Rescued(64)

Thursday afternoon rolled around. The two of us sat together in the living room, but neither of us felt like talking much. Aunt Caroline had left earlier in the afternoon to run some errands. She’d be coming back later after she picked the kids up from school. Uncle Stewart was still at work.

Hunter sat on the living room couch, watching TV. I sat beside him, a sketchpad open on my lap. After an hour, it was still blank.

Staring at an empty page wasn’t going to help me. I sucked in a deep breath and decided to check the mail, just like I had every day that week.

“I’m going to go see if the mailman came,” I said, standing up.

Hunter opened his mouth as if to say something, then he seemed to think better of it and just nodded. I turned and left. This was how it had been with us lately. On pins and needles.

I walked out the front of the house to the curb, opening the mailbox. There was a large stack of envelopes inside and I pulled them all out.

Coupons. Coupons. More coupons. Clothing catalog. Something forwarded to me from Arrowhart.

When I tore the envelope open, there was another envelope inside.

Cook County Penal System.

I froze in place, shivers running down my spine. My eyes scanned and rescanned the words as my chest pounded, blood rushing to my ears.

Marco had written me back. Finally.

My mind raced. Was this it? Was today the day I got some answers. After all my suffering, had I just needed to ask?

I tore the letter open and started to read:



Dear Lorrie,



I am very happy that you have written back. I want to to talk to you very much. I hope that one day we can understand each other.



I know you have a lot of questions and I will answer them, but you must come visit on May 11th. I will only tell you, nobody else. I am truly sorry. It must be on May 11th.



I spend a lot of time thinking about what I did and I only wish to find forgiveness now. Please find it in your heart to visit. It will help both of us move on to the next step. My PN is #276-2596. I put you on my guest list so the guards let you in.



With much love,

Marco



My heart sank. The date he gave me was the next day. It must’ve taken the letter a while to get to me. I was so close to getting the answers I needed, but he had to throw in one more step.

Still, though. The prospect of seeing him again face to face was scary, but if that was what I needed to do to get closure . . .

Why had it come now, when things couldn’t be worse for Hunter and me? Was this a sign? Was this the way out?

I walked back to the house on autopilot, clutching the letter in one hand and the rest of the mail in the other. When I came inside I tossed the mail on the counter and stood there, rereading Marco’s letter.

“Lorrie,” Hunter said. “Hey, Lorrie. Is something wrong?”

I shook the fog away and saw him sitting in his wheelchair next to me. His brows were furrowed in concern.

“Huh?”

His eyes darted to my hand. “You walked into the house like a zombie. Didn’t even hear me when I called your name. What’s going on?”

Marco’s letter was still clutched tightly between my fingers, a little clammy with my sweat.

I took a deep breath and tried to come back down to reality. “I’m sorry. I’m okay.”

“What’s that?” Hunter asked, looking at the letter with suspicion.

Even though I had been hiding the fact that my nightmares about Marco had been getting worse, it didn’t make sense to hide it anymore when the end of our problems was so close.

I held up the envelope. “Do you remember the letter I wrote to Marco? Well, he just wrote me back.”

“What did he say?” he asked, his eyes widening.

I didn’t feel like explaining everything, so I just handed the letter over. “Read it.”

He frowned and scanned it over quickly. When he was done, he cleared his throat. “I don’t think you should go.”

My face felt flushed. His response wasn’t what I was expecting. “Why?” I asked, louder than I meant to. “What if I want to go?”

“Something about it just doesn’t feel right,” he said, shaking his head. He had softened his tone, but I could tell he felt pretty strongly about this.

I didn’t say anything. This was the lifeline I had been looking for and now Hunter didn’t want me to go. A million things ran through my mind as I thought about how to explain to him how important this was for me.

Hunter sighed. “If he really wanted to give you some answers, why couldn’t he write them in the letter? Also, why did he choose a specific date? I dunno. Something seems off.”

I heard the words he was saying, but they didn’t sink in. All I could think about was the nightmares stopping. I could finally have some answers. An answer. That was worth the risk to me.