In Hiding (Published!)

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The car ride took hours. I got the courage to ask Jess about our mother. Surly he'd remember...

  "Jess? Tell me about her... About our mom, I mean." I spoke quietly, and didn't look at him as I spoke.

 "Well, she's extremely beautiful, must be where you got it from." He winked, and I couldn't help myself, I blushed.

 "What else, Jess? Was she talented? Could she sing, dance? What was she good at? Did she teach us anything?" I spit out more questions, Jess had to clamp is hand over my mouth to shut me up.

  He chuckled.

 "Cas', calm down, we have plenty of time for Q and A. She is a very talented woman. By god, she can sing. She has one of the most amazing voices I ever heard in my life. She used to sing us to bed. A beautiful song... Can't remember it anymore.. How'd it go..? Oh, well, maybe she can sing for us when we get home." He smiled,

  I smiled too, I thought about her, and remembered another question.

  "Jess, what did she look like?" I focused on his reaction, his face went from a smile, to a worried expression.

  "When we left, she looked amazing. Long, shiny red hair, it looked amazing with her skin tone. Good body for a woman with two kids, too. Aunt Jude, well, they're twins, so they still look the same, hopefully. Mom was also amazing at gardening, she planted so much during the spring and summer days. We were never in debt, we ate all the veggies she planted! Of course, they were amazing." He got lost in thought.

  So did I, by this time, we were passing other cars, and people. I took in that we were that much closer to home.

 *****

 "Well, kids, this is where we say goodbye, now. Good ol' me has no more I can do for y'all. Honestly, I'm gonna miss you kids." He patted Jess on the back, and me on the arm.

  "Thank you, for everything Sam. We couldn't thank you enough. You don't know how grateful this makes us." I said.

He clicked his tounge.

 "Don't thank me, little lady, I've got nothing to be thanked for, the biggest thanks I can get is when you two children make it home safely." He smiled, tipped his hat, and walked off.

I always thought you needed ID in order to get on a place without a parental guardian. Guess I was wrong.

 The counter girl gave us our tickets to get on, and we headed to the line. Plane to Texas. I never thought I'd be going to Texas. Ever.

  "Did you see her? She had absolutly no expression!" Jess gushed as we took our seats.

  I never really noticed her facial expression, I was too busy looking around me, watching for any guns pointed at my head, or any sounds of the ticking of a bomb. Paranoia, worst feeling ever.

*****

   I ended up falling asleep not too long after we took off. I guess I was tired without realizing it.

 Jess shook me awake what seemed like a few hours later.

  "What? Are we in Texas yet?" I was still groggy from sleep, so it sounded more like, 'Wha? Areth we at Texthus yet?' but Jess seemed to understand either way.

  "Not quite. We had a little delay at our first stop." He spoke in a whisper so low that I had to bend closer to hear the next thing he said.

  "It seems as if we got on the wrong plane, Casey. While you were sleeping, a few minutes before we stopped at the first stop, the captain came on the speaker and said, "We're having technical difficulties, please stand by and we'll be landing in New Mexico shortly." His voice was panicked, but I had no reason to. He shouldn't either.

  "Why are you panicking, Jess? That's closer to home then we paid for! But I don't understand, why didn't that flight attendent see our tickets, and point us to the right plane?" I asked, all sounds of worry completely gone from my voice.

  "It may be closer, but that's the problem. While you were snoring --" I interrupted

   "I do not snore!" I squealed.

 He ignored me.

  "While you were sleeping, then, I quickly turned on my phone to check the time, as it was dark out," I turned my head and faced the now open window beside me, light poured in and warmed my face. Jess snapped his fingers. I shook my head and faced him again. Why was he so scared?

  "you slept awhile. Anyway, the minute I turned it on, I received a call from Sam, he said he wasn't going to call unless there was a problem." Jess paused as he tried to think of the right words to say to not make me scream.

 I waited.

  "It turns out, after we got on the plane, Sam asked the expressionless counter girl if he could have some names, and a man named Michael Avrey got on THIS plane to New Mexico. Probably to catch us by surprise when he met us halfway, then quickly dispose of us! At least, that's what we think he's doing." Jess finished with a sigh, and waited for my reaction.

 "So, you're saying Avrey is on this plane right now? That he could be even a few feet away from us, right now? That he could easily kill us, but chooses to wait?" I gave him my last question, extremely unable to answer it myself.

 Jess snapped his fingers again.

 "That's just it, he has no idea we're on this plane. He somehow found out we were getting on the plane to Texas, and was probably planning to catch us before we even made it half way. What Sam thinks he'll do, is go toward Texas, away from where we actually are. So, if we're right, he'll be going the complete opposite direction, and he'll never find us, as we'll be going towards Arizona. That much closer to home, Cas'".