Otherland (19 page)

CHAPTER 32

Lydia hadn’t even made her way out of the hospital before her cell-phone was ringing.

“Oh my God, he has one near-death experience and now he’s acting like we’re married. What?!” she answered the phone.

“Can you at least tell me where you’re going?”

“No, you’re not following me. Goodbye,” she hung up the phone.

“What?” she answered when it rang again.

“How long is it going to take?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen this person since I was like a pre-teen. If he’s three blocks away, it won’t take me long. If he decided to move to Alaska, then yeah, it’s going to be a while.”

“Will you call me? Check in? Let me know you’re safe?”

“I’m sure you’ll be exploding my phone if I don’t. Now leave me alone and let me take care of my business.”

Not three seconds later was it ringing again.

“WHAT?!” she exploded.

“I love you.”

“Jacob, I know you’re not accustomed to the medications of this world, but these are all the side effects. Now stop it.”

“No seriously, I love you. Can’t you say it back?”

“No.”

“But what if I die when you’re gone?”

“Don’t even go there. You have a child to take care of. I’m trusting you. You can’t die.”

“But what if they possess a nurse, and they needle me with a sedative that - .”

“Jacob, I am not listening to this right now. You’re a big boy. Handle it.”

“I love you.”

“Ahhh!” she hung up the phone again. Yet in all her frustration, she couldn’t stop smiling.

Her first stop was the closest public library where she searched up his name, Colton Fedmin. A variety of emotions stalked her just thinking of that name.

He’d been her friend,
only
her friend, her only friend. The fear had never left her when she’d had to walk to and from school. The fear of being kidnapped, even though it had already happened. When the bell rang and all the other kids were running out the door, she was the one that remained, trembling, shaking in fear, terrified of being kidnapped. Worse was that she was a walker.

It was Colton that saw this. Colton that befriended her. Colton that went out of his way to walk with her home, and Colton that was always there bright and early every school morning to walk her to school. She’d been able to feel safe, which meant, she’d been able to focus on her studies instead of spending the entire school day being terrified of its end.

Only then was she able to enjoy certain parts of life. She came to look forward to waking up every day just to have that walk with Colton to school. Then she began enjoying school itself. Then life stopped feeling so bad, because she’d learned how to block out everything between 3:30 in the afternoon and 8:00 in the morning, so life was always great.

She’d begun talking more, making more friends, taking more initiative, joining programs at school, and her life seemed almost normal. She was able to smile and feel pleasant things in her heart. And Colton had always been able to make her laugh, even on her worst of days after waking from her night terrors.

Then one horrible day, Dwayne was standing at the door when Colton was about to turn around and go to his home.

“Who’s your friend, Aliyah?” he’d acted like he cared.

“No one, just someone from school. He lives down the road, so he’s been walking with me to make sure I don’t get kidnapped by bad people.” She’d said this innocently, but his eyes had darkened, his lips had pursed in just that way that said he didn’t like what she’d said, so she hurriedly scrambled through her mind to try to figure out what she’d said that was wrong.

“Well any friend of yours is a friend of mine. Why don’t you invite him inside?”

“No, that’s okay. He has to go home so his parents won’t worry,” she’d said quickly.

“It’s okay, Aliyah, I can come inside for a bit. My parents won’t mind,” Colton had responded, filling her with dread.

“You see, his parents won’t mind,” Dwayne said. “We can even call them and tell them he’s here so they won’t have to worry.”

She made the excuse, “I have a lot of homework I need to do.”

“We can do it together,” Colton said. “That’s if your Dad doesn’t mind.”

“No, I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all. Come on in. I’ve got fresh lemonade and chocolate chip cookies that I just picked up at the store. Aliyah and I can’t possibly eat them all ourselves.”

Colton Fedmin. The address showed up at his parents’ house in Ohio. Shakily, she dialed the number. “Fedmin Residence.”

“Hi, Mrs. Fedmin. I’m trying to locate Colton.”

“May I ask who’s calling?” Her voice had changed to suspicion.

“Aliyah.”

There was movement, heavy breathing, and then a badly muffled earpiece, “Colton, honey, there’s an Aliyah on the phone wanting to speak to you. Would you like to speak to her or do you want me to tell her that you’re not here?” She spoke to him as though he just a child.

Lydia had to pull the phone away from her ear while it loudly exchanged hands.

“Aliyah?” he said, like he’d never expected to hear from her ever again.

“Colton. You remember me,” she said, both edgily and fondly.

“Of course.”

“I can’t say much over the phone. Can I come visit you?”

“Su-sure. When?”

“I’m in New York City. I can leave now and be there –“

“In 6 hours and 28 minutes.”

“It won’t be too late for you, will it?”

“Not at all. I’m glad you called. I’ve never forgotten about you, Aliyah.”

“Nor I you, Colton. I’ll see you soon.”

She wasn’t even able to fully dial Jacob’s number before he was calling her. “You rang?” he said pleasantly.

“You called me.”

“I knew you were trying to reach me. Jacob’s fine. He woke up. I gave him a bottle and a small taste of this green hospital jello, which he loved.”

“He’s not supposed to eat that,” she yelled.

“He’s not supposed to eat that, you hear that, Jasper? Only a couple days ago you were 12 years old, and she’s yelling at me for giving you a taste of green jello. Tell her, tell her how much you loved that green jello? How it lit up your eyes and made you smile.”

“If it made him smile, that means it gave him gas, you idiot. Did you - .”

“Yes, I changed him, or rather, I had this lovely, very compassionate and nurturing nurse with a great –.”

“Jacob. As great as it is to finally have you get off your Light knight high-horse you’ve been on for all the time I’ve known you, I don’t have time for these games. While you’re being pampered and living it up in the hospital, I’m finding a solution for our problems.”

“You think it’s easy taking care of a newborn baby? Like I’ve just been sitting here doing nothing? You’re off trying to save the world while I’m taking care of a kid that poops every five minutes.”

“You shouldn’t have fed him the Jello.”

“It’s not that. I think he might be lactose intolerant, so I had the hospital staff change his formula.”

“Well it’s not my fault I can’t breastfeed him 27 years after he was originally born,” she exclaimed.

“Are you going to see your parents? Your birth parents? Is that what this is about? It definitely explains your crankiness.”

“No, I’m not going to see my – They’re probably dead, or have dementia, or don’t even remember me. I didn’t exactly age the same way normal people age. How would I even explain? No, I’m not seeing them. I don’t even remember them. I’m going to Ohio to see an old friend. He has something that he’s been safe-keeping since my body was ten years old.”

“You’re not cheating on me, are you? I mean, think of your son.”

“Are you freaking serious right now?” she yelled.

“No, actually, I was joking.”

“Jacob, you haven’t had a sense of humor in all the time I’ve ever known you. You’ve always been so rigid with your duties. I don’t know how to deal with this.”

“Maybe it’s just me, the real me, the human me that I’ve never had a chance to be. I tell you what, it feels pretty good.”

“It’s . The. Morphine,” she emphasized. “Get it through your thick skull. I checked in with you. Told you what was going on. Now I’m saying goodbye. Goodbye.”

With all the driving she’d been doing lately, she was going to have to rob a bank or something to keep up with gas money. Her disability check had come in just today, and already, it was almost gone. The world, both worlds, were crumbling to the Darkness, yet she still had to worry about financing the gas in her car in order to defeat it.

“So how long have you been Aliyah’s friend?” Dwayne had asked while Colton ate chocolate chip cookies and Aliyah sat there, head bowed, with no appetite.

“Since the beginning of the school year. We just moved in, so this is my first year at this school, and I noticed how scared Aliyah was to walk home alone, so I been walking with her since, and we became friends. These cookies are really great, Mr. Demonica.”

“It’s too bad Aliyah is refusing to enjoy them with you, Colton. Perhaps she’s been spoiled too much.”

“We got a big test tomorrow. She’s probably worried about that. She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.”

“She is very smart, isn’t she? I’m so proud of my Aliyah.” He came behind her and began playing with her hair. “Did she happen to tell you why she was so afraid, Colton?”

“She just said that she sees on the TV and hears on the scanner all the time about little girls being kidnapped, and she doesn’t want it to happen to her. I don’t blame her. I’m lucky I’m a boy. It’s always the girls that get kidnapped.”

“Has she ever spoken of me, Colton?”

“Yeah, she says that you’re her Dad and that you raise her by yourself and that she doesn’t have a Mom.”

“Did she ever tell you what happened to her Mom?”

“Yeah, she said her Mom died in a car accident a long time ago, and that she doesn’t remember her. It’s pretty sad.”

“It is sad. You’re a good friend, Colton.”

“Thank you.”

Dwayne had taken hold of her hair, and yanked, causing an involuntary cry to escape her, finally alerting Colton’s fear.

“Who sent you?”

“Whu - what?”

“What is your interest in my daughter?”

“I- I lost all my friends whu-when I had to move. She – she’s the only person that accepted me and-and wanted to be my friend.”

“Do you like her, Colton?”

“Yeah, I just said. She’s my friend.”

“Do you want to protect her from being afraid and from being hurt? Will you do anything to protect her?”

“Daddy, Colton needs to leave. He needs to study for the test tomorrow,” child Aliyah said.

“No, I’m not leaving, Aliyah,” Colton said.

“You’re a very intuitive boy, Colton, aren’t you?”

“I know there’s something going on that’s making Aliyah afraid, and I’m her friend, and I don’t want her to be afraid.”

“What, do you suppose, she’s afraid of, at the moment, Colton?”

“
You
! Come on, Aliyah, let’s go. You can come home with me. You won’t have to be afraid.” And he’d reached out his shaking hand to her.

Instead of taking his hand, she had stayed in that chair, trembling, overwhelmed by fear.

“Come on!”

She didn’t go. She’d been too afraid. And he’d refused to leave without her.

Lydia rang the doorbell and waited. Her heart was pumping so hard she could hardly breathe. “Aliyah?” they said when they answered the door, both of them fearful. She nodded.

“Colton told us you were coming. Come in,” the woman wrung her bony hands. There was only one other time she’d ever met Colton’s parents, and it’s what had made her believe he’d be okay. “I’ll be honest with you. We fought about this. We didn’t want you here. Not since … He’s never been the same since that day at your house, but he won’t speak of it. He’s 40 years old, still living in our basement, but he still won’t speak of what happened the day we lost our son,” the mother cried.

“Herb thought that maybe you’re the one person that can – I didn’t agree with it. You’re the person that ruined him – but Herb thought …”

“Thank you for letting me see him,” Lydia said softly. “I should have visited long ago, but I didn’t want any connection to this place, or my past.”

“What happened to him? Can you at least tell me what happened?” She grabbed onto Lydia’s shoulders with the weight of a person that wanted to fall, a person that had been wanting to fall for a long, long time.

“I’m sorry. I was but a child myself. There was nothing I could do,” Lydia said somberly. “I cannot tell you, just as much as he, because they are unspeakable things. Something endured that one never speaks of ever again. Where is he?”

They led her to the door that led to the steps to the basement. The room was a mess, and practically unchanged, with his Superman curtains and Superman comforter, and comic book hero posters tacked to the walls. Like he was still ten years old, frozen in time, never able to move past that day.