Chapter 11-2
Show Time
Part 2
All I could think about was Jared, and how he wasn't doing any better than I did today in school. I didn't like the idea of being told to stay home, just because I couldn't stay awake and was afraid of disappointing Mom and Dad for not being able to do a simple job like staying awake in class today. Or walk a few simple feet without falling down or totally collapsing, causing everyone around me to panic.
I hated the extra attention; I hated the idea that it was totally out of my control. Well, except for the attention Betty was giving me. Wanting to see very much to see her naked and have sex with her. Assuming she was into letting me. Then again, she hadn't shown me she wanted to other than stroke Jake on the bus this morning.
I was so engrossed in my thoughts as we were on our way back to the Vincent's house, after picking up their boys from school. That I jumped when Jeff popped in unannounced, telling me that I needed to go home right now. I told him I was going home. He said not the Vincent's to my Rothwell home.
He touched my head, and I saw Jake's Mom tied to a chair and Gloria had a gun to her head. Demanding to know where Jared and I were, and our parents, listening to Dotty telling her that "They are both still in school. Where else would they be? They both have swim practice today."
Gloria slapped her across the face says. "You lying, job-stealing bitch, Jared was sent home hours ago. Eric never showed up to swim practice. Where in the hell are they, you bitch?"
The vision faded, and I screamed, "Stop the bus!" Being asked a million questions. I yelled again to stop the bus. Telling the bus driver and everyone on it that Jake's Mom is in trouble. They looked at me as if I was nuts. I said to Jake and Adam that Jeff just told me that if we went there that Gloria would kill us and his mother. Jake and Adam knew about Jeff, but the bus driver refused to believe me. I didn't have to tell Jeff they didn't believe me, so he said for me to have the bus driver, drive by the gate and keep going that he would see all he needed to see, that I was right.
In the meantime, Jeff would do what he can to keep Gloria and the people she's with from killing Jake's Mom. I asked how he was going to do that; he said. "Trust me; I can be quite useful in creating a distraction." He gave me a silly grin then he was gone. I asked the bus driver if he would just do a drive-by. He said he was willing to do that.
I was on pins and needles as we approached the gate, the first thing we noticed was that all the guards were lying on the ground and the policemen in the unmarked cars were leaning forward with a tranquilizer darts in their throats as if someone shot them with a tranquilizer gun or rifle, they would use on animals.
My first thought was Sparky, which caused me to panic, only to have Jeff tell me he had coaxed him under Mr. and Mrs. Vincent's bed and put him to sleep. I asked about Jared. He said he was picked up from school by my sister Kerry and was at home in bed asleep while Mom and Mrs. Vincent are out shopping. I didn't have to ask about Dad or Mr. Vincent, knowing they had both gone to work and wouldn't be home until five or six p.m.
I felt the bus pickup speed causing the bus driver to yell, being surprised that the bus had just malfunctioned, and the breaks weren't working. When I looked at the front of the bus, I saw Jeff standing beside the bus driver. It was the first time I had ever seen Jeff do something like this or show me what was taking place somewhere else. Unless it was a dream and I had passed out again. But seeing the looks on everyone's faces said it wasn't a dream that this was real and no dream.
Jeff told me he had just put Gloria to sleep, but he couldn't keep her that way for long. I nodded and asked the bus driver if he could radio for help, knowing that most buses have radios to call the dispatch office in case, they get a flat tire, or the bus breaks down. He said. "What in the hell do you think I have been doing, boy?" The bus stopped unexpectedly, and the engine turned off after we had gone half a mile up the road from the house. I heard sirens and I knew they were for us, and I prayed that they would get there in time.
I said. "Do you believe me now, or do you need another sign that we need to get the hell out of here?" The bus started on its own and Jeff said for me to get everyone to my house. Proving that he had been the one in charge of the bus the entire time, which was something I didn't think it was possible, and I doubted anyone would believe me, thinking I had seen way too many horror or science fiction movies.
Yet it did get the bus driver's attention and stated I wasn't crazy after seeing the guards and the cops knocked out or the bus being influenced by a ghost, spirit, or angel. Jeff had a lot of explaining to do, and I wasn't going to be asking nicely about having him tell me how he managed to do these things. When hadn't he done so in the past? Something told me I wasn't going to like the answer.
I nodded and said. "Bus Driver, Jeff says for you to drive us to the Rothwell's house where we will all be safe. And if we stay here where those people might wonder what in the hell are we sitting here for, knowing that isn't a bus stop. And start asking questions, realizing that I am on the bus as well as my friends. Now drive or I will take a crash course on how to drive the damn bus." I heard him grumble as he put the bus in gear and floored it as we sped around the corner.
He said. "I don't get paid enough for this."
I wanted to laugh, remembering that large stuffed envelope that Mr. Vincent gave him yesterday. Instead, I contacted Jeff, asking him if Jake's Mom was alright and whether the cops were on their way. He said. "Good boy, now get home before I tan your hide," I question how that could be possible only to feel a slight tingling in my butt. I could feel Jeff smiling which stated he was more than capable of doing it.
He didn't answer me regarding Dotty's condition, other than stating she was alive. It seemed like forever before we all breathed a sigh of relief at seeing my Rothwell home in sight. The moment we pulled into the driveway. Kerry opened the front door, asking us what we were doing there. I said. "Hiding until the coast is clear."
She gave me a confused look, and I didn't give her an explanation until we were inside the house. I watched the bus drive off the moment we got off the bus. I wasn't sure if he would come back, but I didn't worry about it, because all I could think about was Jake's Mom. Even though Jeff told me she was fine, and the cops have arrested Gloria and four out of seven men who had been with her. Which meant three of them had gotten away before the cops could catch them. Kerry called Dad at work, but he wasn't there. He was out running some errands and was told he would call her when he came back.
Like, good friends, I thought I had. They told Kerry what had happened at school today, as I tried to downplay it as if nothing important. Kerry said. "I guess you know what that means young man?" I didn't argue, knowing it would do me no good as Kerry wheeled me into my room and put me to bed right next to Jared, who was stone-cold asleep. I soon understood why feeling Kerry jab me with a needle as she hugged me, telling me she was glad that we didn't go inside the Vincent's house but came home instead.
Knowing I would if it wasn't for Jeff or being confined to a wheelchair, I didn't tell her if worse came to worse I would have crawled my way into the house just to save Jake's Mom from being killed by Gloria and the people she was with, by sacrificing my own life to keep everyone alive and safe. She kissed me goodnight as she swung my legs and feet into bed and didn't bother to undress me just pulled the blanket over me. I was out cold by the time my bedroom door closed.
When I woke Mom was sitting in a chair, Jared and I had been moved to the Vincent's house and placed in my room there. Jared was still asleep with Sparky at our feet, and I cringed seeing Mom's worried face. I cringed again, looking at the clock which said it was a little past 7 p.m. which meant I had been out for at least three hours. She reached down kissed me on the head, then said. "I knew you both should have stayed home today?"
I was about to say something only to have her shush me. Telling me she and Dad know all about it and Mr. Vincent has increased the security and has set up roadblocks at the top and end of the street, as well as surveillance cameras that are being monitored around the clock. But he doubts he'll need them, considering that Gloria is behind bars, acting like a crazy person jumping at shadows and screaming in her sleep about giant monsters trying to eat her. She asked if that was Jeff's doing. I nodded, and she smiled and then giggled. "Well, then it serves her right, and Dotty would like you to thank him for saving her today."
I said. "I'll do that next time I see him," Feeling that spot inside me that was just as cold as it had been. I couldn't understand it, because once more Jeff had left me, yet he never stayed long enough to have a nice long serious chat.
Mom placed a thermometer in my mouth, as well as Jared's even though he was sleeping. She said. "You have both been running a little hot these last few hours. Betty said you have been most of the day, but it wasn't bad enough to worry about at the time. When she told me, I nearly smacked her because your temperature is normally at ninety-five or ninety-six, and when it goes above that I know that you are not having a good day, but should be in bed. She should have sent you home the moment it reached ninety-eight point nine.
"Mr. Brady gave me and Dad one hell of a tongue-lashing for letting you boys go to school in the first place. I told him that you insisted, and he told me next time I should lock you in your room, and bolt the sheets to the bed," Mom says after pulling the thermometer out of my mouth, reading one hundred and two.
She tisked when she said it. "I have half a mind to tan your hide for not letting Betty take you home the moment your temperature spiked, and you passed out cold the first time. Even Veronica knew better by sending Jared home from school, where you should have been." Mom pulled out his thermometer and tisked reading one hundred and one, as he mumbled something in his sleep. Then she leaned down and kissed me on the head. Telling me now that I am awake, she'll run me a bath.
I asked how Dotty was. Mom turned around and said. "How do you think she is? Mr. Vincent has had her sedated because she couldn't calm down the moment. She woke up screaming that the house was haunted with ghosts all around them. She had been yelling your name the moment we came back with the groceries. Telling us we needed to get to you and Jared before Gloria and Crawford find you and kill you. That your friend Jeff said if you and Jared weren't back in this house by 4 p.m. Crawford would have found you boys and killed you.
"We knew better than to leave you at home, after finding out how Shawn and his friends at your school knew that you had gone home seeing the bus pull up to the house and watching you and Jared go inside as well as Jake and Adam. We had to move fast, and if wasn't for Bishop Sakes creating a diversion and sending an ambulance to our home, we wouldn't have been able to get you boys out in time before Crawford and his goons showed up at the house within minutes.
Instead, they watched them place you and Jared inside and rush you to the hospital, then rushed you boys inside the hospital and out the side door, into the unmarked van that said plumbing supplies on the side. While your friends Jake and Adam became decoys as Crawford and his people thought it was you, boys. Watching them being rushed up into the Hospital penthouse with security guards in the hallways and at the doors. While we moved you boys right from under their noses. When I asked him about it, he said he was told by your dead friend that we needed diversion. It was the only thing he could think of that would work and throw them off your trail.
"Right now, no one knows you boys are here, but somewhere in the hospital. Dad and Mr. Vincent are right now sneaking them out as security guards and should be here within an hour as Crawford and his people are focused on the hospital as well as our home at the moment, not knowing they are walking into a trap. Mr. Vincent believes that by the end of the week, we will have them, and we can say good reddens to them once and for all.
"So, even though it was a bad idea having you boys go to school today. Something good will come of it. Gloria is behind bars, and we are just waiting for Crawford to get tired of waiting and walk into the trap we have set for him. All because of you boys today, so now we can worry about getting you boys back on your feet and not worry about Crawford or Gloria, for now anyway. So rest and I will run you a nice hot bath. Then you will feed you a nice hot dinner and afterward and put you back to bed. Oh, good your brother is waking up. I will let you deal with him as you explain to him why his sister tranquilized him the moment he came home."
I groaned inwardly as I watched Mom leave the room to run us both a bath. I only hoped it didn't include that smelly remedy, but I had a bad feeling that it did. So far, Dotty has lied about feeling like a million bucks. Yet I was willing to still give her the benefit of the doubt for what she has been through today. I tried to reach Jeff and thank him for saving our lives today, including Sparky's, as I reached down and scratched him behind the ears. As always, he didn't reply back, leaving that spot cold and empty and it frustrated me.