Suffer the Children (7 page)

She tried to judge if Josh would be able to hold it together without another meltdown.

“Santa,” he said in a reverent tone. He still rested his head, grinning, against her shoulder.

That settled it. They’d come this far. She would have to try. The goal remained to create a happy memory for her boy.

“Josh, do you have to pee or anything before we get in line?”

“No, I’m okay, Mommy.”

“Do you remember what you want to ask Santa to bring you on Christmas Day?”

“I want a Bob the Builder tool set. And some trucks!”

“
Ho, ho, ho
,” said Santa.

Her arms and back ached from carrying his weight for so long. His body blazed with youthful heat. She was sweating in her coat. She wanted to put him down for a few minutes but was afraid of disturbing his equilibrium. He seemed better now. She wanted to keep him that way as long as she could.

The line crawled along. Ramona rocked Josh in her arms. He began to fidget.

“Do you want me to put you down?”

“No.” He held on tighter.

“Okay, let’s see . . . Did I ever tell you the story about the friendly monster?”

“Tell me the story, Mommy.”

If he liked monsters now, so be it. She’d indulge it. But she’d convince him the monsters weren’t scary. They were actually nice, if only you tried to make friends with them.

“There was a monster who was tired of living all alone. He wanted to live in town with people, but the townspeople were scared and told the monster to stay away.”

Josh, concerned: “He didn’t have any friends to play with?”

She planted a kiss on his forehead. “Not a single friend. He was very sad. Then one day, the monster saw a little boy lost in the woods. The boy was afraid of him but was even more afraid of being lost. The monster took the boy’s hand in his big paw and took him home to his mommy. After that, everybody loved the monster and wanted to be friends with him. The end.”

Josh looked up at her and smiled. “I like that story.”

“I’m glad, little man.”

“Can you tell me another one?”

“Ramona?”

She turned and yelped.
Oh. My. God.
“Oh, hey! Ross! What are you doing here?”

He held up a bag. “Just some Christmas shopping.”

“Right,” she said. “Um . . .”

“I’m pretty much done, which is good, seeing as I’m completely shopped out. Thank God it’s only once a year, right?”

“Yeah. You know, Ross . . .”

“Don’t.” He laughed. “Honestly, we’re cool.”

“No. No, I have to.”

“Listen, I’m really not upset.”

“Ross, no.” Her voice cracked. “That was the
worst
thing I’ve ever done to
anyone
in my entire career. I’m so sorry.”

“Your kid had a medical emergency. If you’d stayed, what would that have said?”

“Wow. You’re very nice. But it shouldn’t have happened. Not like that.”

“You want the truth? I already had another job lined up, but I don’t start until January.”

“Oh,” she said, processing this. No wonder he’d been slacking off.

He shifted his gaze to Josh. “So who’s this little guy?”

“This little guy is Josh,” she said with relief at the change of topic. “Say hi to Ross, Josh.”

“How are you today?” said Ross. He smiled at Josh, who slowly smiled back.

“He’s tired,” Ramona answered for him.

“Mommy, I have to go pee-pee,” Josh said.

“Josh, I asked you—” She stopped. Reminding him that she’d asked him less than ten minutes ago if he had to go would be a pointless exercise. “Can you hold it until after we see Santa?”

“No, I have to go right now.”

“We’re going to lose our place in line.”

“Hey, listen,” said Ross. “I don’t have anything planned for the rest of the day. If you want to take him, I’ll hold your spot for you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I honestly don’t mind.”

“I really don’t want to hold you up or anything.”

He gave her a shrewd look. “How about you buy me an Orange Julius on the way back, and we’ll call it even? Do we have a deal?”

Ramona laughed. “Well, okay then. Yeah, it’s a deal.”

They stood smiling at each other for a moment.

Is he flirting with me?

She again felt a little flutter of attraction, which she’d resisted more than once during the time they’d worked together.

Except now you don’t work together anymore.

Yeah, because she’d just fired him.
Awkward
didn’t begin to cover it.

Don’t go crazy. It’s just flirting. You could use a little flirting.

Which was true. She hadn’t been on a real date in months, unless she counted those Friday nights lying on the couch in her pajamas watching a romantic comedy and spending a little time with her vibrator afterward. She’d given up on dating for a while. Men pursued her but later ran scared from the responsibility of playing dad to a sickly boy. It was too complicated, and after a while, they gave up.

She wanted something more. She wanted the happiness Bethany had found with Brian. It was possible. It had to be.

“Be right back then,” she said.

A woman screamed.

Ramona cringed at the bloodcurdling sound. On the stage, Santa held a limp child on his lap. The little girl’s limbs flopped loose as the old man stood and offered her to her dazed mother, who took the child in her arms.

Dozens of shoppers froze where they stood and watched the scene.

Ramona heard gasps as a second figure collapsed near the Gap. She saw people in their dark coats kneel around a small boy.

In the distance, a scream. Then another. Ramona wheeled toward the sound.

“What the hell is going on?” Ross said.

The screams multiplied across the mall like a hellish choir.

Josh buried his face against her chest and whimpered.

“It’s okay, Josh,” she said. “It’s going to be all right.”

“The kids,” Ross said.

“What?”

“Jesus, Ramona,
it’s all the kids
!”

Ramona hugged Josh closer, her eyes wild, as the scene erupted in chaos.

People sprinted in all directions, knocked each other down, stumbled over bodies. She caught a glimpse of children lying on the floor as if asleep.
They’re dead
, she realized with a sudden shock. Ross was right; something was happening to the kids. Her heart thumped against her ribs. Her vision shrank to a small circle.

Only seconds ago, people had been milling about doing their Christmas shopping.

“What’s happening?” she asked weakly.

“I think we should get Josh out of here,” Ross said.

Ramona turned toward the nearest exit as a woman smashed into her. Shopping bags crashed to the floor, where they were kicked and trampled to shreds. Ramona staggered but kept a tight hold on Josh, who howled into her coat. Ross grabbed her elbow.

“Ramona, listen to me. Okay? We have to get out of here!”

She saw everything clearly now, from a distance, the sound muted. People ran past in slow motion. Wrapping paper swirled around the runners’ feet. Tiny bodies sprawled on the ground amid clothes and toys. Ross stood with his arms spread, trying to protect her, his mouth moving. A man ran by holding a little girl in his arms. Blood poured from the girl’s nose and sprayed across the floor.

Run
.

The world roared in her ears as events around her speeded up and left her behind.

Don’t stand there like an idiot! Get Josh out!

“Ramona!” Ross shouted.

She glared at him. He seemed to fill the horizon, blocking her escape no matter which way she turned.

“Get out of the way!” she shrieked, and he did.

“Mommy!” Josh cried.

She hugged him tighter. “No.
No.
Not him.”

There must be someplace that’s safe.

The concourse emptied as people swarmed against the exits. She ran past stores filled with screaming people. A warm sensation spread across her stomach as Josh wet himself.

Don’t stop. Keep moving. Find somewhere safe. You can do this.

Ramona cut a wide berth around the toy store. Children lay among the scattered toys. Two men were beating each other with their fists in blind panic next to a board game display.

She glimpsed Bethany kneeling over the body of her son. Ripping out her beautiful blond hair by the handful.

The massive Christmas tree loomed ahead. Covered in ornaments and lit up in brilliant colors, it beckoned from its place near the central fountain.

Behind her, another flurry of bloodcurdling screams.

The shining star at the top called to her. It promised safety. Nobody could die near that star. It was Christmas.
A king is born.
Her ears filled with the roar of rushing water as she zigzagged past people clumped around the bodies of their children.

Josh stiffened in her arms.

“We’re almost there,” she gasped. “Hang on.”

Her legs gave out. She sank to her knees in front of the tree and sobbed.

“I love you, Josh,” she said. She kissed his flushed cheeks and forehead. “Mommy loves you. Don’t go. Please don’t go.”

His eyes glazed. “It’s eating me.”

“What is? What’s eating you, baby?”

“Tool set,” he said dreamily, just before his face twisted into a final grimace.

Hour of Herod Event

Joan loved a good thriller.
Spy Master
was everything she’d hoped it would be.

The moment she and Coral had left the park, Joan began to miss her kids, but she resolved not to think about them for two hours. They were in good hands with Doug, even if he didn’t particularly want the job. Thirty minutes into the movie, she was making good on the promise she’d made herself. She’d already eaten half a tub of popcorn and had become totally immersed in the movie.

The Iranians had planted a bomb in Washington, DC, and Hunter Talbot and his elite spy team had to find out where it was. The clock was ticking. Every time Talbot found a new lead, some shadowy figure got there just ahead of him, killed key witnesses, and destroyed essential files. All while his shortsighted superiors kept yelling at him for operating a CIA team on U.S. soil.

Joan suspected the Vice President had some sort of deal going with
the Iranians. He was an old friend of Talbot’s from the CIA, a helpful and kindly old gentleman, but she just didn’t trust him.

“I don’t understand,” a female voice shouted from somewhere near the front row.

Joan and Coral laughed together at one of Talbot’s one-liners.

“How can that be?” the voice cried again.

Joan blanched as the spell broke. One moment, she was in the action, the next, sitting in a dark, half-empty movie theater.

The woman cried out once more while Talbot and his team scaled the facade of a high-rise building. Nobody shushed her. Either she was crazy, or something horrible had just happened.

“What’s going on?” Coral hissed.

Joan gritted her teeth. “I don’t know. I’m
watching
.”

When Megan woke up too early, Joan would send her back to bed and then lie there with her eyes clenched, willing herself to return to sleep, even though she knew it was useless: She was awake, and she was getting up. Likewise, now that the woman had broken the illusion of the movie, Joan was having a hard time getting back into it.

She watched Talbot drop onto the roof and pull up his ski mask, exposing his brilliant blue eyes and chiseled jaw. In the distance, the Capitol shined brightly against the night sky, so strong and yet so helpless.

This is supposed to be where the Iranian cell is based
, she reminded herself.
Unless it’s another trap—

“Please,” the woman wailed. “
Please.
Just tell me what happened.”

“Oh, come on,” Joan said. The movie was officially ruined.

Coral whispered, much too loud, “Should we go help her?”

A man hurried down the aisle with a flashlight. Joan and Coral watched him pass.

“That must be the manager,” said Coral.

“He’ll take care of it.”

A cell phone rang in the dark. Then another. Joan chuckled as the distractions piled up. “Somebody does
not
want me to see this movie.”

The manager stood in front of the projection screen and waved his
arms. “Excuse me!” he shouted. “There’s an emergency. You all need to exit the theater in a very calm and orderly fashion!”

On the screen, Talbot leaped as the wall behind him exploded in a hail of gunfire.

“They’re kicking us out,” Coral said.

“It’s probably nothing. It’s always a false—”

She blinked as the lights came up. Moments later, the film stopped.

A woman shrieked into her cell phone.
“Nobody’s dead! Nobody!”

“What the hell is going on?” Joan wondered.

“I’m going to call Earl,” Coral said.

A couple hurried past, rattled. There were several women crying in different parts of the theater now.

“I, uh, think I’ll call Doug,” said Joan. She fished her phone out of her purse, activated it, and waited for a signal. Her heart pounded.

“Damn it,” said Coral.

“Earl’s not answering?”

“The lines are jammed. All circuits busy. Oh God, this is not good.”

“Let’s take this one thing at a time.” Joan called Doug’s cell. “I got a ring!”

“Oh good. Doug’s there with Earl. Ask him about Peter and Joey.”

“I will, I promise.”

Doug’s voice: “
Joanie?
”

“Doug? I’m so glad I got you. They’re telling us to leave the theater. Some kind of big emergency. Do you know anything?”

She sucked in her breath. Doug was
crying
. She forced herself to breathe. “I’m coming straight there. Just tell me the kids are okay.”

“Joanie . . .”

“Listen to me. I said I’m coming there.” Her voice was shaking. “I just need to hear the kids are okay before we leave.”

Coral watched her with large, watery eyes, her hand over her mouth.