Lancaster Green Chapter 19
James was off the next day and he didn’t have anything to do. His mother had texted him, asking if he was feeling alright since they hadn’t heard from him this week. He needed to answer her before she asked Auntie Carrie to ask Gabriella, who he had not mentioned any of this to. But he needed to figure out how to answer. And while he did, he’d go run errands or something. Anything to get away from the quiet of his house.
He took his time walking around the mall, looking in a few stores for new running shoes. Like always, it was quiet here. It wasn’t a bad mall, but it was tiny compared to others in the area, and always seemingly on the verge of dying. But he liked that a lot more than the idea of going somewhere loud and crowded, where anyone could do anything before melting right back into the crowd.
He found the shoes he wanted within forty minutes, then tried and failed to find a good present for Penny’s show. Not that he had any idea what a preteen girl might want. But he had time, so he wasn’t concerned. Maybe Madelyn would have some ideas when they worked the overnight together in a few days.
He’d been about to surrender and head home when he passed the toy store, which sparked an idea. And now here he was, heading into work on his day off.
As soon as he arrived, he went downstairs to the medbay. Jolene should be here, she’d mentioned she had work to do here today. For once she wasn’t driving all over the state to patch up wounds because the Foundation was too cheap to pay for more doctors or medical bills.
He knocked on the medbay door. “Come in!” Jolene called.
James stepped inside, again amazed at the difference in here. She’d done a little more work getting things cleaned up and organized. The other half of the space by the bulkhead was still crowded with various shelving units and supplies, but the half she occupied was almost inviting now.
Jolene was wearing a long black cardigan and her hair was up in a messy bun as she spun around in her desk chair. “Hey, what’s up?” she asked, looking tired.
“Do you have a minute?”
“Yeah, is everything okay? Aren’t you off right now?”
She looked concerned. Right, most of the unexpected things showing up in her life lately were emergencies. Especially when it came to James. But he just grinned at her. “Come on,” he said.
He headed toward the door and she followed, a cautious smile on her face. They hurried up the stairs and out the front door, where he tried not to look at the new locks again. Then he went to his car, opened the backseat, and pulled out what he’d brought her.
“It’s the same one you got Erik,” he said, dropping the remote control car on the walkway and opening the package of batteries he’d bought with it. “I got you one so you can practice.”
“James, you didn’t have to,” Jolene said, crouching down to look at the car.
“I know,” he replied. “It’s actually really simple once you know how it works.”
He closed the battery compartment and turned on the remote control. “Make sure both the car and the remote are on,” he said as she stood up and came closer to watch what he was doing. “This button goes forward or backward, depending on where you want the car to go. Pull it toward you to roll it back. And steer like this.”
He handed Jolene the controller and she looked hesitant. But then she pressed the button and the car launched itself ten feet backward down the sidewalk before hitting a tree growing up through the concrete.
“Perfect!” James said through Jolene’s horrified laughter. “Fuck that tree anyway. Can you bring it back?”
“I have so many reports to finish,” Jolene said, still laughing as she pressed the controller and the car drove out into the street. “Shit! Oh no!” she yelled as a car turned onto the street.
“You’re fine, you have the right of way,” James teased. “Just press- no, other button. Other button!”
The toy car was spinning in circles now as the real car got closer. And before James could dart out into the street to save the toy car, he realized it was Amelia and Madelyn coming back from lunch. Amelia pulled up behind James’s car, far from the toy car still zipping in tight circles, and rolled down her window.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she called as James nearly cried from laughter, Jolene doing the same right beside him.
“Trying to get the car back over here,” Jolene managed to choke out. She took a deep breath. “Okay, this button still?”
“Yeah,” James said. “Just turn it slowly. Slowly!” he repeated as she jerked the button sideways and the car darted for the sidewalk again, clipped the worn curb, sailed through the air, and landed upside down in the yard next door.
“We’ll keep working on it,” James said, walking over to get the car.
He brought it back and handed it to her. “Thank you,” Jolene said, slightly breathless.
“Thank you. I’m really glad you’re here.”
There was a lot behind his words and he could tell she realized it.
***
James hung up three times before his mother picked up her phone. It rang once or twice and he panicked before hitting the end call button. But he had to tell them, so he tried again immediately, only to hang up, all that confidence he’d had while teaching Jolene how to use that remote control car earlier gone.
On the fourth attempt, she picked up before the first ring was done. “Hi sweetie!” she said. “I think my phone is broken or something. I’m sorry it kept dropping your call.”
He could do this. The alternative was not telling them for the rest of his life and he knew he couldn’t keep something this big a secret. Especially now that some of the cousins knew. Nobody was going to be able to keep it secret forever, even with the best intentions.
“James?” his mother said, the cheer immediately turning to concern. “Honey, are you there?”
“Mom?” he managed.
“Yeah, I’m right here,” she said. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“No, no, I’m fine. I just, um, I need to talk to you. And Dad.”
“Of course,” she said. “Hang on, I’ll get him. You don’t sound good, are you alright, honey?”
“No,” he said. “I mean, yeah, I just, um…”
“Got him,” she said before he could stammer out anymore nonsense. “I’ll put you on speaker.”
It was too late to hang up. They knew something was wrong and they were going to jump to the worst case scenario if he hung up and refused to talk to them.
“Hey, kid, how’s your back doing?” his dad called from somewhere else in the room.
“It’s fine,” he said, looking around his living room as though something might jump out and save him from this conversation. “I just needed to tell you something.”
“Anything, you know that.”
Somehow James doubted this fell under the usual umbrella of “anything.” Gabriella had offered to be here when he called and he wasn’t sure if he regretted not taking her up on that offer. “I didn’t hurt my back at work,” he said finally. “It was something else. There was a, um, a case and this woman poisoned me. And she controlled me. Like, mind-controlled me. And she made me try to do something really bad and I would have done it if my team hadn’t figured it out.”
There was silence on the other end of the line and James tried to remember how to breathe. But if he was already almost there, he might as well tell them the whole truth. He’d survived telling his cousins the other day, he could do this. “She had me for three days,” he said. “I didn’t know. I kept going to work and-and I thought what I was thinking was normal. But she told me to kill my team. And I tried to do it. I almost killed them, I’m so sorry.”
He was crying now and his parents were still silent on the other end of the line. “James…” his mother said softly. “Oh, James.”
“They saved me,” he continued, forcing out each word. “They got the poison out of me. But Mom-”
“James,” she said again, repeating his name like a mantra as he cried.
“I’m sorry,” he choked out again.
“It’s okay, it’ll be alright.”
“It’s not,” he said. “I-”
“There’s one that gets into Worcester at six tomorrow morning,” his dad said, still distant from the speaker. “Layover in Ft. Lauderdale. If we leave now, we can catch it.”
“What?”
“That sounds good,” his mom said, also away from the phone. “My credit card is over on the table.”
Then she was back. “It’ll be alright,” she said again. “Are you safe?”
James nodded alone in his apartment. “Yeah,” he said thickly, wiping his eyes. “You don’t have to come here, I’m alright. It’s over. It’s been over.”
“We’re coming home,” she said. “You shouldn’t go through this alone.”
“I’m not,” he insisted. “I’ve had my team with me. Constantly. I was off for a month and they wouldn’t leave me alone. Gabriella basically moved in. I’m doing better.”
“Is that why you were in the backyard at the old house the other day?”
He should have known Mrs. Applewood was going to tell his mom about seeing him and Bradley there. “I had a case nearby,” he said. “At Lancaster Green, the nursing home. So I was showing my friend where we lived. I swear, you don’t need to come home.”
“Honey, why did you wait so long to tell us? Did you think…”
She trailed off as though anything she could say to finish that sentence was too horrible to be spoken out loud. And now James felt like he was four again, not approaching forty. And he desperately, embarrassingly, wanted them here.
“I don’t know,” he whispered.
“James, we’ll be in Massachusetts tomorrow,” his dad said, his voice almost stern.
There was no way either of them would be convinced to stay in Ohio, not if they’d already made their decision. “Don’t do the red eye,” James said. “You have to go to Florida first?”
“Cincinnati to Ft. Lauderdale. Then a four hour layover there, then Worcester,” his dad said. “It’s not bad.”
“No, it’s bad,” James said. “Don’t- don’t do a four hour layover. Ohio to Florida to Worcester, that’s ridiculous. Get a direct flight later and I’ll pick you up in Boston. Don’t put your knee through that, Dad.”
He was working until six, but he’d figure it out. “Alright,” his mom said. “But we’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah.”
“We love you,” his dad said.
“I love you too.”
They hung up a moment later and James let his phone drop into his lap. Of course Graham and Madelyn walked right then, holding takeout and talking happily. They stopped and James could see in their expressions how bad he must look.
“What-” Graham started, but James waved him off.
“It’s alright,” he said with a shaky laugh. “I promise it’s alright.”
