“Good morning, sunshine,” I said firmly to my son, while raising the shades as loud as I
could. His room had smelled better.
Tom moaned deeply and pulled the pillow over his head.
“Up, Up, Up!” I shouted. “No time for hangovers.” I yanked the sheets off from the bed.
Tom and I would be at the Higgins house by 8am sharp. He had time for a quick shower
and breakfast.
“Oh, come on!” Tom screamed.
I leaned into him, whispering angrily. “You get your butt out of bed right now, young
man. You made a big problem for the Higgins family and now that is your problem. We start
correcting everything in 45 minutes.”
I had no idea if Larry and Gail would be at the house at 8am, but Tom needed a rude
awakening nonetheless. Susan planned on calling them at 7:50.
Tom slowly climbed out of bed and headed to the bathroom while I went back
downstairs, already showered and shaved for the day. Susan was still asleep. She had missed her
early morning run for the first time in months.
I started mixing some pancake batter when Tom's shower started running upstairs - It
was 7:20 - and I hoped Susan arose to make that 7:50 call to the Higgins house. The overnight
hotel plan for Gail and Larry was a tad extreme because they had a six bedroom house with just
two kids. I thought the oldest child was in college, too, so they had ample space to work with.
Still, I was not going to argue with them if they wanted to pay for a $300 hotel stay at the friggin'
Headquarters Plaza. It occurred to me that I should offer to pay for that as well.
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The shower upstairs stopped, meaning Tom would be downstairs in five minutes. I
poured the pancake batter onto the griddle. Gail and Larry would, of course, insist on picking out
their own mattress and linens, so I simply planned on cutting a sizeable check. The wind was
really howling outside which sucked because we had heard that it was supposed to be a high of 18
degrees that day.
Tom walked into the kitchen - his wet hair was frozen bound as soon as we stepped into
the garage - and he just stared at the pancakes.
“I'm not hungry,” Tom mumbled. “Where's our Aspirin?”
I pointed to the cabinet above the microwave where we kept band aids, Chapstick, and
various pain relievers on a shelf up there. I realized that I had too many pancakes on the griddle –
oh well. Zeke used to be handy for that.
Tom opened the Aspirin bottle and took out two tablets. He poured a glass of water
before sitting at the kitchen table.
“Hangovers are hell, huh,” I told my son.
I was never much of a problem for Mom and Dad. Once I got into high school, they
travelled about one weekend a month to various destinations. I was left to fend for myself in our
enormous house and it wasn't long before I threw my first party, then my second, my
third….though, no one damaged the house or threw up in places other than the toilet. Someone
did throw up in the sink once but I yelled loud enough that my friends got the message. I
believed my parents knew about the parties from our neighbors yet they never said anything. If
Mom's precious china case was destroyed or even far less damage to the house had happened, my
parents would have stepped in mightily. But I cleaned up obsessively and my mother appreciated
coming home to a house cleaner than the one she left two days prior.
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Susan emerged from the hallway. “Good. You two are up and ready to go.”
“Tom, we are heading over to the Higgins house in 15 minutes and you are going to
apologize to them,” I said sternly. “Then you are going to offer your services for chores at Mr.
Higgins' discretion for the next six months.”
Tom's jaw dropped. “You're kidding, right? There were 40 kids in that house last
night…”
“No one else barfed in the master bedroom,” Susan inserted coolly.
My son's head dropped. “I think I'm gonna hurl right now.” Tom took a deep breath and
walked into the family room.
“Gail, oh good, you're home,” Susan said on the phone. “Can Tom and Nick swing by in
ten minutes? Good, I'll tell them.”
I grabbed my checkbook. “What does a quality king sized mattress cost?” I asked Susan.
She shrugged her shoulders.
“They should be able to find one for under $1,000, I would imagine.” Susan responded.
“Linens will be an extra $500 or so if they don't need a new bedspread. That would be more.”
We didn't expect Tom to assess whether the Higgins were going to replace the bed
spread. What a pain! Tom got up from the kitchen table.
“I'll meet you in the car,” he said. It would have been so cool to be inside that boy's mind
at that moment. Just how sorry was he? I'd settle for really embarrassed. I grabbed my coat and
headed out to the garage.
I found the fanny pack that I planned on wearing on the bus. With Melanie leaving at
5pm, that meant a change, around 5:05, from my work clothes and into my bus clothes. The plan
was to throw my work clothes in a plastic bag and leave the bag with William. I thought about
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placing my trip cash and my old credit cards in my socks in case I got mugged on the bus, but that
was a little extreme. Instead, my latest idea was to leave my wallet in my desk. If something were
to happen to me on the trip, it would be bad to have my wallet found out west somewhere. That
would certainly raise questions. Also, if I was surprised by an intruder in my office, my coat
wouldn't be on me and I wouldn't be carrying my wallet in my back pocket. The coat had to stay
in the office with the wallet. Along with the change of clothes, I had to bring an extra coat and a
pair of shoes to the office on Thursday, but hadn't figured out yet how to bring all of those things to the office without the girls noticing. Oleg wouldn't be able to see me inside the parking garage
– I had studied the optimal position in the garage where no one from the lot could see me - so
there was no worry about that. Bottom Line: I needed to make everything about that coming
Thursday look as normal as possible. Just another day as Dr. Nick Johnson.
A final run-through was scheduled with William on Tuesday night. He was going to need
reminding to keep his mouth quiet, no matter how tempting to tell anyone in my family the real
story. Not that he knew any of them, but crazier things had happened. If Susan or anybody in the
family got wind of the truth, the whole town would know within a week. Given how plugged in
Oleg's criminal network was, he would probably have learned of my whereabouts in the first two
days. The real paranoid part of me was telling me that Oleg had people on my bus heading west.
But I knew that was highly unlikely.
Tom didn't say anything on the way over to the Higgins house. We pulled up to the
home, with me half expecting to see carpet, upholstery, and god knows what else cleaning
services running in and out of the front door. Nobody or a vehicle was in sight, though. Larry
answered the door.
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“Hello guys, come in, please,” Larry said to us. We walked in to find the Higgins kids
sitting at the kitchen table, looking completely miserable. Gail was standing at the far end of
table, by the door to the two story deck with her arms angrily folded.
“It would appear that there is much blame to go around, starting with my own children,”
Larry started. He glared over at the kitchen table.
I felt a need to step in, warranted or not. “Larry and Gail, I will replace all damaged
items. I think Tom has something to say.”
Tom looked at me with his mouth open in shock, then gathered his composure.
“Um…I am really sorry for what happened and the problems I have caused for you.”
Larry smiled crookedly like he had gas. “Guys, we appreciate that. Can we split the cost,
though? My kids need to contribute to some of it.”
An obnoxious exhale bursted from Jenny Higgins. Gail walked over to her and
whispered something in her daughter's ear.
“And Tom will be available for the next six months for any chores you want around your
home,” I inserted.
Larry laughed. “Oh, that won't be necessary. My own kids can be my slaves through next
summer.” He turned to Troy. “Troy, it's a good thing you go to school so nearby.”
We all agreed that Gail would call Susan with the replacement cost tally by the end of
that day, though part of me knew that Tom was getting off far too easy. The other half reminded
of the hell that I was about to put him through.
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Saturday, January 11th
7:15am