My phone rings in my pocket and I pull it out, hoping deep inside that the chief is calling me to tell me he rethought his position on my return to work, that since I got a dog, he knows I’m rehabilitated. That he wants me back at work. That they need me fiercely and the department can’t continue to prosper without me.
“Hello,” I say, when I see that it’s an unknown number.
“Hi, can I speak with Mr. Jacobson, please?”
“Speaking.”
“Mr. Jacobson, I’m very sorry to have to call you with this information, but it’s about your father.”
“What has the old bastard done now?” I ask. He’s probably chasing one too many women around the bingo hall. Or he’s finally managed to catch one of them. Usually, they just slap him and he moves on to the next one.
“Your father has had a stroke, Mr. Jacobson. I’m very sorry.”
My gut twists and the pulse in my right eye starts to pound. “Is he dead?” I ask. My father might be a mean old codger, but I don’t want him to die.
“Oh, no,” she rushes to say. “He’ll need therapy, but he’s alive. Right now he’s complaining about the lunch special. And he just threatened to stick a fork in my eye if I didn’t find some chocolate pudding.”
The clench around my heart eases a little. “What do you need from me?”
“Well,” she stops to clear her throat, “here’s the thing. Your father’s insurance won’t cover in-home care, and he doesn’t want to go to a nursing facility.”
I hear grumbling from the other end of the phone and the nurse grunts. “Jake,” I hear. It’s my dad, and his voice is gruff with sleep. In my head, I imagine him lying there attached to monitors with tubes sticking out of him.
“Pop,” I reply. “What’s up?”
“The sky,” he says, deadpan.
“That’s good,” I reply, and I smile. “Better than if it fell down.”
Pop is silent for a moment. Pop is never silent. He always has something to say, and it’s usually not anything nice. “What’s up with you?” he finally asks.
I look down at the beast lying at my feet. “I got a dog.”
“One of those yappy little things?”
“Oh, no.” I tilt my head. The dog’s tongue is lying beside him on the sidewalk where he’s panting. “Definitely not yappy. Or little.”
“Well, bring him with you when you come, will you?” He gets quiet again.
“You…want me to come there?”
“Well, who else is going to come and spring me? This is like jail, son. They won’t let me go home unless I have someone to stay with me.” He clears his throat and I can tell he doesn’t like asking. “It’s not like I need you to wipe my ass or anything. I just need you to pick me up. Stay for a few weeks.”
“Okay, Pop. I’ll pick you up. I’m on my way.”
“How long?” he asks, and I think I hear him sniffle.
Pop’s in North Carolina and I’m in New York. “I can be there tomorrow.” If I drive all night.
“I’ll see you then.” There’s a shuffling of the phone and I can hear him talking to the nurse. “He’s on the way. Now get my chocolate pudding.”
“Put down the fork, Mr. Jacobson,” she scolds. She should be glad he’s not grabbing her ass, because that’s what he usually does. The line goes dead as the call is ended.
I look down at my dog. “Want to go on a road trip?” I ask him. His tail starts to thump against the concrete, but he doesn’t lift his head. “Let’s go, dog.”
He lumbers to his feet, stretches, and then takes his spot in the front seat of my truck. I wonder if I could run him through the car wash…
Probably not.
2
Katie
My eyes are blurry when I finally get to the campground. Well, it’s not really a campground. It’s a bunch of cabins in a park near a lake. My family came here the summer I turned sixteen. It looks smaller than it did when I was a child, and a little more run-down, but to be honest, I’d take just about anything over where I’ve been.
My daughter, my copilot, is in the passenger seat. She’s the same age I was the year my parents and I came here, and I want to share this place with her more than any of the other kids.
“This is it?” she says, looking around at the thimble-sized cabins.
“Yes, this is it.” This is the best place on earth, little girl, and hopefully the safest place.
“You have to be kidding me.”
It’s a good thing God makes children cute, or parents would eat their young. “Will you sit with the kids while I get the keys?”
“Duh,” she says with all the ego of a sixteen-year-old ingrate. Normally, she would have her face stuffed in her cell phone but I didn’t let her bring it with her. I didn’t bring mine, either.