Nick taped the last box to get shipped off. He wiped his forehead before checking his phone. He didn’t get any texts from anyone, so he assumed nothing too big had happened yet. If Evelyn was right, they left around seven in the morning, which meant they’d been on the road about four hours now.
With a grunt, Nick placed the box onto the pallet, then walked over to take a drink from his water bottle. He let out a sigh, knowing Mr. Morgan was here. He needed to talk to him, if only to put his mind at ease.
Before he could talk himself out of it, he put his water bottle down and headed toward the stairs. The store was two stories, with the bookstore taking up most of the first floor and part of the second. They converted most of the second floor into their online store, and it also had Mr. Morgan’s office. Nick walked up the stairs and saw his boss there at his desk, typing on his desk computer.
“Hello, Nick.” Despite talking, Mr. Morgan didn’t break his concentration as he typed. “Can I help you with something?”
“Um, just a quick question.” Nick eased closer to the desk. He didn’t want to sit down. “You didn’t tell my father about me wanting to rent a place your brother owned, did you?”
Mr. Morgan finished what looked like an e-mail. “No, I didn’t. I keep my word.”
“And… I appreciate that. He just…” Nick trailed off, not sure what to say. “I guess he gave me a compliment. It threw me off.”
Nick sort of meant it as a joke. Mr. Morgan didn’t laugh as he tore his gaze from his screen to meet Nick’s. “Your dad hasn’t asked for an update in a year. I assumed it meant he’d let this go. That he saw what I saw. A good kid.” Mr. Morgan leaned back in his office chair, his hands across his stomach. “I called him up the other day to tell him you’re one of the hardest working employees I’ve ever had. Once you’re eighteen, I’m no longer obligated to have you as an employee. I’m balancing my budget right now to make sure you get an appropriate raise when you work for me full time in the summer because I’d be stupid to let you go anywhere else. Then I told him the past stays in the past for a reason. I told him my guess as to why you’re such an incredible employee is because you possess an integrity few have. To be reminded of a past mistake so often, trying to drag you down, and yet actively choosing to be better. It’s admirable.”
Nick stared at Mr. Morgan. He wasn’t sure what to say about it all, but he stuttered out a, “Thank you.” He rubbed the scar that cut across his eyebrow. That felt like a compliment. And he still didn’t know how to take one. “I guess…” He hesitated. Mr. Morgan was his boss, but Nick had buried this deep. So deeply he refused to ever talk about it. But it’d been three years. “I don’t feel like I have that much integrity, sir. I… I was being stupid. It almost killed me. It was…”
“A wake-up call?” Mr. Morgan asked.
Nick nodded. “Yeah. I guess in a way, it taught me how dangerous my choices can be.”
“My statement still stands. You have a lot of integrity. Many people never learn from the stupid choices they made, and yet you did. At fourteen years old, even. Something I hope Walt, too, learns. If he needs reminding, you let me know and I’ll do what I can as an old friend of the family.” Mr. Morgan said this so simply, but Nick’s breath caught in his throat. The relief that flooded his system was almost euphoric. Mr. Morgan was on his side.
His boss gathered up a box with José’s logo on it. “My wife is obsessed with José’s. She gets lunch there almost every day. In the off chance she hasn’t ordered in a while, José brings a box of twenty crisp tacos, posed as giving a sampling of their catering to the businesses around town. My wife goes right back to ordering lunch from him. From one businessman to another, that man knows exactly what he’s doing.” Nick chuckled as Mr. Morgan opened the box to him. “Most of my staff are gone for the school’s fall break. Please take one or two. Or five.”
Nick smiled as he grabbed a napkin and picked out three tacos. “Thanks Mr. Morgan.”
He nodded. “You’re welcome.”
***
They stopped for lunch at a rest stop once they made it a suitable distance into New Mexico. Tyler was there at a lone picnic table with a bag of burgers, texting. He smiled as he saw them, and Evelyn was happy not to see Rafael.
“Hey, have a seat.” He set his phone down and divvied out the fast food burgers.
“Where’s Quetzal?” Derek asked. They mutually agreed not to turn around and give Quetzal back to Alejandra. Instead, Rafael offered to be in charge. They had stopped at a different location for Derek and Tyler to make the tradeoff before they kept going. But now they were here, and Quetzal was nowhere to be found.
“Quetzal and Rafael are in a different park,” Tyler said. “Once we’re done here, Derek, you can go pick them up.”
Evelyn felt herself relax. At first, she thought it was overkill, but this entire trip has felt like Rafael was never here. It was what she wanted. It’s what she asked Tyler to do for her. Derek never brought him up once, and Tyler did what he promised.
Even now, Tyler was quick to change the subject as he opened his burger. “Have you gotten any rolls for Princess Clarissa?”
She sighed. “No. Not yet. Though they should come soon. Alejandra said Milo is trying to figure out if he can scientifically sharpen the meditation, so it doesn’t come in all fuzzy.”
Tyler nodded. “That’d be nice.”
“I should get some dice rolls on that soon,” Derek said.
They were quiet as they ate their hamburgers. Tyler took out a large container of fries, spreading it on the flattened bag for them to share before taking a final bite of his burger.
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“Do you really think we’ll have a session at Nick and Evelyn’s house and for it to play out how we predict?” Derek asked.
“I don’t see why not? We’ve been doing this for years, even if we didn’t realize actual people were involved on a different planet.” Tyler took a sip from his drink. “Let’s practice and see if we can do this right now.”
“Practice… a session?” Derek asked.
Tyler crumpled up his burger wrapper. “Let’s see what our characters are up to, even if they’re a state away.”
Intrigue entered Derek’s face. “Check in on our characters without calling?”
“Yeah. In a way. And make sure your connections are strong,” Tyler said.
“Cool.” Derek set down his burger. “Do we need to draw a pentagram using bird blood? Hold hands? Speak Latin backwards?”
Evelyn snorted, then gave Derek’s shoulder a shove. “How do we start?”
“How it always starts. A description of the atmosphere by the GM.” Derek frowned, glancing at Tyler. “Can you do that? Can you sense all our characters?”
Tyler focused on the table. He took another sip of his drink, then closed his eyes. “It’s a pleasant house. Not grand. Not elaborate. But it’s home. Home to three people who worked hard to make it so. A movie is on, but no one is really watching it. They’re in the main living area, and on the table is the strangest assortment of snacks one could find. Some chips and dip, some veggie sticks. Water and soda. And half of a roasted deer on a platter too small for it.” Evelyn chuckled. She could see it so well in her mind’s eye. “What are your characters doing?” Tyler asked.
There was silence, but it didn’t last long. Derek closed his eyes. “Milo’s there doing measurements on the mana he senses emanating from Princess Clarissa. He’s moving his hand back and forth in the invisible streams, closing his eyes as he’s channeling more mana.”
Evelyn nodded. “Princess Clarissa is in meditation. She is soon about to tell… yes. There she goes.”
“What does she say?” Tyler prompted.
She smiled, then brought out her Clarissa voice. “‘It’s not working, Milo. You’re distracting me.’”
“‘Trust the process.’” Derek took on the voice he always adapted as Milo.
“‘I can’t trust the process when you’re clearing messing it up,’” Evelyn said.
“‘Change your point of view, Princess. This will help. I promise.’”
Evelyn sighed exactly how Clarissa would to Milo back in Arizona. “Princess Clarissa goes back to meditating, trying to ignore her best friend.”
There was another silence. There wasn’t much more for Evelyn to do. Clarissa had gone back to meditating. Which prompted a question. She glanced at Tyler. “If I wanted to stay away from this session at my house in a couple of weeks? Could I still roll from my room and be able to say what’s going on?”
Tyler rubbed his chin. “We’d make it work. If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. I don’t want your dad bugging you about going, either.”
Evelyn nodded, distracted, as she took a few more fries. She’d been teetering on whether she’d go ever since Walt told her about it. It’d caused her stress, but as this road trip went on, the stress wasn’t as sharp.
Tyler’s phone started buzzing, and he pulled it out of his pocket, checking it. It sounded like a long list of texts. Tyler started scanning them, then a slow smile spread across his face.
“It’s from Rafael.” Tyler placed his phone in his other hand as he picked up some fries. He started reading them out loud. “‘I don’t know why I’m texting this. It’ll probably makes no sense whatsoever. Ezekiel is on the couch, reading. But he’s distracted. For the first time in his life, he’s finding a distraction from somewhere other than a book. He’s happy. Content.’”
Derek chuckled. “Well, I guess that’s your answer, Evie.” He looked at her, smiling. “If you don’t want to go, text Tyler what Princess Clarissa is doing. We’ll make it work.”
Evelyn took a few more fries, her decision already made. She was safe. Derek did what he could, and Tyler made sure she never saw Rafael if she didn’t want to.
“I honestly think…” Evelyn started to say as Tyler started texting Rafael back. He paused, glancing at her. “I think I can do it. I’ll attend the session at my house. Just…”
“Rafael will never be in the same room with you without me or Nick being there, too.” Tyler’s eyes already returned to his phone as he finished the text. “That I can guarantee. And if you want to leave early, you’re more than welcome to roll from your room. That’s the nice thing about it being at your house.”
“And today?” Derek asked, glancing at Evelyn. “When we fight the saber-tooth tigers?”
She nodded. “It’d be good practice. I’ll be there, so Princess Clarissa can come when she needs to. It’ll be like a trial run for the session at my house. See how things go.”
Tyler nodded, placing his phone to one side. “Alright. We will see how things go.”
“I… still don’t want to see him until the battle.”
“You won’t.” Tyler glanced at Derek. “I’ll text you the directions to the park he’s at.”
“Alright.” Derek picked up his phone, waiting for Tyler’s text.
Evelyn felt the anger toward Rafael melt away. It was a strange battle in her heart. She wanted to rage, to still be angry. It would be the only thing that protected her, because Rafael was still out there.
It occurred to her how long three years could be. She could almost feel herself packing up the hatred, the anger, and placing it to one side. Not forgiveness. Not yet. Gemma told her forgiveness might never come, and that was okay. But anger, that emotion quietly went away. Akshi gave her a choice. So did Tyler. Torture Rafael until he was a shell, or keep giving him firm boundaries to make sure he never did it again. She permanently closed the door to Akshi’s idea and instead chose Tyler’s.
“Oh!” Derek’s eyes brightened. “Okay. Yeah, that was an excellent roll.”
Tyler raised an eyebrow. “Sweet. What was it?”
“Arcana roll. Nice that I have a plus five for my modifier, even nicer that I rolled—”
Derek’s words were cut off as time halted. A d20 appeared in front of her.
Roll for Perception.
Evelyn winced and grabbed the d20. She rolled, hoping it was a good one. It would be so nice to check in and see where the saber-tooth tigers were.
She gave the die a good shake and let it drop. It danced on the invisible table before her, almost too much.
A three. Even the +4 did little to help.
She groaned.
“—an eighteen. So that has to be a good sign.”
Evelyn slammed her palm against the table. “Doesn’t matter! Princess Clarissa rolled a seven.”
“Oof, that’s got to hurt,” Tyler said.
Derek snickered. “Oh, god, I can almost see it.” He cleared his throat. “‘I did it! That should work wonders for your concentration!’”
Evelyn chuckled despite herself. “‘Seriously! Seriously, Milo? Could you possibly keep your celebrating to a minimum? I’m meditating!’”
Derek snorted. “Princess Clarissa throws something at him, doesn’t she?”
“Absolutely. One of the throw pillows.”
Tyler chuckled as he gathered the trash in the bag. “Let them have their fight. Bet you anything they’ll be back at it in an hour.”
Evelyn sighed as she stood up. “I kind of wish we knew where to go already.”
“A good roll doesn’t mean we’ll know what to do. After all, when Princess Clarissa finally sees them, they might be in the middle of the desert.” Tyler sighed. “It should be good. It was a fail this time, but something tells me that in another hour, you’ll roll again.” Tyler checked his phone. “We still have a while, and plenty of opportunities to split into Mexico if the need arises.” He glanced at Evelyn. “How do you feel about listening to some Game Master podcasts?”
Evelyn gasped. “Oh my god, can we?”
Tyler smiled, then waved at Derek. “I’ll see you later.”
Derek maneuvered out of the picnic bench. “See you later. I absolutely need to go down that slide first, but I’ll be on the road soon.”
Tyler chuckled as Derek ran toward the playground.