Bill Morgan had premature grey that looked suspiciously green from the agents he now used to cover it up. He got up from the booth and smiled at his daughter. The only thing she could do is endure the brief hug he gave her. He looked good and appeared fit. Margene was good for him in that way.
“I went ahead and ordered for you, honey. I got your favorite chicken fried steak and fries,” he was saying as he sat back down and glanced at his new hi-tech cell phone, smiling at a text message he received from his girlfriend.
Lindsay was disgusted at his words. That dish hadn’t been her favorite here since she was twelve. Her father paid scant attention to her the next few minutes as he painstakingly sent a message back to Margene.
“I need to pay off my class pictures, Dad,” she said directly. “There’s a hundred dollar balance and Mom doesn’t have it.”
He was smiling as he got another alert, not appearing to have heard her. She was worried about Jace and wanted to get this over with so she could go look for him. The urge to snatch the phone and chuck it against the wall was refrained. She needed the money.
“Dad? Can you do that later?”
Bill Morgan smiled guiltily and put the phone in his pocket. “Margene wants to go to Helena tonight. What did you say, honey?”
“My class pictures have to be picked up,” she said in a controlled tone. “I need the money.”
“Hundred bucks, huh? Whoa, that much? I’m a little short this week, kiddo. How soon do you have to pick them up?”
Lindsay was annoyed. Obviously he had the money to take Margene out in Helena but he didn’t have the money for his kid’s senior pictures. The desire to get up and storm out of there was overwhelming. She ate her pride and forced a smile.
“Dad, it’s a month overdue already. It’s the middle of March. I have to get my announcements out in two weeks.”
She watched as he reached into his wallet and was disgusted to see the wad of money he had. He counted out five twenty dollar bills and handed it to her grudgingly. She took it and decided she wasn’t waiting for the chicken fried steak.
“I can’t stay to eat. Just box it up and take it home,” she said as she stood. “Mom needs the car and I gotta get back.”
He was already reaching for his phone by then and didn’t seem to notice. She stood there a half second longer to see he was punching keys into his phone. She left the diner and was in a foul mood.
To be fair, he had never been the most doting father. He paid the bills and had an excuse to be gone during their childhood when he took over the family business after her grandfather died.
It really wasn’t a surprise to know he was sneaking around with Margene Prescott.
Her parents married out of high school when Deborah got pregnant with Lance. Her older brother told her about it years ago. He overheard one of their many arguments. Had they been more careful; the two would have never worked as a couple. Her father was too needy and narcissistic; her mother too controlling and cold. They stayed together for over twenty years. Lindsay wondered if Margene was the first girlfriend her father had in that time. It didn’t matter.
It was like she didn’t belong in his life anymore. Now she knew why Lance left. He’d always been close to their father. He took it all very personally. She smirked as she got into the station wagon to go find Jace. Her father would be shocked to know Margene knew Lance very well.
Her twenty-three year old brother was running around with Margene the whole time she was seeing their father. It was too much for Lance to endure. He left rather than deal with it. Lance swore her to secrecy. It pleased her just to know the reason Margene seemed to go out of her way to keep him away from his kids. It was obvious she worried they would tell.
As Jace would say; it would all come out in the wash. A firm believer of Karma; he predicted this situation of his own years ago when they huddled in the fort he built in the woods. He said he would get stuck raising his brother and sister. A more optimistic Lindsay told him all would work out then. The Lindsay today waited for the other ball to drop.
Jace would have walked through fire to call her. He knew she hardly slept last night after their fight. He would never have tortured her like this by not calling first thing. Anyone who knew Jace knew that. He was always thinking of other people’s feelings first. Something kept him from making that call.
She worried it all the way out to the Turner farm. She turned onto the deeply-rutted drive and grimaced to feel the shocks absorb the impact. The farmhouse hadn’t seen paint in decades. The barns and out buildings were leaning and near to collapsing. A tractor sat rusted in the center of a field in the distance. The place looked like a junkyard now.
Everett liked to drag home worthless non-working items like washers, dryers, and even old toilets. The yard was littered with them. She felt sorry for Jace, knowing even if he got guardianship of his siblings, he would still have to deal with Everett. His father wasn’t going anywhere, not when there was a drink in it for him.
She loved Jace and thought he was perfect. But, he was his father’s worst enabler. He paid his father to stay away so the kids wouldn’t be subjected to a drunk. As it was, Evie stayed with a bar fly named Addie Panks in town. He never saw his kids much but was happy to show up at his son’s job to demand his half of the welfare check each month. Jace was happy to give it to him just to keep him out of their hair.
A light was on in the living room. Sara and Dougie ran out on the rickety porch when they saw her headlights. It was getting dark. She was worried sick to see their expressions, mirroring her own. Something was very wrong.
Dougie ran out to the car, Sara fast on his heels. “Hurry Lindsay, we gotta go back into town. Jace is missing.”
“What do you mean he’s missing? Slow down, Dougie. Tell me what happened.”
He looked miserable. “I came out from talking to Mr. Miller and he was gone. I waited all day for him and he never came back. Mr. Miller brought us home.”
“Get in,” she said without hesitation. No, that wasn’t Jace at all. Dougie was like his own kid. He’d never leave him anywhere, or Sara. The girl’s brown eyes were filled with worry. Lindsay watched her in the rearview.
“Did he say he had to run any errands after he dropped you off, Sara?”
“No, he said he and Dougie were going to hang out at Cam’s for awhile, until I got done sitting for Mrs. Alton. He didn’t want to waste the gas going home and coming back for me.”
“So he has to be in town,” Lindsay said and fought a wave of panic so the kids didn’t see it. She knew how much they relied on Jace. He was like their parent. “There has to be an explanation. Let’s just go to Cam’s and see if he’s there.”
Lindsay drove back to town and discovered Cam wasn’t home. She chewed her lip and wondered if the kids were hungry. She only needed forty dollars for her pictures, reasoning the other sixty was child support. The kids had to eat.
“Let’s stop and get you guys something to eat first and we can finish looking.”
“Lindsay, something is wrong,” Sara wailed and tears filled her eyes. “I feel it. Something happened to Jace!”
“Shut up!” Dougie snarled and turned on his sister. “He’d kick the crap out of anybody!”
“Enough, you two,” Lindsay said firmly. “Quit fighting. We’re gonna go grab a pizza at the bowling alley and put our heads together. For all we know; he’ll find us.”
The two kids sat tensely in the backseat. Lindsay could see Dougie was near tears. She felt badly now for expecting Jace to be so selfish and leave them. Seeing how shaken they were reminded her of how much they loved their older brother.
That bond was a source of anxiety for her this last year. A small part of her wanted him all to herself. Without thinking of these two kids at all; she forced him to choose.