The Wrong Way to Rock Bottom | UPDATES Fri/Mon

11 | Age Sixteen

"Kell—Steven." I cleared my throat. "Can I speak to you for one moment?"

Without waiting for an answer, I grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the car behind us, promising Mary, "We'll be right back."

"What in the world just happened?" He had the good sense to whisper.

"She's a dementia patient." I volunteered at Golden Years on the mainland, and I recognized their color coding system. Mary's bracelet was blue, like for the residents of the memory care ward.

"Oh." He paused. "Wait. I still don't get it."

"I think she thinks you're someone she knows. A boyfriend, maybe." I couldn't help giggling. "Or she's just a very bold cougar."

"Funny."

"First Christy, now Mary... something about you really appeals to older women, James."

"Shut up!" He bumped my shoulder with his, but he was smiling.

"Steven." Mary's voice rang with the authority of someone who was used to getting her way, and she didn't sound happy. I had to speed this up.

"We can't risk upsetting her, she could get hysterical." My words ran into each other in my hurry. "She can't leave the home by herself so she has to have a companion or aide somewhere around here, just play along until we can find whoever's supposed to be keeping an eye on her!"

I was hissing by the end, because Mary, who clearly didn't like to be left waiting, had caught up to us. Keller looked very skeptical about my plan, but didn't stop the woman when she linked her arm through his. The look she gave me was so aggressive I choked. She was marking her claim.

Before she could tell me off for moving in on her fella, I said, like we'd been in the middle of a conversation, "It really won't start. I'll just have to ask my dad to come get it later. Are you sure you don't mind giving me a ride?"

To his credit, Keller picked up quick. "Yeah, we've got room. You don't mind if we drop Lissa off somewhere, do you, Mary?"

"Of course not, poor thing. It is such a trial to be stranded all on your own." She patted Keller's chest. "I'd be lost without my Steven."

Clearly, passive-aggressive girlfriends were not a modern invention.

"That's so great of you," I said generously. "Where's your car?"

Instead of answering, Mary looked at Keller. "It's not mine, it's Steven's. Where did you park it?"

Keller hesitated. "I... don't remember."

His eyes said great, what next?

"Why don't you two—" I placed a hand on both of their shoulders, pushing them forwards, "—go look for it, and I'll just grab my stuff?"

Mary, with Keller in tow, followed my suggestion with gusto. She probably couldn't wait to get him away from me.

I ducked behind Keller's truck and pulled out my phone to call the Golden Years home. After a minute of ringing, it went to voicemail. Guess no one was working the desk at 6 pm on a Friday night.

Great. I was hoping they'd have the number for whoever was supposed to be with Mary, but it looked like we'd have to do things the old-fashioned way.

I caught up with Keller and his new girlfriend easily. She didn't move very fast. Keller seemed to have gotten over the weirdness of the situation because he was more relaxed now, even with Mary's arm securely around his waist.

"Any luck?" I asked hopefully.

"Well, we've established that my car is blue and probably has two doors." Here, he gave Mary a grin that, if bottled, could have been sold as pure charm. "And that my girlfriend knows nothing about cars."

Mary giggled like she was a high schooler instead of a rogue senior citizen. "I told you, I don't even drive. Why should I know anything about cars when I have you?"

"Well, you'd recognize it if you saw it, right?" I glanced at the line of cars waiting for the bridge, two lanes of traffic and backed up as far as I could see, probably continuing past the treeline that hid the rest of the road. It suddenly occurred to me that we might not be even be looking for the right vehicle. After all, if Mary thought that Keller was her (presumably dead) boyfriend, it was very likely that the mysterious blue car was also something she imagined from her past.

Mary shrugged, unconcerned, but Keller looked like he was having the same realization. We were back to square one: crazy old woman, broken down bridge, no idea where she was supposed to be.

Except that Mary couldn't have gotten out on her own. Someone had to come with her, which meant someone was looking for her, and whoever it was was probably looking for her right now, in this endless line of cars. We'd have to bump into each other eventually. Right?

With more confidence than I felt, I said, "Wherever you parked, your car's somewhere in this line. We'll just have to follow it. How many cars can there be?"

A lot. There were a lot, a lot of cars. For such a tiny island, it was ridiculous. There shouldn't even be enough people to be driving these cars. Yet there the people were. Some sat in their cars, with their stereos blasting music, while others had climbed out, tossing a football back and forth or just sitting and enjoying the fresh air. We introduced Mary to everyone, Keller distracting her while I stealthily gave a ten second version of what had happened. No one recognized Mary or knew anything about her, so aside from the three girls that gave her their phone numbers to pass on to Keller, we got nothing.

"Can we pause for a moment?" Mary leaned on Keller, her shoulders sagging. "I'm feeling a little worn out."

"Sure." Glancing back at me, Keller led Mary away with a gentleness that made something in my chest ache. He really was too wonderful. I mean, honestly. It was unfair.

He sat next to her on one of the benches that lined the running path next to the road, saying something that made her laugh, and I forced myself to tear my gaze away from them. We'd reached the treeline, where the line of cars did, indeed, go on for a while. From here, I couldn't see Keller's truck or Sam's convertible.

"... an eye out, I would really appreciate it!"

A woman's voice, loud and panic-y, drifted over to me. She was several rows away, and yet I could still hear her over the Jeep blasting Nickelback next to me. Young, probably in her late twenties, with silky black hair thrown into a chaotic ponytail. As I watched, she went to the next car and pulled out her phone, showing them something on it. The process looked very familiar.

"I haven't seen her," the guy in the car was saying as I came up.

"Are you sure?" The woman sounded like she was on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

I waved a hand to get her attention. "Hey, are you looking for Mary Hudson by any chance?"

"Yes, oh my-" The woman gulped, and I saw that her hands were shaking. "Where is she? Is she okay?"

"My... friend is with her." Now wasn't the time for complicated technicalities. "She's right over there."

I pointed over towards their bench, but was cut off by the woman flinging herself at me in a desperate hug.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"