Free One-Eyed Jack by Lawrence Watt-Evans Page A

he
did.
    The sun was well below the treetops
now, brushing the horizon, but I still didn’t see Jenny anywhere,
and either Mr. Mower or Ms. Shotgun might be calling the cops to
come check out the suspicious stranger. I decided staying around
wasn’t a great idea. I could come back again after everyone was in
bed.
    I started the car, turned it around,
and drove away.
    Sure enough, as I headed out Strader
Drive I passed a cop car heading the other direction.
    It might have been coincidence, of
course. They might have been coming to cruise the neighborhood for
whatever had attacked Jack anyway.
    Or they might have gotten a call about
me, and Mr. Mower had my car’s license number, not to mention PT
Cruisers are pretty recognizable. I half-expected them to U-turn
and come after me, with lights and sirens.
    They didn’t. They drove on into the
quiet little neighborhood, and I drove out, with no idea where I
was going.
     
     

Chapter Six
     
    I debated whether or not to take a
nap. I worried that if I did, I’d sleep through until morning,
since didn’t have an alarm clock. I hadn’t thought to bring one,
and if my phone had an alarm as an option, I didn’t know
where.
    The thing is, I didn’t know what else
to do. I wasn’t sure I dared go back to talk to Jenny again – what
if the cops were patrolling the area? I hadn’t seen any before, but
that was before Jack came home.
    I had two days before my flight home,
but I didn’t know what to do with them. I didn’t know what Jenny
wanted, not really. I didn’t know how to find her if she wasn’t
staying under the big tulip poplar. I didn’t know what I really
hoped to accomplish.
    I pulled the car over on a quiet
street and tried to think, and the question became moot – I dozed
off without meaning to. After all, it wasn’t as if I’d been getting
lots of sleep.
    I dreamed, of course. I saw Jack and
his folks finishing their supper, and I saw his parents trying to
be nice to him, and I saw his kid sister staring at the bandage on
his hand where his finger used to be. I saw him say he wasn’t
feeling well and wanted to go to bed early, and of course his
parents bought that. His mother even came to tuck him into bed,
over his half-hearted protests. I saw her turn out the light and
leave the room, closing the door behind her.
    And I saw Jack wait a few minutes to
be sure she was gone, then climb out of bed, throw on a bathrobe,
and climb out his bedroom window, lowering himself until he was
hanging by his fingers from the sill and then letting go, so that
he dropped into the bushes around the air conditioner.
    “ Oh, crap,” I said to
myself – I don’t know whether I said it aloud or not. I tried to
wake up, so I could go to help, but I couldn’t, not yet.
    I saw Jack slip through the back
yards, climbing hedges and fences, staying out of sight of the
street as he made his way down to the end of the road, past the big
tulip poplar, past the other trees, into a clump of bushes that
might have been forsythia, but I couldn’t be sure in the dark. He
ducked down and pushed through the overhanging branches and crawled
into a little hollow inside the thicket.
    Jenny was sitting there
waiting for him. You
came , she said.
    “ Of course I did,” he
said. “I told you I would.”
    I knew you
would.
    “ No more fingers,” he
said.
    But I’m... no, I’m sorry.
Did it hurt? I didn’t want to hurt you.
    “ You
didn’t hurt me,” he said, but I didn’t believe him. I didn’t think
he would ever admit anything hurt.
    I love you,
Jack.
    “ I love you,
Jenny.”
    And then he was in her arms, and she
clutched him to her, and I could see her claws digging deep into
the back of his bathrobe.
    “ No,” I said, but I still
couldn’t wake up. “Get away!”
    I’m so
hungry , she said. I love you so much, and I’m so very hungry.
    “ I know,” he said. “I
know. And I’ll feed you. Just give me a minute.”
    “ No!” I shouted – and that
did it; I woke