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Chapter One Hundred-Twenty
Point of View: Narrator



Howie's flight touched down at LAX a few hours later, and the moment he was off the tarmac he was on his cellphone with a businessman he knew from out East. The noise of the airport was filling his head and he felt overwhelmed by all the noise. "This is the final boarding call for SouthWest Airlines flight number 116 to Nashville, Tennessee..."

He was dragging his rolling carryon bag and yapping into his phone like a true Puerto Rican, when a guy who looked vaguely familiar to him shoved by, clutching a plane ticket. Howie stopped mid-walk and glanced over his shoulder as the guy bolted into a waiting area a couple feet away. He wasn't carrying any bags, only his ticket. Weird, thought Howie, trying to remember where he'd seen the guy before, but he couldn't place the face even to a name.

Howie shrugged and continued on through the LAX corridor. After he'd made arrangements to meet with his contractor's West coast affiliates later that day, he called Brian. "Good morning," Howie said when groggy, sleepy-sounding Brian answered the phone, "I'm in Los Angeles."

"Sweet," Brian mumbled.

"STRAIGHT THROUUUUGH MY HEAAAAAARRRRTTTTTTT," Baylee was singing loudly.

Brian was sitting at the kitchen table, his forehead in his palms, a bowl of oatmeal before him. Baylee was dancing around the kitchen, waving his arms about and singing at the top of his lungs. Leighanne caught him as she put a bowl of oatmeal down on the table in front of where Baylee should've been sitting. "Calm down, right now," she said. "We have guests in this house and just because you are awake doesn't mean that--"

Kayla appeared in the door way, her hair disheveled.

Leighanne scowled at Baylee. "Now look what you did. Sit down and eat." She jabbed her finger at the chair. Baylee sat, pouting.

Kayla sank into the chair opposite of Baylee as Brian got up to continue talking to Howie in the other room. She glanced at Brian's bowl of congealing oatmeal.

"Are you hungry, Kayla?" Leighanne asked.

"No, thanks," Kayla mumbled.

Baylee had a spoonful of oatmeal and he promptly flung it across the room. The oatmeal smacked the fridge and stuck to it, slowly - very slowly - slipping down toward the floor. Kayla stared at it. If that's what that shit was doing outside the stomach, what the hell did it do inside it?
The house phone rang. "I got it!" Brian called.

Leighanne rolled her eyes, "I thought he was on his cell phone?"

"He was!" Baylee volunteered.

Leighanne shook her head, "Brian is such a phone whorrr----" she stopped mid-word, and stared at Baylee. "...hound." She ended awkwardly.

"What's a whore-hound?" Baylee asked.

"It's a kind of fabric," Kayla said quickly.

Baylee looked confused.

A few minutes later, Brian came back into the room, his face pale.

Leighanne looked up at Brian. "What's the matter?"

Brian sank into the chair at the end of the table.

"Brian?" Leighanne looked concerned. Kayla stared at Brian, too.

Brian swallowed, "He's dead."

"What?" Leighanne and Kayla both said the word at the same time in the same panicked voice.

"Who's dead?" Baylee asked, his voice innocent yet also fearful.

Leighanne turned to Baylee, "Go play in your room."

"But who's dead?"

"Baylee, go play in your room," Leighanne repeated, frustrated and tense.

Baylee threw his arms across his chest, "NO! I wanna know wha--"

"GO TO YOUR ROOM," Brian bellowed.

Baylee's eyes widened and he quickly slid off the chair and ran out of the room, his feet thumping as he bolted up the stairs.

Leighanne looked at Kayla, her heart pounding. Kayla looked sick. "Bri-Bear," Leighanne whispered, "Who's dead?"



Zoe rubbed his arm softly.

Nick unburied his face from the pillow and looked at her, smiling. "I was hoping you'd be here today," he said, his voice sleepy. "I had a really weird dream."

"Yeah?" Zoe asked.

Nick nodded , "Yeah it was like I was at this party and nobody knew who I was, and I was really alone and stuff, but I wasn't 'cos I was around all those people. And they were all people I knew, except this one old guy who I didn't know. But he seemed okay. He wanted to talk to me, everyone else was just like, I can't right now..." he paused. "I dunno, it was strange."

He wasn't crying, but there were tears falling from his eyes, like his eyes didn't know how to shut them off anymore. Zoe reached up and wiped them off his face carefully.

"You sound like you feel a little better," she commented.

"Yeah a little," Nick answered. "I'm better 'cos you're here."

Zoe smiled.

More tears had leaked out of his eyes, and he frowned. "My eyes haven't stopped leaking all morning," he commented as Zoe reached to collect the tears from his face once more. "It's awful."

"It's because you're sleepy," Zoe said, wiping her hand on her knee.

Nick paused. "Do you know what happened to me?" he asked, "Like I know got shot in the back and stuff and they had to shave some of my hair over here to get the bullet out and stuff but..." he shrugged. "I dunno what happened... how bad it is... I know I'm not paralyzed or nothing cos I can move my legs okay..." he bit his lip.

"As far as I know, you just got really lucky," Zoe replied.

Nick took a deep breath and winced as it flexed his back too far and quickly let it out. He looked at Zoe. "Thanks for being there for me," he said.

"Kayla wanted to come in again," Zoe said, "But they didn't want to let her..."

Nick frowned, "I miss Kayla." He didn't say anything else on the subject.

"She's at Brian's house right now," Zoe said.

Nick's brow furrowed, "Why?"

Zoe froze. She'd said too much. She hadn't thought the statement through. She stared at Nick, her mind racing. Finally, she stammered, "She -- I -- I didn't want her to be home alone all night. Brian offered to have her stay there."

Zoe could see Nick thinking.

"Why?" he asked.

"Why?" Zoe said - for this, for this she had an answer that did not include telling Nick about Leon. "Because she's a woman and it's California. Things happen all the time and I don't want her being all defenseless."

Nick nodded, "Good. Brian'll take good care of her."

Zoe smiled. She hadn't heard from them yet. She wondered if they were all okay.



"Who's dead?" Leighanne repeated.

Brian looked up solemnly. "Desi."

Kayla let out a sigh of relief in spite of herself, and Leighanne covered her mouth. "How?"

"Someone ... Leon ... broke into the hotel room and stabbed him in the chest."

Kayla closed her eyes. That could've been Nick.

Leighanne seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Oh my God," she whispered.

Brian nodded.

"He's really dead?" Kayla asked.

Brian nodded.

Kayla felt awful for thinking this... for saying it... but... she said, "What about Nick's trial?"

The three of them exchanged looks. "The lawyer copied Desi's voicemail," Brian remembered.

"Thank God," breathed Leighanne.

The three of them sat there awkwardly, staring at each other, unsure what to say.