Zac Hanson
But, when it finally closed and the last of the blue TV screen light was gone from the room, I was relieved to be able to bury my face in my pillow and let go of the breath I had been holding.
“Jeez, Zac, you were faking sleeping, not being the dead body of someone at a funeral in a movie,” Isaac commented in a whisper as I looked up again, seeing Parker’s shadow on the wall, making his way to a dim lamp he kept on his bookshelf.
“Yeah, well it’s a wonder she believed we were all asleep since you weren’t sucking the oxygen out of the room with your snoring,” I shot back in my quiestest voice.
Seconds later, the soft, dark gold light of the lamp illuminated the room somewhat and I could see Isaac, who was sitting up on the bed (we had all agreed to trade off with the bed) and Parker, who was just making his way back to his own sleeping bag, his eyes looking especially tired as the shadows played across his face. It was one of the only things indicating that what he had seen--whatever he had seen--coming home from school just a few days before had bothered him. He didn’t talk about it very much.
“So, what’s going on?” he asked as he wrapped his sleeping bag around him, apparently noticing the unusual coldness of his room as well. It always seemed cold in his room, even though it was almost summer. At first, I had blamed it on the warmer weather I was used to in Oklahoma, but after a while I had noticed that he was just as cold as I was. I had asked him about it, what he thought it was, and all he had said was something about ghosts. I assumed he was kidding.
Isaac sighed and picked at the pillow case of the pillow he held in his lap. It took a moment for him to answer.
“You guys know how I went to go see Taylor at the hospital today?” he asked.
His serious tone immediately made me nervous. Had Taylor told him something about...what had happened? It was being referred to as that by that time. Either “what had happened” or “the incident.” No one really knew what else to call it. Our parents had warned us not to ask Taylor about it; that he wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. But had he been willing to say something to Isaac?
“Yeah,” Parker answered for both of us.
“Well...something happened,” he said and paused, almost as if for dramatic emphasis rather than to gather his thoughts and figure out how to word what he was going to say next.
“Did he tell you something?” I asked without waiting. I needed to know.
“About the incident? No,” he answered. “Though I kind of wish he did. I didn’t ask about it and he didn’t say anything. Anyway, it happened after I had already had my visiting time with him. I had gone back to the waiting room and Mom and Dad had wanted to go in next. They took a really long time and I began to think that maybe something was wrong, so I got a nurse to watch the kids and went back to the room. When I got there...there was this woman. Dad had her backed up against the wall. He was holding onto her shoulders and she looked...petrified. He was beyond livid. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Who was she?” I asked obviously. Isaac had a habit of not getting to the point very quickly.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Was she a nurse?” Parker asked.
“No, she was an ordinary woman. She was dressed in street clothes, anyway, I’m not sure about anything else,” he said.
“What did she look like?” I asked.
“I don’t know, I didn’t really get a good look at her. She was probably about Parker’s height....pale skin....blue eyes, like Taylor’s....short, auburn hair,” he said. “That’s all I remember.”
“Your parents didn’t tell you who she was?” Parker asked, obviously coming up empty with suggestions of who she might be.
“No,” Isaac replied. “She left after a minute and then Dad kicked me and Mom out of the room. I asked Mom a few times, but she wouldn’t answer me.”
“That’s weird,” I said, again feeling that I was stating the obvious. That was my habit when it came to conversation, although I admit to having problems with coming to the point myself.
“And that’s not all,” Isaac said. “We went to the cafeteria after we left Taylor’s room and I saw Gina and this man there. I don’t know who he was, but the woman I saw in Taylor’s room sat with them.”
“Maybe they were reporters or something,” I suggested. “Maybe she was in the room harassing Taylor and Mom and Dad walked in and, well, you know how Dad gets when he thinks a reporter is harassing one of us or all of us.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t get violent,” Isaac pointed out. “Especially with the possibility of them being lawsuit happy.”
“He would if they were getting too personal,” I said back.
“Not that violent.”
“I agree with Zac,” Parker put in. “They were probably just reporters. Something probably got the media about what happened to Taylor and so some newspaper or radio station or news show probably sent them to the hospital. She probably went to the hospital room to try and get some direct answers and he probably went to get some answers from your family and saw Gina with them and decided to talk to her.”
“But wouldn’t they tell us if they were just reporters? I mean, Mom made a big deal about not telling me who she was, so she must have been someone important,” Isaac protested.
“Who else could she be?” Parker replied.
“A fan who found out maybe,” I said.
“No, I somehow doubt that,” Isaac said. “Dad definitely wouldn’t go off like that if it was just a fan looking for an autograph or something.”
“That’s true.”
We all stayed silent for a few minutes, obviously digging through our minds to see if we could come up with any other suggestions as to who the woman might have been and what she might have done to offend our father so much.
“What did Taylor seem to think of her being there?” Parker asked after a few minutes.
“I don’t know, I got kicked out kind of fast,” Isaac said.
Again, another moment of silence.
“You know, she probably was just a reporter or something,” Isaac conceded. “Asking personal questions about...what happened.”
“God, how I’d love to know what happened,” I said.
“I’m not so sure,” Parker said, his voice deeply disturbed. When I looked at him, I could see something in his face that may or may not have been interpreted as having an answer to the question that was on all of our minds. Or, at least, a suggested answer that he didn’t care to think about.
“I would,” Isaac said. “I want to know what the hell happened that’s so serious that we’re not allowed to ask questions about it,” he added, his voice growing angry.
“Not that I would ask questions if I knew,” I put in. “I just want to know at all. It seems like someone should be doing more to find out, doesn’t it?”
“What’re they going to do, give him a truth syrum?” Parker said, a note of hostility in his voice that took me aback slightly. “It’s probably not that nobody’s asking, it’s probably that he won’t talk about it. They’ll probably have to hook him up with a psychologist or something before anyone really asks any direct questions about what he did...or someone else.”
“What he did?” I said, immediately noticing his mistake. “What’re you saying?”
He looked at his hands.
“Parker?” Isaac said, his voice rising almost as if he were about to panic.
“Look, guys,” he said, “I didn’t want to tell you this. In fact, Gina kind of told me not to tell you this, but....,” he sighed and hesitated. I could see the debate he was having in his mind over whether or not to actually tell us through his eyes even in the dim light. I knew he thought that whatever he was going to say next was going to hurt us. “But when the doctors first told Gina and I that Taylor was all right, Gina asked them what they thought had happened. The guy said that it was possible that it was a suicide attempt.”
My eyes widened and I sucked in my breath. Suicide? Taylor had tried to...kill himself? Why?
“But they don’t have any proof,” Isaac said logically.
“No,” Parker said.
“Then I don’t believe it,” Isaac stated. “Taylor’s not the type to take his own life.”
Suicide? He had tried to kill himself? Why?
“Besides, you said there was...you know, in the bathroom and then it looked like he had crawled into the kitchen and the phone was off the hook and some woman was on the other end,” Isaac said. “Which probably means he was trying to get help. Someone who was looking to intentionally kill themself wouldn’t do that.”
Parker didn’t look so sure.
Suicide? He had tried to kill himself? Why?
“Maybe,” he said finally. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“No, it’s...it’s good to know,” Isaac said. “Just in case. But I think the doctors are assuming things a little too fast.”
“You’re probably right,” Parker said. “Zac, you okay?”
“I’m...fine,” I said, though I wasn’t. Visions of Taylor taking a knife to his own wrists (well, wrist) were dancing in my head.
Suicide? He had tried to kill himself? Why?
“Zac, don’t worry about it,” Isaac said. That sounded a bit backwards to me. Right then, the thought of him possibly attempting suicide should have been almost a comfort. It meant that there was no murderous weirdo out there roaming the streets. But nothing was really a comfort when it came to that.
“I’m sorry, Zac,” Parker said, and he really did sound apologetic. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “I just... I don’t know. I guess it’s just weird, that’s all.”
“Yeah,” Isaac said.
“Anyway, that’s probably all it was,” Parker said, obviously trying to change the subject, although for a minute, it didn’t sound like he had. “Probably just an overly nosy reporter looking for some hot story so she wouldn’t have to sleep her way to a higher position.”
“Oookay,” Isaac said, a small laugh in his voice at the suggestion. “Yeah, you guys are right. Okay, I just thought I’d let you guys know what I saw, just in case you want to know.”
“Yeah, just one more thing to lose sleep over,” Parker said.
I chuckled even though I knew he was only half-joking.
“Yeah. Good night,” Isaac said, burying himself back under the sheets to make an abrupt ending to our meeting.
“Good night guys,” Parker said.
“Night,” I said back, laying back down.
After a moment, I heard Parker sigh.
“I should really talk to Gina about getting a clapper,” he said, getting up and turning the light off.
We said our good nights once more and in an hour or so, Isaac and Parker were both asleep. But I couldn’t even get my eyes closed comfortably. There was something keepig me awake, but, surprisingly, it wasn’t any thoughts of Taylor possibly attempting suicide. Somewhere inside me, I was pretty sure Isaac was right. Whatever had happened to Taylor probably wasn’t self-inflicted.
It was that woman.
Who could she be? Who in the world could make my father so mad? After a while of thinking, I came to the conclusion (contrary to my earlier one) that she probably wasn’t a reporter. Isaac was right, our father wouldn’t risk doing someting like that to a reporter who was potentially lawsuit-happy, no matter how personal her questions got.
I turned so that I was laying on my back. I went over the description that Isaac had given in my mind, trying to picture this woman in my head, trying to see if she was possibly someone we knew.
Pale skin....Auburn hair....Blue eyes, like Taylor’s....Blue eyes like Taylor’s....Blue eyes like Taylor’s....
“He gets his eyes from his mother. His real mother, not me....”
That was when it hit me.
Feedback is optional, not obligatory. *puppy dog eyes*
Index
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Nine