Letters

Plans in Action

Monday began immediately the next day with break-necking speed and I could tell it was going to be one of those weeks where everything went in double time. That was the only thing that could explain how I blinked and ended up sitting in Katherine's room with Macey and Amy under the ruse that I was picking something up for Sadie.

"Okay," Katherine said coming in and shutting the door behind her. Her light blue eyes were spinning and I could tell having Macey and Amy here made her different. Bolder maybe. "My mom is officially convinced that Zeke, you are here to pick something up. We have 15 minutes, tops before this gets suspicious." She met my eyes and smiled. "Everyone know the plan?"

I glanced over to see Macey sitting on the bed, her short brown hair and glasses a sharp contrast to Amy's pale skin and dark long hair who was sitting across from her. Feeling slightly out of place I was leaning against the bookshelf opposite them, but as soon as Katherine came in any tension that I might have imagined melted. Although both Macey and Amy, I could tell, still didn't know what to think of me. In all honesty I had no idea what to think of them either.

"Yep we know the plan," Macey said her voice teasingly serious. "I pretend to be Zeke's mom with my awesome adult impersonation skills and deep voice and then we wait about five or ten minutes, enough time to make it seems like I called "Katherine's mom", then Amy calls."

"Perfect." Katherine's eyes were still spinning as she sat down a couple feet away from where I was still standing. "Since my mom talked to you Macey, she's totally convinced about this church retreat. But Zeke what about your mom?" Her eyes connected with mine and I could feel how badly she wanted this to work. How badly she knew I wanted this to work.

I let out a deep breath. "She believes me for the most part. But is there any way that one of you guys could text her? You could even wait until I leave that way it's less suspicious. That would really cement things for her." I glanced at Katherine again and she nodded.

"Yeah we could do that. We'll do texting though that way if we have any detail questions I can text you before we "respond"." She put the respond in air quotes with her fingers and winked at me, which sent an inexplicable wave of happiness through me.

"You're sure this is going to work?" Amy asked from the corner. Both Katherine and I glanced over to her. Her voice was quiet, of the three of them, she talked the least.

"It has to." Everyone looked over at me, surprised that I was the one who had responded. "We don't have any other option." Out of the corner of my eye I watched Macey and Katherine exchange a look, then she looked up and grabbed the phone.

"Zeke's right. Let's do this guys." She held the phone out to Macey. "Will you do the honors?"

Macey shot Katherine another wordless look, almost questioning, then picked up the phone. "Alright here goes nothing." She dialed the number and I slid down the wall so that I was sitting next to Katherine.

I could feel the everyone holding their breaths as we watched Macey put the phone up to her ear and watched her listen to it ring. For a scary second the thought crossed my mind, what if she didn't pick up? Then the entire plan would be foiled. One ring, two, three.

"Mrs. Clayton?" Immediately I felt us all release a breath as Macey began to speak and point triumphantly at the phone. I glanced at Katherine only to see that she was already looking at me, her eyes shining. One step, down, only a hundred more to go. For a quick second I wanted to reach out and grab her hand but I pushed that thought away quickly and looked away to keep myself from flushing. Where did that come from?

"Yeah Mrs. Clayton hi this Deborah Dagner, Ezequiel Dagner's mom." I tuned back in when I heard my voice. "He's the boy who's involved in helping you find your sister's husband?" I could imagine Miriam's voice on the other end of the phone as Macey continued to talk.