When he’d left the family house that evening, he’d turned the device off, knowing his mom would call to check on him after he stayed out past his curfew. He intended to tell his mom that he had forgotten to charge the phone and had left the power cord adapter for his car’s cigarette lighter on his desk. The car was his mom’s, so his stuff wasn’t always in the vehicle. It was a fib he’d used in the past, and taking the battery out and discharging the power before he arrived home was no problem.
“Joey,” Jenny said.
Ignoring her, Joey watched the television, noticing that Leonard and Ace were both keeping track of the conversation between him and Jenny. Punching in his number, Joey quickly cycled through the menu options and opened his mailbox.
There were two messages, both of them from his mom. The caller ID indicated that five other messages had been missed between the first and last message. The first three had been from the Gander home phone number. The last four had been from his mom’s cell phone.
“Joey,” his mom said calmly, “you’re out past your curfew. You are going to be so grounded when you get back home.”
In a way, his mom’s promise of punishment was reassuring. If she was only thinking of grounding him, then things couldn’t be that bad. But the call had been logged in before the time when the news channel said the hostilities had started.
“Are you listening to me?” Jenny demanded.
“Give me a minute,” Joey said, looking at the television. The news footage cycled through again. Evidently the reporters had been caught pretty much flat-footed and hadn’t been able to send much in the way of footage before the communications lines had been cut. He punched up the second message.
“Joey,” his mom said. Her voice sounded tight and controlled, the way it did some days when things got really hectic at the counseling center. “I don’t know where you are, and I don’t know what you might have seen on the television. All I can tell you is that I haven’t received any information about Goose.”
Some of the tightness inside Joey’s chest relaxed. Thank You, God. The sentiment flooded through him, but at the same time he felt like a hypocrite, one of those people who reached for God in times of need but never simply gave thanks to Him all along the way. But there hadn’t been a lot to be thankful for lately, had there?
“I know Goose’s unit was involved in the action along the border,” his mom went on. “I’ve been called in to the base hospital. An emergency has come up regarding one of my patients.”
That, Joey knew, wasn’t a good thing. The last time his mom had gotten called in to the base hospital had been when one of the teens she was counseling had tried to commit suicide. Even as he thought that, he remembered Chris.
“I had to drop Chris off at the emergency child-care center,” his mom said. “I don’t know how long I’ll be at the hospital. If you get this message, please go by and pick Chris up. He wasn’t happy about being left there.” There was a pause. “I’m really ticked at you for not being here and for causing me extra worry, Joey, but I want you to know I love you. Get home and we’ll get this sorted out.”
The message clicked off. Before the automated message could prompt him to replay, delete, or save the message, Joey punched the asterisk to end the session. He dialed his mom’s cell phone number but got only her message box. Fear crept through him, swamping him with thoughts of what might have happened to his mom or Goose or Chris. He was worried to the point that getting yelled at for blowing off his curfew actually sounded good to him.
“Joey.” Jenny sounded totally miffed.
Looking at her, Joey said, “I gotta go.”
“What?” she asked sarcastically. “Did you hear your mom calling?”
“As a matter of fact,” Joey said, “I did. There’s been an emergency. I brought you here. I can drop you back by your house. Or do you think you can find a way home from here? I’ll pay for a cab.”
“You’re leaving me here?” A look of disbelief covered her beautiful face.
“I’m trying not to.”
“Do you care?”
“Actually,” Joey said, “I do. Goose—my step-dad—taught me that you don’t just ditch someone you brought with you. And I don’t want to just leave things like this between us. I want to see you again. If that’s okay.” And, boy, doesn’t that sound lame. But the thought didn’t linger in his mind. He was thinking totally of his family.
Jenny stayed silent for a moment. “I can find a way home.”
Her answer slashed through Joey’s knotted guts. His anger coiled inside him, and he wanted to stand there and argue with her, to tell her how much her actions had hurt him. But he thought of Chris in the child-care center with some stranger, and he knew how wigged out his mom would be with Goose in the thick of things over in Turkey.
“Fine.” Joey shelved his anger and hurt for the moment. Sorting them out with all the confusion spinning through his head at the same time was almost impossible. That was another thing Goose had helped him work on when he was just a kid. He’d been confused over his dad’s abandonment and his mother’s remarriage. As a result, some of his anger had been targeted at Goose, who had taken everything in stride. They had worked through most of that one step at a time—until Chris had been born.
Chris.
Joey turned and walked away.
“Hey, man,” Leonard said solemnly, dropping a hand on Joey’s shoulder for a moment. “Hope everything turns out okay with your dad.”
“Me, too,” Joey said. “Thanks.” He kept moving.
“Hey, Joey,” Jenny called from behind him.
He stopped and
