Chapter 18

18

Ten PM came quicker than Jordan would have liked. Her parents were watching a movie and Jordan slipped down to kiss them goodnight.

“You’re going to bed early,“ her father remarked, his eyebrow arched in a question.

“I’ve had a long day and Stacy and I are working on a school project in the morning, so I figured I’d get some sleep to be ready to go.” Another lie. Jordan was getting pretty good at it really. Her parents smiled and said their good nights and Jordan slipped upstairs to prepare for her escape.

She took pillows and stuffed animals and slipped them under her covers to make it look like she was there, turned off her computer screen to make the room darker in case they peered in, and then slipped down the steps and out the back kitchen door. It was then that she was really glad they didn’t own a dog. She had always raised such a fuss as a kid about having a dog, although her dad was allergic to them, but now- she realized a dog would have been a dead give-away to her escape plan.

Jumping on her bike she pedaled down the road to Stacy’s house, two streets over. It had taken her longer than she had thought to get out of the house and to Stacy’s and as she approached, she distinctly saw a red glow in the sky.

“Oh my God!” Jordan gasped, ditching her bike she ran toward Stacy’s house screaming Stacy’s name. She saw a small fire erupting from the attached garage and already neighbors were in the front yard, beating on Stacy’s door, ringing the bell. In the distance, sirens could be heard. Jordan skidded to her knees by the back porch, reached under the stone frog and found the house key. She dropped the key twice as she attempted to unlock the door, but on her third try, the door flew open, revealing Stacy in her night clothes, crying in a panic.

The fire department had arrived and were dousing the flames just as her parents drove up to the house. They flew from the car, screaming Stacy’s name and all three collided in a frenzy of hugs and kisses and shouts of disbelief. Jordan had remained to the side of the house and she slipped away unnoticed back to her bike tossed haphazardly on the corner. If she had stayed, however, she would have seen another person there that night. She might have guessed it was a set-up. Teresa also slipped away, gas can in one hand and a smile on her face. Teresa knew without a doubt that Jordan did have some gift of knowing the future for she had been planning this for the last several days, cementing the idea that very morning. She knew that if Jordan showed up, then Jordan had to have known and if she knew what would happen- Teresa wanted to know how.