The Egg (Return of the Ancients Book 4) (17 page)

Closing the door, I leaned against it to collect my thoughts.

I was going to go. And it was a one-way trip.

I was going to have to leave them all behind. My family. Finally, after all these years, I‘d found my real family. And I was going to have to give them up, everyone that I loved and who loved me back. Jerry. Rafael. Al. Betty. Jareth. Grace. Ellison. Samantha. Ajax. Even my mother, Maya. I would ultimately miss her too, despite everything.

Emotions welled in my throat, and I almost collapsed, but then I felt Jerry move in my sweatshirt pocket. Woodenly, I took out the paper towel roll.

It was time for me to start saying my goodbyes.

I knew I could do it if I didn’t think about it too much.

As if in a dream, I tipped Jerry out onto the floor. He’d been a wild mouse before I’d caught him and made him my pet. He was the first thing that I’d ever really loved. Picking him up, I kissed his little pink nose for the last time.

“Take care, buddy,” I whispered, tears threatening my voice. “I’m sorry I took your freedom away. It’s time for me to give it back.”

Gently, I set him down on the sunflower-shaped rug in the middle of my room. He stood on his hind feet for a few seconds, his whiskers twitching, and then he scampered away to disappear under the bed. I hoped he wouldn’t meet his end in the jaws of a cat or a trap, but he was born free. He probably missed it. I’d caged him long enough. But just to be safe, I put his cage on the floor to give him the option to return should he change his mind.

“Right,” I said aloud, refusing to let myself feel.

Rummaging through my dresser, I dug out a piece of paper and a pencil, intending to write my mother a goodbye note. I tried several times and nearly chewed the eraser off before crumpling the paper and tossing it in the trash.

A letter wasn’t Maya’s style, anyway.

Grabbing my cellphone, I dialed her number.

She picked up on the second try and spent our entire conversation distracted and giggling to someone else. I took it to mean that her new relationship was still in its beginning stages of euphoria.

“I love you, Maya,” I told her.

She clearly didn’t know how to respond, and it made me realize that I’d never actually said that to her before. I guess while I’d always been more of the parent in our relationship, I must have been a distant and resentful-type of parent.

“Uh … that’s nice,” she replied awkwardly.

The long silence on the line was finally broken by a giggle as she whispered to her boyfriend, “Oh, I’m almost done! She’s wrapping up.”

That was my cue. “Well, nice talking to you,” I said.

“Right,” Maya agreed quickly. “Call again sometime.”

“Ok,” I agreed, just to end the conversation. “Goodbye, Maya.”

She hung up and I looked at the phone, not really even feeling any disappointment. I didn’t really expect anything else from her. It was just who she was. I couldn’t really even be angry or irritated. It just wasn’t worth making myself feel bad over. It was time for me to let it all go and let myself move on. I was glad she had someone. It actually helped me say goodbye.

Betty was next.

I really had to distance myself to even
think
of telling her goodbye and even then, I was on the brink of tears as I walked into the kitchen where she was pouring bowls of cereal out for dinner.

“It’s going to be a light meal tonight,” she announced with a bright friendly smile. “No one’s really too hungry, anyway. I asked Grace and Ellison to go look for eggs, so if you want an egg, I can scramble one right up for you.”

“Cereal is fine,” I said, hovering behind her.

She really was a beautiful woman. I’d never really noticed how graceful she looked before with the wrinkles around her brown eyes and the gray sprinkled lightly throughout her brown hair. She was so warm and open. There wasn’t an ounce of bitterness in her soul. And if my life had taken a different path to lead me to a long journey on Earth, I would have striven to be just like her. Happy, loving, and understanding of everyone else, faults and all. With Betty, I had never felt judged.

“What is it, honey?” she asked in a kind, gentle tone.

I cleared my throat and withdrew even further behind my mental wall of protection. But it was very hard not to feel anything around her.

“I think I’m going to bed early,” I said.

“Today has been a hard one,” she replied sympathetically. “A nice night’s sleep will do you some good.” She reached over and patted me on the cheek.

I didn’t care what she thought then. I just locked her into a hug and squeezed her as hard as I could. “I love you,” I choked and then with tears burning my lashes, I dashed away towards the back to look for Grace and Ellison.

By the time I stepped on the back porch, I’d blinked the tears away to see them both exiting the hen house. Grace in her perpetual sweats and Ellison in his hipster-looking t-shirt and jeans. They made an odd pair, but they were perfect for each other.

“What’s up?” Ellison asked as they joined me on the porch.

“Nothing much,” I said, grimacing a little.

“Sounds like a lie,” Grace inserted with a mischievous grin.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “It kinda is.”

They both sent me intense looks and then Ellison reached over and gave my arm a friendly squeeze. “We know,” he said.

I held my breath and choked out, “You
know?
”

“Rafael and even Jareth,” Grace mouthed so softly I only heard half of her words. “They’re part of it, aren’t they?”

It wasn’t really a question.

I just nodded. How much did they know? Granted, there were many things they might have seen, but just how much had they figured out?

“It’s kind of exciting, really.” Ellison grinned from ear-to-ear. “Can you talk about it at all? I mean, I know you can’t, but … it’s kind of hard not to, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, like are the Mob Bosses going to show up at our door?” Grace asked, the pitch of her voice rising with excitement.

“Grace!” Ellison jabbed her in the ribs. “They might make her move again.”

It took me several long seconds to put it together. Did they think I was in the
Witness Protection Program
?

“Sorry,” Grace apologized sheepishly.

“Yeah, I have to admit, I thought I was going crazy for a while,” Ellison confessed with a bit of a sheepish laugh himself. “I mean, a few days ago at the coffee shop, I was about ready to call it all some kind of sci-fi conspiracy alien-cover-up or something, but the doctor said it was just stress.”

“Stress?” I repeated, my eyes widening a little. Whatever doctor believed that the coffee shop events had been a product of stress should have his license revoked.

“Yeah, I’ve been kind of tired lately. Guess I zoned out too much at work and kind of half fell asleep or something, but this isn’t about me!” Ellison laughed, a little embarrassed. “I’m not crazy, Sydney. Promise!”

I felt a twinge of conscience. The poor guy had actually allowed himself to be convinced that nothing unusual had happened in Samantha’s coffee shop. But then, maybe it was just safer for him that way. “I wouldn’t worry about it, Ellison.” I just laughed. “I’ve been stressed myself lately. They say stress does all kinds of crazy things.”

“Yeah, and combined with caffeine…” he trailed away with another laugh.

But Grace wasn’t really paying much attention to him. She was staring at me, her eyes taking on an all-knowing look. As I made eye contact with her, she took it as an invitation and leaned forward.

“I bet Rafael didn’t mean to fall in love with you, did he?” she said, her brown eyes sparkling. “I mean, he’s your agent, assigned to protect you. He probably never knew that he’d meet the love of his life. Oh, it’s just like a really good movie!” She gave a loud, dreamy sigh.

I hadn’t realized Grace was such a romantic, and it was really hard not to tell her that it was more of a horror film than a romance flick.

Ellison saved me from having to reply by reaching over and playfully clapping his hand over her mouth. She made a sour face and batted his fingers away.

He turned to me and said, “It’s ok, Sydney. We know we shouldn’t know too much. It’s safer for all of us that way. We’ll stop pestering you.”

I looked into his smiling face and nodded. “Yeah, it’s best that way,” I answered truthfully.

I just stood there a minute, looking at them both and memorizing their smiling faces. I’d never had real friends before.

With emotions threatening to destabilize me once again, I managed to croak, “You two take care of each other now, will you?”

They both looked at me in outright alarm. “Are you going somewhere? You’re not leaving, are you?” Grace’s brown eyes were huge.

“No,” I said quickly. I mean, I
was
leaving, but not because the Mafia had found out my hiding place. “It’s nothing like that. I’m just tired. And Tigger … well, the day has been a downer.”
That
was the understatement of the year.

Their eyes lit with understanding.

“Let me know if I can do anything, will you?” Ellison asked me then.

My heart tugged. I was really going to miss them. I really loved them, too. “Just keep each other safe,” I said.

They nodded seriously.

As I turned away, I saw them trade fist bumps out of the corner of my eye.

“
Told
you it was the Mafia,” Grace said to Ellison in an undertone as the back door slammed shut.

I expelled a long breath.

It was time to tell Al goodbye.

I found him in the garage, sitting on the floor and wrapping empty Snapple bottles with aluminum foil. I looked at the stack of bottles next to him, the card table littered with various meters, soldering iron, and a box of salt. It was obvious that he was really kicking into high gear.

He looked up and greeted me with a wide smile as I sat down next to him on a narrow strip of carpet.

“Still up?” he asked, reaching for a new bottle to wrap.

I handed it to him. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“Ever watch
Ghost Hunters
?” he asked with an excited gleam in his eye.

It was going to be really hard to tell him goodbye. Even in my removed state, just thinking that thought threatened to turn me into a puddle of tears.

He was looking at me, and I realized he was waiting for an answer.

“
Ghost Hunters
,” I repeated slowly, playing back his question in my mind. I’d never really enjoyed those TV shows where people would lock themselves in dark rooms and pretend they heard voices in static. “Yeah, I think so,” I finally said.

“Well, Jack faxed me the schema of his device. He’s a smart one,” Al said, chuckling as he set the wrapped Snapple bottle next to the thirty or so already complete. “I’ve got a pretty good feeling we’re gonna succeed here, kiddo.”

I handed him another empty bottle. “You’re going to find ghosts?” I asked in a weak attempt at humor.

A sharp bark of laughter escaped his lips. “Well, who’s to say?” he said.

After wrapping the bottle, he pushed himself up from the floor and moved to the card table.

I just watched him, my throat closing with emotion.

“So, what’s bothering you, kiddo?” he asked, looking me straight in the eye.

I just stared at him back, trying to memorize every line of his face as I gave a half-laugh and answered, “Nothing. Why do you think something’s bothering me? I haven’t said anything.”

He chuckled a little and searched through a cardboard box on the table to pull out a roll of duct tape. “The secret to good conversation is listening,” he said. “Very little communication is actually in the words.”

There was no doubt about it. Al was probably the most perceptive human that I’d ever met. I was going to miss him. Terribly. I couldn’t help it. I just threw my arms around him and hugged him as hard as I could.

“I never had a Dad,” I said, my voice raw with feeling. “But if I did, I’d want him to be just like you, Al.”

He grabbed me up in a great big bear hug and then set me back on my feet and chucked me under the chin. “Well now, kiddo, here’s where you’re wrong. You’ve got me now, if you want me. Not everyone is born into their family from the get-go. Sometimes in life, we find our family along the way.”

I just nodded. I didn’t trust my voice to speak.

He tapped his finger on a piece of paper on top of the card table and drew his brows into a deep scowl. “I’m gonna have to call Jack. This diagram just don’t make sense now. I think he’s forgotten a piece.”

I smiled. “Don’t change, Al,” I silently mouthed. “Ever.”

I took a deep breath. It was time for me to leave—before I ran out of the strength to leave them all behind.

Faking a wide yawn, I rubbed my eyes and said, “Well, I’m off to bed. I’m exhausted.”

“Night, kiddo,” he said, tousling my head.

I watched him flip on an old radio and as a burst of static came through the speakers, he grinned and jammed on a pair of duct-taped earphones.

And then I did the hardest thing I’d ever done. I forced myself to turn and walk away from him, from the only real father I’d ever known.

Stepping into the kitchen, I drew up short to see both Rafael and Jareth leaning lazily against either side of the doorway. They’d both taken the time to change. Rafael wore an olive-green coat, black tank top, and some kind of fashion cargo pants while Jareth was dressed from head-to-toe in black leather, and he had his guitar strapped to his back.

“Going somewhere?” I asked, eyeing Jareth’s guitar and patting my Faraday cap to make sure it was still in place.

“Not really,” he said. Locking his hands behind his back, he strolled to the middle of the kitchen and then turned on me. “You’re acting strange, Sydney. What are you up to?”

I just rolled my eyes at him.

He had the audacity to roll his eyes back at me.

But then Rafael’s hand covered mine and I glanced up to see him looking down at me from under his long, black lashes. I wanted to stare into his gray eyes forever. I wanted him to hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay. And I wanted to kiss him and be with him until I was a wrinkled old lady. But I knew none of that would ever happen. I couldn’t even dare let myself think of telling him goodbye. It hurt far too much.