Together Again

Chapter 4 - The In-Between (part 2)

  Jonathan stepped cautiously around his house. What the hell had happened here? He tip toed over to a broken vase on the ground. This was his mother's favourite vase. Bob had given it to her on her birthday. It was one of the only things she had left of him. He looked up to see the couch tipped over. Behind it the wall paper was torn in several spots, revealing several of the painted letters on the old wallpaper. Who would make this big of a mess when breaking in? Was it Lonnie?

  Behind him Nancy and Jonathan were muttering some stuff about the school. How could that be important right now? He thought about his mother, sitting in a hospital room waiting and hoping for her friend to wake up, how could she deal with a break in like this? He peeked through the rooms, beds were flipped over, and one was even broken. How could an intruder do this much damage? There was no way they could sleep here.

  He sauntered over to the kitchen. One of Wills drawings laid on the floor, in 2 pieces. Various postcards, pictures, papers, and magnets lay on the floor, they had fallen off the fridge. The table was flipped over, and cracked in half down the middle. The three chairs laid around the room. Wait a second. Three chairs? There should be four. He checked the rooms around the kitchen. Nope. No chairs. Who would break in, only to take a chair?

  "Steve!" He called. Remembering he was a deputy. "A chair for the table is missing!" Steve and Nancy stumbled over the debris into the kitchen to see what he was talking about. The three of them were bewildered. It was weird when the school looked like this, but now two break in's?

  Steve remembered how all the doors were still locked at the middle school. "Jonathan, did you unlock the door on the way in?"

  "Yes." Jonathan replied.

  Steve ran to the back door, leaping over the debris on the way. It reminded him of when he leaped over the bear trap in the same spot. The back door was still locked. No windows were broken this time, how could the intruder get in? He walked into the bathroom where the sink lay on the floor, water leaked from the pipe on the wall. He yelled at Jonathan to grab as many towels as he could. He fumbled with the knob to try to turn the water off. After a few unsuccessful tries, a now soaked Steve was able to get the water to stop running. Sputtering, he used one of the towels Jonathan got to wipe his face. They laid out the towels on the floor, hoping to soak up as much water as possible.

  "How did the robber get in?" Jonathan asked. Nancy and Steve told him about the school.

  Then something occurred to Steve. "What time did you guys leave for the hospital this morning?" He asked Jonathan.

  "Around 9:30." It was just past noon.

  "So how could someone make this big of a mess, with time to be out of sight before we came back, in just over two and a half hours?" Steve stated

  "And Mr. Clarke told you he was only gone for a few hours. How could the entire school be torn apart in just 2 hours?" Nancy realized.

  Jonathan went to pick up some stuff, to try to clean up, but Steve stopped him. It was all evidence, which is why the school was still closed. They had a couple investigators in the school today, and they couldn't even start cleaning up until they were done.

  "If we can't clean up, then where are me and my family supposed to stay tonight? Hawkins doesn't have a hotel, and even if it did we could never afford it. I don't even know how we will afford to fix this mess!" Jonathan complained.

  Nancy put her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes. It felt weird, considering they had just broken up today. But they had pretty much forgotten about that, because of everything else with the cloud and now this. "Jonathan, it will be alright. We will find somewhere for you to stay. I'm sure many people would be willing to take you in. Right now we just have to listen to Steve." She comforted.

  As the three of them tried to comprehend all that had happened today, two questions remained. Who was the intruder? And how did they get in?