Lancaster Green Chapter 18
Spraying for Lyndon Shadows was actually shockingly similar to spraying for the pests their old roommate Chris had befriended in their apartment last year. Belinda hadn’t been thrilled with the idea that they weren’t eradicating the shadows when Graham brought her the solution, but James could understand. After months of having this thing floating around, you wanted it completely gone, not just stopped at the front door.
“So think of it this way,” Graham explained as they stood in the lobby, Jenny listening carefully from the front desk. “If you have a mouse problem, yeah, you’re going to kill some of them. But you aren’t going to eradicate every mouse on the planet. You’re going to focus on keeping them out of your space. This is the same thing. These shadows aren’t going to hurt people, but they are attracted to the scent of death and that’s obviously going to be upsetting. So we can keep them from getting into the building.”
“How are they getting in now?” Belinda asked.
“Their cellular structure is different from ours,” Graham replied. “They could slide in through the walls or maybe through little rips in reality. There’s all kinds of different possibilities.”
James would like to think about little rips in reality as little as possible, but Graham was correct. And Belinda gave her blessing, so they began spraying. This was round one, a basic spray compounded by the lab at St. Hildegard’s, which was amazingly still staffed and functional. For now. But it took a couple hours and James worked alone on one side of the building while Graham took the other.
The next steps would be herbal. Graham had a plan there as well. Certain herbs would deter them from coming inside. Thankfully it was nothing particularly strange or unusual. But herb gardens outside, some woven into the greenery inside the building, and consistent care and upkeep would work alongside the spray to keep them out. So once that was done, they would write up the case, schedule follow ups, and move on.
And with that, James was done with his first case back at work.
The shadow was back in the same bedroom it had been in the other day and James could tell that Graham saw it the second he did. “It’s kind of incredible, isn’t it?” James said as they walked out of the building a little while later, the Lyndon Shadows hopefully successfully removed from Lancaster Green.
“Yeah.”
“You think there’s a dimension where they’re as common as mice?” James asked. “And it’d be like us gazing adoringly at mice, talking about how incredible they are?”
“I haven’t seen any Lyndon Shadow droppings in the cabinets, so I’ll hold my breath on that one,” Graham replied.
As they left, James looked around. The buds had started unfolding into leaves on the trees and the crocuses were flowering here as well as back at headquarters.
***
After months of “ghost” sightings, they all cleared up after the application of the Lyndon Shadow repellent methods the lab sent over. James had been cautiously optimistic about it for a few days and when he went to follow-up four days later, Belinda was beaming as she greeted him.
“It needs to be kept up,” James said after they’d walked through the building. “We can either continue to do it or teach you. And if I’m being honest, I think teaching you would be best. You can call me with any questions, but with how our organization is going these days, I’d rather you know how to deal with a situation instead of waiting a month and a half to get one of us out here for thirty minutes of spraying.”
Belinda laughed. “I work in healthcare,” she said. “I understand.”
He promised to have Graham call her to set up a time that worked best for them to train her staff, then headed out. He had about forty minutes until his shift was done, so maybe he’d see what tasks were waiting for Amelia or Bradley at headquarters and take care of some of them if they weren’t back from their own case.
He was halfway across the front yard at headquarters, thinking about a few things and nothing at the same time when he heard a kid’s voice. “Can you help me?”
James stopped, looking around. There were no kids in the yard, or in any of the surrounding yards. But it had been close by. Ghost kid? A ghost kid would show up in the last hour of his shift.
Then he spotted a little pair of denim-clad legs dangling down from the lowest branch in the front yard tree. “Sir?” the kid called again.
“Yeah, I’m coming, bud.”
James was thoroughly confused, but getting the child out of the tree seemed to be simple enough instructions for now. He hurried over and the little boy peered down at him. He was probably seven years old, with dark hair and wide, frightened eyes. James was about to ask what he was doing up there, but getting him down should probably be the priority, shouldn’t it?
“I’m going to help you get out of the tree, okay?”
The boy nodded. “Alright, bud, just remember that your feet are closer to the ground than your head is,” James instructed. “So you aren’t as far up as you think you are.”
The kid was just over James’s head. He must have shimmied his way up to the first branch using some of the knots in the tree’s trunk, then been unable to get down. “Here’s what I want you to do,” James continued, reaching up so his arms were on either side of the boy. “Reach down and wrap your arms around my neck, alright?”
The kid let out a scared little whimper. “Hey, it’s okay,” James said. “Come on. I’ll catch you.”
He kept his arms up and the kid reached down enough that James was able to get him. The kid latched onto his neck, only choking him slightly as James steered him to the ground.
“There you go,” he said. “Listen, I know that’s a great climbing tree for getting up, but getting down is always the hard part. I’d leave that tree alone.”
The kid nodded, looking curiously up at him. “So, what are you doing here?” James asked.
“Waiting for my dad. He’s inside.”
Amelia had to be meeting with someone. Because otherwise, one of the other guys on the team had a secret they’d been really good at keeping. Maybe this was Bradley’s kid. Yeah, Bradley was gay, single, and had never shown any interest in children, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have a secret child. Dark hair, dark eyes. That matched. He’d expect Bradley’s kid to be a lot meaner though.
No, James was being stupid. Amelia was probably meeting with a consultant whose babysitter had called out.
The kid picked up a remote control that had been sitting by the base of the tree. “What do you have?” James asked, torn between herding the kid inside so that he wasn’t late getting back to work or taking a few more minutes to enjoy the company of a random kid on a brisk, but nice day.
“Remote control car.”
He heard the whirring of the motor behind them and turned to see the car repeatedly hitting the bottom step of the front stoop. “It’s a nice car,” he said.
“My mom got it for me,” the kid said, frowning at the controls. “I can’t get it to go. She doesn’t know how either.”
Across the yard, the car continued to hit the cement, over and over, controlled by the remote this kid was struggling with.
You’d do anything I want, Adele said. You’d kill everyone here if I told you to.
James caught himself staring at the car, then shook his head and went back to the kid. “Can I see it?”
The kid handed James the remote and after a couple false starts, he got the car out onto the walkway.
“Do it like this,” James said, holding the remote out so the kid could see what he was doing. “You want to press this button here to get it going, then this button goes forward and back. Just rock it a little to get it to turn directions. Here, give it a try.”
He handed it back and the kid fumbled with the controls, sending the little black car in circles on the walkway. He cracked up as it spun, laughing so loudly that James couldn’t help joining in as the car continued to spin.
“Try and get it back over toward us,” he said.
The kid kept it spinning for a second, then pressed the button, sending the car rocketing over in their direction. It hit James’s foot and rolled over, its wheels spinning in the grass.
The kid giggled as the wheels kept churning up mud and nothing else. James was about to show him how to flip it back over, but the front door opened.
“All set, Erik,” a man said as he came down the front steps.
He had dark hair and eyes and James had never seen him before in his life. Jolene walked out after him and stopped on the landing, looking at James and the kid with an expression James couldn’t read.
“Go give Mom a hug,” the man said, “and we’ll head over to the park for a little bit before dinner.”
The kid, Erik, darted up the stairs and hugged Jolene, who hugged him back, her gaze still on James, who suddenly realized he might have just fucked up huge.
“Hey, I’m Danny,” the man said, holding out a hand to shake. “Thanks for helping him out.”
“James,” James said, looking at Jolene, then back at Danny as he shook his hand. “I work here, I’m not just some random guy playing cars with your kid.”
Danny laughed and glanced at James’s gloved hand in his, but didn’t say anything. Erik ran down the stairs and Danny turned to wave to Jolene. She waved back, but still had that look on her face as she did so. Danny didn’t go back and kiss her goodbye or anything, but this kid was clearly both of theirs.
Danny gave James a wave too, then led Erik to their car and got in while James stayed where he was, wondering what the best option was here. Yeah, Jolene could be fine with him as a coworker or maybe even a friend, but it’d make sense she wouldn’t want him around her kid after everything that happened.
As soon as the car was out of sight, Jolene hurried back into the house. James didn’t quite run after her, but when he got inside, she was nowhere to be seen.
“Did you see which way Jolene went?” he asked Gabriella, who was on comms in the living room.
She shook her head. James was about to go down and check the medbay, but then he looked out the kitchen window and saw Jolene outside on the back steps.
He opened the door and stepped back out into the chilly air. Jolene looked up at him. She wiped her eyes, but there was no way she could hide that she’d been crying.
“Sorry, I should have just brought him inside,” James said. “He got stuck up in the tree and I helped him down. It was-”
“You’re so good with him,” Jolene said.
Her voice was soft. James sat down next to her and Jolene looked out into the yard. “You don’t even know him. He’s just a random kid and you’re still so good with him.”
James shrugged awkwardly. “I just got him out of a tree.”
She nodded, wiping her eyes again. “You’ve got a good kid,” James said.
“I’m a bad mom to him.”
He started to argue, but she shook her head. “No, I am,” she said. “Me and Danny are divorced, and it’s entirely my fault.”
Now James had no idea what to say. “I’m a good doctor,” Jolene said. “And I thought I’d know how to be a mom when I had him, like it would be clear the same way that the body is so clear to me. When that didn’t happen, I thought maybe I was wrong or broken somehow. But instead of, you know, doing anything about it, I let my husband be the parent. I worked, I brought in money, but I wasn’t there like I should have been.”
She took a deep breath, still not looking at James. “I love them both so much, but Danny said I loved my job more. That wasn’t true and I kept telling him that, but I know I didn’t do enough to show it. And there were so many things I could do, like when Erik got sick or hurt or… But the other stuff? The listening, the showing up? I couldn’t do it. And we tried, but I just couldn’t get it to click until he divorced me. And I couldn’t do equal custody because I didn’t know how to. I could have learned, but I was so scared that I just threw myself into work instead because I knew how to do that. I’m trying to get better, but I’m a bad mom, James.”
She was crying now and James reached around her automatically, pulling her against his side. Through the window, he could see Gabriella looking out with concern, but James just shook his head. I’ve got this, he mouthed, and Gabriella nodded and walked away.
“I cut work down a lot and I’m trying. I’m really trying,” Jolene said, still leaning against him. “I bought him a remote control car and I have no idea what to do with it. What does that say about me that no matter how much I love him, I’m a shitty mom? You don’t even know him and you’re so good with him. I gave birth to him and I just freeze up every time it matters.”
She was crying again and James pressed his hand against her red hair, shushing her softly as the sun set. They stayed there for a little while, until Jolene finally sat up.
“Sorry,” she said thickly, clearing her throat.
“No, don’t be,” he said. “It’s alright.”
“I think this might be what they meant about boundary issues.”
James laughed slightly, though despite the joke, she still looked miserable. Jolene had seemed almost superhuman to him lately. Or, if not, completely unflappable while James was a mess. But now she was sitting next to him, her face blotchy from crying as she took shaky breaths. “I want to be better,” she said. “I don’t think Danny will ever take me back, but I want to be better for both of them.”
“And yourself,” James said.
She laughed a little, but didn’t correct him. “I get him two nights a week,” she said. “It used to be every other weekend, but Danny agreed to try this a few months ago. We don’t want to mess up his routine too much, so I stayed in the same town so I can be a consistent part of his life.”
“That’s good,” James said, aware that he might be verging on patronizing if he wasn’t careful.
“Danny lets me be part of things on his days, like soccer games. If I’m available. And I pay for a lot of things beyond just child support. Not that Danny can’t,” Jolene added quickly. “He works in the town government, he has good benefits. But I still freeze up and I’m scared Erik’s going to think it’s because I don’t love him. And I’m such a failure because I’m not there helping when I should be.”
“You’re not a failure,” James said, taking her hand in his gloved one. “You’re doing everything you can for him. You can’t change what happened, so just keep going, you know?”
“Yeah.”
Thankfully, she didn’t call him out on being the world’s biggest hypocrite for giving this advice from his own position. “Sorry for bringing him here,” Jolene said. “Danny was working late and I had to get here, so I told Erik he could play outside while me and Danny got things situated. I know it’s unprofessional.”
James laughed. “Jolene,” he said. “About eight months ago I brought my three nieces here in the middle of the night to escape from a shadow figure in their house. If you’re unprofessional, then I’m fucked.”
Now she was laughing and he felt a little bit better for both of them.
