Page 34 of Crucified By the Dark
Andrew’s face blanched. “Oh, yes, of course. I meant when he gets out of here healthy.”
“Well, Andrew, the only thing I can say from my own experience is that the more you try to force your ideals on your son, the more he will fight you and push you away.”
That was all true. It wasn’t just Jeremy’s grades slipping and losing the baseball scholarship that started his path toward drugs. He’d felt smothered and suffocated by his overly strict parents. So when he was offered stuff at a team party, Jeremy took it, and unfortunately, that was the beginning of a terrible road. Jeremy often wondered if his life would’ve turned out differently if he hadn’t gone to that party or had different parents, but those thoughts also seemed like an easy excuse. Jeremy was man enough to admit that he fucked up, and now he had to live with those choices.
Andrew stood and walked to the window, and Jeremy glanced at the time on the wall. Almost ten minutes had gone by.
“Did you ever act out against your parent’s wishes?”
The laugh that came from Andrew’s mouth was bitter. “Yeah, when I married my ex. My parents never liked her and told me it would end in disaster, but I didn’t listen. I wanted to do the right thing when she got pregnant, so I proposed. Biggest mistake of my life,” Andrew said.
Jeremy ground his teeth together. “So there is no hope for you to work things out as friends for your son’s sake? This strain between the two of you must be difficult on him?”
Andrew spun around and glared. “Whose side are you on?”
Jeremy slowly stood and gripped the clipboard to keep himself from beating Andrew over the head with it. “I’m on no one’s side. That’s the point of my position. To support all in this terrible situation where your son and his illness become the priority. I’m just as much here for you as I would be for anyone else dealing with the pain of an ill child.”
Andrew’s face softened, and Jeremy could see his mind working. If nothing else, maybe this selfish piece of shit would let Morry visit because he knew that seeing Kyle so little was killing Morry inside.
“I need to get back to my son,” Andrew said, and like the weasel he was, he darted around Jeremy and out into the hall.
Jeremy quickly followed Andrew out and called his name when he saw the door to Kyle’s room open. Andrew turned, and Morry stuck her head out, spotting them in the hall. She took off in the other direction, and the woman who had to be Lindsay, the woman Andrew was now married to, followed her.
“I just want to give you my number in case you ever need to talk again,” Jeremy said. Using the paper on the clipboard, he wrote down a number and ripped it off to hand over.
“Thanks, Dr. Evans. I’m sorry if I seem tense. I haven’t gotten much sleep.” They shook hands, and Jeremy followed along quietly beside him. Andrew veered into Kyle’s room, and as he passed the door, he couldn’t help slowing down and staring inside.
He hadn’t seen much of Kyle in the last two years since the second round of the court battle ensued, but the kid was the spitting image of Morry now. It was uncanny how that happened. Marching on, he found the two women in a whispered argument by the stairs.
“Ladies is there a problem here,” he asked, still keeping the doctor persona.
“No, I’m good,” Morry said and pushed through the door to the stairwell.
Lindsay stood there, looking like she was going to follow, then glanced up at Jeremy before her eyes filled with tears, and she took off down the hall. Jeremy used the elevator, then slipped into the washroom to change. Folding the items, he kept them in case he might need them again.
His phone dinged, and he stared at the message.
M: Outside with LL
J: K, see U in a min
Walking like he didn’t have a care in the world, he made his way out the door and across the parking lot to Lady Luck and Morry. She was already in the driver’s seat and didn’t say anything as he got in. Jeremy knew her well enough to know when not to push.
The lights of the city disappeared, replaced with stars and darkness. He never thought being this far out of civilization would be something he enjoyed, but like so many things, the universe proved him wrong again.
He sat up a little straighter as they veered off the main drive to the front entrance and toward the single-lane access to the top of the canyon. Okay, this he hated. The narrow road was barely the width of the Hummer. Plummeting off to their deaths was possible on one side, while the cliff scraping against the side-view mirror always set his teeth on edge.
He gripped the door and pushed back in his seat like that would somehow keep them from crashing. The front tire under his feet went over a larger rock, and he swore as sweat broke out on the back of his neck with the thump. Jeremy stared out the window, and it was like they were flying. All he could see for miles was the skyline and a drop to darkness that looked like a straight shot to hell from this height.
They rounded the steep curve and crested the top, and Jeremy sucked in a deep breath while his heart pounded out of his chest.
“Fuck, I hate that road,” he grumbled. “Why are we up here, anyway?”
Morry put the Hummer in park and killed the lights. She stared out the windshield, silent for the longest time before she finally turned her head his way. Morry could be broody, but she was acting stranger than usual tonight, and he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly had set her off.
“It’s my fault that he’s dead,” she said, but her eyes weren’t focused on his face.
“Who?”
