Deadly Expectations (42 page)

Denis was watching me closely when we got downstairs.
 
Ray and Paul didn’t seem to notice but I did.
 
I wondered if Paul had spoken to him about me but I wasn’t going to bring it up to him.
 
He would have to come to me and did while I was heaving my bag up over the high tailgate into the back of the truck.
  
He grabbed it and lowered it in before it could crash down into the box.

“So how did you figure it out?
 
I’ve been wondering for about as long as I can remember,” Denis asked me.

“What?” I asked.

“Me,” he said.

I felt a little shy awkward.
 
“Are you sure you want to talk about it?”

He nodded.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry … I figured it out yesterday morning at the briefing.
  
Ray knew I was doing it.
 
That’s what he was telling me to stop doing … I didn’t know it was bad manners.
 
I hope I didn’t insult you.”

“You didn’t,” he said quietly and looked back at Paul and Ray.
 
They were talking on the porch out of earshot.
 
“I like you both very much.
 
I’m lucky to know … most of us don’t.
 
But how did you figure it out?”

I glanced up the stairs and leaned toward him.
 
Then I pointed to the little spot under my nose.
 
“I have no idea how it works … but I put you and Paul both here and took away everything that was the same … what was left was me.”

Denis was trying hard to keep a serious face.
 
“Now that Paul told me I can feel it.
 
I know you’re right.”
 
But then he started to give in to a very Anna-like case of the giggles.
 
“But seriously … you put us up your nose?”
 
He was laughing as he walked away so I made a quick snowball and pegged him hard in the back.
 
He kept laughing as I caught Paul smiling at us.

It took over an hour to get to roads that were clear enough to go as fast as we needed.
 
Paul had already warned Ray and Denis to keep their eyes shut and turn off their phones.
 
They both looked nervous.
 
I was too.
 
Hopefully I could pull it off.

“Roads should be good from here on Anna,” Paul said quietly.
 
“If you’re ready to start.”

I was in the front with him and closed my eyes and concentrated on where we were going.
 
First the time.
 
I was aiming for the end of October; a few weeks after I had arrived at Paul’s.
 
The truck started to wander a bit from the small side gusts as I locked that in.

“Tell me about your father Paul,” I said quietly.

He started to tell me about how the men would be drawn to his father.
 
How without him they had found less than half of the family this time and how his father was in charge of everyone … the patriarch.
 
But it wasn’t working for me.
 
Maybe he didn’t want to say what he needed to in front of the others so I slid over and whispered into his ear.

“That’s not going to work,” I told him.
 
“Those are the things you’ve been doing.
 
Tell me the biggest reason why you need him now … with things the way they are.
 
Not how things should have worked out.
 
It has to be strong Paul … or we’ll wind up at your mother’s.
 
Whisper it to me … they won’t hear.”

He was quiet for a few minutes.
 
Then he said, “I need his help to raise our daughter.”

“How?”
 
I whispered to him.

“It’s not just the regular parenting for us … there’s a lot more to it.
 
She’ll need to understand her tie through her lives.
 
This is the first she’ll carry with her and she’ll start to feel its attachment as she gets older.”
 
He rubbed the centre of his chest.
 
“We feel it here … without proper guidance and understanding it won’t be secured.
 
It’ll weaken.
 
I’ll find her a few times but eventually it’ll become detached and she won’t remember me at all.
 
She’ll be lost.
 
For us it’s a real death.”

He kept his eyes on the road and didn’t even glance at me.
 
I knelt on the seat with my ear to his lips so his voice was barely a whisper.

“I don’t remember how to teach her.
 
I need to feel through my connection to her that it’s been done right,” he sounded so sad.
 
“If what you said comes to pass then I won’t be here to do it at all.
 
That’s why I brought Ray and Denis.
 
They need to know, to help her if I’m not there.
 
It’s just been so long since anyone has needed to do it that nobody remembers except my father.
 
I need to find him so he can teach me again.
 
When we find him next time it will be too late … her line will be set and if it was set wrong we’ll lose her.”

I kissed his cheek.
 
“I thought it was scary enough for me to be raising a daughter without my mother.
 
Thank you Paul, that’s what I needed.”

I sat back down I refocused on the time we would be going to.
 
Made sure that was still set.
 
I thought about what Paul had told me.
 
His desperate need to find the one person he trusted with our daughter’s future.
 
The person who could give him peace of mind.

“Both hands on the wheel Paul,” I said as the pressure grew then the truck was pushed hard over the centre line.

“Shit,” he said.
 
I smiled to myself as I felt Ray grab the seat behind me to hold on.

“Rushing that part only makes it worse,” I said.

Another gust pushed the truck sideways as there was more pressure.
 
After a half minute we were hit from behind.

“Better,” he said.

I continued to refine my focus.
 
We were hit harder and something shifted and fell over in the back of the truck.
 
It was pretty full of gear and people so I let the pressure build far past the point it had when I brought Paul home.

“Okay.
 
Time to swap.”
 
I took the wheel and Paul quickly moved out of the way as I sat down.
 
We got hit again and he was almost pulled off his seat by the recoil.

“Eyes closed?”
 
I asked.

Paul turned and looked back at Ray and Denis.
 
Then he faced forward. “Yes.”

I double checked my focus and made sure I had dismissed everything else from my mind then I closed my eyes and floored it.
 
The truck jumped forward hard as we disappeared.

Chapter 35

Rain punished the roof overhead; clusters of hundreds of huge drops beat down in waves.
 
The wind had to be strong to drive the rain like that.

“Paul?” I asked quietly.

“Right here,” he said behind me and knocked something over as he turned around.

“Ray?
 
Denis?”
 

“Here,” they answered.

“Let’s find out where we are,” Paul said.

I turned around in the dark to see if there was anything I could make out.
 
I could see a street light through the garage door window.
 
The utility lines led toward us to the left and the familiar little tags from the cable company dangled from their silver box.
 
That was disappointing.
 
I rubbed my eyes with fatigue.
 
They would have to wait for me to sleep this one off before we tried again.
 
I didn’t have the energy to do another now without draining someone else and I wasn’t willing to do that.

“I’m sorry Paul.
 
We’re in my garage,” I told him and he patted my shoulder.
 
“Don’t move … it’s a death trap.
 
Let me get the light.”

I made my way to the far end.

“Crap,” I said as I banged my shin on something and knocked it over.
 
“Who left that there?”
 
Suddenly three flashlights were on me.

“Thanks,” I said, wondering where the lights were before I had hobbled myself then I turned on the light.
 
It was just as I remembered it.
 
Every surface, walls and work benches, was covered in parts and tools.
 
I had four motorcycles in pieces on the floor and no clear path past any of them.

“This is a mess Anna,” Paul said.

I gave him a sideways shrug.
 
“I usually spend the winter in here … I haven’t been around to deal with the junk that piled up during the summer.
 
We need to find the truck."
 
I took the spare house key off its hook and opened the door to the outside.
 
Cold wind and heavy rain immediately blasted me as I stepped out.

“Hope you can swim,” I told them.

“Yuck,” Denis said as he left the dry garage.
 

“No.
 
It’s fantastic,” I disagreed.
 
To me this was winter.
 
The weather was always doing something other than the cold and white at Paul’s.
 
That was nice but I could watch the weather do this for days without worrying about my ears freezing off.

“I don’t have the keys for the truck, do any of you?”
 
They didn’t.
 
“It won’t be more than a few blocks away, but with the keys inside it’ll be gone by morning.”

The three of them looked half drowned already.
 
I hadn’t felt the rain in a long time so I didn’t mind at all.
 
When I got out to the street the truck was only a block away so Denis ran to get it.
 
Paul had zipped his jacket all the way up and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“Does it rain like this a lot?”

“It’s a rainforest,” I laughed.
 
“Ten months a year.”

Denis backed the truck in and Ray started pulling things out.

“You two have to sleep on the living room floor … sorry.
 
My spare room is full,” I could see the sleeping bags in the truck.
 
That was good.
 
I didn’t have anything like that they could use.
 
Then I led them around back and opened up my door.

I stepped in cautiously, sniffing the air.
 
It didn’t smell bad but it didn’t smell good either.
 
I turned on the light so nobody tripped on the clutter.

“I hope you didn’t marry me for my house keeping,” I told Paul.

“If I did it would be over,” he laughed.

“Living room is through to the left, bathroom down the hall on the right … first door.
 
My room is on the left.”

They started bringing stuff in.

“What happened to the hall carpet Anna?
 
It’s black,” Ray asked.

“No other way to get bikes in and out of the spare room,” I told him like he should know that already.
 
Then I threw the dirty dishes from before I left into the dishwasher, gave it a cookie, and turned it on.
 
Smell number one out of the way.