the sudden appearance of a suicidal squirrel, I just flat out asked, “So did you guys ever know Kip Arnett?”
In the resulting silence I wished I could step back and remove the query. But it was out there. I’d thought of it earlier when Jack and Maddy were pressing the flesh. I couldn’t imagine Ruth Arnett not looking Jack right in the eye and asking him where was justice for her dead sister?
“Kip Arnett…” Jack said it like he’d heard the name before, but it was long ago.
“Why?” Maddy didn’t sound happy about it.
“Her sister’s been here. Did you see her this morning? I mean, when you guys went out to where, to, um, Camp Maddy, I mean.”
“Do you know everyone in your class?”
“Wait. No. What do you mean?”
“You probably know the names of everyone in your class, right?” asked Maddy. “I mean of course you do. I did. Eaton’s too small for you not to know everyone’s name. But you don’t know everyone. So if you take that as an example, and then think of Lucentology and all its members, its tens of thousands of members, its sheer dumb luck that you’d know everyone. Say Kevin Costner was a Lucentologist. He isn’t, but let’s say he was. It doesn’t matter. That doesn’t mean I know him. It’s not like we have a cathedral or anything. I mean the press loves to point out which actors and actresses and writers practice the religion. So what. We practice it to varying degrees. And all over the place, not just L.A. And wherever we are, it doesn’t mean that we meet once a week and jabber over a potluck afterwards.”