Final Departure

Chapter 12

Jamie woke up the next morning and stretched.

        "She's up." Jamie heard Nick say.
Looking down, she realized that she was still in her clothes from the night before.
Looking up, she saw half of the Roberts family sitting on the pink couch (the exact duplicate of the one she  was on) across from her.
        "Hi." Eric said.
        "Hi." She replied.
        "Hi." Nick said.
        "Hi." She repeated.
        "We're taking you to see your mother today." Said Mrs. Roberts, trying to sound friendly and nice but not quite pulling it off.
        "Would you like some coffee, Jamie?" Mr. Roberts asked, sounding much more polite than his wife.
        "Sure." Jamie answered, rubbing at her eyes so she could see clearly.
She glanced at Eric.
        "Any news?" She asked.
        "We called again," he said. "They're out searching Portland now, and Medford."
Something in that sentence reminded Nick of something, who stuck his hands in his pants pockets as if he was looking for something. Then he rushed up to his room and returned with Johnny's gold cross.
        "I found this in Maine." he said, dangling it by its string in front of Eric.
        "That's Johnny's, alright." Eric said softly, taking it from him. "Where in Maine?"
        "In the parking lot of the gas station, by the pay phone. On the ground."
Jamie sat up, astonished, and muttered, "That always brought Johnny such good luck."
She saw a year spill down Nick's face and Eric's eyes start to get red. For no reason at all in particular, she hugged both of them, letting her own eyes fill up and spill over.

*  *  *

Eric, Nick, Howard and Rebecca Roberts sat in the waiting room at the hospital, while Jamie visited her mother. She didn't want to, and her mother didn't want her to. ("I don't want her to see me this way!" She had cried earlier) but she was there all the same. She didn't know much (if anything!) about heart attacks, but she wasn't in the mood to be talked down to by some doctor.  If someone tried to give her some old                              "You see, a valve inside of mommy broke" story, she would flip.
        "Mom?" Jamie called softly, as she approached the woman in the bed. She got no response, and she figured that wasn't good.
        "Your mother is very weak," a passing nurse told Jamie. "You're only to stay for a minute."
Jamie nodded, and looked at her mother who was just lying there.
        "Mom." She repeated, and her mother reached to elevate the bed in response.  "It's okay, stay there." Jamie told her.
        "You're staying with the Roberts'?" Mrs. Monroe asked fretfully. Jamie nodded.
        "Don't worry, they're taking care of me." She told her.
That made Mrs. Monroe smile. "That's good." she said to her daughter. There was an awkward pause and Jamie shifted her weight.

        "Um, so will I be staying with them until you get home?" She asked, and watching her mother's face take on a weird shape, almost like she was going to start crying.
        "Honey, I don't know what I'm going to do," Mrs. Monroe said, and Jamie made a face.
        "What do you mean? You're going to get better and come home, and that's what you're going to do."
Mrs. Monroe shook her head.

        "Jamie, don't get upset," she told her, "Sweetie, I don't know what's going to happen from here on out."
        "What on earth do you mean? You're going to get better, and come home! Mother, Jenny can stay at the Rossman's and I can stay at the Roberts' until you do!" She wept.
        "Honey, anything can happen right now," Mrs. Monroe tried to soothe her daughter, but it wasn't quite working. "If I get better, things will be very different at home."
Jamie continued crying.  She didn't understand.

        "Mother, I'm almost fourteen! I can get a job at Dairy Castle! Katie can watch Jenny if we need her to!"
        "Don't cry," Mrs. Monroe told Jamie, who was slowly stopped. "Everything will be okay. I promise you."
The nurse came up to Jamie.

        "I'm sorry," she said. "But your mother needs to rest now. You can come back and see her again tomorrow."
Jamie squeezed her mother's hand.

        "I'll be back tomorrow." She told her, and Mrs. Monroe nodded.
Leaving the room, Jamie went up to Eric, Nick, Mrs. and Mr. Roberts.
As soon as she saw the concern on their faces, she began to cry harder.
They all hugged her.

*  *  *

Johnny woke up to find that his hands and feet were bound together with scratchy rope. He noticed he was in a big room, like a warehouse or something. No, it actually wasn't as big as he had perceived it to be. It was actually a small closet or pantry of some sort.
Johnny looked down at his hands and smiled. Whoever had bound his hands had been kind of stupid, because they were tied in front of him, instead of behind his back. He managed to gain enough balance to be able to stand up and hop across the room. There was a tiny window, with blue curtains, to keep out the light. (or maybe, to keep the light in?)  He hopped over to the window, and he found that he could easily lift the shade and could see out. There wasn't much to see, but a side yard, and beyond the side yard, another house.
The shade made an awful squeaking sound when Johnny tried to lift it up a bit more. He cringed, hoping no one had heard. After waiting a moment and listening intently, Johnny pulled the shade up the rest of the way, and--Oh no!-- Found that it wasn't installed properly!
It came down with a loud crash.
Johnny was sure that someone had heard that! He thought quickly and positioned himself exactly like he had been when he had woken up. He stared at the door at the opposite end of the pantry and waited. Nothing.  No one came.