Fook (37 page)

Looking over her shoulder on her way into
the kitchen, Sarah offered an, “I’m sorry,” look to Derek. She’d
warned him of her father’s overprotective nature, especially when
it came to his daughters, but she couldn’t help but feel bad when
she saw the nervous fear on Derek’s face.

*****

“So, getting big,” Sarah broke the uncomfortable
silence, immediately realizing the negative connotations of her
statement. “I didn’t mean…”

Katie just glanced down at her growing
stomach. She was doing everything she could to conceal just how
much she was showing. All of her pants had built in elastic at this
point and all of her once favorite, form fitting shirts had been
banished to the back of the closet in exchange for a whole new
wardrobe of stylish, yet loose fitting tops. At six months she was
starting to look like someone seven or eight.

“Katie, I really didn’t mean—“

“—It’s okay,” Katie sighed. “According to
Daddy, I inherited mom’s baby carrying genes.”

“That’s true, she did get pretty big with
you…not because you were fat.”

“I know I’m big, but it’s alright. My doctor
says everything is progressing perfectly and in a few months I’m
going to be holding my little girl.

Watching her sister as she held her stomach
and talked about the life growing inside of her, Sarah couldn’t
help but realize that this was a completely different version of
her sister than the one she remembered only four months earlier.
The last time she’d been home had been during Christmas break which
had also been the time that Katie had chosen to drop the baby
bombshell on the family. Their father had at first been irate,
demanding to know the father’s name so he could race over there and
“crush his nut sack with his nightstick,” was how he’d so
eloquently put it. By the end of the week he’d cooled down and
accepted the reality of the situation, promising not to harm the
boy and assuring his youngest daughter that he’d be there for her
every step of the way. Things hadn’t ended as well between her and
her sister however.

They were once inseparable, but since she’d
gone off to college the dynamic between them had changed. Sarah was
off making that unavoidable transition into adulthood while Katie
had been left at home, an only child for the first time in her
life. Add to it their mother’s death and things hadn’t been the
same since.

The death of their mother had had very
different effects on them. While Sarah had taken the tragedy as
proof that life is short, and had pushed herself through the
remainder of high school, placing second in her class, Katie had
chosen a more destructive path. Instantly, her grades had
plummeted. She’d grown more and more defiant toward both her father
and sister, who’d struggled to keep her out of trouble. A new set
of friends had led to early experimentation with alcohol and weed
and then, a quick romp with Jordan McCandlis had given them the
tiny life now poised to join their family.

At that point Sarah had had enough. She
understood the pain her sister felt. Katie was four years younger
and just entering her teenage years at the time of their mother’s
death but her downward spiral had taken its toll and the pregnancy
had been the last straw. At that point she’d essentially written
her sister off, leading to nearly no contact between them, the only
words ever exchanged being, “I don’t want to talk to her,” whenever
Sarah called home to talk to her father and asked if her sister was
around.

“So have you come up with a name yet?”

Taking a seat on one of the barstools at the
island, “I don’t know, Daddy really likes Ruth and I keep having to
remind him that it isn’t the fifties anymore.”

“She’d probably come out with a walker in
toe,” Sarah joked, pleased to see a smile on her sister’s face.
“What do you want?”

“I
was
thinking Isabella, but now I
sort of like Jenna,” Katie smiled at the name.

Though she no longer needed convincing when
it came to Derek’s story, hearing her sister utter the now familiar
name of her future niece, Sarah couldn’t help but get lost in
thought.

“You don’t like it,” Katie snapped her
sister back to reality.

“No. I do. It’s pretty.”

“Not Jennifer though, just Jenna,” Katie
added. “Everyone is named Jennifer it seems. I like the name, but I
want her to be more unique than that…without giving her some crazy
name like Celebration or Moonbeam.

“How about Destiny,” Sarah suggested.

“Eew no,” Katie instantly scowled. “That
sounds like a name Daddy would say belongs to a stripper. Up next
on the main stage, Destiny,” Katie joked in an announcer’s
voice.

“Yeah, I guess you're right but what do you
know about strip clubs?”

Glancing down at her stomach, “I think I
know a lot more than I should at this point.”

The two laughed.

“This is good,” Sarah thought. After the way
she’d reacted during Christmas and four months of no contact, she’d
been afraid that their relationship had been irreparably damaged
and that the close, sisterly bond they’d once shared could never be
restored. After just a few minutes of light conversation though,
things seemed just like they used to be when they were younger.
Well, not entirely the same, Sarah thought as she glanced at her
sister’s stomach.

“So who is he?”

“Huh?” Sarah shifted her eyes upward.

“Your friend currently being grilled by
Daddy.”

“Oh shit. You think he’s okay?”

“I don’t know. You remember what he
threatened to do to Jordan. You aren’t pregnant are you?”

*****

“She’s not pregnant, is she?” Mr. Bishop continued
his interrogation.

“What?” Derek responded, shocked by the
question. “No…I mean…I don’t think so. I guess she could be, but it
isn’t—“

“—A simple no was the answer I was looking
for,” Mr. Bishop interjected.

Derek had just watched the man strap one gun
to his ankle, another under his shirt and a third to his belt.
Normally quick witted and perfectly capable of standing his ground
under a barrage of questions, he suddenly found himself feeling
like a high school dropout interviewing for the position of Chief
Physician at John Hopkins.

“So where are you from Mr. Miller?”

“Cannon, Sir,” Derek realized his mistake as
soon as he made it.

“Really? I must know your folks then.”

“Cannon, Michigan,” Derek added with a grin
of much needed confidence.

“Oh really. I’m from Michigan.”

His grin faded.

“Never been to Cannon though. Is that near
Detroit?”

Derek didn’t know what to say. If he
answered yes, and Sarah’s father was from Detroit, he ran the risk
of being caught in the lie. He knew the man was testing him. He was
a police officer for Christ’s sake. He was used to getting a read
on people and he’d already made it clear that he didn’t much care
for him.

"It’s a small little town. Most people don’t
even know it’s there,” he provided as vague an answer as he could
come up with.

“Ah. I grew up in Detroit,” Mr. Bishop
added.

“Sorry.”

“Excuse me.”

“I mean…yeah, it’s out in the western part
of the state, nowhere near Detroit,” Derek fumbled for a response,
confident that the peculiar look meant Mr. Bishop didn’t believe a
word he was saying.

Staring at Derek with an analyzing gaze, Mr.
Bishop slid his radio into his belt. “You know I don’t trust you,
right?”

“I’m aware,” Derek kept his response short
and simple this time.

“Good,” Mr. Bishop took a step closer.
“Because the only thing that matters to me in this entire world,
are those two girls down there and my future granddaughter. And as
much as I look forward to meeting Sarah’s future husband and father
of her children, it’s not going to be you and it’s not going to be
now. Am I clear?”

“Crystal, sir. Just friends,” Derek managed
to stand his ground in the face of the looming officer.

“Good. Then let’s go see what the girls are
up to,” he grabbed hold of Derek’s shoulder with the same set of
vice grips.

THIRTY-EIGHT

“Your dad hates me,” Derek spoke up from the
passenger seat of the car.

“He doesn’t hate you,” Sarah assured
him.

“No. I’m pretty sure he does. And I might
have told him that you’re pregnant.”

“What!? I’m not pregnant!”

“I know. Well, I don’t know. How could I
know that? See, that’s exactly how it happened,” Derek began to
babble again, wondering what the hell was wrong with him today.

“Whatever. He knows that I wouldn’t be
stupid enough to let that happen.” Thinking about what she just
said and her sister. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I know what you meant. So what’s up with
you and your sister anyway?”

“What do you mean?”

“Really?” Derek grinned.

Not aware that the awkwardness between her
and Katie had been that obvious, “We’ve had our disagreements over
the years.”

Derek just stared at her, not satisfied with
her attempted dodging of the question.

“What? Alright, yes. I’m not thrilled that
my sixteen year old sister is pregnant. I don’t think that’s all
that shocking. Ever since our mother died she’s been a bit of a
mess.”

Just as before when the sensitive subject
had come up, Derek didn’t know how to respond. “Sorry,” was again
all he could think to say.

“You said that already,” Sarah looked over
with a grin, sensing his level of discomfort with the topic.
“Cancer,” she added.

Derek nodded, not sure where to go with the
conversation, especially given their current situation.

“Please don’t get all squeamish around me
now,” Sarah instantly acknowledged the growing level of awkwardness
in the car, eager to stop it from spreading any further. “Whenever
you tell someone that your mother died of cancer they get all quiet
and uncomfortable around you. It’s life. It happens. She’d want me
to move on and make the most of my life,” she asserted.

He wasn’t sure if she really believed what
she was saying or if the rehearsed speech was simply a defense
mechanism left unchallenged for all these years. With larger
problems at the moment however, he chose not to push the issue.

“Where are we going anyway?” Sarah
questioned, apparently also interested in a change of subject.

“Jason’s house, or the house he grew up in
at least,” Derek answered.

“Why?"

“Maybe we can talk to someone about
Jason.”

“Didn’t you say he was just born last week?”
Sarah asked, aware of how strange that statement sounded, given
that she’d just witnessed the apparent newborn kill a woman in cold
blood the night before.

“What are his parents going to tell us?”

“Not his parents. Jason was born in Tampa.
His parents were killed in a car accident when he was about three
months old.”

“That’s horrible.”

“His grandmother raised him after that.
Jason said something about his grandmother and what she told him
before she died. Something about the men in their family. I’m
assuming it has to do with the time travel thing.”

“You really think she’s going to just come
out and admit to a total stranger that the men in her family have
the ability to bend time?”

“I grew up my whole life around Jason and
his grandmother. She likes me.”

“Not yet. You haven’t even been born yet,”
Sarah pointed out.

“Shit,” Derek thought. Now even he was
getting confused. “Anyway, we need to do something. We need to
figure out a way to stop Jason.”

“Yeah, we need to tell my dad and sister the
truth, so when he shows up we can be ready.”

“Not yet. We have time.”

“No, he has time. He has all the time in the
world to plot out how he’s going to kill my little sister and
niece. We don’t have time because we don’t know when it’s going to
happen.”

“Not true. Remember what he said last
night?”

Sarah looked over at him with no idea what
he was talking about.

“See you at the dance, he said,” Derek
repeated Jason’s departing words. “It’s the end of the school year.
I can only assume he meant the prom. Since your sister is currently
in school and not at a dance I can only assume that she’s perfectly
safe. Did she mention anything to you about going to the prom?”

“Yeah, some boy she knows asked her out the
other day for something like the third or fourth time. She finally
said yes and actually seems pretty excited about it.”

“When is it?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” That was a bit sooner than he’d
expected. He thought they’d have at least a week to work out a
plan. Now they only had a little more than twenty-four hours.

“I say we tell my father and we all get the
hell out of here,” Sarah reasserted her opposition to Derek’s
current plan.

“And go where? Where can we go that Jason
can’t find us? Sure we could drop off the grid. We could abandon
all credit cards, change our names, spend our entire lives ensuring
that no photos are ever taken and that nothing exists that could
give Jason, who has access to over two decades of information on
the internet, even the slightest clue to where we are.”

“What’s the internet?”

“It doesn’t matter right now. What does
matter is that we understand that there is no running. Jason holds
all the cards right now. We just need to figure out a way to stack
the deck in our favor.”

Sarah didn’t respond.

He could tell she was upset and didn’t fully
understand what he was talking about. Though only a little over
twenty years separated their lives, her world was a far different
place than his. How could he explain social media and the vast
database of information that modern technology had made accessible
to anyone with interest and time. Instead he chose to just comfort
her.