The Emerald Talisman (16 page)

The hour flew by and I got lost sorting
through the facts. It concerned me that Phil’s behavior closely
resembled many of the symptoms from the list. The problem was I
didn’t know him well enough to predict his next move. I hoped
wherever he ended up, a sensible person would make him go back to
the hospital. But deep in my heart, I knew whatever information Mr.
Brewster and his parents were keeping from me was the key to
finding him.

I watched students mill around the campus on
their way to their next class and decided to stay in my car. My
eyes were puffy and my mascara was a mess. The last thing I wanted
was a bunch of nosey questions about why I was upset.

I kicked myself for not being more assertive.
I should’ve demanded that Mr. Brewster and the D’Elias tell me what
they knew. But knowing Mr. Brewster, he had the whole thing planned
and intended to make me look guilty. It must have fed his ego to
prove he knew his students so well. But they were completely on the
wrong trail.

My head hurt and all I wanted to do was lean
back and close my eyes. Far away I could hear the waves crash and
the fog horn blare as the cool salty breeze tickled my face.

“Where have you been?”

I jerked awake. Sam stood outside my car
window with her hand on her hip and a frown on her face.

“Haven’t you been getting my text messages?
Have you been here all afternoon?”

I groggily looked over at the clock on the
dash and realized I’d slept through all the rest of my classes.
Sheepishly, I avoided her gaze, adjusted my reclined seat forward
and rubbed my swollen eyes.

“Tell me what’s going on, Julia,” she
demanded when I didn’t respond right away. “You didn’t come back to
class. Then they announced that if anyone had any information about
Phil’s whereabouts to let the principal know. I thought you were in
big trouble or something.”

I opened the door and stepped outside.

“I kind of am in trouble,” I said.

“In trouble? Why?”

“Because I was an accomplice in his escape
from the hospital and didn’t tell anyone,” I said with a hint of
cynical disdain.

“What? No way.”

“They…” I said with air quotes “… seem to
think that my silence is admission of my guilt, but whatever.
They’ve got it totally wrong anyway. They think someone beat him
up, but the nurse told me he was attacked by an animal.”

“What do you mean they? Who else was in the
office?”

“Phil’s parents and my dad, but I couldn’t
get a word in edgewise.”

“Oh, wow,” Sam said with concern. “So he
didn’t go home after all.”

“No.” I looked down. “I couldn’t come back to
class. After getting ganged up in the meeting, I needed to get away
and think. But, I didn’t mean to miss the rest of the day. I’m
going to be so busted.”

“Oh,” she said, her anger melting away.
“Sorry I yelled at you. I was worried when you didn’t come
back.”

“I left my phone at home by accident,” I
said, wondering how many other messages I missed.

“That would explain why I didn’t hear back
from you.”

Sam was gracious to be so forgiving and I
felt bad for worrying her. Her presence could’ve eased the blow
while I processed all of this nonsense, but I didn’t need to drag
her into the mire with me.

“Sorry,” I quickly replied. “Please don’t
tell anyone, or I could get in more trouble.”

“You mean I can’t tell Katie?” she said with
a silly smirk.

I frowned back playfully and shook my head.
We both let out a laugh.

“Seriously though, don’t worry. They’ll find
him,” she said with a reassuring smile.

If I could see the hope she exuded, I
imagined it would look like sunlight radiating iridescently off of
her skin. I wanted so badly to think so too, but there was no way
to explain the change right before he vanished from the hospital.
Phil’s terror and anger frightened me and deep down, I wasn’t sure
if I actually trusted him anymore.

“I hope so,” I said knowing it was an empty
wish.

We hugged and Sam’s compassion flooded over
me putting a temporary Band-Aid over my tattered spirit. For a
brief second I wondered if I should just have her come home with
me, but I knew I was in deep trouble with my dad and needed to
smooth over that situation first. Begrudgingly, I got back in my
car.

“I’ll call you if I hear anything,” I said as
I shut the car door.

And like I suspected, as soon as I drove
away, Sam’s buffer vanished and all my grief flooded back in.

When I got home, I threw my things on the
floor, rushed into my Dad’s office and slammed the paper I printed
out in the library on his desk.

“I know what’s wrong with Phil,” I said.

My Dad looked up from his computer screen and
glowered over his glasses. I internally pushed past the annoyance I
felt from him and answered his glare with determination. I had to
get him to understand the truth.

“Rabies. That’s got to be it, he’s got
rabies,” I blurted out. “Look at the list.”

His eyes glanced down at the paper and then
back up to me.

“I could also say you’ve got a few things on
this list as well.”

My mouth dropped open.

“What?”

“Let’s see.” He drug his finger down the
list. “Irritability, yes… confusion, yes… irrational behavior,
yes.”

I slumped down in the chair in front of his
desk. “I’m serious Dad,” I said, watching my credibility crash down
in flames.

“I’m serious too, Julia. Your behavior as of
late has been very disappointing.”

“I can explain everything.”

“You’ve had enough time to explain; now
you’ll listen. You didn’t go back to class like you were instructed
today. You also went to a bonfire on a school night that you didn’t
ask permission to attend. You didn’t even let your brother know you
were going.”

“But –”

“No buts. I cannot trust you, or your
judgment. First, you decided to take a shortcut in the woods and
got seriously hurt. And now you’re narrowly missing gang fights. Do
you not understand there’s a serious gang problem right now?”

“But –”

I stopped when Dad gave me the infamous
‘sleeper wave’ scowl – when he knit his brow together to form one
ominous fold of skin that jut out over his eyes. His uni-brow
resembled the scary silent wave the beach signs warned about. If it
snuck up on you unaware, it would pull you out to sea. I was a
goner.

“You’re grounded...”

My chest constricted, but I kept silent and
waited, knowing from past experience if I didn’t let him finish,
the punishment would get worse.

“…no extra-curricular activities, no going
out after dark without permission from me. I forbid you any contact
with Phil. Period. And, if anything happens that’s remotely out of
the ordinary, you will call and tell me. Understood?”

“Yes,” I said with my head hung low. This was
much worse than I expected.

“Okay, then. You’re free to go,” he said.

I stood up and walked towards the door. I
felt his anger dissipate just a bit. I sensed he knew he’d gotten
through to me, so his love and concern could flow out instead.

“Sorry, Dad,” I said with a quiver in my
throat.

“Come here, Julia,” he said with arms
stretched wide. I ran into his chest and sobbed. “It’s going to be
okay, honey.”

This was a typical response for him. Lots of
yelling and threats and after he felt his point was made all became
forgiven though the punishment stayed in tact.

“Dad, I’m so sorry... I didn’t know what to
do... I had to take him to the hospital… I didn’t help him run
away, I promise,” I said through tearful rasps. “I really think he
has rabies.”

Dad gently let go and gave me a tissue to
wipe my snotty nose.

“The bites were human,” he said gravely.
“It’s a sick gang initiation and Phil is somehow involved.”

Human bites?

“Oh.”

“And if it doesn’t stop, I’m thinking of
moving. I initially wanted to come here to get you away from
madness like this in L.A. Now it’s infecting this city as well. I
was looking to move to Oklahoma.”

“What?” I gasped. “No, not Oklahoma.”

The thought that I’d never see Nicholas again
gripped my heart from nowhere. Deep down I must have still hoped
we’d work things out, but didn’t know I’d suppressed the desire
until this moment.

“I’m not done doing my research, but I’m
going to find a place where I can feel safe leaving you and your
brother while I travel. I should have done it when you were babies,
maybe then…”

I held my breath. He was referring to Mom’s
disappearance. Maybe he’d finally talk about it and break the
silence. More than anything I wanted to know what really
happened.

“Mom’s disappearance wasn’t your fault,
Dad.”

He cleared his throat and turned to his
computer monitor. I felt the familiar stone wall come back up; the
one that hid all the feelings he’d stuffed down deep. Every time
the subject was breeched, he shut down. I waited for years to feel
his grief and felt nothing.

For a long time I felt responsible and
thought if I could only remember what happened, I could solve the
case. But the memories stayed locked up tight in my subconscious
without any hint of a key. And Dad’s response was to second guess
every decision he made thereafter. We both couldn’t move on.

“I have a lot to do, Julia,” he finally
said.

“Okay,” I said as I left his office feeling
rotten. I should have known better than to mention her. “Please,
let’s not move to Oklahoma.”

“We’ll see.”

. . .

11
- ANSWERS

The next day, the school walls were covered
in fliers with Phil’s description offering a reward for information
leading to his safe return. Ironically, it seemed everyone suddenly
knew him personally and told first hand accounts of his last words
and possible whereabouts. Some said he provoked the attack while
others claimed the serial murderer left him for dead but he escaped
and ran for his life. One rumor even speculated police attacked him
after the bonfire because he refused to leave peaceably and Phil
ran for fear of arrest. But the general atmosphere, fuelled by
greed, wetted the appetites of attention seekers, anxious to get a
piece of the action.

But the worst part of it was someone leaked
that I was the last person to see him. So again, people I didn’t
know were coming up to me asking me questions, but I declined to
answer. The whole charade disgusted me and I refused to be a part
of it.

“What happened?” Katie asked quietly as we
all sat at lunch.

“Why are you asking me?” I said, infuriated
by her insensitivity. “Just ask anyone, I’m sure they’ll tell you
the whole story.”

I looked directly at Sam.

“Julia, I promise, I didn’t tell anyone
anything.”

I studied her feelings, thankful to find she
told the truth and felt guilty for questioning her.

“Sorry. I know you wouldn’t. It must have
been Mr. Brewster. He probably said something when he interviewed
other people.”

The thought made me furious. He was the one
who said not to say anything.

“Well, where do you think Phil went?” Dena
asked tactfully.

I scanned everyone’s eyes and studied their
intent and found them loyal. Even Katie was concerned for once.

“Whatever I say stays in this circle,
agreed?”

Everyone shook their head and I took a few
extra seconds to get full confirmation from Katie.

“I promise,” she said after feeling the
weight of my stare.

“Okay,” I said and everyone leaned in so no
one outside of our circle could hear what we discussed.

“Honestly, we only talked at the bonfire for
a little bit so I’m not really sure where he’d go. The only thing I
know is that he’s got a girlfriend in L.A. and his parents made him
move his senior year because his dad got a promotion. Maybe he’s
upset after getting beat up and needed her support. I bet that’s
where he went,” I whispered.

“It has to be those guys from Soquel High
that roughed him up. They weren’t too happy when he tried to get
them to leave. Maybe they figured he’d snitched on them to the
police,” Katie said.

“But that doesn’t explain his behavior
after.”

“After?” Cameron asked.

Angry at Mr. Brewster, I decided to tell them
everything I knew since he seemed to be doing the same.

“…I thought maybe he’d been bitten by a rabid
animal, but my dad said his injuries were human bites,” I said.

Dena gasped. “That’s disgusting.”

“How does your dad know all about this?” Sam
asked.

“From Mr. Brewster I think,” I said.

Feelings of curiosity caused me to turn my
head. As I suspected, behind me was a group of nosey freshmen girls
that lingered a bit too close.

“Get lost from your sandbox?” Katie yelled at
them across the table.

Embarrassed, they rushed away.

Katie leaned in again with a smug smile to
finish. “Well, I heard that if they don’t figure out what’s going
on, that they might cancel the homecoming game tonight,” she said
with one eyebrow raised.

“Really?” I said, feeling other onlookers’
snooping interest swirl behind me.

“Will they cancel the dance too?” Dena asked,
concern in her voice.

“No, I think they are worried that if they
hold the game, there will be a riot. The football players want to
avenge what happened to Phil,” Katie said in hushed tones.

“Well, I’m grounded from everything right
now, so I couldn’t go to the game if I wanted, but if any of our
guys saw what they did to Phil, they’d be kicking the crap out of
them right now. “

“I don’t understand how anyone could be so
cruel,” Sam said. “He’s such a nice guy.”

I felt my stomach tighten when I remembered
finding Phil half-dead behind the shrubs.