“Hey there, welcome to Samuel’s! Table for five?” The hostess greeted us with enthusiasm, braided pig-tails and red lipstick on her front tooth. But she wasn’t the most striking thing about Samuel’s. No, it was more the layer of peanut shells covering the hardwood floors of the entire room that caught my attention.
If it weren’t for the delicious scent of steaks enveloping my senses, I would have been sorely disappointed. Maybe I needed to just appreciate what was around me and not be so bothered by atmosphere. I forced a smile onto my face and tried not to grimace at every peanut shell as it crunched under my shoes.
We were led to the large booth in the back corner. A dark-haired man in his forties stood grinning through his heavy mustache at the doc. He jumped from his seat and bolted toward us. And for a moment, I saw the two men as children giving each other a big hug and hearty slugs against the shoulders. It was pretty neat to watch.
“How the heck are you, you old dog? You look great! Get to the gym sometimes. Time’s treatin’ you better than me. Naw, look at all this gray hair!” They were talking on top of each other.
“Wow, Theo. You’ve been busy. Are all these kids yours?” Greg motioned toward the booth inviting us to all sit down.
Laughing, the doctor said, “No man, you remember Cole. He’s my only kid.”
“Ohhh, wow Cole, you’ve grown! Last time I saw you, you were, what, ten?” Greg spoke directly to Cole.
“Yes, sir. Good memory.” Cole smiled widely at his dad’s friend.
“Who are the rest of these kids?” Greg got right to the point.
“Um, this is Meg, Alik and Evan. They are Margo’s kids.” Dr. Andrews waited for recognition to sink in.
“Margo? Margo’s children? But that means these are the…”
“Yes, these are the children from The Institute.” Dr. Andrews finished tactfully.
“My goodness!” He stared at each of us as if we were the most curious creatures he’d ever seen. I felt like crawling inside my purse and hiding. My brothers, who sat on either side of me, tensed too.
“Margo’s missing, and I’m pretty sure you can guess who has her.” The doctor looked meaningfully into his friend’s eyes.
“That piece of crap has been hunting her all this time? Of course, from your stories he sounded like one sick son-of-a-gun. I guess I shouldn’t put it passed him to hold a grudge. Has he contacted you? Is that why you’re heading back to California?”
“You always did catch on fast, Greg. No, he hasn’t contacted us directly. But he did send four meat-heads to ‘collect’ us and take us back to The Institute. We also found a GPS and audio transmitter in the truck.
“He’s probably hired a whole team of people to track us and make sure we get to where we’re going. But they haven’t been too worried about whether Cole and I survive. They just want the kids back.”
Greg was frowning deeply. I wondered what he was thinking so I watched his facial expressions and listened to the tone of his voice when he spoke.
“You always had a way of befriending the hard-luck cases. Why you ever got involved with this, I’ll never know! No offense to you kids, but Theo, you have to think about Cole. He shouldn’t be a part of this. He’s already lost one parent, for Pete’s sake! You don’t owe Margo anything. You helped her as much as you could twelve years ago. Both you and Jenna did! These kids can be turned over to the state. They’re almost of age anyway.”
“Stop right there, Greg.” Dr. Andrews’ voice was stern and his face hardened. “I knew what I was getting into when I met Margo, and I knew what I was getting into when I flew down to Texas to pick up her children when she went missing.
“Yes, Cole has lost his mom. So now it’s up to me alone to teach him the importance of faith, integrity, right and wrong and friendship, Greg. A part of me died with Jenna, and the only reason I didn’t give up entirely was because of our little boy. Jenna loved Margo and if she were here today she would be sitting beside me at this table asking you to help these children. This is the right thing to do, and you know it!”
Three things happened while I heard this heart-felt speech from the doctor.
1. I knew Dr. Andrews had loved my mother deeply.
2. I knew he was here because he felt obligated to be.
3. I knew my brothers and I needed to release him of that obligation by handling Dr. Williams and The Institute alone.
Before Mr. Burns had a chance to speak, I asked to be excused to use the restroom and signaled my brothers to follow me after a few moments. I had no doubt they’d figure some excuse to leave the table.
Three minutes later, we met up by the restrooms. And I could tell by the looks on their faces, we all knew what I was about to say.
“It’s time to let the good doctor and his son off the hook,” I said.
“Yeah, he’s done more than enough,” agreed Alik.
“It’s getting way too dangerous for them, now,” Evan nodded.
“What are we going to do? We are in the middle of Arizona and have no way of getting to California on our own?” I shuffled my feet into a pile of peanut shells as I thought.