Shucked (16 page)

I shook my head, trying to toss the
negative feelings out. I looked up at the ceiling, then started. I hadn’t even
thought to tell Illinois Jon about the dogu. Only Becky and Mimi knew about it,
which was probably for the best. It could wait until morning.

A light tinkling noise pulled my
attention from my history homework to the window. Alex’s head floated outside
my second-story window. “What the hell?” I laughed and opened the window. He
stood on a ladder, holding a bouquet of daisies in his free hand. “What are you
doing, you freak? You could break your neck!”

“I wanted to tell you that I missed
you. And that I wanted to finish what we almost started during tutoring.”

“You expect me to kiss you through a
window? What if you fall? Then you’ll die and I’ll regret it the rest of my
life.”

“If you kiss me quickly, then I can
get down off this death trap. Besides, we’ll both be a lot happier if we get
that first kiss out of the way.”

“So romantic, Alex. Getting a kiss
out of the way. Just what I always wanted to hear.”

He groaned. “You know what I mean.”

“You’re not trying to sneak into my
room and take advantage of me, are you?” I winked, enjoying the banter. Anything
to get my mind off the mess my life had become.

“Not unless you want me to.” Alex’s
smile was off the charts.

I placed a finger over his lips and
took the daisies with the other hand. “Tomorrow. I’m not kissing you through a
window.”

“I don’t risk my life for just any
girl. I want you to know that. You’re special, Tabitha.” His voice dropped a
few notes. “I’ve never had a girl resist me for this long.”

“I’m worth the wait.” I didn’t know
if I was. I’d never even really kissed a boy before. But he didn’t need to know
that.

“I know you are. So, I’ll see you at
school tomorrow?”

I nodded. “Hey, where’s your car?”

“At the end of the lane. I didn’t
want to wake up your grandparents. I got lucky with the ladder. It was lying on
the ground next to the shed. I’d planned on shouting at you from the ground.”
He laughed. “Now I have to get back down without breaking my neck.”

“I think you can do it. Hang on.” I
ran over to my desk, grabbing a flashlight. We lost power a lot on the farm. It
never hurt to have a backup light source in each room. I flipped it on, letting
the light wash over the ladder. “How’s that?”

“It’s perfect, thanks.” Alex scurried
down the ladder. “Till the morrow, my fair maiden,” he called out, one hand
over his heart.

I tossed one of the daisies down to
him. “Till the morrow.”

He ran off into the darkness. A few
minutes later, I flipped off the flashlight after I heard his car roar to life.
I shut the window, then slid into bed, my heart beating out a cheesy love song.

Chapter Twenty-Four

I drifted off to sleep, my mind
racing with a million different scenarios, all of them ending with my mom coming
to the farm, safe and sound.

I woke with a start in the middle of
the night, shivering a bit from the cool breeze drifting through my open
window. The drapes fluttered in the air, performing a ghostly waltz. I rubbed
my eyes, then stayed as still as a statue. I hadn’t left a window open when I
went to sleep.

My eyes darted, seeing almost nothing
in the darkness. On the farm, lights were scarce at night. We were too far from
town to benefit from their spillover. Gramps always said he preferred to
navigate by the stars, which was funny since he probably could have walked the
length of the property blindfolded without running into anything. His mother
had been born in the house. It was in his blood.

I lay in bed silently, even
controlling my breath, pretending I was still asleep. Everything that had
happened over the last few days had irritated my last nerve. Nothing felt calm
or normal. Every little sound sent me into a panic. I let my eyes wander to the
window again, trying to force myself to remember the moment I’d gotten back up
to open it.

I must have. Windows didn’t open by
themselves.

A scratching noise outside my window forced
me out of my bed. If there was someone there, they were going to be sorry. Illinois
Jon had tried to convince me I wasn’t as tough as I thought, but it didn’t mean
I had to lie down and take whatever was coming for me.

I padded over to the window, unsure
of what I was going to find. The top of the ladder Alex had used rested against
the side of the house, even though I was sure he’d taken it back to the shed.
The silver tips glinted in the moonlight. I rested my hands on the cold metal,
prepared to shove it away from the window, when I heard a branch break.

“Who’s there?” I peered down the
ladder, but couldn’t see anyone. Fear gripped at my chest. If I really hadn’t
opened my window, then whoever was down there had already been in my room and
was leaving. My heart thumped on full speed. I shoved the ladder away from the
house. It landed with a soft thump on the grass.

A dark shadow raced across the lawn,
disappearing into the cornfield.

I spun around and ran for the light switch,
tripping over something on the floor and crashing onto my bed. I cried out in
pain, holding my big toe in my hand. Tears streamed down my cheeks and anger
blossomed in my chest.

My door flung open and Gramps stood
in the doorway, wearing pajama pants and old t-shirt, and carrying a shotgun in
his hands. He crouched down, looking through the sight with one eye squinted
closed. His finger rested calmly on the trigger, looking for his victim.

“They’re gone, Gramps.” I chortled between
sobs.

He tiptoed to the closet door, his
lips pursed at me, telling me to keep my mouth shut. I nodded. Gramps reached
out with one hand, the shotgun balanced on his shoulder, and flung the closet
door open. He jumped in front of the door, finger lightly depressing the
trigger.

When he cleared it, Gramps walked
backward and shut the door. He lowered the shotgun, activating the safety.

“You okay?” he asked in his simple
way. Gramps wasn’t a man of many words. He was always ready with a friendly
nod, and sometimes a hug, but beyond that he didn’t talk much. I hadn’t hardly
seen him since school started, except late at night. He worked from dawn to
long past sunset on the farm. I wasn’t even sure what he did all day. As a
little girl, I’d follow him around, but summers were typically down time for
farmers. The real work happened in the spring and fall.

“I’m fine. Whoever it was had already
been in here and was leaving when I woke up. They forgot to shut the window on
the way out. If they hadn’t, I might not have even woken up.” I sank down on
the bed, ignoring my throbbing toe.

Mimi ran in the doorway, her long
flannel nightgown swishing around her ankles. She sat on my bed and took me
into her arms. “My poor baby, are you okay?” She stroked my hair with her hand,
making me feel even safer. I nodded. “When your mother gets here, I’m going to
have a few words with her. This is not the kind of life a young girl should
have.”

I sat up. “Gets here? Is she free?”

Mimi nodded. “We got word about an
hour ago. She’ll be arriving sometime late tomorrow.”

A sigh of relief escaped my lips. So
she was safe. That was good. But that didn’t explain why someone was breaking
into my room.

“Is anything missing?” Gramps asked.
“Can you even tell in this mess?”

I laughed a little behind my cupped
hand. “Sorry, Gramps.”

“Should burn down this part of the
house. Unsalvageable,” he muttered under his breath as he shook his head.

“Don’t pay him any mind,” Mimi said.
She took my cheeks in her hands and forced me to look at her. “Now, can you
take a look around and see if anything has been stolen?”

I nodded and looked straight at the
closet door. “There is something I didn’t tell you and Gramps, and him –”

“Your father?” Mimi interrupted.

“Yeah. That package Mom sent me. Remember?”

Mimi’s eyes narrowed. “That little
toy?”

“I thought it was a toy until the
other day when there was that news story about the Japanese businessman and the
museum and the missing artifact. Turns out she sent it to me, but I didn’t know
it was real until Becky saw the article on her phone.” I stopped, taking a deep
breath. “And it’s a good thing she did too, because I came home that afternoon
and hid it in the attic.”

Gramps jumped up out of the chair. “Can
you show us where you hid it? Hopefully it’s still there.”

I hesitated for a second, not wanting
to leave Mimi’s protective arms, but I steeled my nerves and stood up. Now
wasn’t the time to lose my nerve.

Gramps pulled the staircase down from
the attic. He climbed up first, shotgun on his hip. I followed behind and Mimi
stood guard at the rear. When Gramps decided there wasn’t anyone in the attic,
he motioned for me to come all the way up. I wound my way to the back of the
attic, finding the old blue steamer trunk easily. Leaning over, I grabbed the
box with the dogu in it.

“This is it.” I showed the box to
Gramps as I opened it up. Sure enough, the dogu was still inside, safe. “This
is what they were looking for.”

“Ugly little thing.” Gramps wrinkled
his nose.

“But invaluable.” We climbed back
down the ladder and I showed the dogu to Mimi. “I thought it was a fake when it
arrived. I never would have guessed Mom would have sent me something so
valuable.”

“Why would she send it to you anyway?
That doesn’t make any sense,” Mimi pushed the dogu carefully back into the box,
“not even for Maggie. She’s never so careless.”

I shrugged. It was obvious to me now
that I knew almost nothing about the woman I’d lived with for the last sixteen
years. I couldn’t even guess what she’d been thinking when she sent the dogu to
me.

“I’m going to call Jon now. This
can’t wait until morning.” Gramps handed Mimi the shotgun and left the room.

Mimi set the shotgun down carefully. “I
don’t think we’ll be needing that. Whoever was here is gone now.”

I let out a shuddering breath. “I’m
so sorry, Mimi.”

“Sorry? What are you sorry for,
Tabitha? You didn’t do anything wrong.” She wrapped an arm around me,
enveloping my head in her tight grip. I didn’t complain or struggle, just let
go and allowed her to bury me in her arms.

“Maybe if I would have told someone
about the dogu instead of hiding it, none of this would have happened.” I
glared at the box, wishing it would just disappear.

“Honey, something’s very wrong. Your
mother never would have sent that here for you to take care of. I’m sure
there’s more going on here than we know. Until someone fills us in, we have to
sit tight and be strong. No blame. No fear. Okay?” Mimi squeezed me one more
time, then released me from her grip.

My iPhone buzzed. “A text this late?”
I reached out and glanced at the preview. Alex.

Miss u already.

My fingers shook. This was what I’d
wanted, but I couldn’t deal with it now. If someone was coming after me, it
could put Alex in danger too. That was the last thing I wanted. I’d die if
something happened to him because of the mess I was in. I swiped my thumb
across the screen, debating telling to leave me alone, but then another text
popped up.

Guess you’re sleeping. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. We need to talk
about the Harvest Dance. <3

There was a heart at the end of the
message. A heart! I wanted to text him back, tell him I couldn’t wait to see
him too, but I didn’t. Let him think I was sleeping. It gave me more time to
figure out this mess.

I looked over at Mimi, who sat in the
chair, watchful as ever. I was exhausted, but afraid to go back to sleep. She
rocked back and forth, her hands folded in her lap. “Who was that?”

“Alex.” I ran my thumb over the
picture of him on my iPhone. I’d taken it at school when he wasn’t looking.
Maybe it was a little stalkerish, but I wasn’t comfortable asking for his permission
last week.

“You like him?” Mimi asked it just as
if she’d asked if I liked green beans. Curious, but ultimately uninterested. She
was only making conversation to get my mind off the intruder.

“I think so.” I knew so, but Mimi
didn’t appreciate gushing. I’d save that for Becky. Once I explained Alex’s
reasons for dating all of those girls, she’d be okay with hearing all about it.
At least I hoped so.

Mimi raised an eyebrow. “Hmm. Well,
he’s from a good family. I suppose I approve.”

I held in a sigh. Not because I was
irritated with her, but because I knew I needed Mimi’s approval. She usually
let me do anything I wanted – as long as she thought it was okay. Mimi
ruled with an iron fist, which was probably why my mom left and almost never
came back. They used to butt heads all the time.

“Do we need to talk about sex,
Tabitha?” Mimi stared me down. Her unflinching gaze made me never even want to
kiss Alex.