Chapter 17: Jet

"You really need to get off of me, Luke," Alfonzo stated as Jewel waited for a response from the other line of the phone.

Luke immediately adjusted himself and climbed into the back seat, getting Alfonzo's blood on his pant leg on his way back. The car finally slowed down to an even seventy-five miles per hour, and it seemed like a turtle's pace.

Everyone was silent and finally Jewel spoke into the phone. "H-Hello. This is Jewel Laurent. . . I'm with Alfonzo. He says that we need a jet at location four." A muffled woman's voice replied, and the phone call ended. Jewel turned to Alfonzo and her eyes fell to his shoulder wound as she spoke. "The woman said that the jet will be there in an hour, if all runs smoothly on our end. She said that she'll be tracking our location." 

Alfonzo did not reply, but his lack of an answer somehow communicated that their plan was moving forward. They were going to France. McKenna shifted in her seat. The combination of nerves, confusion, and nausea caused by Alfonzo's injury was sinking in hard. "Jewel. . . can you turn up the air?" Since the back window was missing and the airflow seemed like nothing less than a tornado, Jewel didn't move. 

Realizing that McKenna apparently didn't have a stomach of steel when it came to blood, Luke turned and tried to help her. "Do you need something cold? I have a melted slushee. It's cherry." 

McKenna leaned down and put her head between her knees and Luke brushed tiny shards of the rear window from her hair. A slushee was the last thing she wanted, let alone a melted slushee. All she wanted was to see her mom, even though Alfonzo had promised her that her mother was safe and under close watch. She wanted to be back in her little town of Artichoke, back with her Zombie-obsessed best friend, Greg, working on their history project that was due next week. She didn't want to fly to France to where only mysteries were about to unfold. Only the unknown would result. Only danger would be greeting them when they arrived.

Then her mind drifted back to that day at the train station in Gare du Nord, France. Back when life seemed to be simple. Back to the day she found a brown paper bag on the seat next to hers. When that dark-eyed boy appeared from the crowd and snatched the bag from her grasp. She could still taste her confusion and curiosity as he bolted away with the fashion-deprived, middle-aged man with the newspaper. They both disappeared in the cab after the boy gave her that pleading, knowing look. . .

With a jolt, McKenna awoke from a deep sleep. Although she had fallen asleep with her head uncomfortably on her knees, she felt energized. Looking up at the clock on the dashboard, she was surprised to find that she had only slept for about an hour. Ron was sound asleep next to her, his head looking straight up so as to rest it on the seat behind him. He was probably snoring, but she couldn't hear over the sound coming in through the broken window. 

Jewel was curled up in a ball in the passenger seat with her hood on. She looked pretty helpless like that, rather than sarcastic and bitter like she was when she was awake. McKenna wondered what it would be like to have a gang banger trying to hunt her down. She realized that it just might be a little more frightening than what she felt now--the idea of hunting down the gang banger for some unknown reason that Alfonzo had yet to disclose.

She felt Luke next to her adjust his position. He was leaning against the window, face in palm, mouth wide open. He amused McKenna. He always seemed to act older than he really was, and always making sure she was happy. They barely knew each other, but she appreciated his concern for her, and was grateful to have a friend on this new and frightening journey. She wondered if Luke knew what would happen when they arrived in France--if Alfonzo ever updated him on their next plan of action, or if Luke just always followed his commands, trusting that the plan would unfold to the expected results.

Nearly forgetting that Alfonzo had just been shot just over an hour ago, McKenna blurted out, "Fonz, how's your arm?" The sleeping passengers jerked awake. 

Alfonzo found it almost as odd as McKenna that she'd chosen to use the nickname Luke always used for his uncle. They both ignored this, and Alfonzo responded with, "My shoulder is okay. There will be someone on the jet to remove the bullet. But the tourniquet you made seemed to stop the bleeding just fine." The gang all looked down at McKenna's sweater that wrapped around his bloody shoulder and arm. "We're about five minutes away from the jet, now."

Long minutes passed as the car sifted through the darkness of the early morning. Everyone started to stretch and adjust themselves to feel more awake. As the car turned down a tree-enclosed road, they could see a light just ahead of them. McKenna guessed that it was the platform for the private jet. Soon enough, her assumption was verified. A small jet, one that was smaller than she'd imagined, was parked on a large, cement platform. The jet was black and only about fifteen feet long. The plane was more than ominous--dark and leering at them with thin, green 'W''s on the side. 

Alfonzo pulled up next to the platform and turned off the car. He opened the door and stood up, and everyone else remained sitting, gawking at the next ten hours of their day.

Luke broke the hush. "Well, who's ready for a ride?" He turned to McKenna and smiled with his half-smile. She could tell that he was nervous for what lay ahead of them. She wondered if Luke had ever flown on Alfonzo's jet at location four, let alone at any of Alfonzo's "locations". He broke their eye contact and opened the car door. "Let's go."

Jewel got out of the car without saying anything. She and Luke wandered over to their uncle, who was talking to a tall man standing on the platform. The man was wearing a headset and sunglasses, even though it was still dark outside. 

Neither McKenna nor Ron moved from their seats. They both stared as Alfonzo talked with the tall man, who were obviously discussing his injured shoulder. 

"McKenna," Ron began. "Hand me your cell phone."

McKenna automatically reached to her pocket. "Luke took it from me when we were in your office," she responded, after finding her pocket was empty.

"I know, but when we got to the car, he slipped it in the side pocket of the door. Please hand it to me. I don't trust Alfonzo, and I want to have that phone with me. Just in case."

She reached over to the door, and sure enough, her phone was waiting there. Obediently she handed it to her father and said, "I really think Alfonzo is probably trustworthy."

"Emphasis on the 'probably' in that sentence. That's not enough for me." He slipped the phone into his pocket, kissed his daughter's head, and got out of the car. He reached his hand out to help McKenna out and asked, "Are you ready?"

Feeling a little more energized from her catnap in the car, McKenna felt a little more confident than she had just after the car chase. She gave her father a half-hearted nod, took his hand, and got out of the car. Together they walked over to Luke, Jewel, and Alfonzo, who had finished talking to the sunglasses man and were now discussing their next plan of action.

"The ride will be just over ten hours," Alfonzo explained. "We'll arrive at a platform just north of Le Havre. There, we'll split up and take a train to Paris. It'll be risky to be separated, but safer than if we all traveled together. McKenna and Luke: you'll be together. It makes the most sense, with your ages and the public observing you. The three of us," he gestured to Ron and Jewel, "will go together." McKenna didn't like the idea of being split up from her dad, and she could tell that he didn't like the idea any better. "It's only about three hours on the train, and then we'll make it to the station in Paris. And that's where our journey really begins." He turned and climbed onto the fluorescent-lit platform, not allowing any questions to be asked or answered. After motioning for the gang to follow him, they all plodded onto the platform, and headed after Alfonzo toward the jet.

A small door opened, and Alfonzo climbed onto the stairs and into the plane, holding his arm all the while. Jewel followed suit, and Luke turned to McKenna. "You set?" 

"Yeah," McKenna lied. "Hey, what about all the stuff we bought back at the grocery store? It's still in the car?"

"Alfonzo's boys will get it. They'll take care of us. But. . . Are you ready? You okay?"

"Yeah, I am," she lied again. Luke reached out and squeezed McKenna's hand.

"Me, too," he said, with his usual confidence and half smile. He let go of her hand, turned, and followed Jewel onto the jet.

"Ready for this, Dad?" McKenna asked her father without looking at him.

"I'm not sure I have a choice, Kenna. But I can be ready if you are."

McKenna grabbed the rail of the stairs leading to the aircraft. "I'm not really sure what exactly I'm doing or what's going to happen. . . But I think I'm ready for it." This time, as she glanced up to the friend she'd only had for a day, she wasn't lying about being ready for the adventures and mysteries that lay ahead.

Chapter 14: Down the Aisle

At first, hearing Luke say they were going to Paris made McKenna's heart stop for a moment. The thought of leaving the country for any more adventure made her a bit nauseous. Then, just before she panicked, she hesitantly and cautiously asked, "Wait, you're joking." She chuckled nervously and added, "It's hard to tell if you're joking, sometimes."

Luke, who was walking ahead of the group into the grocery store, turned slightly and responded with an almost uneasy seriousness, "I'm not joking, actually. I've never been more serious in my life." Alfonzo and Jewel continued walking toward the store as McKenna and Ron stopped walking. Luke turned around and heaved a sigh. "We have to go to Paris."

At the same time, McKenna and her father urgently asked, "Why do we have to?"

"You know, because that just how things go sometimes," Luke responded, unhelpfully. He directed his attention to Ron. "Mainly because of Chris. Alfonzo realized some time ago that you would likely be more than helpful in this situation."

Uncomfortable, Ron replied, "I don't know if that's at all the case. I knew Chris years ago. My preference in this situation would be to not be involved with the situation at all. More importantly, McKenna shouldn't be a part of this."

Luke pursed his lips, turned, and began walking toward the store again and Ron followed behind. McKenna was surprised at the lack of resistance her dad was showing toward the new gang, especially after having been beaten up only a couple hours previous. She would have thought that Ron would cleverly manipulate some way of getting out of everything, but all he did was follow every command the gang gave him that night.

A few moments passed and McKenna was nearly alone in the poorly-lit parking lot. She lightly sprinted to catch up to the rest of the gang as she shouted to Luke, "But I don't even have a passport."

"You won't be needing a passport," Luke responded.

"I don't have anything packed, let alone anything with me."

"Why do you think we're taking a shopping trip?"

McKenna's eyes were starting to hurt from being awake, and her patience was starting to wear. She now had so many new questions regarding the unfolding situation, and she didn't even know where to begin asking about Paris.

As McKenna, Ron and Luke began to scope out the store, Alfonzo turned out of one of the aisles near them. "We'll be gone about five days," he said quickly and emotionlessly, and then he disappeared into another aisle with his squeaky-wheeled cart.

"That was...weird," McKenna thought out loud.

Luke was quick to sheepishly defend his uncle. "He can come off as odd, and maybe a little cryptic, but he's not bad. He's a good guy."

"He reminds me of a guy from school, years ago. You know, quiet. Cryptic, like you said. Maybe a little odd."

Feeling like she was the only one who was even mildly aware of the fact that they were all going to somehow venture to Europe soon, McKenna stated as she walked away to the dental hygiene aisle, "Well folks, I have teeth to brush before we go anywhere. Inside or outside of the country."

After sifting through the contents of the store, McKenna met up with everyone else at the check stand. An ornery girl who had hair that was dyed like a skunk and a mouth full of bright green bubble gum began scanning all of the items onto Alfonzo's card. She scrunched her eyebrows together as Alfonzo told everyone that a private jet was waiting for them about an hour away, and that Chris and his "buddies" were likely meeting up with some other "friends" near the Gare du Nord train station in Paris.

As everyone made their way back to the car, McKenna and Luke walked behind the group, shopping bags in each of their hands. McKenna asked quietly, "Where exactly did Alfonzo get access to private jet?"

"Different friends from over the years. I don't know from whom, exactly, but I don't know a lot about where he comes up with almost all his plan backups. You just kind of have to learn to roll with what Alfonzo puts together. He's smart. Street smart. He knows what he's doing."

Sketchy, McKenna thought. Was she really supposed to trust a guy who randomly pulls out the "I have a private jet" card? She felt like she was in a movie.

After loading everything into the trunk, the adventure began again. They turned onto a dark, narrow and abandoned stretch of road. Alfonzo began giving them more information regarding their escapade. "It'll take less than ten hours to get to France, so get your rest on the jet. After that, we'll need to get to Chris."

"What are we supposed to do when we find him?" Ron asked.

"We're not to that point, Professor. Please just listen and adhere to my plans, and it'll all unfold in no time." Ron shifted in his seat, irritated with Alfonzo's vague responses.

McKenna asked, "So, I don't understand how we're even supposed to get in to France, legally." As soon as she said the last word, she shrank down and bit her lip.

A few moments passed in a thoughtful silence. Out of the blackness of the night, a dark limousine slithered onto the road behind them. Its headlights punctured the thick darkness for a brief moment, and then were quickly shut off. Everyone in the car was quiet as they looked to Alfonzo for answers to their unspoken questions. McKenna's heartbeat began to speed up when Alfonzo didn't break the ominous silence. She turned to Luke and saw his jaw clenched and wide eyes desperately piercing the darkness.

A couple long and dark minutes passed in a confused quiet when a sleek, black car turned and pulled in front of them, its headlights off. Alfonzo angrily muttered into the silence as the car ahead slowed down. It was only a few feet in front of them now, and the limo was only inches behind. They were trapped between two shady and foreboding vehicles with no apparent way out getting out of the caravan.

Finally Jewel spoke up, her voice cracking. "Fonz, who are they?"

Alfonzo was silent. He shook his head and his grip tightened on the steering wheel. He finally spoke. "I don't have any idea who these people are, but I get this absurd feeling that maybe they know who we are.

Chapter 11: Panic

"Too bad the redhead never ended up dead in the train station," Luke stated, breaking the chilling silence and picking up the note from the desk. McKenna refrained from spitting anything back to him about it not being the time to joke. She strode back over to her father and finished untying the cords that tied his body to the chair and his hands together.

Heart pounding and tears beginning to flow harder, McKenna whispered, "Dad...Who did this? How long ago? What happened?"

Luke, Alfonzo, and Jewel stepped closer to the scene, waiting for Ron to give them information as McKenna continued fumbling with the knots.

Ron cleared his throat and said through his bloody lips, "It was nobody."

"You can't tell me this was nobody. You're battered," McKenna replied.

"Kenna, just listen to me. Get your mom on the phone."

She pursed her lips. "I'm not sure she'd talk to you. Let alone believe that you're in the state you're in. Just tell us what happened, Dad." She paused, wiped a tear from her face, then added impatiently, "Please."

"Is your phone on you? Call your mom." He looked at the ground. "I just I can't have you in on any of this."

Jewel chimed in, nose in the air, "We've already brought her 'in on all of this.' She already knows you're a murderer, so if you wouldn't mind telling us who beat us to the punch..."

Luke broke away from the trio and took over the knot-untying. "You know, Jewel," he began, "as far as we're concerned he never murdered anyone. Unless you've been a ghost all these years and just never informed us."

"Let's not discuss immortality right now and try to solve the problem at hand, shall we?" Alfonzo's quiet but forceful voice silenced the two siblings. He stepped toward Ron, crossed his arms, and leaned on the leather seat that was across from the desk. "So the minions turn on the master, eh, Professor?" By this point, Luke had finally loosened the tight knots, and Ron's arms were free. McKenna grabbed the box of tissues from the desk and began wiping the blood from her father's face the best she could.

"Nobody works for me," Ron retorted, his chin lowering toward his chest. In a quiet and shaky voice, he continued. "And I don't work for anyone. Not anymore. Not for years. I teach biology now; full time."

"So who did this?" Alfonzo glanced over the threatening note again. "Matthias?"

As Ron shook his head, McKenna blurted, "I think we should call the police. Right now."

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and every other person in the room simultaneously shouted, "No!"

Luke promptly reached over and snatched the phone out of McKenna's hand before she could pull away. "You can't call the police. This whole thing is bigger than what the police can handle."

"So a few hoodlums running around small towns with paper bags and no direction are going to handle this? This is my dad! Some thugs beat him up!"

Panic mode was setting in hard, and nobody else seemed to grasp the same energy. The gang from the car all stared at her with raised eyebrows and pitiless looks, and Ron sat awkwardly to the side, massaging his sore wrists.

"Look, Ken," McKenna winced at the new nickname Luke decided to use. "I know this isn't anything you planned on dealing with. But we need you. And you're probably even safer with us, at this point. These guys know what we're doing and who we're with; Chances are, they know you're with us. If we call the cops, these people--whoever they are--will just be quicker on their feet."

Ron stood up and walked over to his desk. Before reaching for the phone, he announced, "I have to call Lisa. McKenna's mother. I think she may...I think she might be able to give us some information." Alfonzo nodded and Ron dialed the number.

Nose higher than ever before, Jewel spoke again. "Now what are we going to do? What are we going to do with the serial killer?"

Alfonzo inhaled deeply and replied, "We can't leave him on his own. It gives the others advantage. A chance to have him side with them."

"He can't come with us, though," said Jewel through gritted teeth.

Luke chimed in quietly, "I think he should be where McKenna is. That way, they're both under our watch."

McKenna sat on the floor. Reality kept sinking in deeper and deeper. All she wanted was an answer to a simple question about a simple brown paper bag, and now she was hours from her home and more confused than ever.

"Kenna," her dad's voice blew away her thoughts for a moment. "Your mom isn't answering her phone."

"Is that supposed to mean anything?"

The gang quieted down and listened. Her father, more uncomfortable than ever, mumbled, "I do know the guys who...Who beat me up. I know who they work for. And I think they may have found your mom."

The loudest and most confusing silence rang in McKenna's ears. Everything was piling up and she didn't know what any of it meant. Her mind was starting to give up on trying to comprehend dire situation after dire situation. A few long and confusing moments passed, then Luke finally asked, "Who are they? Who do they work for?"

Ron fidgeted in his seat and wrung his hands. "Chris Gough."

Impatiently, Jewel blurted, "Do you mind telling us who the heck Chris Gough is?"

Ron glanced over at McKenna and then looked down again. Almost inaudibly, McKenna whispered with wide eyes, "Chris Gough is my mom's boyfriend."

Chapter 8: Parisian Threats

"McKenna, this is Alfonzo," Luke introduced McKenna to the driver as they sped away from the quiet, unknowing neighborhood. McKenna nodded at him, recognizing him as the shady newspaper man from the Paris train station. Swallowing her sudden discomfort and fear, she shifted her attention to the female, redheaded occupant of the passenger seat. "And this is my sister, Jewel."

This introduction caught McKenna off guard. She had expected Jewel to be missing or held hostage by the mafia, the way Luke began his story about her in the greenhouse just a few minutes before. But he never did finish the story, so obviously the ending couldn't be too tragic with Luke's sister sitting right in front of her.

Alfonzo's cell phone rang, and soon he was quietly muttering to some unseen person. After a few awkward and quiet moments, Jewel turned herself so she could see the back seat. "Well, McKenna, it's a pleasure to meet you." McKenna couldn't help but notice the slightly sarcastic tone wrapped in Jewel's voice. "However wonderful the occasion is, it doesn't mean you can ride around town without a seat belt on."

McKenna quickly fastened her safety belt, shifted in her seat, and began to regret ever getting into the car.

"Pardon her hostility," Luke chimed in. "We just try our hardest not to get pulled over in small towns with merciless cops. Plus, Jewel can get pretty ornery when she hasn't eaten lunch." Jewel rolled her eyes and faced forward again.

Luke was quiet again as he listened to Alfonzo's one-ended phone conversation, which contained the words "pager", "tickets", and "golf course", but McKenna didn't pay much attention. More and more the situation at hand wrapped itself around her stomach. After all those years of her mother telling her not to get into strangers' cars, no matter how many Snickers candy bars they offered her, there she was in a stranger's car. And nobody even had to bribe her with chocolate to get her into the vehicle.

But then she was reminded of why she climbed into the car in the first place. Luke turned to her and asked, "So, how about I give you those answers you're wanting?"

After all those long minutes in the car without McKenna saying a single word, she finally took a deep breath and said, "Answers would definitely be appreciated."

"Okay, then. Where did I leave off?"

McKenna didn't miss a beat. "The wharf. The boats. Matthias."

"Right. Well, I was following Matthias, as I said. And I was trying to keep up with him without blowing my cover. He was pacing back and forth on the wharf for a while, so I just stood behind a shack and watched him. Finally, a motorboat pulled up, and a man got off and walked up to Matthias. I couldn't hear anything they said, but they talked for a few minutes. Then the guy gave Matthias an envelope and a lunch sack."

All regret evaporated from the car when McKenna heard this. Anxiously, she asked, "What was in it?"

Amused at her urgency, Luke gave her a crooked smile. "Can't tell yet. It wouldn't make sense to tell the story out of order."

McKenna bit her lip and inhaled deeply. Would she ever know what was in the paper sack?

"So anyway," Luke continued, ignoring McKenna's impatience, "the guy left after he gave him the sack. And I didn't hide fast enough. Matthias started heading the way he came, and he saw me. It caught me off guard, so I didn't even try to run away or anything. I just stood there and he walked up to me. He basically threw some death threats at my face. I guess he thought I heard the whole conversation between him and the boat guy. I didn't, but he kept saying that he would go to France, and that Paris isn't too big for him to find Jewel; that 'they' would be able to track her down. That he would get that stuff to the train station, to 'The Professor', as he referred to him, and that Jewel wouldn't ever be able to turn them in.

"And that's when I went to Alfonzo. He's my uncle. He's a genius, and I always went to him with my problems. Turned out that he had just sent Jewel on a plane to France the day before because she told him she had interfered with Matthias' drug-dealing team. They threatened her, so she went to Alfonzo. Fonz was always getting deals on plane tickets."

"And how did you end up in France?" McKenna was more and more intrigued with every detail of the story.

"Well, I told Alfonzo about Matthias saying all that about Jewel and France, so we headed to Europe. Told my parents it was just for a last-minute summer trip. Anyone else would've thought we were crazy. Alfonzo's close to Jewel. And so am I. But cops never listen, and we didn't have much time. And Alfonzo thought having a twelve year-old helping out would be an advantage, or something."

The thought of the pair was almost humorous; A middle-age man and a twelve year-old child roaming around Paris, trying to catch a bad guy. But McKenna didn't state her opinion on how dangerous and idiotic she thought it was to not tell the cops about death threats and drug dealings.

"So we hung out at the train station in Paris for a few days. We just waited. I watched out for Matthias, and I watched for the paper sack. We had no idea where Jewel was, at that point. It was all a little risky, but I was twelve, and I didn't really care. Alfonzo never really cared about his own welfare, anyway. So the risk didn't matter to either of us.

"A few days into the search I wanted to give up and go back home to my parents. But I finally saw it--the paper bag--and it was just sitting on a chair next to a little girl." His dark eyes brightened and McKenna gave a small smile. "It was next to you. I thought you'd opened it. I had no idea what was in it, so I was worried. So I walked up to you and grabbed it before you had the chance to open it, if you hadn't already."

"I remember," McKenna said, sifting through her memories. "And then you ran away, into that cab."

Luke nodded. "That's when me and Alfonzo opened the bag."

"And what was in it?" Excitement was brimming in McKenna's voice.

Hesitantly, Luke said, "There was a gun. It was a gun, along with a note. It had a name on it, and a message saying what time Jewel's train was leaving."

McKenna's eyes were wide. Alfonzo was calmly driving, his focus on the road. Jewel's eyes were closed and she was leaning her head back on the headrest of the seat. "Seriously? You intercepted a gun? You intercepted a murder? Your own sister's murder? Did you tell the cops?"

"We don't deal with cops," Alfonzo stated flatly. It was the first time he had spoken to McKenna the whole time she had been in the car. "Not until it's all figured out with unbreakable evidence."

"A gun in a paper sack seems like pretty unbreakable evidence to me," replied McKenna. "Especially one with a note saying where a person's going to be and when. And you said the note had a name on it? Whose name?"

Jewel opened her eyes and glanced at Luke, and Alfonzo scratched his head awkwardly. Slowly, Luke began, "Well, that's kind of the thing. It was who Matthias was talking about that day at the wharf; 'The Professor'."

"Did it have his actual name, though?"

"Yeah. It said the name Ron." He studied McKenna's eyes as she thought, and then he looked down. "McKenna, that sack was left for your dad to find. He was supposed to kill Jewel."

Chapter 5: The Willow Tree

The final bell of the day buzzed through the school. Three thirty.

McKenna's hands clammed up. She slowly gathered her books and placed them carefully into her backpack. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out and re-read the small note that she found in her lunch sack a few hours before. 

Meet me by the willow tree on the end of your street at 4. Just you and me. I need your help and I have answers for you about Paris.

Answers. Paris. Two words that she had been pressing into the deepest corners of her mind since she was ten. And now she didn't need to hide the thoughts anymore. Because that Converse boy was that boy. And he seemed to be in good health. He wasn't dead. So she had nothing to blame herself for, anymore.

But how on earth had he found her? Why on earth had he found her? 

He was going to be on the end of her street at four. Who knows who with. Likely that man who was the creepiest guy ever, for reasons she couldn't figure out. Maybe the fact that only a few years before, he was dragging a child around a Paris train station with a mysterious paper sack had something to do with it.

"McKenna. We're going to miss the bus. Let's go." She turned toward Greg's voice behind her. He was leaning on the doorway with an impatient expression crawling on his face.

She whipped around to her backpack and stood up. "I'm not sure I'd care if I missed the bus," she muttered. Her bravery was wearing fast. The idea of meeting some guy with some other old guy at a tree in her neighborhood kept getting more and more questionable. 

Greg was already walking down the hallway to the front doors. McKenna walked quickly to catch up, and as soon as she did, Greg began rambling about how ninjas aren't even cool because zombies could kill them all off without any effort.

The bus ride home was similar to any other; except this time she wasn't really listening to the conversations around her. Greg was laughing loudly with some other friends from the neighborhood, and McKenna just stared out the window, biting her lip. 

Maybe I shouldn't even go. Maybe I should get the cops in on this. She shook her head. I have to go. This kid's probably harmless. Maybe the other guy won't even be there.

As the bus crept closer to her stop, McKenna's heart started beating furiously. Outside of the window she could see the huge weeping willow. Calm down, she commanded herself. Soon the bus stopped and a handful of kids filed off. Greg stood up and stated, "After we work on the project, I vote we go and get snow cones."

"Project?" McKenna asked, closing her eyes tightly as soon as she remembered the history project she was working on with Greg. "Oh... We're working on that today?" She stood up and began walking off the bus.

Greg's voice followed behind her. "Uh, yes. It's due next week. And you've had 'other plans' every time I've wanted to work on it for the past two months."

"But I really can't today. I...have to help my mom with some things." She stepped down the stairs and glanced over at the willow tree. Was that a person in the shadow?

"Just an hour, then. Let's just make an outline of the project. At least." Tearing her eyes from the tree, McKenna looked up at Greg. She hated that he could be so juvenile and zombie-obsessed one minute, and then so studious the next.  

"You know, if zombies were really going to attack soon, you'd think you would focus your attention on more important things than history projects." The bus pulled away, and she glanced at her phone. Three fifty-eight. Greg kept trying to walk toward McKenna's house, but McKenna just stood at the bus stop. She knew Greg wasn't going to leave her be. "Look. Let me do something first...I left something at the willow tree."

Greg's eyebrows raised. "You still hang out there?"

"Yes," she replied, simply. She turned and started walking toward the tree. "Just go eat, or something, and I'll come to your house in a few minutes." If he follows, I don't care, she thought. Maybe it'll be better to have someone with me. Or maybe he'll leave when he sees it's a boy there.

"I'll just come with you."

McKenna walked a little faster. She was almost to the tree, now, and she could tell that there was, indeed, a person leaning against it, facing the other way. After a few more steps, she could see the gray converse. It was the converse boy. 

The boy reached up and scratched the back of his head; McKenna noticed a small, gray patch of hair. It was the Paris boy.

She slowed her pace and turned to Greg. "I think you'd better leave," she said quietly. He looked at her, toward the tree, and then at the ground. 

"Well. This is...awkward," he mumbled.

"Not really. I'll explain later. Just...Let me just meet up with you later." Greg craned his neck and his eyes glanced around. McKenna turned back to the tree. The boy was gone. "Where did he go?" she practically shouted.

"He just started going that way," Greg responded, casually.

 Without hesitating, McKenna darted in the direction Greg said the boy had gone. She shouldn't have even pretended like it was okay to have Greg come along with her. Obviously the boy didn't want anyone to join her, or else he would have left a note in everyone else's lunch sacks. 

After she turned the corner, an old, black and shiny car pulled up to the curb ahead of her, where the boy was waiting. As he opened the passenger door, he turned and saw McKenna. He gave her a crooked smile and a smug shrug, slipped into the car, and peeled away.

"Wait!" she cried. The word felt familiar as it rushed out of her mouth. She ran after the speeding vehicle with the images of the train station replaying in her mind. She knew that chasing after the car was useless. They were gone. The boy was gone. And because Greg had come along to the willow tree, McKenna wasn't sure she would ever have another chance to get any answers to her questions.

Chapter 2: Alarms & Lunch

"You're ridiculous," McKenna stated sharply.

“I’m conserving energy. Sometimes that’s how things go. Now go get ready for school and I’ll drive you.” When McKenna didn’t move, her mother, Lisa, stopped putting dishes away and crossed her arms. “McKenna. Go get ready for school.”

“But if you won’t even have the electricity on for the first twelve hours of the day, you might as well refuse to run the car the entire day. I could have taken the bus if my alarm would’ve been able to wake me up this morning.”

Lisa pursed her lips and replied, “I’ll have to take the car thing into consideration.” She turned and continued with the dishes.

After a quick shake of her head, McKenna dashed up the stairs, skipping every other step. Great, she thought, Chris continues in the process of making Mom go insane. 

Ever since her parents separated a year ago, at the end of her sophomore year of high school, Lisa spontaneously made changes in their home. Changes that were dramatic, sudden and inconvenient. All because of Chris, Lisa’s current love interest. Chris was vegetarian, so naturally, Lisa followed suit. Both of them looked down on McKenna’s love of steak and fried chicken, and soon made a house rule that forbade any dead animal entering the house. And now, apparently, the electricity would be turned off from midnight until noon. Give or take. It was to reduce the monthly bill and to cut down global energy use. And because of this conservation of energy, McKenna’s alarm failed to go off that morning, causing her to miss the bus.

After brushing her teeth, throwing her hair into a ponytail and changing into jeans and a t-shirt, McKenna headed down the stairs with sneakers and backpack in hand. “Let’s go,” she directed. Lisa, barefoot, followed McKenna out to the old brown pickup truck parked in the carport.

The truck started after a few tries, and just before backing up, Lisa gasped. “I forgot your lunch! Let me run in and get it.”

“You packed me a lunch?” McKenna asked, not amused. “I’m late. I’m getting lunch at school. Like I always do.”

“No, I packed your lunch; school lunch costs too much. I don’t have money for that, anymore.” And with that, she dashed into the house.

A few moments later, Lisa ran out of the house, clutching the paper bag in her hand. She got back into the truck, handed the sack lunch to McKenna, and pulled out of the carport.

The drive to the high school typically took twenty minutes, so McKenna slouched in her seat to get comfortable, leaned her elbow on the door, and stared out the window with her chin in her palm. She watched as the thick trees whipped past the car. Her thoughts drifted to the upcoming summer vacation, when she would visit her dad for a few months. Her dad, who had always been a successful college professor, normally planned for summer vacations in various locations. Once, years ago, they even went to Paris…

McKenna looked down at the brown paper bag in her lap, and realized that she was tightly clasping the sack in her hand. She let go and eyed the permanent creases. Finally, her thoughts sauntered back to that day in the train station. That day she always tried to block from her thoughts. That day with the brown paper bag. That day with the dark-eyed boy. She could never completely remember what he looked like, except for his dark, harsh, and almost pleading eyes. His clothes were plain; just a t-shirt and a denim jacket and some jeans. And was it a grey patch in his dark hair? He was too young to have any grey hair, she thought, but she had seen boys at school with white patches in their hair. But she couldn’t ever remember completely. She could, however, remember the man leaning against the soda machines, the man with the wary eyes and the newspaper in his hand.

She could remember the taxi. She hated that taxi, and it scared her to think about it. Ever since it sped away from that curb, it scared her. Where did the taxi even go? What happened to that boy? She knew she should have told someone, but she never did. And the fact that she didn’t ever say anything to anyone made a lump of guilt fall into her stomach.

“Alright,” her mother’s voice brought her back to the present. The truck stopped in front of the high school. “Have a nice day.”

McKenna stepped down out of the old vehicle. “See you,” she replied, as she put her backpack on. And then she joined the crowd of students that headed into the building; the crowd of students who never had to think about a perplexing boy, a shady man, a hurried taxi, and a troubling, simple brown paper bag.

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Once (Aloe Vera)
upon (Keychain)
a time... (Squeeg)