Free Sky Zone: A Novel (The Crittendon Files) by Creston Mapes Page A

shook his head. “No way. I don’t want to owe her.”
    “She’s mentioned it to me before.”
    “I thought we were okay,” he said. “I had everything budgeted. The check just didn’t show up in time. I feel like such a failure. And I feel sorry for you. I want a job so bad. I’d take anything.”
    “Something will come, honey. We’ve got to just keep praying. Keep doing what you’re doing. I bet you’re going to get the best job you’ve ever had.”
    “Thanksgiving’s coming. Christmas. How are we gonna pay for gifts?”
    “Jack, look at me. We have each other. We have the girls and our parents. We’re healthy. I don’t care where we live. We can move to a smaller house for all I care.”
    “But you’re unhappy because you’re working, and I don’t blame you.”
    “I’ve got maternity leave coming.”
    “Then what? Twelve weeks? You’re not going to want to go back.” He held her face in his hands. “You’re not going to be able to go back.”
    He was dead-on. The thought of leaving her twelve-week-old baby all day, five days a week … She couldn’t even go there.
    “You’ll have something by then,” she said. “I know you will.” She squeezed his hands. “In the meantime, let Mom pay the mortgage, just once.”
    “I’m due to get that check. It should’ve been here.”
    She nodded. “When it finally comes, you pay her back. Simple as that.”
    “I just can’t believe we’re in this place. We had over thirty-five thousand dollars saved up.”
    “Yeah, and we used it on life. It’s not like we’ve been living extravagantly. God knows where we are. He knows we’ve honored him with our tithe. He’s going to take care of us.”
    “That money was for college, weddings … retirement.”
    “We’ll catch up, honey. The important thing is, we’re going to have a baby, a healthy baby. Right? And we’ve got insurance through my work. Think if we didn’t have that.”
    She put her hands around his back and snuggled close.
    They stayed like that for quite some time.
    To lighten things up, she told him how her mother had said she hadn’t noticed Pam leave for the day.
    After a moment, Jack chuckled into Pamela’s shoulder.
    Since she had him on a roll, she then told him how proud her mother was of the lifesaving water filter that had arrived in the mail.
    He outright laughed at that.
    Then he told her how much he loved her.
    She knew he meant it.
    And that felt like gold.
     

13
    Festival Arena, October 6
    Clarissa dashed up the concrete steps marked Employees Only. Derrick and his photographer followed twenty feet behind. All Derrick could think about was letting Zenia know what was happening. But he hadn’t had a second.
    Clarissa threw open the door leading to the main concourse of the arena. Derrick and Daniel followed. Pure bedlam. They stood frozen as masses of people rushed by them in every direction—to concession stands, to restrooms, and into the bowl of the arena.
    “It’s too late to get them out,” Derrick said.
    “Unless they make an announcement and force them out,” Daniel said.
    “Let’s follow Clarissa.” Derrick headed toward the enormous glass front of the arena, with Daniel and his equipment in tow.
    “Get shots of this!” Derrick called over the noise, pointing toward the commotion at the large bank of front doors.
    At Clarissa’s order, EventPros had shut all of the doors in midflow, and the people outside were shaking fists, scowling, and pounding at the glass. A young EventPro stood with her back to the doors, her face contorted in panic. Many of the people who’d made it inside looked scared, determined to get away from the chaos at the front doors. Some flashed nervous smiles as they latched hands with loved ones and forged ahead into the arena.
    Clarissa huddled up with a group of supervisors by the long, curved customer-service desk. The TV screen above them showed the massive crowd packed like a soccer-riot mob outside the lobby. It was