Chapter Text
July 30, 1986
Janet's parents had just left the house, she heard the door close and lock and the car pull out. Janet had gotten out of going to church when her mother saw her throw up in the bathroom. The moment the car pulled out, Janet trudged out of bed to the phone downstairs. She dialed Allie's number.
"Hello, this is Allie?"
"Allie, I need to talk to you."
"Janet?"
"Are you busy?"
"Well I'm in the middle of my math assignment, but I can get away. What do you need?"
"Is there anyone in the room?"
"No, I'm alone. Why? What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"I'm, I'm not feeling well. I haven't had my period in a couple of months. Could you…"
"Yeah sure, I can bring over a pregnancy test. It's probably nothing but that's so exciting! I'll be over in ten!"
Janet was anxious about her friend's enthusiasm, and waited for her to show up. She had to use the bathroom, but waited for Allie to show up. She lie in her twin sized bed with her pink knitted afghan around her body. She was dressed in a loose fitting sweatshirt and sweatpants, the outfit she had lived in through the summer.
Allie let herself in and ran up to Janet's room with a pregnancy test. "Okay, now you go to the bathroom and do what it says."
Allie pushed the pink box into Janet's hand and urged her to use the bathroom.
In the bathroom, she examined it. "New from the makers of Tampax tampons, First Response Pregnancy test." Opening the box, she found two test tubes with clear liquid, an eye dropper and a small cup to collect urine. How am I supposed to pee in that? She wondered.
She accomplished it well enough, and used the eye dropper to drop two drops into the test tube. Janet washed her hands and joined Allie in the bedroom.
"Okay, twenty minutes."
"So, if you are pregnant, which we don't know yet, who's the father?"
"Well, I mean, there was only ever Jason Luis?"
"You mean from Spring Break?"
"Yeah, that one. He's come up a few times after then."
"How's he going to feel about it?"
"I don't know."
Twenty minutes later, the liquid turned bright blue. Allie congratulated Janet and went home.
Later that night, after Janet's parents went to bed, Jason Luis called the home phone and hand up after one ring, their special code. Janet snuck downstairs to get the phone when she was sure it was all clear and brought the cordless Sony home phone upstairs to her room. She called him back and he told her to meet him down the road, something they had done multiple times.
He picked her up 3 blocks down in his father's pickup truck. Jason Luis greeted her with a kiss and drove to the dock. "I brought us a picnic lunch."
"Lunch?" Janet laughed nervously.
"You know what I mean."
Jason Luis climbed into the back to get their picnic, and they jumped the fence to get on the dock. Jason Luis had to help her more than usual, and they lay out their midnight snack at the end. Lying under the stars, she struggled to find the right words.
"Janet, are you okay?" he asked, holding her in his arms.
"I, um, no." She closed her eyes tight.
"What is it? Are you crying?" He sat up and wiped the tears out of her eyes.
"I'm, well, I think…" She faded off and buried her face in Jason Luis's chest.
"Janet, are you- are you pregnant?"
He felt her nod and shake.
"That's okay Janet. Janet, that's so exciting. We're going to be parents. I am the father, right?"
Janet scooted back and wiped her eyes. "Yeah," she laughed. "You are, of course you are."
Jason looked up to the sky. "It's just like we said we were going to do. We can run away together and have our own little family." He put his hand on Janet's stomach. "Let's do this. Are you sure?"
"I think so. I'm going to take the second test in a few days just to be sure. You mean you're really happy about this?"
"I'm more than happy. I'm… I'm elastic. No..."
"Ecstatic?" Janet suggested, giggling.
"Yes! That one. So what do you think? Run away with me, Janet?"
"Yes, I will run away with you, Jason Luis Magee. But, to where?"
"We could go anywhere. I have enough money saved up to get us an apartment."
"When?"
"A couple of weeks? I have a cousin down is Mascogan. How would you feel about that?"
"Sounds exciting!"
"I'll figure it all out. I'll call you when I know when we should leave and all that. Don't start packing until then, or your parents will get suspicious."
He took her home, and she slept soundly, with just a hint of anxiety.
August 23, 1986
Janet and Jason Luis arrived in Mascogan, AL at noon on one of the hottest days of the year. The Mascogan Regional Airport was so alive. College students back for another year who hadn't yet received syllabi or homework, retired grandfathers and grandmothers making a statement of their ability to live, there were people of every career and class. The racial diversity was split almost equally between white and black men and women.
Janet took off her jacket in an attempt to escape the heat. It was already September and still in the mid 90 degree temperatures. Janet sat on a bench in the luggage retrieval room (which was thoroughly was air conditioned) while Jason Luis waited for their bags to make it around. Jason Luis looked for his plain black backpack and suitcase full of clothes and other necessities, and his theater bag. Janet had one small bag which she had brought onto the plane as a carry on. In it were her clothes, make up and various books. On the top was
Jason Luis had already lined up seven auditions for small plays in the area. They wouldn't pay much, but Janet planned on finding a part time job until his career set off. She suspected than Jason Luis was planning to propose soon.
The conveyor belt finally offered the couple their bags, which Jason Luis took, and they made their way to the front.
"Jackson Magee where are you? He should be around here somewhere." Jason Luis said, surveying the front of the Mascogan Regional Airport for his cousin. Nathan was Jason Luis's 24 year old cousin twice removed. His parents lived in Washington State, and he had been living on his own for three years. He agreed to let Jason Luis and Janet stay at his place until they were on their feet as long as they weren't a bother.
Janet was terrified of what would happen once she started showing. They hadn't told Nathan that they were expecting a child, and Janet would be noticeably pregnant within the next few weeks. It was highly unlikely that they would have enough for an apartment by then.
"Jason!"
They turned to where the sound came from.
"Well Mr. Jason Luis Magee, don't you look all grown up. Graduated, with a pretty girl." He turned to Janet. "What, did he knock you up?"
She blushed and turned to Jason Luis.
"Don't listen to silly ol' Nate here, he's just messing with you. He's always been a big bully, haven't you, cuz?" In an instant Jason Luis was caught in a head lock and being given a noogie.
"Say I'm you're favorite cousin!" Jason Luis resisted, laughing.
"Say it!"
"All right, all right. You're my favorite drunk, poor cousin." Nate let him go, and they embraced.
Janet felt awkward in this. She knew this was how siblings acted, she had seen her friends' brothers fight, but never in public. Nate offered to take Janet's bag, and they walked to his car. It was obviously well used, but seemed to be in good shape. There were no dents or scratched, and it was nearly empty of trash, save for an empty can of Corona in the back.
"My house is about 15 minutes from here if we take the freeway, unless you guys want to take the scenic trip?" Nate suggested.
Jason Luis looked to her questioningly.
"Sure, why not," she agreed. "I'd like to know what's around here."
They drove the long way home, about half an hour. The roads were long and straight, and surrounded by trees, some streetlights, and a long strip of industrial buildings.
"We'll be staying by Rosswood. I have a job at Rosswood."
"Rosswood?"
"What's that, Janet?"
"What's Rosswood?"
"It's just a big State Park. I heard a pretty scary story about it yesterday."
Jason Luis smiled. "Tell me more."
"Okay, so back in the eighteen hundreds or whatever, people around here thought that the forest, I don't think it was called Rosswood Park yet, they thought this place was blessed. I guess because everything would grow so fast. So they figured that God was there. They would take their worst criminals, murderers and child molesters and rapists, and they would put them on trial before God out here. I doubt there was any "Innocent until proven guilty" kind of stuff though, because they would tie them up to the trees and the idea was that they would get stretched out, kind of like a rack. They never fed or gave them water or whatever though so they would just die of dehydration.
And they would just leave their bodies there for a few days, then they would just burn the whole tree with them still on it. Then one day a kid went missing. A little boy probably. They searched for weeks, and he finally turned up in the area where they would do the trials. Dismembered and strung up. He's buried at a cemetery a few minutes down the road. That's what they told me at least. Want to check it out."
Janet wasn't sure, but Jason Luis wanted to. They turned left and made their way to a small cemetery. It was very old looking, there didn't seem to be any new markers. The newest one Janet found was 1914.
"How are we supposed to find this?" she asked, hoping they'd go back in the car.
"Let's make it a game." Jason Luis suggested.
"First one to find it chooses tonight's dinner?"
"Sounds fair to me."
"Any hint of how to find it or are we just going to get some feeling when we see it?"
"Maybe it says on the tombstone. You know the little epi something?"
"Epi pen?" Jason Luis suggested.
"Epitaph," Janet clarified. "It's the inscription on a tombstone."
They began looking. Jason Luis and Nate joked about some of the odd named.
"I found someone with your birthday, Jason."
The grave markers varied from tall statues, many of them taller than Janet herself, to modest, flat plaques. Many of them were too eroded to read. Janet stooped down to move a layer of orange and red leaves, and found a gravestone raised a couple of inches. "Timothy Arky, Born November 9, 1814. Found dead September 27, 1822."
There was more underneath a layer of moss. Janet looked around for a stick, and used it to clean off the marker. "Vellet ire Arcui."
"Hey guys, what does this mean?"
Jason walked toward her and looked at the words. "Probably just some carpe diem type stuff."
Jack made his way over and looked at the words. "That's weird. Arcui was a hospital or something in Rosswood. There was a fire a few decades ago, it's just standing there, getting vandalized now."
"This says he was 'found' when he was only eight. I wonder what that means." Janet stood up and looked at the men.
"It could be the dismembered kid," Jason suggested.
"Maybe. We should get going now." Nate started to walk back to the car.
"You look worried." Jason Luis took Janet's hand.
"I'm fine. Just excited to see the house. How long is he going to be letting us live there?"
"Probably the next few months." He leaned in and said in a whisper, "We'll have a place before the baby gets here."
"Guys?"
"We're coming."
They drove to the house in silence.
"Here it is!" The house was fairly large. Two story with a back yard, it was tan on the outside.
Jack showed them the kitchen and living room downstairs, then their room upstairs. Nate had the large master bedroom and the adjacent office. The walls were bare, and most of the house looked unlived in.
"So," Nate said, "Janet might have found the grave. What should we order?"
"I can cook," Janet offered.
Jack laughed. "I would love to have a home cooked meal, but I've been living alone here for a few years, I don't keep around ingredients. I have a few cooking utensils or whatever, you know, pots and pans, but there isn't much cooking in here. Oh, that reminds me. Until you guys get a car, there's a bus stop at Rosswood Park's parking lot. It's a little less than a mile away from here, just go east."
September 28, 1986
Nathan stopped Jason Luis in the hallway. Janet sat in the bathroom, and heard her name spoken.
"Hey, Jason, I have a question, and I hope it's not offensive, but it's important. Is Janet pregnant?"
Jason sighed. "Yeah, she is."
"That's what I suspected. How far along is she?"
"Um, four months maybe. I think she's due in February. We're going to try and have our own place by then though, don't worry."
"No, no don't worry about it. You guys can stay here for as long as you want. I enjoy the company, I do. I haven't had a little one around since my ma had Kimberly, and that was when I was a little teenager."
"Thanks, man. We appreciate it, we do."
Janet waited for them to walk away before washing her hands and heading downstairs. She found Jason Luis sitting on the couch, flipping the channels. She sat beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder, her hair tied up in a loose bun.
"Hey, good news honey. Nate says we can stay here after this little one is born."
"Really? That's great of him."
December 24, 1986
"How do you feel this morning?" Jason asked, pulling on his boots. Janet barely awake, rubbed her eyes and rolled to her other side. Jason raised his eyebrows, taking her apathy as a challenge. He stuck his pinky in his mouth, and snuck up behind her.
"Ew!" she shouted, removing the pinky from her ear. "You are so gross. What are you, a teenager?" she joked. Jason was 19 until New Years Day.
"Hey, get dressed, it's Christmas Eve! Let’s go for a walk, there's snow outside."
"I don't have boots that fit, my feet would freeze." She sat up and began mentally preparing to get out of bed.
"Well," Jason began, with a smirk on his face. "In my family it was a tradition to give one gift on Christmas Eve." He ducked down and pulled a box from under the bed. It was wrapped in plain red wrapping paper, and "To Janet From Jason Luis" was written on the top in large bold letters with a thick black sharpie.
Janet smiled. "I don't need anything. I have a place to stay, an amazing boyfriend, and a baby on the way."
"And now you have a present from your amazing boyfriend who wants you to be happy."
"Should I open it now."
"No." He started to put it away. "Next year," he joked. Janet pulled the present away from him and began to pull off the tape from the paper, careful not to rip any of it. She folded the red paper in fourths and set it aside, then opened the plain cardboard box. Inside were a pair of soft brown winter boots with a fur lining.
"Okay, now get dressed!" Jason Luis commanded, standing up to avoid Janet's thanks.
"Where are we going?" She shouted after him.
"Rosswood. I found a cute little clearing."
Janet stood up and started to look for warm winter clothes. Most of the clothes were outfits she packed back in September, when the weather was still warm. She knew she'd be staying for longer, but didn't have room for her winter coat or an extra jacket. Maternity clothes were expensive, and Jason tried to get her the essentials, but she was on her own for extra pairs of clothes. Jason Luis didn't want to take advantage of the charity of others, but while He was out, Janet felt free to take the short walk to Goodwill, the Salvation Army and various churches that offered free and cheap clothes. One of the churches doubled as a pregnancy clinic. Jason didn't mind that she went there until they could afford insurance.
In her dresser she found a pair of tights and a pair of her new maternity jeans. She rolled up one leg of the tights, sat on her bed and pulled the nylon up to her knee, then the other leg. She struggled to get the tights all the way up while sitting, then had to stand again for her jeans. The maternity jeans were more comfortable, and didn't spur on the battle of the button she had with her other jeans.
She found a light blue tee shirt that still fit and put it on under a sweater.
Overheating in the heated house, she called Jason Luis. "Can you help me with the socks?" She asked, embarrassed that she had grown too large to reach her feet comfortably. Jason smiled and got down to his knees with a pair of balled up white socks from the open drawer.
He held up one sock. "Janet, will you go to Rosswood with me." She giggled, hiding her desire for a true proposal.
They left for the park, a happy couple singing Christmas songs. Jason let her use the extra pair of gloves he had left in his coat pocket a warm pair, black with rubber bumps for gripping the steering wheel. Janet was excited to point out the places she had been walking to while Jason Luis had been at work. "And there's the Pregnancy Clinic. They said that I can find out the baby's gender any time now. I've been waiting, in case you wanted to come with me or something."
Jason Luis looked at the pregnancy clinic skeptically. "Do you want to find out?"
"I think so. Did your parents find all that out when your mom was pregnant with you."
"I don't know, I guess. I obviously wouldn't remember." "He kicked at piece of ice. "Did yours?"
"Yeah, they did. They had my ultrasound framed." She laughed at her parents, and felt guilty for leaving them. She changed the subject. "So, here's Rosswood, where are we going exactly?"
"Just a bit off the trails."
Jason Luis led Janet onto the main path on the left side of the park. "You just have to go, maybe a quarter of a mile in, then turn left at this big tree. The tree was large enough to be recognizable. It reached far above the surrounding saplings. Knots in the tree at eye level made Janet think of the tree as human.
"See, just through this little side trail." It was hardly a trail. The underbrush was intact, and branches reached out from every direction. "You just have to keep going straight, and here it is." He held a branch out of the way, and presented a small snow laden clearing. Jason Luis pulled out a knife.
"Are you going to kill me with that thing?"
"No." He chuckled. "I'm trying to be romantic here." He carved his name largely on a tall tree. "JASON LUIS +"
"Do you want to carve your name, or should I?"
"You can. I think I'd cut myself."
He stood back, admiring his handiwork.
"JASON LUIS + JANET 1985 – FOREVER"
January 12, 1987
Janet had been sitting at home, reading, when she heard a truck outside the house. It was loud and disruptive, and she was concerned, hearing it pull up to the house. She hadn't expected Tom to be home, and Jason Luis would have walked from his job at Rosswood Park. When the door opened she jumped. Jason Luis walked into the living room with a huge smile on his face, and he sat beside her on the couch.
"I have a surprise."
Janet played along, guessing ridiculous surprises.
"Are we going on a week long cruise? No? You double checked the ultra sound and realized we're having twins! No, that would be crazy. Okay, tell me!"
Jason, still grinning, tapping his foot on the carpet, gave in. "I got us a truck! And don't worry about it, I got it for a great deal from a guy I work with, his name is Bill. But it was super cheap and it's in great condition. It's red. It's out front, do you want to take it out for a ride?"
Janet, now 7 months pregnant, didn't have any desire to ride in the passenger seat of a likely cheap truck, but she envied his excitement and wanted him to feel happy at the same time. She agreed to go on a ride, putting on a happy face. Jason Luis helped her through the rain get into the passengers seat. The step was just too high for her to get up on her own, with her height and pregnancy.
After Jason pulled out of the driveway, he turned to Janet. "The truck has room for a car seat too, don't worry. Bill had two kids, he said the infant and toddle car seats fit perfectly."
"I'm glad to hear that. I'm not sure what else we would have done." She looked around the truck. "I like it though. It's not as cramped as I thought it might be."
"Yeah, it's really nice. Hey, since we're here, do you want to see if this will be a little lady or a little man? We're going to have to get a car seat and all that soon enough, I mean, we might as well."
"Really? Yeah, they're open right now, can we? You can come in too, I'll introduce you to Shirley and some of the other people there!"
Jason continued to drive, and Janet worried that she had made him uncomfortable. "Or, um, you can just come in and sit with me, you know."
He smiled at her, and pulled into parking lot that the pregnancy clinic shared with the church that it was located in. "So what, do you just go in there and they zap you with an X ray?"
"Ultra sound. X rays hurt the little babies. But no, I just go in, up to the desk and tell them what I need. They know me there now, so I won't need to fill anything out. Then I'll have to wait a bit until they're ready and I'll go back to the Ultrasound room and they'll, well you know, like they do in the movies. They put that stuff on your belly, well my belly of course. And they put the ultrasound thing on me and I'll say 'That's cold,' or whatever. And then you can see the baby!"
He helped her out of the truck and they walked into the church, where the clinic was located. The church was fairly new, with bright modern art on the walls. The floor was carpeted, and just past the main worship center and to the left was a desk, with a young woman sitting in a chair, bouncing a baby.
"Hey Shirley! Is that Ben?"
Shirley looked up at Janet, and pulled a blonde curl from the baby's small hands. "Yes, this is Ben! He's 6 months old now. Hey Ben, say hi to Janet." She took Ben's hand and waved it at Janet. "Who is this?"
"This is Jason Luis, my boyfriend. We want to find out if this little thing it a baby boy or baby girl today!"
"How exciting." Shirley shifted the baby to free up a hand, and found a clipboard under various papers. "Okay, I think… Yeah, Dr. Greene is actually free right now, so you can head back in. You know where the ultra sound room is, right?"
"It's just back there, on the other side of that room… The one with the painting of a whale? That one, it's to the right of that?"
"Exactly, you got this. And nice to meet you, Jason Luis." She shook his hand and wrote something on the clipboard. Janet led Jason Luis through the small waiting room and into the ultra sound room where she found Dr. Greene sitting at the desk.
"Dr. Greene, how are you today?"
"Oh, hello there Janet. I'm doing well, my wife is at the hospital, and she's not feeling too well though."
"Have the tests come back yet?"
He shook his head sadly. "No, not yet. We should know if she's ready to stop the chemotherapy by next Thursday. Well, who is this?"
"This is my boyfriend, Jason Luis. He works at Rosswood Park."
"Really? I always loved that big park. What do you do there?" He pushed up his large wire rimmed glasses.
"I just do manual labor for now. Cutting done trees, clearing the trails after storms, basic maintenance for now. So I'm a 'skilled laborer' I guess. Sometimes they let me supervise the people who have to do community service, to stay out of jail and stuff, you know?"
"I know quite a few people who started out like that for part time or summer jobs and found careers. My good friend Will Freeman did just that. He was a skilled laborer for two summers back in the 40s. Then the Arcui Hospital fire happened, and he and the other skilled laborers were needed to help put it out. It hadn't been used as a hospital for several years by then, so no one got hurt, but after it was put out he went in, marking the doors with Xs, basically an all clear that there weren't any people or anything inside. But he was promoted to a supervising position and now works at the top. He makes more than I do, that's for sure."
"That's what I'm hoping for. I have these two to provide for of course."
"Of course. Anyway, what are you two here for today? Surely not just to say hi?"
"Well, that to. We were hoping to see if this is a little girl or little boy today," Janet said with her hand on her protruding stomach. "Would you be up to that?"
"Of course, let me just get a few things together, and I'll be right back." He turned to Jason. "Jason, right?"
"Jason Luis," he corrected.
"Okay, Jason Luis, would you help Miss Janet here get up onto the bed? Let's hope this little baby is facing the right way so that you two won't have to make another trip. I'll be right back."
He left the room, leaving the door cracked open.
"Isn't this all so exciting?" Janet exclaimed. "We're gonna have ourselves a baby… Something. A boy or girl, it doesn't matter."
He helped her onto the bed, and she leaned back.
"Well you have to have some opinion, don't you?"
"I don't know, not really. I mean, every girl wants a girl, right? A little girl to dress up and play with? But I would love a boy too. Especially one just like you." She grinned at Jason Luis and giggled. "What about you?"
Jason Luis up at the posters and ultra sound equipment. "I'm not one hundred percent sure. A boy I guess. I don't know how to raise a girl."
Dr. Greene pushed open the door with his foot, holding a box. "We just got a new machine, donated by the hospital I work at actually. You guys will be the first to use it." He hooked up the machine and held the transducer probe.
"You know how this goes already, right?" the doctor asked.
"Yep,' she confirmed, grinning. "I just explained it to Jason Luis out in the truck actually."
"Good job. I can see you as a doctor yourself someday."
Janet blushed, aware of her lack of education. Dr. Greene cleared his throat and continued. "Okay, well I won't have to narrate too much then. I'm just going to put this on your stomach and hope that little kid isn't in a bad position."He furrowed his eyebrows and checked the screen. "Okay," he smiled knowingly. "This little, um, person, has made it easy for us. Are you ready, or do you want to make a guess first?"
Jason Luis looked up. "I want to guess."
Dr. Greene motioned to Jason, leading him to the screen. After a few moments, Jason Luis gave up. "I got nothing. Janet?"
"If you can't tell I won't be able to!" She looked at the screen too but found no hint. "We give up, tell us."
"Well, you two youngins will be having a baby boy in a couple of months.
"A boy?"
"That would be correct."
"Do you hear that Jason Luis? We're having a boy!"
"Congratulations," the doctor said to him.
Jason helped Janet up and embraced her. He held her close, and said quietly, "We're going to have a little boy. A little boy. What are we going to call him?"