Chapter 11

 

Breakfast, for the most part, was not exactly what I had planned for it to be.  Hallie was quiet and withdrawn, Jess was tired, and Josh just didn’t seem to feel like talking.  

 

Breakfast ended quickly, and Hallie borrowed Josh’s car to take Jess to the mall to get Abby a present for her birthday, which was on Wednesday, but we had all planned to have a celebration dinner at a popular restaurant tonight.  I waited until I was sure the girls were gone and started to tell Josh about my unexpected phone call from Nick this morning.  

 

When I was finished telling Josh, he couldn’t speak.  All he could do was sit at the kitchen table with wide eyes and a surprised and disgusted look on his face.  Once the shock wore off, he spoke the question that was also on my mind but I had no answer to, “Why would anyone do this?” I shrugged half-heartedly and got up from my seat at the table, walking towards the living room to read the Sunday paper.  

 

As soon as I had settled down on the couch and was looking at the paper without the usual feeling of curiosity about what was going on in the news.  The phone suddenly rang, and I about screamed in fright, not expecting anyone to call, and I immediately picked up the phone, frightened that this would be a call from Hallie.  Ever since what had had happened last night, I had been paranoid, but with a good reason - my child was almost killed.

“Hello?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t sound too anxious.

“Jules!  How are you doing?”  I sat and stared at the gray carpeting until the voice finally registered in my head.

“AJ! Long time since we last talked, what is happening with you?” I asked, happy to be hearing from my old friend.

“Nothing much, I’m going to be in town later today and I was wondering if your family, Brian’s family, and Heidi’s family wanted to get together to catch up on old times?  I tried calling Bri and Heidi but I didn’t get a answer.”

“I would love to, AJ.  What brings you into town?”

“Just wanted to come visit, it has been awhile.  You don’t mind, do you?” he asked, hesitation in his voice.

“No, AJ!  I didn’t mean it that way.  I would love to see you again, and I’m sure the others will too!”

I smiled to myself as AJ seemed to sigh in relief.  Minutes later I hung up the phone after getting AJ’s new cell phone number, promising him that if I got in touch with Brian and Heidi that I would call him and tell him the plans for the evening.  For the first time that day, I felt higher in spirits.

***

Hallie’s POV

“Can’t you hurry up, Jess?” I asked, bouncing up and down out of nervousness.

“I can’t decide what to get Abby,” she replied as she held up a dolphin figurine and a collector’s edition boxed set of CD’s from Abby’s favorite group.

“Just get her both.”

“Oh sure.  I would love to, but I’m not Ms. Moneybags like you are, Hal,” Jess said with a roll of her eyes.

“I’ll tell you what - we both know Abby would love both, but what do you say about me getting her the figurine and you get her the CD’s?  I still don’t know what to get her either.”

I watched as Jess’s frown turned into a smile.  “Yeah, that is a good idea.   I knew you were good for something, Hal,” she said with a smirk as she dashed to the cash register.  I quickly picked up the figurine that she had placed down seconds early and briskly walked to the cash register where Jess by now had paid for the CD collection and was waiting for me to come.

“Can’t you hurry up, Hallie?” she mocked as I reached into my wallet to retrieve my debit card to use for this purchase.  

 

“Shut up,” I hissed at my sister who stood to the side with a smug grin on her face knowing that she was getting on my nerves.  

 

“Thank you for shopping with us.  Please come again,” the cashier said with a smile as she handed me a bag with the figurine in it.

“Come on, Hal, let’s go get ice cream or something,” Jess said as she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the closest mall exit.

“Ice cream in this cold weather?  Are you crazy?” I asked once we reached Dad’s car.

“No, just special,” Jess said with a giggle.  I started the car and pulled carefully out of the parking lot, not noticing the dark car following us.

***

Julie’s POV

It was now early afternoon, and I finally got in touch with Brian.  I told him about AJ’s surprise call but kept the news of Nick’s call to myself figuring that if Nick wanted Brian to know that he would have told him.   Brian quickly suggested that we invite AJ to Abby’s birthday dinner and I quickly agreed.  I knew that Heidi and Chad would most likely be cool with it, but I wanted to call and make sure before I told AJ of the plans; it was after all their daughter’s birthday, and it didn’t seem right for me to be making plans for it.

Finally after the answering machine kicked on and I said my usual greeting, a voice I barely recognized as Chad’s was heard over the phone.

“Hey.” I greeted again.  “You not just waking up are you?” I glanced at the clock by the television, and the time was 3:20.

“Actually, yeah.  I think this is the longest I have slept in a long time.”

“Is everything alright?” I asked sensing that Chad was keeping something from me.

The line was silent for a few seconds until he hesitantly answered me with a ‘yeah’ that didn’t sound too convincing to me.  He finally told me that Heidi blamed herself for what happened to Sonny and Hallie last night and that she had trouble sleeping last night because of guilt and worry and immediately I felt horrible.  I knew my best friend was sensitive about stuff like this but still she didn’t need to blame herself, she wasn’t the one who planted the bomb or anything there was no reason for her to place the blame on herself.

“Well, I have some news that may lift her spirits.”

“Yeah?” Chad questioned.

“Yeah, AJ called earlier, and he wants all of us to get together to catch up on everything, and Brian and I thought that maybe if you guys didn’t mind, we could invite AJ to Abby’s birthday dinner tonight.”

“Of course he can come!” Chad said, and I could immediately hear hope in his voice.

“Maybe seeing AJ again will make Heidi feel better.  She has always adored him,”  I commented.

“That is what I was just thinking.  But…” Chad said but was interrupted by what sounded like Sonny’s voice in the background.  I listened as Chad briefly told Sonny that AJ was joining us for dinner in hushed tones, which I assumed was so Heidi nor Abby would be able hear it.  “Cool!” I heard Sonny exclaim and I grinned.

“Well it is all set; tell AJ he is welcome to come.   I need to get going now, but thanks for calling, Jules.”

“No problem, Chad.   I just hope seeing AJ will make Heidi feel better.  See you later.”

“Yeah, I hope so too.  Bye, Jules.”

A second later, the dial tone from the phone greeted my ears, and I hung up the phone and gave Josh, who had just taken a seat across from me, a small smile.

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“Chad said that Heidi is blaming herself for what happened last night, but I have a feeling that he may be keeping something else from me.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, but I plan on finding out tonight,” I told my husband with determination in my voice, not knowing that by the end of the night, I would have rather not known what was going on.

***

Hallie’s POV

“Hallie, turn down this road,” Jess said in a small voice from the passenger’s seat.

“For what?” I asked as I concentrated on the road.

“Just do it!” she yelled as I almost drove past the road entrance.  I quickly turned the wheel, just barely missing the edge of the pavement.

“What is your problem?”

“Look behind us,” she said as if looking behind us would answer the question.

“Yeah, so?” I said in an uninterested tone.  “It is a car.  Haven’t you ever seen one before?”

“Yeah, smart ass, but this car has been following us since we left the mall.   Speed up and see if they do too.”

“Okay,” I said as I pressed down on the accelerator and cast a nervous glance in the rearview mirror seeing that car also was speeding up.  It was then my heart started to beat faster and I pressed my foot down a little harder watching the speedometer leap to sixty five.  

 

“Do you see a license plate or anything?”  I asked as I sharply turned onto a road that looked somewhat
familiar to me, it was one of the back-roads to the area where the hospital and most importantly the police station was located.  I watched nervously as Jess took off her seatbelt and turned around.

“Nope,” she said.  “They don’t have a front license plate, and the glass of their car is so tinted I can’t see who it is.”

“Great,” I said sarcastically, and I took a sharp curve at sixty five instead of the posted forty five mph speed limit.  I sighed in relief as I saw the hospital in the distance and I sped up, praying that God was with me as I took curves at neck-breaking speed and the car behind me did the same.  Both Jess and I let out a scream as the other car tapped our back bumper, and I momentarily lost control going around a curve sideways.  

 

God must have been with me because I gained control of the car and sped up, the gap between the other car and mine widening.  I let out a shout of triumph as I pulled into the police station parking lot, parking right in front of the entrance, ready to ‘lay on the horn’ if necessary to get the attention of the police.  But thankfully the other car drove by at at least sixty five and ran two red lights narrowly missing being hit by a semi and a van.

“You okay, Jess?” I asked my sister, once my frantically beating heart finally slowed down to a somewhat decent rhythm.

“Yeah, that was close, Hal.  I wonder what the hell they wanted,” she said calmly.

“I don’t know, but I wish I knew why this stuff was happening.”

“Do you think Abby may have been right?  That we did summon bad spirits that caused this stuff to happen to us?”

I didn’t answer right away, my mind floating back to that night of the séance, the night that Sonny had been hurt and almost died from hypothermia, and the night that things never seemed to be the same from then on.  

 

I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard a strangled sob, and I quickly turned to face my sister, who was sobbing and shaking.  I undid my seat belt and pulled my sister towards me into a tight hug.

“We can’t tell Mom or anyone that this happened, Hal,” Jess managed to choke out in between sobs.

“I know, I know,” I said as I rocked my sister in my arms as her sobs started to diminish.  I knew that I had to be strong for my younger sister, but in truth, I was crumbling inside.

***