“What’s going on?” asked Jack. He was groggy and thought he was still in a dream for a minute.
“Let’s get breakfast and get ready to go over to the hospital,” said Stephen.
“Yeah, okay, sure,” said Jack.
At seven in the morning Jack had barely slept. He kept having dreams that he had been the one swallowed into the floor. Tumbling down for minutes, his dream-hole was way deeper than the one Ben had fallen in to. Jack knew what to expect — at the bottom of Jack’s hole were the remains of Gabe Vigue. He was terrified of these dreams, but he still resented Stephen for waking him up. He was desperate to figure out how the dream would end.
Jack and Stephen made their way downstairs and fed themselves breakfast. Waiting for Jack’s dad, they sat in the kitchen and tried to pass the time by flipping through an old newspaper. Greg finally came down at eight o’clock, and Jack wanted immediate action.
“Can we go over to the hospital now Dad?” he asked.
“Didn’t you boys look at the signs when we were leaving?” his dad asked. “They clearly stated that visiting hours start at ten. How long did it take us to get back here last night?”
“Um,” said Jack, “about forty-five minutes?”
“That’s right,” said his dad. “And what time is it now?”
“About eight.”
“Excellent — so how long until we should leave?” his dad asked him.
“Probably about seventy-five minutes?”
“Excellent — good answer. Why don’t you two use that time to go get cleaned up? It’s a hospital, you know. They last thing they need is smelly boys running around, stinking up the joint.”
“Okay, Dad,” said Jack.
Jack and Stephen came down the stairs an hour later to find a huge surprise — Jack’s mom walked through the door.
“Mom!” exclaimed Jack. “Did they release him.”
“They did,” she said. “They released him to his mom — she wants him to stay at home for a while.”
“What?” said Jack, surprised. “His mom? I thought you couldn’t get in touch with her?”
“I didn’t,” said his mom. “But I guess she got the message.”
Jack’s dad appeared from the kitchen — “Hey honey,” he said. “Sleep well?”
“Oh, you know it,” she replied. “I was just telling Jack and Stephen — Ben’s fine, but his mom wanted him to come home for a bit, so he was released to her this morning.”
“Did you actually see her?” asked Jack.
“Of course I did. Did you think I was going to let him go with just anyone?” she asked, studying Jack closely.
“It’s just that you hadn’t heard from her in so long,” Jack tried to downplay his previous question. “I just wondered if she looked okay.”
“Yes sir,” said his mom. She paused and then continued — “She looked just fine, and Ben looked good too.”
“Thanks, mom,” said Jack. “Can me and Stephen give him a call before we go outside?”
“Stephen and I, and yes,” she said.
The boys crossed through the kitchen and Jack pointed Stephen to the phone while he crept back to the doorway. His parents were talking about Ben at the foot of the stairs.
“I don’t know, she just acted so weird,” he heard his mom say.
“Was she driving?” his dad asked.
“No, thank God,” said his mom. “One of her neighbors drove her over. I didn’t really meet him, but he looked nice enough.”
“Do you think she’s on something again?”
“I hope not,” his mom sighed. “But she did have that same vacant look.”
Jack snuck back to Stephen.
“No answer,” said Jack. They took the house phone outside to the patio to place their call in private.
“Which number did you dial?” asked Stephen.
“I did the house number,” Jack replied. “I’ll try his cell.”
“Good.”
“Weird. Straight to voicemail on that one,” said Jack.
“That’s really strange. Something must be wrong with the tower or something,” said Stephen.
“Could be,” said Jack. “Or maybe they just hate cell phones now.”
“Probably,” said Stephen.
“So, you want to go to the hotel today?” asked Jack.
“Seems weird without Ben, but I really want to know if there’s more money there.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Jack.
In the house, they met unexpected resistance.
“Why don’t you just play in the basement today?” asked his mom.
“Cause we don’t want to,” said Jack. “We want to go back out and see if we can find that reptile that Ben was chasing.”
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to find a particular lizard, Jack,” she replied.
“Well, not that exact one, but one like the one we were chasing, I guess,” Jack said.
“I think you should stay around the house this one time so I don’t have to be so worried about you,” she said.
“Yeah, but mom you’re always going to have to worry about something,” said Jack. “Why can’t we just do this one thing and then you can worry about something else later?”
“What did I just say, Jack?” barked his mom.
“But mom,” he protested.
“That’s it,” she said, really frustrated now. “You can spend the day upstairs, in your room. No computer. I want you reading one of your books for school and then I want five-hundred words on what you’ve read. Due by dinner.”
“What?” said Jack. “You can’t be serious, what’s Stephen going to do?”
“Same for you, Stephen,” she said. “Pick one of the books on Jack’s list. They’re all on his shelf.”
“Yes, Ms. Randolph,” said Stephen, dejected. He shot a sideways look at Jack.
“Shit,” said Jack under his breath.
“That’s it, Jack. That’s a free one. But if I hear language like that again, you’re going to get grounded for the summer,” she warned.
Jack turned and stomped up the stairs to his room. Stephen followed quietly behind him.
Up in Jack’s room, they grabbed books and conspired.
“We could go in the middle of the night again,” said Jack.
“That’s going to be tough from up here,” Stephen responded. “I’ve heard your dad wake up just from me going to the bathroom. His snoring stops until I go back to the room.”
“Yeah, dad always was a light sleeper. Unless he’s on his Xanax,” said Jack.
“What does he take that for?” asked Stephen.
“He used to get panic attacks,” said Jack. “He only takes them now if he’s got a lot of stress from too many jobs at once.”
“Maybe he should take one tonight,” said Stephen.
“He’s only going to take it if he’s stressed though. I think my mom’s the one who’s stressed right now, and she never takes the stuff.”
“No, I mean like maybe we should slip both of them some when they’re not looking. Then they’ll both be asleep and we can go whenever we want,” said Stephen.
“Jeez, I don’t know how we would pull that off,” said Jack. “Like put them in a drink or something?”
“Maybe we can just crumble them up in part of dinner, then we just won’t eat whatever that is,” offered
