Chapter 49
Sam was once again playing an imaginary piano against his thigh when he heard two sets of footsteps approaching from the side of the building. He stood, and watched as Kat walked increasingly briskly from a pursuing Addison. The girl was red in the face, and her eye makeup had begun to run down her cheeks.
He quickly moved himself into her path.
“Hey, are you alright, Miss?”
She grunted in response, before pausing and turning to Addison.
“Get the hell away from me!” she spat. “I saw you kiss Janis, okay? I saw it. I know you two are a thing, okay?”
Sam shot Addison a questioning look.
“Kat, listen, he—uh she told me not to do it again.” Addison reasoned. “And I didn’t! We’re not a ‘thing,’ I swear to God!”
“Then why are you sneaking around at our prom? You don’t even go to this school!”
Seeing Addison struggle to think of something, Sam stepped in.
“Addison, why don’t you see how your Mom’s doing?” he said, bobbing a head towards the other side of the building, before turning to Kat. “She’s here with me. Because she’s my granddaughter. She… was the one who told me about all this and prompted me to make the donation. So I guess, she’s kinda the reason you got to attend tonight.”
Kat was taken off-guard by this, and looked with wide eyes at the two.
Addison nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be right back, Gramps.”
As Addison disappeared, Sam gestured to the bench he’d been sitting at. “Sounds like you need a breather.”
Kat hesitantly sat down, and moved to cradle her chin in her hands, but missed, and awkwardly attempted to hide her clumsiness by pretending she meant to do it.
Sam took a seat next to her. “So, you and Janis hit the bottle tonight, huh?”
“No, no,” Kat said reflexively, but a moment later her shoulders slumped—she knew she couldn’t deny it. “Ugh. Is it that obvious?”
“Well, I noticed. But I won’t tell any of your teachers.”
“Janis had way more.”
“I noticed that, too,” he said with a soft snort. “Doesn’t sound like either of you are having a good time, though.”
“Guess not,” Kat wiped at her eyes with her palm. “So Addison and Janis aren’t…?”
“I really don’t think you have to worry about that,” Sam said. “And Addison knows that’s a dead end for her. Your girlfriend is all yours.”
Kat leaned back, looking up at the night sky. “Dammit! I totally screwed things up. Janis probably hates me now, and it was all a misunderstanding!”
Sam shook his head. “Nonsense. If you go apologise to her, I’m sure you can salvage your evening.” He stood, extending his arms to help her up. “Come on, I’ll walk you back in.”
Kat sniffled and rubbed her nose. “Why do you care so much about me and Janis that you coughed up all that money for the school? And now you’re helping me make up with her? What’s the deal? Are you gay or something?”
Sam chuckled. “Does it matter? Just think of me as someone who… wants love to save the day.”
Kat took his hands and let him pull her to her unsteady feet.
“If it still doesn’t work out, and you need a ride home, I’ll be out here after prom,” he said as he walked her back inside the auditorium.
“Thanks, but Janis’s Dad is supposed to be taking me home,” Kat said, scanning the dance floor. “Hmm. Where is she?”
“Not here,” a familiar voice said with urgency from behind Sam. It was his own voice. “Janis and Ben have forty-six minutes to live, and we need to move. I’m gonna get the others—meet you out front.”
Just as suddenly as he’d appeared, he was gone.
Oh my God.
“Uh, listen,” Sam said to Kat quickly, “you stay in here and wait for Janis. Maybe she went out to find you—I’ll go and check. You can… uh, go look in the bathroom, okay? Maybe she’s not feeling so hot. When you’re done, stay indoors and wait.”
Kat nodded. “O… okay. Thanks—uh, what was your name again? Doctor something?”
“Just call me Sam.” He gave her a quick pat on the shoulder and hurried back out into the night.
It was only a moment before Sammy Jo and Addison emerged from the side of the building, looking pale in the face.
“Gramps,” Addison said shakily, “We just met an old man version of you…”
“I know. Did he tell you what’s going on?”
Sammy Jo nodded gravely. “What do we do?”
As Sam opened his mouth to reply, the older version of himself winked into existence beside him.
“Al’s on his way around,” he announced, before tapping the controls of his handlink, and speaking into it like a radio. “Addie, have you found Ben?”
“Affirmative,” came the adult Addison’s no-nonsense reply. “Tied up in the trunk of a car.”
Sam’s jaw fell open. “Whose car?!”
“That lady from the CAP protest group,” Addison responded through the handlink. “Mary-Sue Moresby. Get everyone moving, okay? I’ll stay with Ben, but keep me updated.”
Older Sam looked grimly at the group. “We need to get to the river. Janis is found the same way Kat was originally.”
The younger Sam winced at this. “She picked the easier target.” He caught movement in the corner of his eye, and turned to find Al walking quickly towards them from the other side of the building.
“Somebody ralphed by the side door. Almost stepped in it,” he said with a look of disgust. “So what’s goin’ on here? We lose Kat?”
“We lost Ben,” Older Sam explained. “And, by extension, Janis. Everyone get to your cars and head for the Rio Grande, okay? I’ll get you a more exact location when Ziggy coughs it up.”
“Janis…” Al’s expression turned serious, and he nodded, pulling his keys from his pocket. “We should split into two groups, take different routes in case of hold-ups.”
The full group began scurrying towards the parking lot.
Sam looked to Sammy Jo. “You want to go with your daughter? I can give you the keys to Donna’s car, and I’ll go with Al…”
Sammy Jo frowned. “No… You and Al have experience with these kinds of things, you should head the teams.” She took Sam’s hand. “Take Addie with you. I trust you to keep her safe. And I’ll go with Al. I don’t know what I bring to the table, but…”
Sam smiled. “You’ll do fine. Just don’t let your guard down. We don’t know what this woman is capable of.”
Sammy Jo nodded, and climbed into Al’s car. “Good luck.”
“You too.” Sam got into Donna’s car, and Addison hurried to the passenger side, joining him and buckling up.
“Let’s roll, Gramps.”
* * *
Ben felt absolutely wretched, and it wasn’t because his hands were tied behind his back. Nor was it because he was folded up like laundry in the trunk of a car, though neither of those things were helping matters.
“Hold on, Ben,” Addison’s voice soothed. “Help is on the way.”
Was she really there? He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t see anything. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he was hearing things.
He still didn’t know why Janis had not shown up at all. He thought she probably should have, under the circumstances. Or maybe she had, and the alcohol made him black it out.
Oh, drinking all that at once had been a stupid idea. It had let his guard all the way down. He’d been a sitting duck.
And now he was a sitting duck with a pounding head and severe nausea.
“Addison…” he slurred. “Are you here?”
“I’m here, Ben. Well, kind of. I’m in the back seat of the car. No point in poking my head through, you won’t see me anyway.”
“Addison, I screwed up, didn’t I?”
“Uh, well, that depends. Ziggy says your blood alcohol content is way up. What the heck happened? Someone spike the punch?”
“Janis said to drink the booze, so Kat wouldn’t drink it all. So I did, but I guess it was a little too much, huh…” he laughed despite himself. “But listen, where is Janis? She said she had everything under control. She promised. But then I didn’t see her.”
Addison hesitated to answer a moment. “Listen, Ben. Don’t worry about Janis right now, okay? You just stay awake for me and we’ll get out of this, I promise. Sam’s getting everybody to come help.”
“The other you calls him Gramps,” Ben mused. “But you don’t. How come you don’t…?”
“It’s because I never met him until less than a year ago, remember? I never had a familial relationship with him.”
“Oh.”
Ben closed his eyes. He was tired. Part of him knew that sleeping was a bad idea, but he really, really felt like he should. Maybe just for a minute?
“Hey! Ben, what did I just say about staying awake?”
Ben moaned in reply, not opening his eyes. “I’m awake,” he mumbled.
“Ben, come on. Keep it together. Just a little longer, okay? Stay with me.”
“I’m not feeling good, Addison,” he said.
“I know, Ben. Tilt your head back, okay? If you regurgitate, it’ll reduce your chances of choking on it.”
Ben did as she asked. “How much longer will I be here?”
“Probably ten more minutes,” Addison said. “Once she gets you out I need you to take some deep breaths, get some more oxygen in you, because you don’t have a lot in there. But I want you to play up your drunkenness and go limp. It’ll put her guard down, and she’ll have to use more effort to drag you where she plans to take you. It’ll buy us time. Got it?”
“I dunno if that’ll be an act or not,” Ben confessed.
“Either way, I need you awake when that happens. So just keep talking to me.”
“I love you, Addison,” Ben blurted.
Addison chuckled. “I know that’s just the alcohol, but I love you too.”
“It’s not! I love you and I’m sorry for leaping without telling you. I shoulda told you.”
“Water under the bridge, Ben. You just survive this, make it home, and we’ll be square.”
“I couldn’t do this without you.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
A moment passed, and Ben’s intoxicated mind finally connected the dots.
“Janis isn’t there because she dies tonight, doesn’t she? I made this happen.”
“We’re going to fix it. So don’t even worry.”
“Okay, Addison. I love you.”