The Listening Spot

Chapter 15

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

Previous Chapters

1.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot

2.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-eb2

3.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-4eb

4.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-3ca

5.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-918

6.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-bd8

7.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-29b

8.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-14a

9.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-a56

10.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-1df

11.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-cbf

12.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-f17

13.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-7ed

14.)https://charactercognition.substack.com/p/the-listening-spot-a53

Chapter 15

The End

The jog back seemed to last forever, maybe it did take longer than expected. C.J. didn’t want to go back, not while he knew Jericho was somewhere on the campground. When he entered T.L.S. he approached the tent first and was relieved to still see Jericho slumped in front of the tent’s entry. Still, he dared not approach, he quickly paced his way to Penelope’s bag, reached inside to ensure there was a phone, key, and wallet then set off back to where he left Penelope.

Penelope was tired of waiting for C.J.; she knew he hadn’t been gone long at all, but a bullet in the shoulder depletes one’s patience reserves. So, instead of waiting she decided a head start might be helpful. She grabbed the bag’s strap with her right hand and set off, dragging it in tow. It wasn’t that the bag was too heavy for her to lift, she just didn’t want to expend any energy carrying it. For all she cared the bag could stay here abandoned in the woods forever, honestly, she was just being polite, but there was no chance she was going to carry it. 

C.J. got back to the spot where he thought he left Penelope and she wasn’t there. In a loud whisper he called, “Penelope, Penelope” and then thought who wanders off in her state? Maybe she started off toward the parking lot. C.J. set off on another jog, and by the time he saw a figure moving like a zombie hunchback up ahead, they were on the dirt road.

“Can I take that from you?”

“C.J. you scared the life out of me, don’t do that!”

“Sorry, I didn’t know what to say.”

“How about, hey Penelope, it’s me C.J. I’m sneaking up behind you in the dark woods?”

“I guess that could have worked. Seriously though, hand me the bag, please. You’re not looking too good.”

“Aww, thank you, C.J.”

“That’s not what I mean….”

“Can we just get out of here, please?”

“I think we’re pretty close. I grabbed your bag, so we’re taking your car. I’ll have to think of something for Grandpa’s truck.

The rest of the walk through the woods was silent. The trauma from the evening's events left them numb and fatigued; but in the quiet, C.J. had decided what to do about Grandpa’s car. 

Beth hadn’t heard from Jericho in about three to four hours. She was really worried for about 45 minutes, but she had worked a double shift today and had inadvertently fallen asleep behind the wheel of her parked car. An explosion of shattered glass woke her from her slumber, she shot up and accidentally honked the car horn. 

C.J. had decided to make his Grandpa’s truck look like it was stolen. He broke the driver side passenger window, reached in, unlocked the front door, and climbed into the driver’s seat. He decided he was going to take out anything that tied this truck to his family. So he removed the registration, insurance card, license plate, and any other piece of loose paperwork he could find. He froze in his tracks when he heard Beth’s honk.

Penelope was standing behind the truck when the car horn erupted. She ducked down immediately and her stomach jumped into her throat. Her mouth went dry and pain flared in her bullet wound.

“C.J. let’s go”, she whispered harshly. 

C.J. scrambled out of the truck, joined Penelope and they both ran to the car. C.J. opened Penelope’s car door and asked, “can I use your phone?”.

“Sure” she said, as he closed the door.

Beth could hear them talking but she didn’t know who it was, and she didn’t want her car windows smashed, so she stayed low, and waited. When she heard Penelope’s car leaving the parking lot she exhaled loudly and sat up. 

Penelope unlocked the phone and handed it to C.J. before he could utter the words ‘Thank you’, she was already asleep. C.J. dialed his grandparents.

Grandpa answered, “Jacobson residence.”

“Grandpa, we need help, we’re in trouble.”

“C.J. , where are you?”

“It’s a long story, I’m with Penelope, she’s been shot. We need help. We can’t go to the hospital... How do we get her help?”

“C.J., I don’t know how to help, but your Nana and I will figure it out.”

Elder Jacobson hung up the phone and shouted, “C.J.’s in trouble!”

“What do you mean?” Nana replied. 

“He didn’t give me all of the details, but he needs a way to discreetly remove a bullet from Penelope’s shoulder, yes… that Penelope. What do we do?”

“Well, let’s think about this, we have some friends with grandchildren in medical school, we should start making some phone calls.” 

Grandpa truly admired Nana’s logic, but it was during emergencies like this one when her clear thinking really shined through. For two hours, the two of them followed a trail of breadcrumbs left by their network of friends. Eventually there was a knock at the door, when Grandpa answered it a stranger handed him a folded piece of paper, turned and walked away. As the door closed Grandpa unfolded the paper and saw the address and was smothered by a wave of confusion. The house was on their street, three houses down, on the right. Grandpa shared his shock with Nana while the two of them waited for C.J. at the kitchen table. 

When they heard a faint knocking on the door they both got up to answer it. Penelope looked terrible so they didn’t bother with any formalities or greetings. Grandpa helped C.J. with Penelope and the four of them made their way down the sidewalk. They reached the house on the address and knocked on the door, the face that answered the door was a face they’d seen a thousand times before, the neighbor seemed less shocked.

“Do you have the money?” the doctor asked.

“Uh, how much is it?” C.J. asked. 

“$75 thousand dollars”

For the first time C.J. opened the bag and looked inside, there were more pieces of paper than he could count in an hour's time. He pulled a piece of paper out of the bag and studied it thoroughly. It looked like each bond was a denomination of $10 thousand dollars. C.J. grabbed eight of them and handed it to the doctor.

“Keep the change.” C.J. said with a wry grin.

The doctor stepped aside, ushered them in and then closed and locked the door behind them, then walked by them offering a curt, “follow me please.” 

The hallway and the door leading down to the basement were unassuming, nice enough, but nothing special. Everything changed when the basement door opened, whoever this was, had a fully equipped intensive care unit in their house. The doctor instructed them to lay Penelope on a table and then asked them to leave. C.J. hesitated and the doctor cleared his throat. Grandpa grabbed C.J.’s shoulder and said, “this is how this needs to go C.J., come on.” Just before he turned to leave he got a glimpse of the doctor applying an oxygen mask to Penelope’s face. 

There was nothing to do during the wait except explain the entire story to Grandpa and Nana. During C.J. 's recap: Grandpa and Nana turned into stoic statues. They silently watched C.J. until the end of his tale. “C.J. Why did you take the bag?” Nana asked.

“I still don’t know, I took it because I wanted everything to change. I couldn’t cope with life’s consequences, consequences I didn’t personally earn but were still charged to my account. I guess I thought this was an easy way to settle my debt and yours too, almost risk free” C.J. shrugged as he finished his monologue. 

Grandpa and Nana stared at C.J., “we get it”, they said in unison. They each placed a hand on C.J.’s shoulder, “we wouldn’t have done it that way, but now that it’s done, let’s get it right. Do you have a plan?”

The basement door creaked open, the doctor entered, “she’s going to be awake in about 20 minutes. Everything went well.” C.J. sighed with relief and flopped backwards onto the couch. Grandpa slapped his leg, “let's get packed, we’ve got about twenty minutes.”

“Why are we getting packed?” C.J. asked. 

“C.J. after the story you told us, I think you should be asking, ‘why aren’t we packed already?’ ” Grandpa chuckled and got up to leave.

The sun’s rays were pleasant enough to coax Jericho from his slumber. He remembered the tent, the twilight, then a whack. He woke up confused and quickly grew angry. He returned to the tent with a vengeance. He searched the tent, high and low, all he found was a license, which meant he had an address. There was nothing else of use in the tent, Jericho hurried out of the tent and never once returned to T.L.S.; he never experienced the magic. He absent mindedly started walking down to the lake, but as he crested the hill he saw a commotion around a boat and then remembered Marshall. 

A ping of regret and pain grabbed his heart but that was quickly replaced by a fear of being caught, so he crept back up the hill and into the woods to find a new way to the parking lot. As he traversed the forested state park he glimpsed an out of place bush full of white roses. Something about the sight stirred a sense of pride in Jericho’s soul. So he picked a rose for Beth to take back with him. 

Beth was still sleeping in her parked car when she heard a gentle knocking on the driver side door. It was Jericho holding a white rose and wearing a huge grin. 

“Good morning sleepy head!” Jericho shouted.

“Where have you been Beth?!” Beth yelled. “I literally waited all night!”

“Oh, I had a little trouble, but I got it all sorted out.”

“Why are you in such a good mood, Jericho?”

“Well, I think I saw an omen this morning, I saw a white rose bush and for some reason I think everything is going to be okay. We’re going to find C.J. and those bonds, for sure.”

“Jericho, last night was so scary, someone broke into a truck a few spots down, I thought for sure they were going to rob my car next.”

Jericho’s ears perked up and he stood to stare in the direction of the truck. As far as he could remember, that was C.J.’s truck, so he walked over to look through what was left. There was nothing of use, all the documentation and the license plate were gone. Jericho started walking back and shouted to Beth, “it must have been C.J. he didn’t want us finding him!” 

When he got back to Beth’s car he gave her the white rose. “Beth you’ve stuck by me all these years, I’ve heard white roses are a symbol of loyalty. This is a thank you.”

In all their years together Jericho never showed such kindness Beth took that rose and the two of them started a legacy and the white rose would become the symbol of their family name. As they drove out of the park Jericho said, “don’t worry Beth, we’ll find them, and we’ll get our money.” 

Grandpa and Nana packed surprisingly fast, they lived long enough to know what was important to them. When you know something like that you can pick up and go if ever life presents you with a high stakes decision but gives you no time to give your choice the credence it deserves. The only thing that took a while was Grandpa’s ‘go bag’, several years ago he buried a bag full of $10 thousand dollars, just in case. He felt like this scenario encompassed the reason for a ‘go bag’; so he started digging. 

By the time they got back to the doctor’s house Beth was upstairs waiting, feeling more and more like herself, just a sorer version. 

“Long time no see, everyone”, she said, smirking.

Grandpa spoke up, “hello Penelope, it’s good to see you again. We need to go. We don’t have much of a plan except to get out of town… for a while.”

“Well, I understand that…”

“The thing is, we need to take your car, at least until we can get a new one out of town”, C.J. said. 

Penelope rubbed her temple with her right hand and sighed. She had the flexibility in work and the unattached lifestyle to come and go as she pleased, for as long as she wanted.

“Well I don’t have any reason not to go on an adventure right now. Let’s go.”

Everyone exchanged glances at Penelope and shrugged. C.J. helped Penelope up out of the chair, placed her in the passenger seat and started filling up the car. Nana took the first shift behind the wheel and C.J. settled in the backseat to take a nap. Grandpa served as the designated navigator for the first leg of their trip.

Grandpa made the decision, “we’re going to head West”.

No one argued, and as they left the neighborhood there was silence filled with anticipation and nostalgia. No one knew that the path they were now on would never lead them back to this town.

As C.J. nodded off to sleep he asked his Nana to play ‘Cat in the Cradle’ on the radio. 

Seventeen years later

Penelope loved her new kitchen, she stood at the kitchen sink staring at a recipe for chicken pot pie and didn’t hear her oldest son walk into the kitchen. She jumped when he started speaking.

“Mom, what do you know about the white rose?”

“Oh, Jahki! I’m sorry you startled me, did you and your friends have fun outside today?”

“Yeah, mom, our game was close. My team won by a point, I hit the go ahead run.”

“Would you like some water?”

“Oh, yes please.”

“Have a seat sweetie. I’ll grab you one.”

Penelope headed to the sink to fill up a glass and as Jakhi took a seat he asked. “Mom, what do you know about the white rose?”

“Hmm, the white rose symbolizes loyalty.”

“Loyalty to who, Mom?”

“That’s an important question dear, but why are you so curious?”

“I found one in the mailbox today.”

Penelope flinched and went pale, “we have to leave now.”

Penelope told Jakhi to get ready as she rushed to the bedroom to grab a bag she hadn’t touched in a few years. She and C.J. had rehearsed this 100 times and went through it at least three times in the last 17 years. 

Penelope yelled to Jakhi, “3 minutes honey, we have to go!”

Jakhi met her in the kitchen and they bolted out the back door towards the car. Penelope saw the questions on Jakhi’s face and simply told him, “I’ll tell you later.”

C.J. had taken their daughter Thalia to a basketball tournament. He felt his phone vibrate and reached his hand in his pocket to answer it. When he looked down he saw Penelope’s name and answered, “hey! Thalia is playing great.”

Penelope simply replied, “Jericho rising”, and hung up the phone. 

C.J. exhaled loudly and looked at the game clock. Thalia only had 4 minutes left in the game, and he was going to let her finish it.

The Jacobson family knew where to meet and when to arrive. This is the first time their kids experienced this move, C.J. wished they didn’t have to live this way, but he took the bag, and now they had to live with it. 

Jericho watched as Penelope and her son peeled out, if he thought those bonds were in the house, he would have gone in and taken them. He suspected they were holding them somewhere else and he just needed to scare them into going to check on them. He was never going to stop and now he had kids of his own committed to reclaiming the bonds that were stolen. He tapped his oldest son on the shoulder and said, “follow them, but don’t get too close.”

An eternal game of cat and mouse. 

The End