Along came Reid

8. Endured a Night

The weeks passed quickly and before Jamie knew it, a new pattern of normalcy formed within her office safe house. With all of the extra hands, Jamie’s stash of supplies tripled in the passing days. Courtney, Reid and herself stuck mainly to scavenging while TJ’s task was to care for the garden at home.

By her firm order, they always stayed in pairs. Reid abided by her law...most of the time. Considering his admission, he was who he was and despite her orderly nature, there were many times where Reid acted independently.

Jamie couldn’t figure out why, but every so often, Reid would slip out at night when everyone was asleep. She never actually saw him leave; he was too sneaky to get caught. The only reason she knew he was gone was after going to the toilet one night and realizing he wasn’t in the office.

Despite his request for her to trust him, Jamie couldn’t let the insanity of his action drop. No one in their right mind traveled out at night. It was unheard of, and the very idea of him escaping into the night irked her to no end.

“You look mad.” TJ noted as they pulled weeds from the flourishing beanstalks.

“I’m not mad.” Jamie answered, her attention on the destructive plants in her palms.

“You’re frowning.”

Jamie paused and wiped the sweat off her brow with her wrist.“I’m just thinking about something.” Jamie answered, lifting her head to eye Barron. He padded towards TJ and sniffed the boy’s shirt before sniffing the beans.

“What’cha thinking about?” TJ asked as he paused his chore to scratch Barron’s head and move his snout away from the stalk.Thinking of his question, Jamie debated asking TJ about Reid. Reid expected that she trust and have blind faith in him and his actions.

Planting seeds of suspicion towards him in a 10 year old could hardly qualify as trustworthy behavior. Really if she followed Reid’s suggestion, she wouldn’t meditate so frequently on her worries concerning him. It was those same worries that got the best of her.

“Have you noticed Reid slipping out at night?” she asked, sitting back to give TJ her full attention.

“Yeah. I woke up to pee and I saw him as he was walkin’ out the door.”

Shocked, Jamie didn’t realize TJ had noticed. Even more shocking, TJ seemed okay with Reid’s behavior. “You did? Did he say where he was going?”

TJ paused, his full lips pursuing. “Reid told me not to tell anyone.”

Jamie’s interest piqued. “Tell anyone what?”

“I’m not supposed to tell.” he reasoned.

“You can tell me. I won’t tell anyone I promise.” Jamie swore, crossing her heart.

TJ fidgeted for a moment before caving in. “Okay, he said he was going to do some vampire stuff.”

Jamie’s expression blanked. She resisted a roll of her eyes. More vampire talk. Reid’s insistence of this lie was starting to get out of hand. Was this a cover for some other nightly activity? Jamie couldn’t think of a single other thing Reid or anyone could do at night when the screechers were out.

“Right. Vampires.” she agreed hollowly.

The day passed quickly enough and soon, Reid and Courtney returned with another haul of supplies. More weeks passed and Jamie couldn’t shake her suspicions. If anything, they were growing. She’d calculated his absences and realized that he left at least twice a week during the middle of the night.

Curiosity festered in her thoughts like yellow-jackets overtaking a bird feeder. Jamie doubted Reid would give her a serious answer if she asked. Most likely, he’d feed her some bogus line about vampires again. Besides, if she asked it would only prove that she wasn’t trusting him. Since she couldn’t ask, the only other logical course of action would be to follow him.