Tommy Nightmare(37)

“Well, you can tell me about it when I get home.”

“I’ll be here,” Jenny said.

After the phone call, Jenny chewed her fingernails. She didn’t know how to explain to her dad what had happened. She hurried to throw on jeans, a long-sleeved blouse, and a pair of light gloves. She added a stocking hat, though it was very warm outside, bordering on hot.

She found Seth outside, pacing in the back yard, between rows of her dad’s partially finished projects—motors, furniture, and appliances in need of repair, or else waiting to have the useful pieces stripped out of them. The stuff used to be all over the yard, but Seth had helped Jenny and her dad build a fence, from the house to the shed, to hide her dad’s mini-junkyard. The front yard actually looked half-decent now.

Seth turned and walked along the fence toward her. He was talking on his cell phone, looking annoyed.

“What is it?” Jenny asked when he was done.

“They’re saying it was a chemical leak at the old Lawson dye factory,” Seth told him. “Which our bank owns. But that’s crazy, because the factory was just a little concrete shell. It’s been totally empty forever. My dad’s worried about the liability now, with the insurance company or something, and he wants me to go out to the factory with Mr. Burris. Talk with the Homeland Security guys. Or listen while Mr. Burris talks, anyway.”

“When do you have to go?”

“Right now,” Seth said. “Before they leave town.”

“Wait—who came up with that story?” Jenny asked.

Seth shrugged. “Let’s just be glad there’s a story, and it doesn’t involve you. Want to come with me? Should be long and dull.”

“Not really,” Jenny said. “And I can’t, anyway. My dad will be home any minute.”

“Wish I could stay, but I have to do this. My dad’s so worried, he’s flying up from Florida to try and get control of the situation.”

“What happens when he figures out there wasn’t a chemical leak?”

“I don’t know,” Seth said. “I just hope he doesn’t start prying too deep.”

Jenny slouched. “I wish your parents didn’t hate me.”

“They don’t hate you.”

“Right.”

“I don’t hate you.” Seth took her hands and looked into her eyes. “Not at all.”

He kissed her, and Jenny felt herself relax. She always felt as if she were feeding on him somehow, as if his touch made her stronger. Sometimes it made her too strong, maybe. Strong enough to wipe out a town square full of people.

Her dad’s Dodge Ram rumbled into the driveway.

“I have to go,” Seth said.

“Great,” Jenny said. She’d been dreading telling her dad what had happened, but she’d imagined Seth would be there with her. Now she would have to face it alone. “Seth, how much do you remember from when you were dead? On Easter?”

“Not much now,” he said. “Right after I came back, I could have told you all kinds of things. But it’s like my brain couldn’t hold all that stuff. Past lives. Crazy stuff.”

“I don’t remember very well, either.” She heard her dad get out of the truck and walk up the front porch steps. “Do you ever have dreams about your past lives, since then?”

“Maybe,” Seth said. “I don’t remember my dreams for long. Except this one where I was a giant rubber duck, being chased by soap bubbles. That was weird. You think it means anything?”

“Jenny?” her dad said. He walked out the back door to join them in yard.

“Daddy!” Jenny ran to him and hugged him tight, careful to keep her exposed face against his shirt. He arranged his hands cautiously on her back, avoiding the skin of her head and neck, and hugged her back.

“It’s so good to see you, Jenny,” he whispered. He sounded like he was about to cry.

“I missed you, Daddy.”

“I missed you, too.”

Seth watched them for a minute, then he said, “It’s good to see you, Mr. Morton. I actually have to run into town.”

“Take care, Seth,” Jenny’s dad said, not deeply interested. To Jenny, he said, “I got some groceries in the kitchen. Figured you might have been running low on things, with the town cut off.”

“That’s great!” Jenny said. “I’m tired of baked beans.”

“How could you get tired of those?” Seth asked.

They went inside, and Seth hugged Jenny and continued on out the front door.

Jenny helped unload the groceries. Her dad had picked up a sizable brick of hamburger meat.

“Thought Seth would be eating with us,” he said. “That boy can put it away.”