Shadow in Serenity

twenty-five


When Carny ran to embrace Jason, her face brought back a fantasy that Logan had had all his life. It was of someone — anyone — running to him with that look of pure love and unconditional belonging.

He watched as she clung frantically to the boy, tears streaming down her face. Then, pulling back, she made a lame attempt to look angry. “Jason, I could kill you for pulling such a stunt. Don’t you ever do that again!”

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

She crushed him back against her and held him tighter. “Where were you?”

Jason couldn’t seem to answer, so Logan stepped in. “He was at his secret place at the lake.”

“I looked at the lake, Jason! And Grandpa and David — didn’t you hear us calling?”

“Yeah, I heard,” Jason said. “But I didn’t want you to find me.”

She wiped her eyes and stood up, looking down at him. “Jason, I love you. Don’t you know that?”

“Yeah, I know, Mom,” he said weakly. “I love you too.”

“And you won’t ever run away again, will you?”

“No, I promise.”

She looked around at Nathan’s parents and her in-laws. “You hear that, everybody? He promised.”

Laughing with relief, she called the police to tell them all was well. The Trents said good night, and the Sullivans herded the weary child to his room to get ready for bed. Carny watched until he was out of sight, then turned back to Logan. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Don’t mention it.”

Their eyes locked for a long moment, and finally, he said, “I’m sorry I caused all this trouble.”

She gave a mirthless laugh. “I honestly thought you’d be halfway to Mexico by now.”

He didn’t know what to say. There was no point in trying to hide anything from her. “I’m not going anywhere, Carny.”

“I saw the suitcase and boxes, Brisco.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.” He was quiet for a moment, thinking of all the things he wanted to say. But she wouldn’t believe any of them. Finally, he said, “You’d better get to bed. We have an early lesson tomorrow. I think I’ll be able to take off with no problem, but I need some help learning how to land.”

Understanding flickered in her eyes, and she said, “I’m not sure you’re ready, Brisco.”

“Sometimes it’s just easier to glide. But sooner or later, a man has to come down. I just need help learning how.”

Logan walked back to his rented car on the street near the trees beside Nathan’s house. As he drove away, he wondered if she believed that he’d still be in town tomorrow morning.

What would happen if he told the towns people that King Enterprises had decided to pull the plug on the park — that they wouldn’t be building it anywhere? He could give all the money back. He hadn’t spent much yet. Then he could stay here in town, get a real job, buy a house, get to know Carny better.

No, it wasn’t that simple. Someone would learn the truth. Carny was already sniffing it out, with what she’d learned about Montague. There was no way he could stay here indefinitely without the truth coming out.

It wasn’t that he feared the authorities. If he gave the money back, no law would have been broken. But he hated the thought of Carny learning for sure that he was a crook. He couldn’t belong in a place where people knew who he really was — even if he stopped being that person.

He pulled back into the Welcome Inn’s parking lot, then sat in his dark car and looked up at the night sky. “God, I don’t know if you’re there or not. Maybe you don’t listen to grifters. Can’t say I blame you. But if it’s true that you can change people, then maybe you could change me.” His voice broke, and he pressed his head on his steering wheel. “If only these people could accept a man like me the way they accepted Carny.”

He stopped himself, feeling ridiculous. What was he doing? Praying? Did he really think he could just start playing the part of a decent citizen and make it stick?

He went back up to his room. Jack greeted him at the door, glad to see him, and Logan realized that the dog had finally stopped waiting for Slade. He depended on Logan now. In some small way, that was a victory. There was someone who cared whether he ever saw him again. There was someone who needed him. Even if it was a dog.

Squatting, Logan petted the animal, and Jack licked his face. “Did you miss me, boy? I don’t think anybody has ever missed me before.” He stood and opened the door again. “You need to go out? Come on.”

Together, they walked down the stairs and across the parking lot to the cluster of trees where Jack had been doing his business. As the dog sniffed around for the perfect place, Logan talked to him quietly.

“Jack, if a guy was going to make good on a promise and do something he’d never really intended to do, where would he start?”

The dog gave him a sidelong glance, then kept sniffing the trees. “I mean, if I built the park for real, then I wouldn’t be a fraud. And it would help the town. It really could pull them out of their slump. But where to start?”

No answer came, and he felt the weight of Serenity on his chest. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe it was ludicrous to think that he could actually build the park and stay here in Serenity, with everyone believing he was exactly who he said he was.

When Jack finished, they went back in, and the dog sat on the bed and watched him as he unpacked his bags. “I have to approach it like a con artist,” he said. “Look at all the possibilities, as far-fetched as they may be. I’ve done impossible things before, and I’ve persuaded people to do outrageous things. Why couldn’t I convince the bankers to actually do this?”

King Enterprises was his own company, complete with a business license and address at a P.O. box inside a UPS store. Its phone number had a recorded greeting that made the place sound legit. But what if it became legit?

As he talked to the dog, ideas began to whirl through his head. He could do it, if he just planned it out carefully enough. It didn’t matter that he had lied about there being other investors, or that he’d never tried to communicate with Roland Thunder, or that he didn’t even know who owned the land he was proposing to build the park on. He could find a way to make good on those claims after the fact. He could do it now.

Plans poured through his mind as the night grew older. He worked through the night, making timelines, checking facts. And as dawn brought the first rays of sunlight through his window, he felt better than he’d felt in a long time.

The challenge breathed new life into him. He was ready to pull the biggest con of his life. The one that wasn’t a con at all.