Farewells and Reunions

The rest of the meager dinner Frank served Jordan and Grey went by without much else of note.

Frank didn’t bother cleaning the dishes or much cleanup at all. After all, he wouldn’t be back here ever again. But Jordan noticed he wasn’t doing much packing. If any.

She brought that up to him when she found him lingering in the office.

“I’ve known this day was coming for a while,” he told Jordan. “When it was finally going to be my turn. I’ve had a few go bags piled up in the front closet for months, in case I ever got enough warning.” Frank stared at an urn resting on a shelf. “I could leave this place in five minutes and not miss anything I’d care about.”

Jordan watched him pull the urn off the shelf as well as a dusty Bible. There was a golden band with an inscription on the urn’s base. “But I’d never forgive myself if I left these behind,” said Frank. She got a closer look at what it said on the band.

Miriam Phelps, Beloved Wife
Matthew 25:40

Frank’s face softened, his thumb softly running along the urn. “I hope to see her first thing when it’s my time.” He took the two items and placed them by the front door. As he started pulling those bags out from the closet he changed the subject. “Now, when I leave this house, you and Grey will need to leave it as well. There’s no telling when the rest of the town will come to claim my things. I’d suggest however it is you’re going to get the car from your family, you don’t procrastinate.”

That seemed a sound idea. With each bag Frank retrieved and moved to the garage, Jordan found herself looking at the urn again. That was a Bible verse in its inscription.

With a Bible next to the urn, it was trivial to find out what it was referring to. What was more surprising was that it was bookmarked to that chapter and verse.

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“It was her favorite verse.” Jordan flinched, the Bible almost slipping out of her hand. Frank gently retrieved it from her hands and picked up the urn. “She lived her life by it. It’s why she was the one who spearheaded our efforts.”

----

Everyone assembled by the back door after Frank loaded the last of his things into his car. He had apparently told the policemen out front that he needed one last look around the house for ‘old times sake’.

He handed a wad of bills to Grey. “This should be enough for a few days on the road. That’s all I can do.”

Grey stuffed the money into Jordan’s pockets. “I know it didn’t turn out the way I wanted. But thank you for everything, Frank.”

Frank pat her on the shoulder. “Good luck out there. And you.”

Jordan was about to say something but couldn’t. She was too shocked by the bear hug Frank gave her.

“Kids weren’t in the cards for me. But if I’d had a daughter like you, I’d be the proudest man alive.” He rustled the hair atop Jordan’s head before letting go. “See you on the other side.”

----

The three parted ways for the last time. Frank through the door to the garage, Jordan and Grey through the backdoor.

Jordan lingered in the backyard long enough to see the police cars creep out of sight. She hoped they’d be following Frank out of the neighborhood. Staying low to the ground, Jordan crept towards to the front of the house to double-check that the cars were gone.

One car remained parked out front. But it didn’t look like anyone was in the seats. She looked to her parent’s driveway. The pickup her grandmother drove was there, but so was a large white SUV.

“Ok. I think I’ve figured it out.” Jordan pointed at the white SUV. “That’s the car we’re taking. My parents usually keep their keys in a box next to the refrigerator.” She then pointed to a window next to the front door where Stewart and Debra were already seated. “The family’s already started watching a show. All I need to do is sneak into the kitchen through the back, get the keys, and get out.”

The two women remained low to the ground as they snuck around to Jordan’s family’s yard and went to their back yard. Jordan was careful to stay below the line of sight for the windows.

Her family’s backyard was lined with thick bushes tall enough to reach the tops of the fence. Jordan remembered hiding behind them as a kid when she played hide and seek with the neighborhood kids. She warned Grey to stay there and started to push open the backdoor.

Jordan set foot into the family kitchen, careful not to open the door too wide. The TV the rest of the family was watching was loud – Grandma always liked it just a little too loud for everyone. It would make sneaking over to the refrigerator that much easier.

That didn’t mean she was going to run.

She tiptoed across the checkerboard linoleum tile floor, unwilling to risk any chances of her family hearing her. Jordan reached out her hand towards a wicker basket resting against the side of the refrigerator.

But the basket was empty. Jordan felt her heart drop at the sight. Not even her grandmother’s keys were there.

“Looking for this?”

Jordan whipped around to see her brother Blake in his police uniform standing between her and the backdoor. He held up a set of keys in his hand, a police baton in his other. But his face was wrong. It was almost half feline, with spots of fur splashed across his face.

She also saw a leopard-headed police officer emerge from those tall bushes, swinging a baton into the back of an unaware Grey.

Jordan didn’t think. She rushed towards the backdoor to try and warn Grey, not noticing that Blake had swung his baton into her face.

----

Consciousness came back sharply and painfully.

Jordan jerked her head up. She was in the family dining room, seated across the table from a clearly dazed Grey. She saw that night had fallen outside.

But her fear of what was happening out there paled in comparison to what was in the room with her. The entire family was staring at her with a mix of anger and disappointment.

Only Jordan’s mother Karen looked like herself. She was staring at the floor, almost unsure what to say or how to act.

Her brother Blake was leaning against the wall between the kitchen and the front hall, his head half man and half leopard. Debra lingered behind her father and her head was entirely leopard.

But her father was the most disturbing of all. His head was still almost entirely human, though his teeth were those of a carnivore – pointed.

“I’m very disappointed in you,” Stewart growled.

It was the eyes that were the worst part. Jordan could no longer see the eyes of her father. Only the eyes of a predator.