Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series) (14 page)

“So you live on campus instead?”

“Lived on campus,” she corrected me.

“Are you moving?”

“The semester’s over.  Don’t you remember the end of semester party at your friend’s apartment?  Besides, we’ve met with you now.  There’s no reason for me to stay close anymore.  I’ve got to get back and pack up my stuff,” Stefanie explained and smiled at me as if to say, matter closed, let’s go.

I started the car.  Over the past few days, I had learned once Stefanie made up her mind, there was no turning back.  She didn’t need to use the tether spell anymore.  I backed the car up in an arc in the gravel driveway so I could navigate in drive through the long, tree-lined path leading back to the country road we had come in on three days ago.

The ride out was much more pleasant than the ride in.  The sun beat down on us, and even with my air-conditioning on, we could feel the Florida heat penetrating the car.  I knew where I was heading, and Stefanie had taken on the role of a friend, so despite the doubts Chase had filled my mind with, I felt more upbeat as Stefanie navigated me through the country roads and back to University Avenue.  We turned on 13
th
Street, and I pulled in front of Beatty Towers.

“Thanks for the lift,” Stefanie smiled.

“No problem,” I surprised myself because I actually meant it.

“See you around.”  With that, Stefanie bounced out of the car, closed the door, and walked energetically to her dorm.

For the first time in days, I found myself actually alone.  My car acted like a fortress.  I locked the doors and felt a wave of strength and exhilaration.  No one could get in, and I would not get out.  I drove through the streets of campus and headed to 34
th
Street.  I drove past the science building, the museum.  I turned back towards University Avenue and then decided to take a detour past the law buildings.  The roads, though still populated, seemed eerily empty.  The bustle of campus life had already lulled as most students headed home for the summer.   I reached 34
th
Street, turned left at the light, and headed towards my apartment.  A few more turns and I could enter the new fortress of my apartment.  I would have the solitary time I needed in order to reflect over the past few days.

I pulled into a spot very close to my apartment and under an oak tree.  I stayed in the car for a few extra moments—enjoying the solitude and listening to Aerosmith.  The song came to an end, and it seemed like as good a time as any to stop burning fuel just to run the air conditioning in my car.

My apartment, if you could call it that, waited for me nearly the way I left it.  I had a small efficiency.  The front door opened to a living/dining room.  My tiny but cozy kitchen lay to the left.  Past the main room, two bi-fold doors hid what amounted to my bedroom.  To the left of the bi-fold doors was the bathroom.  That was it.  My furniture boasted of the mismatched discards of former University of Florida graduates.  If you get your apartment early enough, you can get lucky and snag the furniture of the students who are shedding their student lives and moving into the working world where you buy matching furniture from a furniture store and live in the same place for longer than twelve months. 

My blue couch rested under a window with cheap mini-blinds.  I had a table with one wobbly leg in between the couch and a large leather armchair with a tear down the side the size of my
forearm.  On the other side of the couch was a tank with my very hungry goldfish.  I fed the three who were still alive and fished out the fourth before the others could turn cannibalistic.

I plopped down on the armchair to listen to my messages before I started to make out my plans.  The last place we lived was St. Augustine, Florida.  I always thought it was a bit ironic to pick such an historic town, the oldest city in the nation.  We knew there were many other witches in the area, but we chose to live as Unknowns, and I went to high school as a carefree, normal teenager since Aunt Lynn had stopped trying to force me to study.  I had also lived with Zach’s family in St. Augustine.  I hoped they would be willing to welcome me back for one more summer. 

“Hi, Jade,” Zach’s voice materialized from my answering machine as if my thinking of him had summoned his voice, “thanks for coming to my party.  Sorry I missed you this morning.  Give me a call if you want to go running tomorrow.”

“End of message one,” came the metallic voice of my machine.

“Hey, Jade, I was about to go running and thought I would check in with you.  Guess you’re busy.  My mom and dad are coming to get us on Friday.  Make sure you’re packed.  I’ll talk to you later.”

Well, I guess that answered my question.  I had a place in St. Augustine to go home to so to speak.

“End of message two.”

“Jade, it’s been two days since the party, and I haven’t heard from you.  I assume you made it home okay, but give me a call.  Let me know if you need help packing.”

“End of message three.”

“Jade, you have not called, and I’m kinda worried.  We usually go running together three times a week, as if I needed to remind you about that.  Did I do something at the party to upset you?  You are still planning on coming back home, right? Call me.”

“End of message four.”

“Okay, Jade, this is ridiculous.  I saw you at the party on Saturday.  Now it is Wednesday.  My parents will be here in less than two days, and I don’t even know if you are coming back with us.  I’m coming over to check on you.”

“End of message five.”

Really?  I had never realized how paranoid Zach could be.  Of course, I did pretty much disappear, and as the only person left on the planet without a cell phone, I guess someone who thinks of himself as my brother might be a bit worried.  I really didn’t want to see Zach.  I really didn’t want to see anyone.  I picked up the phone to call and let him know I was okay, but I could see I was already too late.  Zach’s black Camaro pulled in next to my puny Corolla.   That car was his baby.  His parents had offered to match whatever he saved for his first car.  I bet they had not expected him to save every penny for two years straight.  His little sister, only ten, was already plotting for her turn, but I suspected they were going to set more clear parameters for her.  The Camaro wasn’t new, but constant attention from Zach kept it looking new.

I met Zach at the door before he could knock.  I tried to look as nonchalant as I could.  It wasn’t like I could explain anything to him.

“You’re here,” he announced, with obvious surprise.

“I’m here.”  Zach pushed his way past me into my apartment.

“Where have you been?  You haven’t returned any of my phone calls, and,” he stopped as he looked around my apartment.  I thought maybe he realized I hadn’t been home in days, but that
was just paranoia.  There was no evidence to show my absence.  I had cleaned all the dishes before his party and taken the trash out. 

“You haven’t even gotten boxes.  Aren’t you coming back home with me?” He tried to keep up his appearance, but I could hear the hurt in his voice.  I sighed and closed the door.  Zach stood in the living room, still looking around for packed boxes, half expecting them to materialize.  I sat down on the couch.

“Zach, I’ve been busy.  I know I have a lot of packing to do, but I am coming with you.”

Zach looked a little more relieved, but I think he would have felt better if there were at least empty boxes lying around.  He sat on the leather chair.

“Okay, well, I’m done packing.  I’ll go pick up boxes for you, and I’ll be back to help.  Are you keeping the apartment over the summer?  Are you subletting?”

“Actually, I sub-leased in the first place.  The lease is up this month.”

“Well, my parents have some room for our furniture in the garage, but not everything.  What do you want to keep?”  Just like Zach.  He would focus on the tangible rather than deal with the five voice messages he left me and the mystery of my disappearance.  I was grateful for the easy friendship Zach and I had fallen into when I moved in with them.  Almost from day one, I was his sister, no questions asked.

“I don’t know.  I can always get more living room furniture.  You know how easy that is to find or pick up at a garage sale.  Can we get my bedroom furniture into the garage?”

I knew we could.  It was the only thing I had kept from Aunt Lynn’s house.  Zach’s parents would probably move it back into the spare room for me in their house.

“Of course, Jade,” Zach laughed.  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Zach only stayed for a few minutes.  He could tell I wanted to be alone, but I also knew he would be back soon.  I did need to pack, and he would be the friend to help me.

Aunt Lynn had known Zach’s family for a few years before she died.  We had lived in St. Augustine since halfway through eighth grade.   Aunt Lynn and I hadn’t talked about why we moved.  Sometimes, we just picked up and moved.  I knew it had to do with being a witch, but I never really thought much about it.  Now, I realized she was protecting me.  She, and others, knew about my gifts, and she made it her mission to keep me safe.

When we moved to St. Augustine, Aunt Lynn took a job working in a large medical office.  She met Patti, Zach’s mother, working in the office.  They became friends, but we didn’t all start hanging out until my sophomore year in high school.  By that time, Aunt Lynn knew she was sick, but she didn’t want to tell me right away.  Patti knew, and she agreed to take me in if things went for the worse.  Of course, Aunt Lynn had known for years it would not end well for her based simply on the look on my face the last time we spoke in the bar.  I didn’t tell her what happened, but I’m sure she could see the loss in my eyes.

Patti and my aunt came up with a plan to integrate our families slowly, with activities a couple of weekends a month.  We had barbeques, camping, pool parties, and movies.  I don’t think Zach or his younger sister found anything odd about including us in their weekends.  We were new family friends.  But Aunt Lynn and I had never had family friends.  The whole experience was surreal and suspicious for me.  After a few months, I finally confronted Aunt Lynn.

“Why are we hanging out with the Holmes family?” I demanded before one of the carefully crafted weekend outings.

“What do you mean?” Aunt Lynn tried her best to sound confused.

“Why are we hanging out with Zach and his family?  We never spend time with other families.  What’s going on?”  I was almost sixteen, and I thought I could handle anything.  Aunt Lynn just stared at me, weighing her options.  Eventually, she would have to tell me.  If she didn’t tell me now, when I was asking and suspecting something, she would have to explain later why she chose to pass the opportunity by.  I knew it was serious when she didn’t say anything.  She motioned for me to join her in the living room.  We sat down on the couch, and I started to worry.

“Are they witches, too?  Are you going to make me start practicing again?”  I was self-centered then.

“No, honey,” Aunt Lynn struggled with her words.  She grabbed a box of tissues from an end table and held it tentatively, like she might drop it at any moment or it might wiggle out of her grasp.

“I’m sick,” she managed to say.  She didn’t start to cry right away.  She had done her crying without me.  Her fingers rubbed the fluff of tissue poking out of the box.  She stared at the box.  I remember the light beige fabric of the couch and the pale beige of the walls.  The music I had been listening to drifted from my room towards us, but I couldn’t tell what band was playing.  I could hear the afternoon noises of our neighborhood outside, but it all seemed to swirl together as I took in what she was trying to say.

My hair was red that day, and I started to twist it around my fingers, trying to think about what color I should dye it next, but unable to focus.  We sat there, she staring at the tissue box and me staring at the twist of hair around my finger, the sounds of the world surrounding us, but not penetrating our private cocoons.

“How sick?” I finally asked, my voice cracking and the tears I had been holding back breaking the threshold of my eyelashes.  My face felt wet, but I couldn’t move.  I couldn’t reach out and grab the tissue away from her that she was so obviously grasping for a hold on reality.

“Very sick.”  She didn’t look up.

“What is it?” I didn’t really want to know.  I wanted to go back in time and not ask about the stupid weekends with the Holmes family.

“Cancer.  I have melanoma, Jade.”

“They can cure cancer, can’t they?” I didn’t know who they were who could cure cancer.  Doctors?  Witches?  It didn’t matter.  Someone had to fix this.

“They removed the melanoma, and they thought everything was okay, but it came back a couple months ago.  They still thought it was early on.  The doctors removed it again, but I found out it has spread.”  She finally looked up to see my face soaked with tears.

“But you’re going to fight it, right?”  She moved towards me and patted her tissue on my face.  She pulled my wisp of hair out of my hand and took my hand in hers.

“Of course, honey.  I start treatment next week.”  She took a deep breath, and I knew she wasn’t done.  “This is going to be difficult.  I’m going to get very sick, even if I do end up getting better.”

I stared at her.  What was she trying to say?  What did all of this have to do with our weekends with Zach and his family?