Lancaster Green Chapter 11
James was feeling better again when he heard footsteps on the stairs. “Hey, you’re up!” Jolene said with a laugh as she came into the living room. “I thought you might be down all night.”
“I just meant to catch my breath,” he admitted.
“Do you want to get this over with before you leave?”
If he didn’t do it now, he’d just be stuck dreading it even longer. “Okay,” he said, standing up and taking his tea with him.
He followed Jolene downstairs, still feeling weird about going into the medbay. “Do you feel alright going on the table or would you rather the couch?” Jolene asked, motioning toward the alcove by her desk.
That couch was from Celia’s house. James remembered Krissy playing Barbies on it last time he was over there. “Couch,” he said.
It seemed to help. Jolene went through the motions, only touching him through his clothes for the first part of the exam. When it was time to check his heart and lungs, she hesitated for a second. “Do you feel okay taking your shirt off?” she asked. “It’s just me.”
“Can I keep my gloves on?”
“Yes.”
That would have to be enough. James took off his shirt and held onto it as she listened to his heart and lungs. She then checked his abdomen with her own gloves on and it all went quickly enough that he managed not to scream.
After that it was a quick screening. And then the exam was done. Jolene sat in her desk chair while James stayed on the couch.
“Not bad,” she said, glancing down at her printout. “All things considered. With full understanding of where you’re coming from, I am going to ask you to ease up on the smoking. I can hear it in your lungs. I’m not worried about long-term issues right now, I know the intensity of it has only been the past month. But if you’re going to keep using marijuana, consider other forms. Gummies, tinctures, things like that.”
James wasn’t surprised by this at all. “Yeah, I can do that,” he said.
“Great. And would you want to consider a different sleep aid? I know the last one didn’t work, but there are other options.”
“Weed’s working right now, but I’ll keep it in mind if that’s alright.”
She smiled. “Totally,” she said. “Um, your stress is off the charts, no surprise there. I don’t love your blood pressure, but I think that’ll ease up as you recover. Still, make sure that you talk about it with your new physician, whoever it ends up being. And you’re on the waiting list for behavioral health at St. Hildegard’s, but I’ll be honest, I don’t know when that’ll come up. Do you want to consider non-Foundation alternatives?”
“Do you know any that wouldn’t immediately section me when I told them what happened?” James asked.
“No,” Jolene admitted. “But I can ask around.”
“Thanks.”
So it was unlikely, but fine. He’d figure it out.
***
James planned to head home from there like Amelia had said, even if he was completely thrown off by sleeping for six hours of his workday. But Madelyn met him in the living room before he could find his jacket. “Hey, are you still on?” she asked.
“No, but what’s up?”
“Never mind,” she said, waving him off. “I just have to go check some cameras.”
“Do you need a hand?” James asked.
“No, I’m good.”
Then she stopped and he could see her relent. “Actually, yeah,” she admitted. “The cameras at this house keep falling down and I’m not stable enough to stand on a stepladder right now. But I can do it later.”
“No, let’s go,” James said. “I have time.”
“Thank you so much,” Madelyn said. “It’s out in…never mind. I’m sorry.”
James immediately realized where they were going. He’d been so sure she was at that house the other night, that the cold wind on his neck was her blowing on him in the darkness, just to fuck with him again. And it was dark already and he was going back, no matter how much the idea scared him.
“No, it’s fine,” he said. “Actually, there’s a big lantern in, um…”
Madelyn was moving before he could force himself to just suck it up and go into the storage closet for the lantern, so he could then suck it up and go back into the terrifying house in the woods. “Found it,” she called, then came back out. “Are you sure you want to go with me?”
No, but the alternatives were her going out there alone and physically unstable, losing time on her investigation by waiting until tomorrow, or Amelia having to go and falling even further behind in the never-ending mess of work she had. And if James was going out there to help Madelyn, that was going to make the trip a lot easier to manage.
“Yeah,” he said as he put on his jacket and the blue scarf he’d grabbed again without thinking on his way out the door that morning. “Come on. Want me to drive?”
The house was fifteen minutes away, so James expected at least a little awkward silence. But Madelyn started talking as soon as they got in the car, telling him about this food blog that Graham was super into these days, and how she was trying to get tickets for a cooking class for the two of them.
“They do all kinds of stuff, but the one he’s all about right now is this series of upscale takes on everyday foods or chain restaurant dishes,” she said. “I see the appeal, but he’s obsessed. He’s already planning the menu for when I’m staying over next week and there’s homemade Kit Kats on there. And upscale Olive Garden.”
“Wouldn’t that just be going to an actual Italian restaurant?” James asked, slowing down to stop for a red light.
“You would think so,” Madelyn said. “I would. But it’s fun. And it means I get never-ending breadsticks. Though I guess I already kind of get that with the never-ending sourdough.”
“When are you staying over?”
“Next Wednesday night,” Madelyn replied. “I think you’re on the overnight?”
“Wednesday?” James thought for a second. “Yeah, I am. Have fun.”
Madelyn laughed, and the naturalness of it made something in James’s chest ease up. “I was worried because I thought he was working at Cleary House that night. Which is no big deal because it’s not like I can’t go over when he gets out. But Riley’s spending the night at our house and I’m not sure I can deal with her right now.”
James looked over, surprised. Not that Madelyn was particularly shy when it came to sharing her feelings about people, positive and negative. But he had only ever heard positive things about Amelia’s girlfriend. “What’s up there?” he asked.
Madelyn groaned. “Okay, she’s not a bad person,” she said with a quick glance toward the comms unit, which was turned off between them in the center console. “But I don’t really like the way she treats Amelia. She’s immature.”
That made sense to James since Riley was about twenty-four years old. But Madelyn wasn’t much older, so he kept his mouth shut. “What’s she doing to her?”
Madelyn’s gaze darted toward the comms again, then she picked it up and popped the batteries out. “She was shitty to Amelia when you were gone,” she said. “Amelia was really stressed out and Riley wasn’t helpful.”
He wanted to ask for more details, but it wasn’t any of his business. Especially if Amelia wanted to keep that relationship going. “I mean, she wasn’t abusive or anything,” Madelyn continued. “And if Amelia wants to try to make it work, then maybe there’s something there that I’m missing. But I just don’t want to hang out with them. Both so Amelia can have some time with her and so I don’t have to have time with her.”
James laughed, then felt a little guilty laughing. “Well, I’ll be spending quality time at headquarters with Bradley that night, so stay at my house as long as you want.”
They pulled up outside the house a few minutes later, the looming darkness within just as scary as it had been last time he was here. As he turned off the car, the headlights died and he reached up to flip on the interior lights. “Are you sure you want to come in with me?” Madelyn asked.
“Yeah,” James said, pulling out the lantern. “You don’t have to come, though. I’ll take care of it.”
She ignored him, getting out of the car as he did. He held the lantern in front of him, the bluish-white light illuminating the entire hallway as they walked inside.
This was better. It was still not fantastic, but it was better. He could see the corners of the room so there was nowhere for Adele to hide, either the real thing or his nightmare version of her, hopefully lost now that he’d shattered the connection. And he really did feel less connected to her as he walked through the house toward the small kitchen where this round’s cameras had fallen off the wall.
“There they are,” Madelyn said, leaning down slowly to pick them up.
James took them and handed her the lantern. Things were immediately cast in heavier shadows as he turned, blocking some of the light with his body, and he took a sharp breath, letting it out slowly before reaching up to put the cameras back in place.
“These things are so bad,” Madelyn said behind him as he tried his best not to think of Adele. “Thank you so much for coming with me.”
Yeah, she definitely would have needed a step ladder to do this and he didn’t like the idea of Madelyn here in the dark, handling a lantern and a ladder when she also needed her cane. “Of course,” he said, giving the camera one last whack to lock it into place. “Alright, Amelia, are they on?”
“Give me a second,” Amelia said over the comms unit Madelyn had loosely hooked over her shirt. “And…yes, I have all of them.”
Madelyn held the lantern as they walked out, so James couldn’t control which corners of the rooms were illuminated. But she wasn’t here, he knew that. She wasn’t here and nothing was controlling him right now.
It was fine.
He was still a little shaky as he walked out, remembering the way that he’d panicked and locked himself in his car last time he was out here. As he was driving out into the well-lit streets beyond the forest, his feelings must have shown on his face. “What’s wrong?” Madelyn asked after she turned off the comms unit.
James shrugged. “I just feel bad that you guys have had to deal with me.”
She was quiet for a second, but before James could apologize, Madelyn said, “Can I tell you a story?”
“Sure.”
“So, I don’t really remember the night I got hurt.”
“Madelyn-” James started, but she waved him off.
“It’s fine,” she said. “I want to tell you this. So I don’t actually remember much beyond a few flashes outside and a little in the emergency room. But I read my records afterward, once I could face it. And that wasn’t until I was already back at work part-time. But I read the word ‘eviscerated,’ and I was mortified when I realized that part of my intestines had been pulled out of my body and you guys might have seen them.”
James was about to interrupt and say he hadn’t when she laughed. “Priorities, right? I thought maybe not, maybe the paramedics got there first, or other wishful thinking. But I saw that someone had covered them with a shirt at the scene, so I knew one of you had. I was so embarrassed, like this big, gross part of me had been exposed and someone I knew, one of my colleagues, had to deal with it. I asked who did it and when Amelia told me it was Bradley, I was embarrassed and grateful, and weirdly ashamed. Like I could never pay that back. And I didn’t know how anyone would want to still be friends after seeing how gross I really was.”
“I get that,” James said softly.
“It took less than a day for him to ask why I was being weird. And I told him the truth.”
“Yeah? What did he say?”
“That I was a fucking idiot. And that they’re just guts, everyone has them.”
James laughed. “That sounds right.”
“I don’t know if there’s really a point I was trying to make. I guess just that I get it. Even if I didn’t do a great job handling it from the other end before, I understand that feeling.”
She smiled at him as he pulled onto the empty highway. “Thank you for coming with me tonight,” she said. “It’s really nice working with you again.”
