“I can always order more,” I said.
He smiled. “It’s fun watching you eat.”
“Fun?”
“Haven’t you ever heard that guys get turned on by women who have huge appetites?”
“I read that. It’s just that I’ve never put you in the category of a normal guy.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. What do you want to do today?”
“Rent a car and drive a hundred miles out of town.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t think I can afford that.”
I waved my hand. “Don’t worry about money. I told you at the lake, I hit a lucky streak at the blackjack table.”
“You did? I just remember the gifts some stranger gave you. How much did you win?”
“A lot. Let’s talk about it after we get out of here. For now, I need to know if you’ve heard from Kari.”
Jimmy’s face darkened. “She’s still in town. She called, and when I told her you had disappeared, she didn’t act surprised. She said you’d be back, but I probably wouldn’t recognize you. Then she hung up.”
Another sign Kari knew about witch world. But how? Who had connected her? After my call with Frank, my father and Russ had told me Kari had only two witch genes, and that two was the minimum it took to wake up in the other dimension. Yet they had given me the impression that most people with two genes had a hard time making the jump.
I hoped Kari wasn’t in contact with the Lapras. It made no sense she would have befriended them. They had, after all, stolen Huck. But perhaps they had gotten to her early and put the blame on the Tar. That could be bad. I was counting on Kari’s help. We both had the same goal—we both wanted our kid back.
Jimmy studied me as I pondered these problems. My dad had said he had five witch genes total. He was a heavy hitter. Yet my dad had given a thumbs-down to the idea of putting Jimmy through the death experience.
“Chances are he wouldn’t survive it,” my father had said.
“Why not?” I had asked.
“He doesn’t have the healing gene.”
“But you said not everyone needed it to have their other genes activated.”
“True. But even I would be reluctant to bring Jimmy that close to death, and I’m a heart surgeon and an expert when it comes to resuscitating people. He’s too valuable to the Council to risk.”
“Because he has so many genes?”
“That’s one reason. There are others.”
Back at the breakfast table, Jimmy continued to study me. “Did Kari have anything to do with your vanishing act?” he asked.
“Not directly. But she’s connected to some stuff that’s going on in my life.”
“How so?”
“I’ll tell you in the car.” I stood from the table. “Can you give me a few minutes? I have to get something out of the hotel vault.”
“What?”
“Money.” I leaned over and kissed him. “I won’t be long.”
I had a Bank of America debit card that also doubled as a Visa credit card. The problem was I had almost no money in the account. But the hotel had ATMs that allowed a person to make instant deposits in their account—if they had cash. That was why I was anxious to get to my bag of money. I wanted to get my card up to steam so I could rent a comfortable four-wheel-drive SUV with plenty of power.
I ended up with a Ford Expedition. The guy at the Hertz counter told me it handled the best on off-road terrain. That was what I cared about the most. I didn’t explain to Jimmy why I wanted the extra power until we were in the vehicle and heading out of town. I let him drive, he liked to drive long distances.
“Remember at the start of the fourth Indiana Jones film?” I said. “How Indy ended up in a fabricated town that was used to measure the effects of nuclear bombs on houses, benches, trees—normal stuff like that.”
“Sure. I also remember how Indy saved himself from a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator. Always meant to drop Spielberg a line about how impossible that was.”
I chuckled. “Hey, it was a fun scene. Who cares if it was realistic? The reason I bring it up is those towns are still out here, in the desert. Do you know that back in the fifties it was a favorite Las Vegas pastime to go out on your hotel balcony and watch the army light off a nuclear bomb? The people would actually see the mushroom cloud and feel the heat of the blast on their faces. They weren’t worried about the radiation at all.”
“I assume a lot of those people later got cancer,” Jimmy said.
“It’s possible.”
Jimmy looked over at me. “Don’t tell me you want to go visit those towns?”
“Yes.”
Jimmy snorted. “Could you think of a worse place to visit? Radioactive particles linger in the sand. Can’t we go somewhere a little more healthy?”
I held up the travel book I’d bought in the hotel gift shop. “I read up on the towns. The background radiation is higher than normal but it’s not supposed to be dangerous if you don’t stay too long.”
“Does this craving to visit these towns have anything to do with your disappearance?” he asked.
“Yes. Keep driving and I’ll explain when we stop.”
“I wish you would drop the suspense,” he said.
I glanced over my shoulder, trying to make sure we weren’t being followed. “What I have to tell you is going to be hard to swallow. We’re going to need plenty of privacy, and you’re going to have to keep an open mind.”
“As long as we have sex when you’re done talking.”
I reached over and messed up his hair. “That’s my boy.”
My mother called my cell while we drove. She wanted to know how Las Vegas was. I wasn’t surprised the secret was already out of the bag. My mom didn’t act the least bit upset. In fact, she sounded happy to hear I was with Jimmy. She had always liked him. But then I ruined things by telling her I had spoken to my father.
“He called you?” she asked.
“Yeah. Don’t get upset. He apologized for not coming to the graduation ceremony. He told me he’d make it up to me.”
“How?”
“By paying for my college education.”
My mother sighed. “I’ve heard this talk before. I hope you took everything he said with a grain of salt.”
“It wasn’t that way, Mom. We had a great talk. A lot of things are clearer to me now. He’s not the man you think he is.”
“Then why did it take him four years to call you?”
“It’s complicated. It’s not something I can explain on the phone. I probably shouldn’t have brought it up. I was just excited to see . . . to hear from him again.”
“Tell me about it when you get home, Jessie. Just don’t get your hopes up.”
“Don’t worry about me, Mom,” I said.
Jimmy glanced over at me after I hung up. “How come you didn’t tell me you spoke to your father?” he asked.
I shrugged. “There’s a million things I’ve got to tell you.”
“You’re beginning to drive me nuts, you know that.”
“Go twenty more miles then pull over to the side of the road.”
“Why?”
“First a demonstration, then my explanation.”
Twenty miles later he parked. I climbed out and walked a hundred yards away from the road. Jimmy followed. The sun looked like it had gone nova. It was so hot the sky could have been on fire. Fortunately, we had brought plenty of water bottles in the SUV.
“This should be far enough,” I said, stopping. We hadn’t taken a major artery out of town. The road traffic was sparse. Still, I didn’t want anyone to see what we were up to.
Jimmy looked around. “If you want to have wild sex, I can think of more romantic spots.”
“We’re not here to screw. We’re here to fight.”
“Huh?”
I shoved him in the chest. “I want you to try to beat me up.”
He tried to grab my hands as I shoved but he missed. I was as fast as I
was strong. “Jessie, if this is your idea of a joke, I’m not laughing.”
“It’s not a joke. I told you, it’s a demonstration.”
“Of what?”
“The fact that I can kick your ass.”
“Since when?”
“Since yesterday.” I shoved him again, hard enough to knock him down. “Get up and defend yourself, mister. And know this—if you don’t fight as hard as you can, I’m going to make you bleed.”
Like most guys, Jimmy had a streak of macho in him and didn’t like being pushed around. He jumped up quick and began to circle me, his fists ready.
“What if I hit you in the face?” he asked. “You’ll bruise. How am I going to explain that to the others?”
“You’re too slow to touch my face,” I said, and with that I stepped forward, slapped his nose, and backed off. He blinked, dazed. My attack must have looked like a blur to him. Plus his nose was bleeding freely, although I had used only a fraction of my strength.
“Jesus Christ, Jessie!” he howled.
“I told you, I’m not fooling around. You’ve got to fight me. You’ve got to give me a hundred percent.”
“Have you been taking lessons?” he asked, returning to his circling.
“Lessons in what?”
“Self-defense. Who taught you to move like that?”
“It’s not the move. It’s me.”
“What’s that mean?”
I stood perfectly still. “Jump me. Tackle me.”
He wiped at his nose. “I could hurt you.”
“Do it, you pussy!” To anger him further, I kicked sand in his face. Few things are more irritating than dust in the eyes. The only thing you can do is pour water over them until they’re washed clean. But my strategy worked, I had definitely stung Jimmy’s macho. He rushed toward me angrily.
“You bitch!” he cried.
I stood my ground. I could only imagine what it must have felt like for him when we collided. It was like I was made of stone. He bounced off me and would have hit the ground but I grabbed him before he could fall and lifted him over my head. There was a nearby sand dune. I threw him toward it, trying to make it so that he landed safely. He was able to brace his fall with his feet and hands but he still groaned in pain.
I ran to the SUV and was back in seconds with two bottles of water. I rested his head in my lap. “I have water,” I said. “Lie still and let me pour it over your eyes. I have to wash out the dust.”
“How did you do that?” he gasped, the blood from his nose mixing with his dirty face.
“Talk in a minute. Try to keep your eyes wide open. That’s it, the water’s washing the dust away. You’re going to be fine.”
It took several minutes to clean him off and two extra bottles of water, but eventually his eyes cleared and he could see without blinking. He jumped up, angry, he wanted to know what the hell was going on.
“I’m a witch,” I said calmly.
He stumbled toward the SUV, his shirt dripping. “Start making sense or this is going to be a short date,” he swore.
I chased after him, stopped him by grabbing him around the waist, pinning his arms to his upper body. He struggled to get free but it was useless.
“It’s true, honey. I’m sorry I had to be so rough on you to drive home the point. But out here I couldn’t think of another way to convince you. If it’s any comfort, just know that I went through a thousand times worse after I was kidnapped.”
“Who kidnapped you?”
“Other witches.”
“That’s insane!”
“Can you move?”
“No!”
“That’s right, you can’t budge an inch. You figure I have, what, ten times your strength? Let me tell you, I can jack it up even higher.”
“You’re hurting me!”
I released him. “Sorry. This is all new to me. I don’t know my own strength.”
He plopped down in the sand and stared up at me. “Start at the beginning.”
“You don’t want to talk in the air-conditioned Expedition?”
He groaned as he felt his arms and legs for breaks. “I don’t know if I can make it that far.”
“I can carry you.”
He shook his head, annoyed, and slowly climbed to his feet.
“You didn’t have to give such a lively demonstration.”
“I told you I was sorry,” I said. We headed for the SUV, with him limping. “I do have to tell you something up front, before I go through the whole story.”
“What?”
“Huck is alive. Your son is alive.”
I realized I was taking a terrible chance bringing up Huck, particularly at the beginning. Jimmy could get angry and shut down completely. But I felt I had to take the chance. I needed to shock him out of his mind-set. Our fight had impressed him—it had not prepared him to hear about miracles.
He stopped dead. “No.”
“You know me, Jimmy. I wouldn’t dare kid you about a thing like that. I know for an absolute fact that Huck is alive. So does Kari. That’s why she said the things she did at the lake. I told you how she acted like your son had been kidnapped. Well, she wasn’t lying. The child you were given to bury wasn’t yours. You were deceived by some pretty evil people.”
“Are they wicked witches?” he asked, a note of sarcasm in his voice.
“You can call them that.”
He hesitated, obviously afraid to let hope gain life inside him. No one understood that feeling better than I did. People usually saw hope as a positive emotion, when I knew that more often than not it was a prescription for pain.
“What would they want with Huck?” he asked quietly.
I took him by the arm, let him lean on me for support. “I’ll explain everything while we’re driving. All I ask is you keep your mind way open. The shit that’s happened to me since I saw you yesterday is almost impossible to imagine, never mind believe.”
“You’re not going to throw me around anymore, are you?”
“That was a one-time deal,” I promised.
“Okay. I’ll try to keep an open mind.”
We got back in the SUV, cranked the air conditioner up high. This time I drove. Jimmy looked too sore to manage the gas and the brake.
My explanation got off to a bad start. I had to begin with Russ and inevitably I told a few white lies about our encounter. That wouldn’t have been a problem except that Jimmy was a mind reader, probably because of his witch gene and the fact that he was so sincere himself.
I told Jimmy how Alex and I were intrigued by the way Russ played blackjack, particularly the way he kept winning. But Jimmy got hung up on exactly why Alex split and left me alone with the guy.
“He gave her bad advice on a hand,” I said.
“That’s it? That wasn’t his fault. No one can predict how the cards are going to fall.”
“That’s just it. Russ knew when a good hand was coming, or when the dealer was going to bust.”
“Because he’s a witch too?”
“That’s right.”
“Did Alex know he was a witch?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why did she get mad that he couldn’t predict when she’d get a winning hand?”
“Please. Just let me continue.”
It was hard to go on, though, and this was supposed to be the easy part. When I told him how much money Russ and I had won, Jimmy shook his head and said he would have to see it to believe it. I assured him it was in a bag in a safe back at the MGM. I also assured him that Russ wasn’t hitting on me, that he just wanted to catch my attention with his unique abilities. But Jimmy began to squirm when I told him how we met back at his hotel room.
“Why did you go there?” he asked.
“My ID was fake. I couldn’t claim the money I’d won. He had to claim it for me. He took the bulk of the money in the form of a check, but he gave me a hundred thousand in cash.”
“You just said you won fifty-seven thousan
d.”
“I know. But he let me have extra.”
“And he didn’t want anything in return?” Jimmy asked.
“Money is meaningless to him. He can make as much as he wants.” I paused. “Jimmy, if you’re having trouble with this part of my story, I should quit now. This is nothing compared to what I have to tell you.”
“Would you have trouble with a story like this?”
“Sure.”
“How come you didn’t tell me any of this yesterday? Like when we were up at the lake?”
“I didn’t know what was going on yesterday. Now I do.”
He sighed. “All right. Go on.”
I decided to just keep talking. I led Jimmy through my instruction in twenty-two—red queen. I explained the scanner and how it could create a holographic image of a person’s DNA code. Jimmy seemed to brighten up here. He had a strong interest in science. But I didn’t mention making out with Russ. I told him I took a taxi back to the MGM and that was when I found him waiting outside my room.
“You didn’t have a bag full of cash with you,” he said.
“I told you, I had already put it in the hotel safe.”
“Go on,” Jimmy said.
I explained how I was kidnapped by the weird taxi driver and the rich woman with the Taser. When I got to the part where I woke up in a meat locker, Jimmy was shaking his head again but I kept talking. I went through my whole ordeal of breaking out of the freezer. How I failed—how I hurt my ankle and sat down to rest. How I began to doze and eventually blacked out.
I moved on to the morgue, to Dr. Dave and Dr. Susan. This part scared me to recall, and I hoped the obvious fear in my voice would add weight to my story. But Jimmy listened with his gaze focused outside the SUV window, if he was in fact listening.
By the time I escaped from the hospital, I decided my story wouldn’t be enriched by my encounter with Wing, Moonshine, and Squat. I skipped that episode and told Jimmy I headed straight back to Russ’s hotel. But rather than playing twenty-one inside the casino, everyone was playing twenty-two.
That was it, I had gone too far, at least in his mind. He stopped me.
“You honestly believe all this happened,” he said.
“It’s not a matter of belief. It happened.”
“The entire city of Las Vegas gave up its favorite game for the night and decided to play twenty-two instead of twenty-one?”