Hidden Abnormality

31. Winning Personality

Chapter Thirty-One

  When I awoke, Uriah was no longer in the chair. The blankets he had used were draped over me. No wonder I was awake earlier than expected. He was gone and I was getting warmer and warmer by the minute.

  I carefully slid off the bed, my legs almost refusing to bend properly as I had slept in my jeans. I frowned at the wallpaper that greeted me. It was truly an ugly sight. Folding the blankets, I placed them back in the bag –which I might have to trash later with the blankets still inside– and walked them out to my car.

  We had brought nothing else into the motel room and I was beginning to starve. I wish Uriah had at least offered me some of those stale chips or granola bars he had munched on last night. Thankfully, my car always had a family-sized box of Cheez-Its.

  Munching on one of my favorite snacks, I made my way back to the room. Only, I didn't go back in. I saw Uriah sitting on a broken lounge chair beside the green-brown pool. He was staring into it like it would somehow grant him all his secret wishes. Quite frankly, I was tired of wishes. Hopefully, I was coming to help him break away from his thoughts instead of angering him further.

  Sitting beside him, I offered him a cracker. He took it and mindlessly chewed it. A quip about how sad it was that he wasn't enjoying the cracker to its fullest was on the tip of my tongue. However, I didn't say anything about it. It wasn't the time for jokes about eating habits.

  I looked in the general direction he was looking toward. The pool had probably been a beauty once. The lining was blue and green with matching mosaic tiles running all the way across the bottom. It went down three feet at one end and went down to six at the other. Decent sized and had a pool cover reel. If they had kept this place up, it may have been a hotspot for people to come across while travelling.

  T'was not that case, however. This place was on the verge of becoming extinct. Just a mark on an old map and not a newer one. A pang of emotion hit me at the thought. Jazabelle would have enjoyed this place. The possibility of falling through the floor in certain places would have been a thrill for her.

  "Can you still remember much? About your sister." Sometimes I wondered if he had the ability to read minds. Often enough he knew just what I was thinking about.

  I continued to stare at the nasty pool. As did he. "Not much. It's still all flitting away like lightning bugs in the morning light."

  "I can't remember her name," he whispered.

  "Jazabelle," I replied at the same volume. If not even lower.

  He nodded slowly. "It sounds familiar every time you say it. But I feel like," he paused, clenching his fists, "that no matter how many times you say it, it still won't stick. And if it never does, what about when you finally forget everything about her completely? What will we do then?"

  I gripped his shoulder. "We aren't going to let it go that far. Not if we can help it. Besides," I said as casually as my voice would allow and stood up, "I have her name and age written on my screen."

  He scoffed and looked at me. "Do not," he taunted.

  I shrugged, popping another cracker into my mouth. "We should go."

  Uriah held out a hand. Because he was oh so incapable of standing on his own. I brushed my fingers against my jeans and gripped his hand, pulling him toward me. He slapped my shoulder as he walked toward the small building with the front desk.