One Stupid Thing

3:5:88

Sitting at the Chateau with the rest of the Pogues, talking about yet another plan to get the cross back has me feeling all sorts of nostalgia. It feels like how it used to before everything went to shit.

"When we went back to Tannyhill, I overheard Rafe on the phone with Ward, and he just kept saying, 'my thing, this is my thing.' He had to be talking about the cross," Sarah informs them. She leans forward on the stool she is sitting on across from me.

"Absolutely," Pope replies, leaning back on a wooden support.

"And he's coming into Wilmington tonight at eight o'clock. And it's being shipped by train to Raleigh from there, but this is our chance to get it back."

"You get any other information?"

"Uh, Sarah got the cargo number," Kie mentions, picking up a piece of paper from the table to show Pope.

"Okay, well, that's a start."

"Yeah."

"I mean, they're definitely fencing that shit off as we speak, so we should probably get a move on," JJ says, standing against the side of the shed to Sarah's right. Cleo nods in agreement from her seat in another chair beside me. I fiddle with the metal latch of the cooler I am sitting on.

"Sarah, you hear from John B?" Pope asks her.

"No, I mean, he's probably off somewhere with his dad." JJ, Sarah and I spent the night here at the Chateau and John B never showed. "But the problem is they have the Twinkie."

"Our transportation." The dark haired boy sighs and wracks his brain for ideas. "I could ask Heyward for the truck."

"Uh, what?" JJ looks up at him. "Yeah, that's gonna go well."

"I know, but we have no other options." Pope shifts away from the beam.

"I'll come with you," Cleo offers. Pope doesn't protest. She hops right up from her chair and starts after him.

"I need to talk to my parents," Kiara sighs. "I can't make them worry again or they will definitely kill me. Or worse send me away. They've mentioned that one before." Kiara gets up from her chair and starts to walk away, but then she stops. "You know, it's a little far to walk. Jayj, could you give me a ride?" she asks him.

"Oh, yeah, sure thing."

"We'll all meet back here, yeah?" Kie asks. "Assuming both of our parents let us leave the house after we talk to them."

"Yeah," Pope agrees.

"Good luck, guys," I say as they leave. I turn to Sarah and let out the breath that I had been subconsciously holding in. "Well, it's just you and me now. What shall we do in the meantime?"

"Figure out what the hell we are going to do if Pope can't get his dad's truck, because it is very possible he won't," she replies.

"You know, not what I was going to suggest, but alright."

—

Well, Sarah was right. Heyward said yes to Pope going off to Wilmington, but a hard no to taking the truck with him. So, following the plan that my sister and I created, we hop on the next ferry to the mainland.

The six of us gather around a table on the main deck of the ferry, contemplating how we are going to retrieve the cross.

"Honestly, the hardest part is gonna be security, all right? So most of the guys are gonna be at the rail yard," JJ says, sitting on the edge of the empty table beside us since there wasn't enough chairs for everyone.