Common Ground (The Common Ground Trilogy Book 1) (31 page)

Chapter 14: Anonymous Package

Having Annie back didn’t come without a cost.

Liam’s abrupt and unexplained departure left the Johnson household in shambles for the rest of our vacation. Very few words were spoken over the course of the weekend and neither Mark and Marie, nor I, knew exactly what to do. None of us had ever seen Annie so attached to someone before and it was heartbreaking to watch the aftermath unfold.

“Anything?” Marie stood up when I walked into the kitchen the morning Annie and I were supposed to go back to school.

I nodded once. “She fell asleep a few hours ago and was still sleeping when I woke up.”

“At least that’s something,” she exhaled. “I’ve never seen her like this before. She’s always been so strong. I’m worried Mark, what are we going to do?”

Mark looked up from his newspaper, sporting the same look he’d had since Liam’s disappearance. “She’ll make it through this Marie. My baby girl won’t be taken down by some little…”

“Mark!” Marie quipped.

He took a long, deep breath before speaking again. “What I was trying to say is that this will all blow over soon. Annie has always made it through situations like this before. Besides, she’s got Zoe around. When things calm down, she’ll tell Zoe everything and then we can all move on from this. Then, we won’t have to worry about her dating again until she’s 40.”

Marie rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible.”

Then she turned back to me. “He’s right though. I’ll feel a lot better knowing you’re there with her. Promise me you’ll look after my little girl?”

I nodded and smiled. “I always will. But try not to worry too much; we only have another three weeks until we’re back for Christmas. My guess is that she’ll at least be talking and eating again by then.” 

“And how about you hon? Have you been able to get any sleep this weekend? You look pretty refreshed, but I know you’ve been up with her this whole time.”

Truth was I’d never been so refreshed with such little sleep. Every tear that flowed down Annie’s face was the fuel for the raging fire that had exploded inside me, making sleep the last thing on my mind that weekend.

“Yeah, a couple hours here and there, pretty usual stuff,” I lied.

She eyed me for another few seconds before going back to her cup of coffee.

The next hour went by in relative silence. Mark continued to stay hidden behind his newspaper while Marie wandered aimlessly in the kitchen, cleaning things two or three times over. I sat and stared out at the overcast morning, thinking about everything I was going to do to Liam if I ever saw him again. Once Mark put down the paper and excused himself to his office, I decided to head up and get Annie going for the day.

The bleak and depressing darkness that had encumbered our room all weekend was stronger than ever. I crept into the bedroom and walked over to Annie’s bed, drifting through the forest of used tissues lying all over the floor. She lied there looking peaceful, which made waking her harder than expected.

“Ann, hon, it’s me,” I whispered, carefully rubbing her shoulder. “I need you to start getting up. Our flight is in a couple hours and you need to shower before we go.”

She rustled around briefly before her raw eyes slowly opened. “What’s the point?”

I looked at her thoughtfully. “It’ll help you feel better, I promise. There’s nothing like a nice, hot shower to get you up and ready for the day. That’s what I do!”

“Good, then you go shower and I’ll stay here,” she said, looking up at the ceiling.

“Why don’t we do this one step at a time? How about that? Let’s just get you out of bed for starters and we’ll go from there.”

With no response, I stood up and pulled the rumpled sheets off of her. It took a minute before she finally sat up and looked around, which got my spirits to lift a little. After days in the same place, lying in the same position, she had gotten herself out of bed. It was our first victory.

From there, I helped her towards the bathroom and left her to take what came to be the shortest shower of her life. Once she finished cleaning herself up in a pitiful attempt that challenged my normal effort, I led her down into the kitchen, where Marie overdid her motherly love.

“Hon, you really should eat something. You haven’t eaten a bite since Thursday night,” Marie said cautiously.

“No,” Annie mumbled almost inaudibly, her look matching the gloom outside.

“Were you at least able to get some sleep?”

Annie’s puffy eyes glared uncomfortably at her mother. It was pretty obvious from Annie’s look she hadn’t slept much at all. Her normally perfect hair was disheveled. Her skin was dry and pale. The bags and redness that covered her eyes wouldn’t be remedied with makeup. I’d never seen her so beat up.

“Well,” Marie coughed. “I guess you two should go get your things then, we need to leave soon.”

“You stay here Ann,” I said, standing up before her. “I’ll get your stuff.”

The silence continued through the ride to the airport. While we drove, my gaze traveled between the three Johnsons. Marie’s eyes kept glancing back in the rearview mirror, while Mark had a look that could have burned through metal. Annie stared blankly out the window, not saying a word. It was depressing to watch. Each one of them was in a different kind of pain, but there was one thing they all had in common. Every emotion they all felt was flowing through my body. I was angry, worried and sad, all rolled into one. I’d spent my entire life being looked out for and now, people were expecting me to be the strong one.

“You take care of her Zoe,” Marie whispered in my ear, pulling me into a hug. She slipped something that sounded like crumpled paper into my pocket.

“I will,” I said, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “She’s going to be fine. “ My hands pulled out a wrinkled twenty dollar bill from my coat pocket, and I stared at Marie with wide eyes. “What’s this for?”

“Tissues,” she smiled.

I smiled back at her and turned to Mark, who gave me a brief, half hearted hug. He didn’t need to say it, but I could see it in the intense look he gave me when he pushed away from our hug. My job was not to look out for Annie, but to keep an eye on the source of all the pain. After one last hug and a round of goodbyes, Mark and Marie got into the car and drove off. My head turned towards Annie who stood frozen on the spot. I grabbed her hand softly and motioned towards the ticketing booth inside. An encouraging smile spread across my lips while her hand clasped mine tightly. We walked into the overcrowded terminal and headed back towards a brand new life at school, a future that was going to have more questions than answers.

After an uneventful and quiet trip home, we finally pulled into our driveway in Annie’s clunker. Before I could even turn the car off, she was out of the door and heading towards the staircase, leaving her bags behind. I was able to grab her bags and mine with relative ease and followed her up the stairs. When I approached the top, Annie was standing frozen in front of our door, staring down at a strange box that rested on the doormat.

Annie continued to stare curiously at the box, but didn’t bend down to pick it up. Looking from the package, to Annie, back to the package, I dropped the luggage and picked up the surprisingly light box. I turned it over in my hands and didn’t notice any postage, addresses or markings of any kind, outside of the addressee.

“
Annie Johnso
n
”

“Oh, it’s for you,” I said surprised, handing it to her.

Annie eyed it again and suddenly, for the first time in days, a smile crossed her cracked lips. She grabbed the box out of my hands and eagerly waited for me to open the door. Once the door opened, she ran into the living room and flew onto the futon. She put her knees together and rested the box on top of them.

“Are you coming?” she asked in an agitated voice.

“In a sec,” I yelled back patiently. My hands clasped around our bags and I slid into the condo, kicking the door closed behind me.

Annie’s legs were bouncing up and down and she looked just like a kid on Christmas morning.  Her smile was refreshing to see after a weekend full of frowns and tears.  I could only assume that she expected the package to be from Liam. In an attempt to be supportive, I sat down next to her and smiled.

She tore the box open in a heartbeat. Once she flipped the cardboard edges open, we both leaned over the box at the same time and at first glance, it appeared empty. There was no extra packaging or even a letter telling us who sent it. The only thing I saw was a round, black disc that leaned against one of the corners of the box. Annie reached in and pulled it out with care.

Annie turned what looked like a smooth black coin over in her hand just once then looked back into the box, trying to find any trace of a note. After a minute, she smacked the box off of her knees and tossed the coin into my hands.

“I’m going to bed,” she said forcefully before she stormed into her room and threw the door closed.

On any other occasion, I would have gotten up and gone to comfort Annie. But, the combination of her needing space and the intrigue of the black medallion kept me glued to the futon.

I mimicked Annie’s actions and turned the medallion over in my hand. It was heavier than it looked and was made of what appeared to be smooth and polished granite. The back side of the coin was clear of any markings or words. But when I turned it over to the front, my eyes opened wide with wonder. Its edge was bordered by a thin, silver band and a scary looking bird was carved into the middle. The bird had a sharp, pointed beak and smooth, unruffled feathers. At first, I thought it was a raven or crow, but the coloring was off. A slight crack ran down the middle, splitting it into two separate halves. One side was a lighter, silvery color while the other half was pitch black. To finish it off, a pair of blazing red eyes stared back at me, which made me shudder.   

No words could be found anywhere on the coin, nothing to explain its origin. I picked up the box and my eyes ran over it again and again, looking for any trace of a sender. Frustrated, I took the medallion with me to my room and sat on the bed, while my mind tried to work through all possible scenarios.

There was something captivating about the medallion though, and I sat there for almost an hour rolling it around in my hands, thinking of any realistic explanations. Frustrated, I finally stood up and walked to my desk, hoping that an answer would hit me out of the blue. When I sat down and stared at the blank computer screen, it finally came to me. Ancient looking artifacts and creepy, unexplained symbolism only led to one possible conclusion.

I turned my computer on and waited eagerly for it to boot up. When it was ready to go, I couldn’t open my email fast enough.

“Professor Woodward,

I hope you had a good holiday. I’m writing because my roommate received a very strange package today. It’s this strange looking medallion and there wasn’t any note telling us who it was from. There is something weird about it though, and with everything that you’ve told me about, I can’t help but think this has something to do with Common Ground.  Could I possibly swing by this week and have you take a look at it? Let me know!

Zoe”

Once it was sent, calmness overtook me. I tossed the medallion lazily onto the desk and pushed away. As I was standing up, a loud knock emanated through the apartment. I slowly meandered to the door, wondering who could possibly want to see us.

“Zoe!” Steph yelled, bounding into the apartment with Hope timidly following behind her. “How was your Thanksgiving?”

“Um, great, just great,” I muttered.

“Where’s Annie?” she asked, looking around.

“She had to go to the library for a little bit, big paper due this week,” I lied quickly. Annie was in no mood to see anyone, especially after the anonymous package.

“So, how’d it go?” she whispered, still lingering around our front door.

For the first time that I could remember, I wasn’t happy to see either of them. With everything that had happened over the weekend, the last thing I could deal with was making up lie after lie about what really went on.

I shrugged. “We really didn’t talk much, which is better than what it’s been lately. It went about as well as I expected.”

Steph looked a little disappointed. “Oh, well at least you guys didn’t fight again right? That’s a good sign!”

“Sure, I guess so,” I replied, desperately wanting to change the subject. “Forget about us though, how was your vacation? How was Tucson?”

“Oh, hot and boring like usual,” Steph said nonchalantly, already sounding bored with the conversation. “But, that’s not why we stopped by. We just got back and don’t have much time. I’ve been dying to talk to you. I’ve got an invitation for you guys.”

“An invitation? For what?”

“Well, I was talking to Damien this weekend on the phone, and he was telling me about this place called the Spring Mountains. Apparently it is just awesome camping, and only about an hour away from here. We kept talking and thought that maybe it would be fun to have a post-finals camping trip up there,” she gleefully explained. “So many people are already coming!”

My eyes squinted in suspicion. The last thing I would want to do after finals is go and spend time with a bunch of random people I’d never met before.