Page 85 of Everything We Give

“You’re awake. About time.”

“The music woke me up. It’s too loud.”

“It’s been loud,” Jackie scoffed.

“I was tired. I stayed up late studying last night.”

“Not my problem.” She huffed exactly like Marshall’s older sister. This wasn’t the first time it occurred to Ian that he and Jackie bickered like siblings, even more so as Ian grew older. Here’s the thing about his mother’s alters: they didn’t age. Jackie would always be seventeen. One of these days, Ian would be the adult and Jackie still a teen. He doubted Jackie would ever respect his authority.

“I have a test tomorrow. Take me home,” he said at the same time it hit him that they were in Nevada. The state that never slept. “Never mind, just drop me off at the next town.” They passed a sign a bit ago. Wells was sixty miles ahead. He’d find an all-night diner and call his dad. He should be home by now.

“No can do.” Jackie shook her head. “I need you.”

Ian crossed his arms tightly over his chest. “You don’t need cow dung from me.”

“I do this time. You have to keep me awake.” She opened her mouth on an exaggerated yawn.

“Pull over and sleep in the car.”

“We don’t have time.”

“Scared you won’t be you when you wake up?”

She blew out a puff of air in annoyance. “Don’t be a dumbass. Sleep has nothing to do with me being here or not.”

“Then what’s the big deal? Go to sleep ... or, I know, let’s turn around and go home. What a concept.”

“The big deal is that we’ll miss him. He won’t be there when we get there. Since I can’t control this”—she tapped her head—“I don’t know when there will be another chance to go after him.”

Traces of fear tiptoed across Ian, leaving his hands and feet chilled. She better not be meeting that bounty hunter again. “Go after who?” he risked asking.

“My stepfather.”

His hands fell onto his lap. Ian’s mom never discussed her childhood. Her years at home with her parents were a mystery to him. “I didn’t know you had a stepdad.” A stepparent was like a real parent, wasn’t it? Surely tonight couldn’t end up the way it had last year with that bounty hunter forcing himself on his mom.

“There’s lots of things you don’t know about me. But here’s the only thing you need to know about Francis—that’s his name, by the way. He can’t stand it when I call him that. He gets real mad.” She let out a low whistle of dismay. “Francis”—she said the name through her nose, sharp and nasally, snickering—“had a deranged way of showing me how much he detests that name. He said he did it out of love. But Frank”—her voice drops, deep and guttural—“is what he wants me to call him; he’s not a nice man. You best remember that, Ian, no matter what goes down tonight, Frank is a bad man.”

In the shadows, Jackie shivered. She drove them for another fifty minutes before taking the exit at the interchange in Wells. From there, they drove east on I-80 for two hours.

Throughout the drive, Ian pinched his arms to keep himself from falling asleep. He fretted about the science test he’d miss in the morning and his father not finding him in bed when he arrived home tonight. He was probably there by now. Ian thought of Mrs.Killion and what she would assume about him when he didn’t show up after school tomorrow to help Marshall clean the horse stalls. She’d invited him to stay for dinner. Ian worried about his mom and what Jackie was getting her into. He needed to stay awake for Sarah. When Jackie subsided and his mom resurfaced, he’d need to show her the way home.

His concern for his mom kept him rooted to the seat rather than sneaking to a phone booth when Jackie stopped for gas. It kept him engaged in idle conversation with Jackie as they drove, not because she’d get upset if he didn’t do as she asked. Rather, he didn’t want her falling asleep at the wheel either. She’d kill them both and that would suck.

Mostly, though, it was his love for his mom that kept him alert in the passenger seat. She’d recently told him that no matter what she did or where she went, she did it because she loved him. She would always love him. Ian had memorized her pledge as though the words had been tattooed on his forearm. He felt the same for her.

It was almost three in the morning when Jackie slowed and turned into a truck stop in West Wendover. For the past hour, Ian had been fighting to keep his and Jackie’s eyes open. The change in speed and engine tone woke him as though he’d guzzled a can of Mountain Dew. Adrenaline poured through him. He blinked at the flashy neon signs lining the boulevard he swore could be seen from outer space. This was Nevada, after all. He’d never been, but his dad had regaled him with stories.

Jackie coasted through the large parking lot, weaving around rigs parked for the night, and backed the station wagon into an empty slot that afforded them a view of the entire lot as well as the road. She turned off the ignition and unclipped her belt.

The engine settled with a few pings and a sigh, and the vinyl seat creaked as Jackie shifted, stretching her arms overhead.

“Now what?” Ian asked.

“Now we wait. He should be here soon.” Jackie yawned, but she didn’t settle back and close her eyes. She leaned forward, her chest pressed into the steering wheel, and kept her gaze on the lot’s entrance.

“How do you know he’ll come?”

“We found out he stops here every time he makes the drive to Reno. He sleeps for three hours, then hits the road so he’s in Reno by nine.”

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