Glimpse (11 page)

“Thanks for the privacy Claire!” I said a little too harshly.  “Look, my dad knows about us, he will help you, I promise.”

“Since when does your dad know about us?” Avery said, taken aback.

“He just told me on the way over here.  I know it seems like a long shot, but he could help your mom too, he could—”

My eyes snapped shut, automatically blocking out Claire’s room and Avery, forcing me to focus on the scene playing out in my mind.

I watched as Mrs. Adams parked her car in the lot behind Adams Insurance and turned off the ignition.  She popped the trunk, got out of the car and walked around to the back of it.  Lifting the lid part way, she eased a black duffel bag from the inside, scanning the street to see if anyone was looking at her.  Downtown was deserted.

She slung the duffel over her shoulder and walked to the back entrance of the building. She tried the knob. The door was locked.  Looking around again, she dropped the bag to the ground and unzipped it. She pulled out a crow bar.  Wedging it in between the door jamb and the lock, she anchored it back.  The metal of the door jamb bent and the lock popped open.  She slid the bag into the hallway and went inside, closing the door behind her. She put the crowbar back in the bag and pulled out a gun. 

Tiptoeing down the short hall, she came to two saloon doors and looked over the top of them.  Mr. Adams was asleep on the couch. 

She crept up to him, aimed the gun at his forehead and cocked it.  “Get up.”

Mr. Adams eyes shot open and focused on the gun aimed between them.  “Becky?”

She reached down and grabbed her husband by his shirt collar.  “I said get up!”

He put his hands up in front of him and stood.  “Becky, what are you doing? Let’s talk about this. We can talk about this. I didn’t know you were off your meds. That was a definite bad on my part.”

She waved the gun at him.  “Oh, now you want to talk to me?  That chance has passed.  You are finally going to get what’s coming to you.”

“
Don’t do this.  You’re not thinking straight.”

“
I’m thinking more clearly than I have in a long time.  Here’s the plan. You’re going to sit in the chair behind your desk and then I’m gonna blow your brains all over the back wall of your stupid office that you couldn’t even give me a key to.” Her hand that was holding the gun began shaking.  She steadied it with her other hand and took a deep breath. “Then I’m going to get in my car and go pick up our son at his little girlfriend Claire’s house. We are going to get the hell out of this miserable town and never ever have to think about you again!”

Mr. Adams sat down in the chair, his hands stayed raised, the gun still pointed at his head.  “Claire isn’t his girlfriend, Zellie is, and she’s just like Grace.”

“
What do you mean? She has visions too?” Mrs. Adams narrowed her eyes at her husband. “I don’t believe you, Avery wouldn’t…he knows that would hurt me.”

“
It has nothing to do with you. Avery went and fell in love while neither of us was paying attention. We’ve been awful parents to him. I’ve neglected him and you’ve treated him like an adult since he was ten! He needs to get away from Rosedell and I’m going to take him.”

He stood up. “Now, you’re going to put down that gun and you’re going to let me drive you to the hospital.  You need some help.”

His cell phone began ringing from the front pocket of his jeans.  He let it ring.

Mrs. Adams waved the gun toward his pocket.  “Take it out and slide it to me across the desk.” She pointed the gun back at his head. “Sit down, we’re not going anywhere.”

He pulled the phone out and slid it to her, she flipped it open, and shut off the phone, tossing it on the floor.

Mr. Adams sat down and put his hands out flat on the desk. He looked his wife in the eye.  “Just tell me what I can do.”

She backed up, continuing to aim the gun at his head, and slumped down on the couch. 

“
Grace knew that Erin was going to die, Mike.  She knew that Avery wouldn’t save her.”

He started to get out of the chair, rising slowly. “I know that and I also know she feels just as horrible about it as either of us.  There wasn’t anything she could do. She—”

“
Think about it!” Mrs. Adams got up from the couch and paced back and forth, keeping the gun trained on him. “She knew that my mother was going to have a stroke, that your mother would get breast cancer. Hell, she probably knows how your father, who’s all the way in freaking Florida, is going to die and you still love her.  You think I’m crazier and more messed up than she is?  You’re a fool.”

“
Becky, we never should have gotten married.  We had no foundation to build any kind of relationship on, and that’s just as much my fault as it is yours. Erin’s probably the only thing that could have made us both happy and willing to want to stay together.” He had tears in his eyes. “But she’s gone. I should have realized that I couldn’t be happy without Grace.  I don’t care what she knows, what she could or couldn’t have done.  I know that’s not fair to you, just like it’s not fair to expect Avery to fill the void that Erin left.”

Mr. Adams got down on his knees and begged. “Just please let me take our son and give him a clean slate.  Let’s get you well and I promise I will be in contact with you and you’ll see him again.” He got up and walked around the desk to his wife.  He pushed her hand holding the gun away and embraced her.

She took a deep breath and then put the gun to his chest and pushed him back. “How long have you and the good pastor’s wife been sleeping together?”

Mr. Adams closed his eyes and exhaled, defeated.

“
You reek of that ridiculous rose perfume that she wears.” She shook her head at him. “Didn’t think I knew that was going on, did you?”

The saloon doors creaked as they were pulled back and my parents walked in.

Avery snapped his fingers in front of my face. 

I came back to reality.  “I’ve got to call my mom right now.”

Claire’s red glittery cell phone slid across the carpet and hit me in the thigh. I dialed.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” I paced across the room, willing Mom to pick up the phone.

“Hello.” Thank God.

“Mom, it’s me.  Do you know where Dad is?”

“Um…I was sleeping. Hold on, let me see if the minivan is here.”  I heard her shuffle over to the bedroom window. “Yup. The minivan’s parked in the driveway.  Do you want me to get him?  Are you okay?”

“I have to tell you something.  Please don’t get mad, okay?”

“I’m listening.”  I noted that she didn’t say she wouldn’t get mad.

“I had a vision about Dad, when I hugged him goodbye and then, something else…it was like a vision, but more like I was seeing the immediate future?  I don’t know, one second I’m talking to Avery about his mom and then—”

“Avery is there?”

“Yes, Mom, Avery is here.  Out of all the things I just told you, that’s what you’re focusing on?”

She took in a deep breath and then let it out. “What did you see, honey? Was it anything like the vision I showed you?”

“In the first one I saw Dad trying to get a gun away from a lady, but she shoots him.  In the second whatever, I watched as Avery’s mom tried to shoot Avery’s dad, but then you and Dad walked into his office.”

 “Mike Adams office?  Oh, God. I didn’t have the dream about him last night, Zellie. I can’t go near there or he will die for sure.” She took another deep breath.  “I will keep your dad here and call the police. You have got to have Avery call his father and find out where he is.”

“Okay.” I paused, and then forced myself to ask, “You’re not mad at me?”

Mom started to cry. “We’ll talk about this later Zel, go call Mike and find out where he is.”

I ended the call with my mom and sat down next to Avery.

“You’ve got to call your dad and find out where he is.”  I handed Claire’s phone to him.  He looked at me, then at the phone and then back to me again like he had forgotten how to use the thing.  “Seriously, now.  It is very important that we know where your dad is. Something could go down tonight and both of our fathers could end up dead.”

Claire finally just came into her bedroom.  “Zel, I think he knows he needs to call his father.  However, you have just freaked the crap out of me and I’m guessing that he is feeling the same way too.  I mean, hello, you have
visions
!  How are we supposed to wrap our heads around that and quick like jump on the “Psychic Girl” bandwagon?”

I put one hand on Avery’s knee and extended my other to Claire, pulling her down to sit next to us.  “Look, I’ve wanted to tell you both about this, for a while now. It’s just that it’s weird and confusing and I thought you would think I was crazy.” And it would have ruined everything.  Crap.  It
was
ruining everything.  “I thought I had more time.”

Claire leaned in and peered into my eyes. “Have you had any visions about me?  Do you know when I’m going to die?  Am I skinny?  Does everyone in the whole town come to my funeral?”

I grinned. Leave it to Claire to bypass the whole weirdness of my abilities and move right on to how it might affect her instead. “No, I haven’t seen your death. I haven’t had that many visions.  Just the ones tonight and the one about…” I turned and looked at Avery, who was staring at me like I was an alien. “…Avery.”

He pulled his knees to his chest, letting my hand fall to the floor. I deserved that. “So that’s what was happening all those times you were spacing out? You were having visions?  Did you have one the first night we got together?”

“Yeah, that was the first one I had.” I drew my hands back into my lap. This whole frickin’ scene was about to unravel and I didn’t have time for it.  There was no time to explain myself. “Look, I know you all are freaked out, but this is good.  I can stop things before they happen.  Avery, I really need you to call your dad and find out where he is.  I promise to answer all your questions later, okay?”

He dialed his home phone number and waited for a moment.  “The voicemail picked up, my mom’s probably still sleeping.  I’ll try my dad’s cell.”  He punched in the cell number, said hello and then made a weird face.  “The phone picked up, but nobody answered it.”

I took the phone from him and gave it back to Claire. I could really use a goddamned plan right about now. I chewed my bottom lip furiously. “Do you think he’s at his office?”

“I don’t know, I mean, he left the house after the fight we had…and if he didn’t go back home that’s probably where he is.”

Standing up, I pulled the other two to their feet.  “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.  Claire, I need to borrow your bike.  Avery and I are going to ride over to his dad’s office.  My mom is calling the police. I’m sure they will be there by the time we get there, but I can’t just sit around here and not do anything.”

Claire went to her walk-in closet and rummaged around, pulling a teddy bear out from the depths.  She unzipped the little satchel on the teddy bear’s back and pulled out a key, holding it up to show us. “Zel, you don’t have to borrow my bike, we’re taking my mom’s car.  C’mon, I’m driving.”

“Have you ever even driven a car before, Claire?” Avery jiggled his leg up and down. Zellie put her hand on his knee to quiet it.  He whipped it away from her touch. He just…couldn’t, not right now, not with all of the crazy shit she was saying and him not being able to tell if it was true or not.  It had to be true, why would she make it all up?  But…hell if he could believe anything that came out of her mouth.  He had trusted her and she had withheld so much…really important freakin’ life altering stuff.

“Uh, yeah, when I was nine my dad let me sit on his lap and steer.” Claire looked at him in the rearview mirror. He scowled. “Okay, no jokey time, got it.”

He leaned over her shoulder from the back seat. “Could you possibly go any faster than three miles an hour?  We could have gotten there quicker if we’d ridden bikes!”

“Sor-ry!”  She pushed hard on the brake pedal, jerking the three of them forward.  “Oops! Well, let’s be thankful it’s an automatic or I would have even more pedals to choose from!”  She jammed her foot down on the accelerator.  “Hey, Zellie, isn’t that your dad?”

The Wells’ beat up old minivan careened around the corner and sped past them.

“Crap!” Zellie said, looking back as it turned another corner.  “Hurry up! We’ve got to get to Avery’s dad before my parents realize that I’m not at your house.  If they show up at that office—”

“I know Zellie, people will die.” Claire rolled to a near stop at the intersection and jammed on the accelerator again. 

She ran three more stop signs, slowing down in front of Adams Insurance, Avery and Zellie were out of the car before she came to a stop.  “Hey, wait for me!” she shouted, shoving the car into park and leaving it running in the middle of the street.

Avery had his keys out, fumbling with them to get the door unlocked.  He could hear his parents’ voices inside the office, but couldn’t see anything. All the blinds were drawn. Shit. Zel’s effed up vision thing was going to come true and he couldn’t make his stupid hands work!

Zellie turned to Claire.  “Call the police. They should have been here by now.”

Finally steadying his hands enough to unlock the door, Avery stepped inside. His mom turned to face him, her finger on the trigger of a gun. The cow bell on the door clanged as the Wells’ minivan tore down the street and rammed into the back of Claire’s mother’s car.

I rushed forward from the sidewalk to the minivan, struggling to open the passenger door, but it wouldn’t budge. Mom was slouched against it.  Dad’s body was hunched over the steering wheel, the air bag smothering him, his chest pressing against the horn. Both of my parents were unconscious, their faces bloody and starting to swell. Smoke billowed from under the hood, a fire had started.