“For what?” I asked, confused.
“For sharing,” he said. “Your family is pretty fucking incredible.”
I nodded in agreement, reaching out and taking his hand in my own for the rest of the drive home. I had to agree.
18
Mason
Then I did it again.I fell asleep in the car on the way home from Lee’s parents’ house.
This time, though, I at least woke up enough that I didn’t need to be carried into the house. We walked into the darkened house and dropped our things in the living room. I started forward and almost ran into Lee, who stood frozen in the darkened room looking into the kitchen anxiously, a look of confusion on his face.
“What?” I asked, walking up from behind him, reaching out and wrapping my hands around his waist. He stood, strangely stiff under my touch.
“I just… I could have sworn I turned that light out when we left,” he whispered, gesturing to the light over the kitchen sink.
Fear choked me for a moment, and I froze, my eyes zipping around the room. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, desperately trying to push back the fear. God damn it, no. I wasn’t going to let Ricky and Dreyven have one more day of my life.
I looked around the room, trying to keep my face away from Lee so he wouldn’t see the fear I knew was hiding in my eyes. I released him and backed up so I could examine the door to the house. There didn’t seem to be any scratches on the lock or any visible damage to itbut in the dim light I couldn’t be sure. I looked around the room, but nothing looked out of place. Of course, I hadn’t been in Lee’s home very long, I could be missing something that would be glaringly obvious to him.
I looked at the table where my laptop still sat, and my heart sped up. Were my folders lying next to it like that when we left? I couldn’t remember. I moved to the table and opened the laptop, typing in my password, unlocking the operating system. Nothing seemed amiss there.
“You okay?” I heard Lee ask.
I nodded sharply, and maybe a little too quickly.
“Anything missing?” he asked. I shook my head no.
As I stood there, I could feel the fear threatening to overwhelm me. I couldn’t let it win.I. Would. Not.I stood there for a moment frozen but started using some of the coping skills my therapist had been teaching me diligently. I forced the rigid muscles in my body to relax one by one, taking deep breaths between each relaxation. After a moment, I looked up only to find Lee’s eyes caught on me with concern.
“Do you see anything missing?” I asked, looking around.
“No,” he whispered. “But stay here,” Lee kept his voice low. He opened the closet behind the door and took something out. At first, I thought it was a baseball bat. Then I realized it was too narrow. It looked like a long stick? I shrugged. Maybe he had walking sticks like hikers used. He turned and began heading down the long hallway toward his office.
I started to follow him, but he held his hand up.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m going with you,” I surprised myself by saying.
Lee shook his head.
“No way, baby. I need you out here to be able to call for help if I need it,” he said, heading back down the hallway. Part of me knew he was trying to protect me, but there was no way I was letting him move through that house by himself.
He must have seen something on my face… Determination? Stupidity? Whatever it was, he decided he wasn’t going to argue with me.
We moved forward, our sneakers making no sound on the hardwood floors as we moved through the darkened hall. The first door was the one leading to the guest bathroom. I couldn’t help but admire the grace with which Lee moved. He held the stick in his hands more like a baton than a baseball bat, occasionally whirling it in his fingers effortlessly in some kind of martial arts move. If that had been me, I’d have been more like a toddler, boinking people on the head with it. Lee moved into the bathroom quietly, his hands wrapped around the… walking stick? I remembered him saying he used a cane from time to time. Something about it looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
Fortunately, the shower curtain in that bathroom hadn’t been left closed, so a quick glance behind the door and we knew the room was clear. No Psycho surprise for us.
Next was Lee’s office. The door to the room stood partly open and we could see moonlight shining in the room as well as some light from the security light. We both froze as the sound of shuffling papers came from the room.
Lee froze, then held his hand up in a fist, then extended three fingers, then two, then one. I figured out it was a countdown, so I was ready when he charged forward and hit the lights.
I saw the lights flick on in Lee’s office as he ran in but just as suddenly as they came on, they went out as the door to his office slammed shut. I heard a loud thud, the sound of something crashing around in his office and a string of profanities exploding from Lee and a final thud.
I pounded on the door handle in panic, desperate to get it open. When the latch almost immediately gave way under my hands, I stumbled and barged into his office. The lights were on and for a moment I was blinded by their brightness after the dark of the hallway. Lee lay on the ground, his body scarily still, the shelves collapsed on top of him, tiny robot pieces everywhere.
