Small as an Elephant - Jennifer Richard Jacobson [58]
Jack stared at the ground. “But nobody even knows where she is,” he mumbled. “Except somewhere between here and the Bahamas.”
“Actually, we do. Officer Kline tracked her down this morning. She’s eager to talk to you.”
Jack’s ears began to ring again. They’d found his mom! She was OK!
All this time he’d spent wondering if she was all right, if he would ever get to talk to her again. And now he knew. He should be happy. So why did he feel like screaming?
“Jack?” Big Jack said.
Jack turned away and burst into tears. Sobbing, heaving, snot-dripping tears. He picked up a stone and threw it at a tree. Then another one. And another. “Why? Dang it! Why!” he sobbed.
Big Jack grabbed him and pulled him back into a hug.
Everything was flooding over Jack right now. Waking up at the campsite, all alone. The unanswered message he’d left on her cell phone. The days on the road, sleeping in the backs of trucks and in stores and churches. All the times he’d lied and stolen. All the people who’d been looking for him, worrying about him.
He was so ashamed.
Ashamed of it all, of everything that he’d done. But most of all, ashamed because . . .
Because she’d left him.
There.
In between sobs, he thought it.
My mother . . .
My mother left me.
She
left
me.
Big Jack ushered him into his truck just moments before a police car passed by.
“It’s not that I want to harbor a fugitive,” said Big Jack. “But I want to give you a moment to catch your breath.”
“And then what?” Jack mumbled, not really caring about the answer.
“Let’s talk about it.” Big Jack started his truck and pulled out.
Jack pulled his Searsport cap over his eyes.
“So, home is Boston, huh? Seems like you were pretty determined to get there on your own.”
Jack shook his head.
“No?” asked Big Jack.
“No. Not really. . . . I was —” Jack sat up.
“Yeah?” said Big Jack. He drove slowly up and down the side streets of the little town, buying time.
“I was trying to get to the York wild-animal park,” Jack blurted.
“Interesting. And why’s that?”
“There’s an elephant there,” said Jack.
“Lydia?”
“You know her?”
“Sure, I grew up in southern Maine. But she’s not there now. Her owners take her back to Florida after Labor Day.”
“Labor Day?” Jack squeaked, his breath squeezed from his body.
It just wasn’t possible, not after all his trying! It couldn’t all have been for nothing!
“How would seeing an elephant help you, anyway?” Big Jack asked.
Jack tried to talk but had to stop himself a couple of times, knowing if he kept going, he was just going to cry again. Finally, he gulped air and said, “I can’t explain it. But I just knew that if I made it there, if I saw Lydia, somehow everything would be all right.”
“Hmmm.” Big Jack was quiet for a moment. “You know, it isn’t that long after Labor Day,” he said. “Less than a week.”
Hope fluttered in Jack’s chest. He looked over at Big Jack. “Do you really think . . . ?”
Big Jack shrugged, but he was smiling. “Hand me my phone.”
Big Jack called the wild-animal park and talked to someone in an office on speakerphone.
“Lydia? Oh, yeah, she’s still here,” the woman said.
Jack let out a whoop. He couldn’t believe it!
“At least, she was here this morning. She’s due to head south today, though. The truck might have left already.”
“Is there some way you could find out for us?” Big Jack asked. The woman put them on hold while she called someone else. Jack held his breath till she came back on the line.
“I’m sorry, sir. No one’s picking up.”
Big Jack thanked her and hung up. “What do you think, kid? Is it worth a shot?”
“Yes!” Jack shouted. No way was he going to give up now, not while there was even the slightest hope of seeing Lydia.
Big Jack chuckled. “You remind me of me, kid. We’ll try. But as soon as we get close to that park, I’m going to have to call someone. Both our butts are on the line now.”
Big Jack stepped on the gas, and they raced onto the highway.
There was nothing but trees on both sides of the road, but that didn’t keep Jack from staring out the