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John really wasn’t sure how this situation got from Point A to Point B—or, Point C to D, considering the things that occurred to even get to this connect-the-dots mess.
That being, a lunch meet-up with Charlie’s twin, Sammy.
Some time had passed since they first met at the cemetery, and just as he’d said, Sammy made it a habit to visit Henry and Charlie’s graves when he could make the drive in from Albuquerque. Apparently, his life plans had changed from aiming for a university in the Southwest to seriously applying to the one in St. George, the very same one his sister—or, rather, John’s Charlie—had attended.
If the timing had been even slightly off, by a day, a year, Sammy might have run into Charlie herself. As it was, she was…gone. For real, this time—not replaced by an almost-too-convincing doppelgänger a day later. Gone.
“John?”
John snapped out of those bittersweet thoughts and blinked, looking across the fast-food-covered table at Sammy’s eerily familiar face. They weren’t identical twins by any means, but he and Charlie definitely favored each other. Same light-brown hair, same round face, same awkward nature, but Sammy had a way of playing off his discomfort by rambling about whatever came to mind, from school, to college plans, to things he’d seen on the side of the road during his drive through the desert.
He’d probably get along pretty well with Charlie, if he’d known her. Charlie would love him even if they didn’t—Sammy. She’d mentioned him a lot. She loved him without knowing him, too. Mourned the twin she thought she’d lost.
“Sorry,” Sammy said, pausing to drink his nearly-empty Coke, “I’m kind of monopolizing the conversation, huh? Don’t blame you for spacing out. I asked what you do around here. You live here in Hurricane, right? We didn’t just happen to be visiting the cemetery on the same day again?”
John looked down at the unwrapped burger in front of him—unwrapped, but untouched other than that—and picked at the yellow wrapping. “No, I uh—didn’t get much sleep is all,” he excused. “Yeah, I live here. I do city maintenance. Just got the job a couple weeks ago. Did some construction work before that.” Never mind how long ago that was—he was still a little bitter about being fired, even if it was on him. Since then, he’d bounced between jobs, from gas station clerk to car wash detailer to school janitor, which led to the city maintenance crew member position, something that seemed more to his preference compared to the others. Might even be able to keep it for a while, if he could quit zoning out and getting trapped in his head.
He had to get over it. Half a year had passed since Charlie…died…and neither she nor Elizabeth had moved since their final confrontation. Both remained hidden away safely and silently in Clay Burke’s basement, because neither could be buried. Only stored away in large trunks, as he and Jessica had found Charlie—just in case.
Just in case.
“So you’re set on applying to St. George?”
Sammy’s eyebrows shot up, like he was surprised John caught on to that. He stuffed a few fries in his mouth and chewed quickly before replying. “Think so. I checked out the campus—it’s nice. The ones at home and in Phoenix were, too, but didn’t feel like a fit. St. George… I dunno. Does? If that makes sense.” He shrugged.
John nodded, reaching for his own fries, but failing to take any as his hand fell back to the table. “What’re you majoring in?”
“Business, probably. I mean—I won’t know until I really look into things, but I’m not bad with math, economics—that kind of stuff.”
Not robotics. John didn’t realize he’d been anticipating something along those lines until he didn’t hear it. Separated twins could be uncanny like that, he’d heard. More alike than they expected. But then again, Elizabeth had been more Charlie’s twin than Sammy.
He pulled himself out of his thoughts before he could sink back into them.
“That’s good. Great. You have a rough idea of what you want to do. It’s more than I could ever say.” Not totally true—he wanted to be a writer, once. Now…that just seemed like a dream. Truth was stranger than fiction, after all, and he’d experienced plenty of it in the past couple years. And the only things he’d really written in that time were hazy memories of Charlie and half-sane theories about her life.
Sammy nodded, taking a bite of his burger and chewing thoughtfully. “Well, you’re a working man. Sounds like you have some direction, too.” He picked up a napkin and crumpled it in his hands, looking out at the other few diners scattered around the fast food joint. “So,” he said, drawing out the word, “I’ve been wanting to ask—since you knew my dad, too. Did he… ever mention me?”
John startled just a bit, eyes darting to Sammy—who was still looking away, thank God. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen Henry, much less spoken to him, or been spoken to by him. Mostly, he’d just been Charlie’s Dad, a tall and sort of scruffy grown-up man he’d seen at a distance.
He didn’t expect Sammy to ask, even though he’d technically signed up for this by bending the truth.
Well, Charlie certainly talked about Sammy, even vaguely, so bending the truth a little more would have to do. “He—”
“John?”
John’s eyes darted away from Sammy, and to the person standing next to their table, bent slightly sideways to get a better look at his face.
She looked different than the last time he’d seen her. Shorter hair, a little blonder than it had been before, and wearing a uniform with this restaurant’s logo displayed on it, but as tall as ever.
“Jessica.”
“Yeah. Hey. I thought it was you.” Her sharp eyes flicked toward Sammy, lingering for a moment too long as one eyebrow rose up just slightly. “Sorry for interrupting, I was just caught off guard. I didn’t know you were still in town. Or did you never leave?” She never pulled her punches.
“In town? What are you doing in Hurricane?”
Jessica straightened up and held her arms out from her sides a bit, pointedly displaying her uniform before clutching the purse hanging from her shoulder. She must have just walked in for her shift. “People have jobs, John. It’s a little farther from St. George than I’d like, but money is money.”
John nodded a bit longer than necessary, before looking to Sammy and catching his eye. “Right, this—this is my friend Jessica. Jessica, this is… also my friend. Sammy. Sammy Emily,” he tried, watching for her reaction.
Her eyes widened—but she quickly recovered and turned to Sammy with a warm smile. “Hi. Good to see John has other friends out here.”
“Friends?” he repeated, then nodded idly. “Yeah, friends. Nice to meet you.” Sammy shrugged and averted his gaze with a nervous smile, a lot more awkward than he’d been before. But, then again, she was Jessica. “And it’s not Emily—not in a while, anyway. It’s Roth.”
Jessica, meanwhile, sent another wide-eyed look at John, mouthing out, ‘Sammy? Charlie’s Sammy?’ Before smiling again, but a little tighter than before. Good to know she was still as quick to connect the dots as ever.
“Sammy might go to college in St. George,” John brought up off-hand, suddenly much more at ease with someone nearby who knew as much as he did. That, and she saved him from lying and digging himself into a deeper hole with his new apparent friend.
“Oh,” Jessica said, brightening up, “that’s where I’m studying! Did you already check out the campus?”
Sammy nodded. “Y-yeah! I really liked it. Don’t have an official tour until tomorrow, though.”
Jessica waved a hand. “The tours are great and all, but I’ll tell you what—I have a short shift today. If you’re up for it, I can show you around the campus personally.” She glanced at her wristwatch. “Meet me at the admin building around five. You, too, John.” She gave Sammy another polite smile and patted John’s shoulder heavily, in a you-have-so-much-to-explain way, before setting off to take over her shift.
Sammy didn’t ask about his father again.
John pulled up to St. George’s administration building a little before five, and before he even managed to put the car in park, Jessica stormed up to his window and knocked on it with barely-contained fury and purpose, lips set into a thin line and eyebrows drawn together. No longer in uniform, though, instead in a plain college-logo T-shirt and jean shorts. Yet somehow no less intimidating.
John hadn’t even thought to change since the lunchtime meeting, and still wore the same outfit he may or may not have washed that week.
“Sammy?” she questioned as he barely managed to step out of his car and shut the door before she was hovering like a hawk poised to strike. “Sammy? You met Charlie’s Sammy and I’m only hearing about this from a random run-in? This is not how I wanted to spend my Friday, John.”
Sammy, fortunately, was not one to make it to appointments early. The parking lot was empty, save for John’s car, in fact. Jessica didn’t bother lowering her voice on both accounts.
“And you. You’ve still been living in Hurricane and haven’t said a word. No courtesy calls—nothing. I—” She paused, strangely at a loss for words as she crossed her arms and stared at her white flip-flops. “I know it was a lot. Just don’t forget you weren’t the only one to handle it all. Don’t forget you’re not alone. Marla, Lamar, Carlton…even Clay. We’re still here for you.”
“Sorry,” he managed, shrugging his shoulders as he ran a hand over his face, barely containing a weary sigh. “I know. I’m sorry, Jessica. It just—it was a lot.”
She nodded, looking away and wiping at one of her eyes briefly. “He’s so young.”
“Yeah.”
“He looks a lot like her. She—she would be so young.”
“It isn’t like this happens a lot,” John said, leaning against his car and stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I met him at the cemetery a while back—this is the second time I’ve talked to him. I wasn’t even sure the first time happened. It’s…” He took a breath, searching for the proper words. “It’s weird.”
Jessica pursed her lips. “Weird that we knew a totally different Charlie he was never aware of and can never know about, or weird that he exists?”
“Both,” John admitted.
“Yeah, both,” she agreed.
“I told him I knew her. And Henry. I wasn’t sure what else I could say.”
“I’d probably say the same. Other than maybe, ‘oh, did you know your aunt Jen is also dead? I attended her burial. By the way, you have an aunt Jen.’” She sighed, uncrossing her arms and pacing around a little, glancing out at the parking lot to see if Sammy had arrived. “We’ll have to watch what we say. And hope he’s not as good at running into the truth as we are.”
“Well, Freddy’s and everything connected to it is pretty much gone. Afton, too. Pretty sure he doesn’t know Clay, so he won’t find anything there.”
“No worries, then.” Jessica shook her head with a scoff. “Why do I feel like we’re the bad ones for hiding it?”
“Hiding his sister’s second death?” The words surprised even John, and his brow furrowed as he realized he spoke them at all. “I wouldn’t want to put anyone through that.”
“I wouldn’t either. And I won’t. I just…” She stopped pacing. “I miss her, John.”
So did he. It was hard the first time he thought he’d lost Charlie. It was even harder now that he’d almost come to terms with the fact that the second time was undeniably permanent.
“John? I think that’s him. He’s here.”
Sammy parked his pickup a space away from John’s car and looked through the rolled-down window with a nervous smile. “Am I late? Sorry, I took a wrong turn somewhere.”
Jessica smiled and shook her head. “No, you’re not late, Sammy. You’re right on time.”
“Yeah. Right on time,” John said under his breath, wondering on the phrase. It couldn’t be a coincidence that Sammy was here—that he’d shown up just as his sister’s life came to a stop. That he’d come into their lives and looked to become a frequent part of it, fitting in like a missing piece—a newfound friend.
Jessica was right. Hiding the truth from him felt wrong. But Sammy… Sammy could never know the truth.
As a friend, John would keep that secret.