57. Stuck and Hidden Somewhere

“When’d you get in last night?”

I’m trying to come down on Mom. Her coming and going—or more like going and staying gone—is fine by me. She stays out of my business, and I don’t have to be reminded of hers. But I’m just curious on the first Saturday after an uneventful first week at school.

“Why so curious?”

She’s sipping a cup of coffee and isn’t looking hungover, so I figure it’s safe to ask.

“Just wondering.”

“Late.”

I see her give me a courtesy smile that makes me know that something is up. The way she’s been gone more often, and getting dressed up more than usual, and trying to look young and pretty—

Bet there’s some guy.

I’m not about to ask, however. I’ll save that question for when I want her to stop asking me questions.

Such a nice young son, Chris.

I check my phone for texts or emails but don’t have anything. As my thumb’s getting a workout, I spot my mom watching me.

“Where’d you get the phone?”

Oops.

“I’ve had it for a while,” I say without having to lie.

“But where’d you get it? How’d you have money to buy that?”

“I had some money leftover from my job at the Crag’s Inn. And they were having a great deal through school.”

Yeah, that one was a lie.

“I haven’t seen any bills coming in for you.”

I shrug. “I get a trial run. There are a lot of restrictions on it.”

“I’m not paying a hundred bucks every month for you to have an iPhone.”

You don’t have to, Mommy Dearest.

“Don’t worry.”

She brings up the subject of work, and I try and get out of that one. I do want a job, but so far I’ve managed to get by without one. Lily pays for a lot, which I don’t mind. She keeps reminding me that they just got a huge inheritance after her grandmother passed away, and she wants to spend money. How can I say no?

I’m going to take a shower, but before I head upstairs Mom asks a question that surprises me.

“By the way, Chris—you didn’t happen to talk to your father anytime recently, did you?”

Where’s that coming from?

“Yeah—we had dinner last night. He took me to a ball game afterward. Oh, and later we’re going to throw a football outside.”

“Stop it,” she says.

“I haven’t talked to him in ages.”

“You’re sure?”

“Why? Have you?” I ask her.

“No. It’s just—I want to make sure you’d tell me if he called.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

She has a look of heavy, deep thought, and I don’t want to get into it, especially if it has something to do with Dad.

“Just make sure you let me know if he ever calls you.”

“Yeah, sure,” I say.

There are many mysteries even in this tiny, cramped cabin of ours.

It’s no wonder that I want to get out of it every chance I get.

I’m resting on my bike and cursing, looking at a dead end.

There are many things I’ve given up on, or more like tried to forget about. But this is not one of them. I can tell Mom or the rest of the world including Lily that I’m just riding around, but I’ve actually been looking for the way to the small inn on the top of the mountain. The place where I met Iris and the place where I learned about the history of Crag’s Inn.

I’ve seen a lot of weird things happen around here. I’ve been a part of some of them, stuff I can’t even explain. Like getting shot and then suddenly feeling fine. Or stabbing Marsh and then seeing him walking around fine and dandy. But a missing road? That’s even harder to accept. It has to be that I’ve just gotten turned around.

This place is a light in the darkness, Chris.

Iris’s words seem to drift through the air out of the woods and the cut-off road I’m on.

A space in between. That’s what the Crag’s Inn is, Chris. It’s always been in one of the spaces in between.

I think of those words and believe them more than ever. Whatever she meant, the inn certainly seems stuck and hidden somewhere. It’s definitely a space in between.

No—it’s in a space in between.

Ever since stabbing Marsh and then deciding that I can’t go on searching and wondering and trying to figure things out, everything has been different.

There have been no strange animal sightings.

I haven’t been able to locate the Crag’s Inn.

And there haven’t been any conversations with Jocelyn in an airport or a plane.

Are these things related?

I recall Iris saying something else, something about a passage in the Bible. Daniel something.

The tenth chapter of Daniel.

I never did take her advice. Why should I?

But Iris told me once to read it and think about her place and the spaces in between.

I decide to check it out. But first I have to find a Bible. I know we don’t have one in our house.

Last one we had got chucked over the falls.