The Hitchhikers, page 20
Tom lowered himself near Alice and leaned back against the wall. Simon tied Tom up, then he moved over to Alice in the chair and began loosening the twine at her wrists. She tried to watch, to understand how he was able to undo the knots so easily, but his hands blocked her view.
“Why are you untying me?”
“Time for you to earn your keep.” He laughed, and she recoiled at the smell of beer on his breath. He crouched to untie her ankles.
“Leave Alice alone,” Tom said. “You’ve made her do enough.”
“How about you shut the hell up or I won’t bring her back.” Simon yanked Alice to her feet by her wrists and pulled her out of the room.
CHAPTER 26
ALICE
Jenny was standing by a window in the living room, the curtain partway open. The rifle strap was over her shoulder, one hand adjusting and readjusting on the barrel like she wasn’t sure if she was doing it right, and her other too close to the trigger for Alice’s comfort.
Simon stopped to speak to Jenny. “Keep watching the driveway, but check in on the others too, okay?”
“What if someone shows up?”
“Lock the doors and stay away from the windows. I’ll handle it.”
She nodded, but she seemed spaced out, her eyes skipping past Alice as she turned her attention back to the window. Alice wondered what Jenny and Simon had been talking about.
Simon kept a firm grip on Alice all the way down the steps and as they walked up the driveway. Her skin was turning red around his fingers. She was already sore from the twine.
“Will you let me go? I’m not going to run away.”
He ignored her and waited until they’d reached the RV before releasing her. He opened the door and pushed her up the steps. She was enveloped in a thick cloud of heat that took her breath away. Tom would not have survived much longer. She wanted to lock Simon in the RV—see how he liked it. She hoped to God he ended up in prison. Did Canada have the death penalty? Death would be too quick for Simon. She wanted him to suffer. She relished the idea of testifying against him in court one day.
Simon passed her the keys. “Back up a bit. I saw a road through the trees when I was here with William. He said it leads to his junkyard.”
Alice reversed the RV around the circle, then drove forward until she could see a narrow dirt road. They hadn’t gone far when they reached the clearing that William was using as a dumping ground for old farm vehicles and scrap metal. A rusted truck missing all its wheels, a tractor with weeds and vines growing over it, barrels, plows, and old tires.
Simon pointed to an area that was still empty. “There.”
It was a tight fit. Alice maneuvered the vehicle into the narrow slice of overgrown grass and turned off the ignition. She was hit with an image of the RV, rusting, stained and mildewed with rain, the brush growing up around it. Was this small, quiet farm the last thing she and Tom were ever going to see? Was it going to be their final resting place? She blinked away tears.
Simon took the map off the dash and unfolded it. He frowned as he bent over it, tracing routes with his finger. “We turned the wrong way and went south,” he said. “If we’d gone north, we’d have made it around Fernie. Couple more towns and we’d have been in Alberta.”
It was the first time she’d heard him sound defeated. She didn’t know why he was telling her this now, or if he was just thinking out loud, but she jumped at the opening.
“Take the RV. It’s only been a couple of hours since we were at the church. Leave me and Tom. Tie us up, whatever. It could take days for you to fix the truck.”
He just looked at her. He folded the map and pushed himself up. “Stay here.”
He grabbed his and Jenny’s backpacks, shoved the map into his, and knelt for the pillowcases of stolen goods bundled under the dinette bench seats.
“What about us?” she said. “We need fresh clothes.”
“Fine. But make it quick.”
She found their beach bag and gathered a few changes of clothing for Tom and herself, then her toiletry bag and Tom’s shaving kit.
Simon slung his pack over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Jenny was still standing by the window when they entered the house. She looked relieved to see Simon. Alice wondered if she feared that Simon might leave her behind one day.
Simon ordered Alice into the master bedroom and told her to sit on the floor beside Tom, then quickly tied her up. Their bag of belongings was near her leg, but Simon hadn’t given Alice an opportunity to change. She desperately wanted out of these clothes.
Simon didn’t close the door when he left.
Alice waited until his footsteps had moved farther down the hall before speaking with Tom—she didn’t want to give Simon a reason to come back or separate them.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
Tom grimaced. “He let me take a couple of Tylenol. Bottle is in my pocket.”
Alice had forgotten about the Tylenol Jenny bought at the drugstore. Had that really been just that morning? She was glad they wouldn’t have to ask Simon for more pills.
“I was so scared he was going to leave you in the RV.”
“I knew you wouldn’t let him.” He tried to smile, but his face was still strained. “Ruth and William caught me up to speed. They say Simon beat a man at the church?”
“It was horrible.” She blinked back tears. “I can’t get it out of my head.”
“I’m sorry,” Tom said. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with that. With all of this.” They held gazes for a moment, then she had to look away or she would burst into sobs.
“Simon’s really losing it,” she said. “Jenny wanted to leave, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“She’s having doubts?”
“Maybe, but she’s still going along with him.”
“She helped me,” Tom said. “When she came back into the RV, she gave me water and put frozen vegetables on my shoulder.”
So that was why Jenny had taken so long. She’d told Simon she was getting a drink. Maybe she wasn’t going along with Simon as much as Alice had thought.
The fridge opened and shut. Simon and Jenny were talking. Cigarette smoke drifted into the room. Tom was quiet beside her. She could feel the tension in his body. The wood floor was hard under her backside. She shifted but there was no way to get comfortable.
Simon said something, but Alice couldn’t hear if Jenny answered. Then the rattling of a screen door closing. He’d gone out to the back porch. To work on the truck?
Jenny’s softer footsteps left the kitchen, then faded. Alice guessed she was in the living room, keeping watch out the front windows. Alice rolled her head toward Tom.
“Should we call Jenny to the bedroom? To talk to her?”
“We can try.”
“Jenny?” Alice raised her voice, hopefully loud enough for Jenny to hear, but not so much that it would bring Simon. “Jenny? Are you there? I need to speak to you.”
Silence.
She strained her ears. Were those footsteps?
“Jenny!”
“What do you want?” Jenny was close. Maybe near the kitchen.
“Please. It’s important.”
Soft steps, then Jenny was at the door, holding the rifle in front of her body.
Now Alice had to think of a way to get through to the girl. She remembered how upset she had been when she saw the blood all over Simon.
“Did Simon tell you about the man he hurt at church?”
“Of course.” But there was a defensive tilt to her chin and worry in her eyes.
“Did he tell you how he beat him until he was unconscious—with a thermos?”
“You’re lying. Simon only punched him and made his nose bleed.”
“No, Jenny. It was worse than that. Much worse. Simon hit him in the face over and over. God, he broke his teeth. I heard bones cracking.”
“Stop!”
“It’s true. I swear. I tried to stop him, but he hit me. Look at my arm. He was out of control! He kept beating the man after he was already limp.” Alice was speaking faster and faster. She had to make her point before Simon came back. “Please let us go. Please.”
Jenny stared at her. Her eyes pooled with tears that ran down her cheeks. She stepped into the room.
Alice leaned forward. “Untie me, and I’ll break the window. We can make it look like we cut the twine. He doesn’t have to know you helped.”
Jenny only reached for the handle, stepped back, and closed the door.
* * *
They lapsed into silence. It was stifling with the window and door closed and Alice felt as though she was melting into the floor. She lifted her bound hands to wipe sweat from her face. She and Tom were side by side, backs against the wall, arms sticking together. He had his eyes mostly closed and was taking shallow breaths. They needed water.
Ruth moved a few times on the bed, seemingly to get more comfortable, but Alice heard other noises, frustrated sounds, like she might be straining at her bindings. Bones was still on the rug. He’d been panting but now he was snoring, feet occasionally twitching. As time passed, William’s snores joined in. Alice was glad that he could find some peace.
Alice tried to fill her mind with images of their home in Seattle, how it nestled among the other Craftsman-style bungalows on their tree-lined street. A cedar hedge ran along the front and sides of the home, low enough that they could wave to neighbors, and a wrought iron gate opened to a tidy brick walkway that was lined with flowers. In the summer it hummed with bees.
The original white paint had been peeling when they’d bought the house, so she’d chosen Sunshine Yellow and Tom spent an entire month repainting. She’d wanted so much to raise their child in a happy home. Though that dream hadn’t come to fruition, she still loved the house. Every spring, Tom made sure to repaint the front steps and the trim a crisp bright white.
When they got home, they’d go to Pike Place Market and get fresh-ground coffee beans from Starbucks—Tom’s favorite. They’d walk on the beach and collect shells for edging their garden beds. She’d plant tulip bulbs in the fall. She was imagining them in bloom when she was jarred by Simon’s low voice in the kitchen. Jenny’s mumbled responses.
Now it sounded like furniture was being dragged. She couldn’t place if the noise was coming from the living room or the kitchen. William had stopped snoring.
Alice looked toward the couple on the bed. “What could he be moving?”
“The table. He’s in the basement.” William’s voice was gruff, angry, and Alice guessed that he was regretting telling them about the secret hatch and William’s distillery.
The kitchen was silent. Maybe Jenny had gone into the basement too.
“Is there anything else down there?”
“Just boxes and old furniture.”
“And my canning,” Ruth said. “Pickles, cherries, peaches.”
“Is there a door to outside?”
“I boarded it up,” William said. “Didn’t want animals getting in.”
They were all quiet for the next few minutes, waiting, listening. Simon could be snooping around for more things to steal. Maybe he wanted the liquor.
Simon’s and Jenny’s voices. Distant, then louder. Footsteps in the kitchen.
Alice held Tom’s hand tightly and waited for the sound of the hatch closing. There were only Simon’s heavy footsteps as he walked down the hall.
Their door swung open.
“Change of plans. You’re going into the basement.”
“For how long?” Alice said.
“Long as it takes.”
“We need to bring the animals into the barn tonight,” William said.
“Jesus, I’m sick of all your demands.” Simon made his way around the side of the bed and untied Ruth. “Get up, lady.”
She sat up slowly, then swung her legs to sit on the edge of the mattress, while she rubbed her wrists. Simon had moved to the other side and was now untying William, who was able to get out of bed much quicker than his wife and was already standing.
“Both of you. Go to the kitchen,” Simon said.
William took a few steps but stopped to look back at Ruth. Simon pressed his hand into the man’s shoulder and shoved him toward the door.
Ruth hobbled after William with her hand on her lower spine. Bones had scrambled to his feet and was following Ruth.
“Hurry up,” Simon said.
“Boy, I have been laying in one spot for too long,” Ruth said. “These bones are sore.”
They disappeared out of sight, but Simon had left the bedroom door open. Alice listened to the soft shuffle of Ruth’s and William’s socks, and the heavier sound of Simon’s steps.
They were in the kitchen now. Simon’s angry voice, then the loud slam of the hatch dropping. Alice jolted back against Tom, who gave a pained groan.
“Sorry!” she whispered.
Simon appeared in the doorway a few moments later. He untied their legs and wrists, then ordered them to walk into the kitchen while he followed.
Jenny was lingering by the counter, chewing her nails again. Alice stared at her, willing her to look at them, but Jenny kept her head down.
Alice and Tom waited while Simon lifted the hatch.
“What about food and water?” Alice said.
“Later.”
“What if we have to use the bathroom?”
“Use the buckets.”
“Buckets?”
“Stop trying to drag this out.” He gestured toward the hole, where a dim light glowed, just enough for her to see stairs and a concrete floor. “Go.”
Alice followed Tom down.
A few moments later, the beach bag with their belongings was tossed into the basement and the hatch shut again. That was followed by scraping sounds. He was moving the table back into place. They couldn’t hear anything else after that. No voices or footsteps.
And nobody would be able to hear them.
CHAPTER 27
ALICE
It was cooler in the basement, but windowless, and it smelled stale and musty. The ceiling was low and unfinished, with exposed beams. Pink fiberglass insulation was coming apart in sections, plastic sheets torn and hanging down. Cobwebs caught in Alice’s hair, and she swatted them away. They had light, but it wasn’t much, just one lightbulb with a pull cord.
Alice helped William and Ruth dig through their storage. Pieces of furniture. Old clothes, Christmas decorations, magazines, mismatched dishes, toys, and boxes of books. Ruth’s cheeks pinkened and her eyes glittered mischievously when she said, “I love my romances.”
William chuckled.
Among it all, they found some winter clothing and sleeping bags that had belonged to their children. They used everything to form two beds. Tom and Alice against one wall, and Ruth and William against another. They could see each other but it gave a sense of privacy.
William’s distillery was near the bottom of the stairs, where Alice located several galvanized buckets that they could use for their personal needs. She set them in a discreet corner.
If they got hungry, they could break into Ruth’s preserves. Alice hoped they didn’t have to. The truck would be fixed soon. She didn’t let herself consider the fact that Simon and Jenny could just drive away and leave them locked in the basement. Surely, Jenny wouldn’t do that.
Their makeshift beds weren’t large by any means, but Alice and Tom could fit if she stayed on her side and avoided bumping his arm. She desperately wished they had water—for drinking and washing. The best she could do was brush the tangles out of her hair and rub toothpaste around in her mouth. She helped Tom put on a shirt and combed his hair.
There was nothing to do after that but settle on the bed. They talked a little with the other couple, about their families, what their lives were like before all of this. One of William and Ruth’s sons was in the navy, and the other a foreman on an oil rig in Alberta. Their daughter had married a lawyer and now had three children of her own. Ruth rummaged through the boxes to pull out some of their old school crafts, her hands touching them gently as she and William looked over them together. Alice fought back tears. She couldn’t imagine how much they must miss their children, how scared they must be that they might not see them again.
William, the only one wearing a watch, announced each hour as it slowly passed by. After a while, they drifted into silence. William fell asleep. Alice couldn’t see much of Ruth, who was tucked into the shadow behind William. She was quiet. Alice hoped she was sleeping too.
Tom’s eyes were closed, but she knew he was only resting because he was holding her hand with his good arm, and every so often he’d give it a squeeze. Bones was curled on a blanket on the concrete floor by Ruth and William’s mattress, his snout under his tail.
Tom turned his head to look at Alice. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Everything you’ve been doing. You’re holding all of us together.”
“You would do the same.”
“I got knocked out in the first quarter.”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“I’m just really proud. I thought I knew everything about you, but then you’re dealing with these lunatics, driving the RV like it’s a race car.”
“Does that mean you’re going to let me drive our car more?” She smiled at him, sure that he would say no. He hated sitting in the passenger’s seat. But he gave her a serious look.
“Yeah. I should.”
“Pardon?”
“What do you want to do after this?”
“I don’t understand what we’re talking about.”
“You said you could get a job, and I dismissed you, because I didn’t want you to feel like you had to work, but I’ve had days to think now. Do you want a job?”
Alice was confused by the prickle at the back of her eyes, the thickness in her throat. She didn’t understand why Tom’s words were having such an effect on her. She took a few breaths and thought about what he was saying. What did she want?
“It might be nice to work with children.” She was surprised by her answer. She’d thought it would be too painful to care for other people’s children, but maybe she was wrong, because for the first time, she could see it. A daycare or classroom, the smell of paints, crayons, and glue. Decorating for each holiday. Little kids running in and greeting her, calling her Mrs. Bell.
