Jackie leaned into the front seat and kissed each of her parents on the cheek.
Jared, who had been both silent and still until this point said, “Oh, hey, Jax,” seeming to realize for the first time that his daughter was in the car. He took her hand and squeezed it. Jackie couldn’t help but notice how skeletal her father’s fingers and wrist had become. She could feel every bone in his hand.
“You just keep right on making those movies, Jackie,” Deirdre said. “They’re wonderful.”
“Thanks, Mom, but I had a lot of help.”
“From who?”
“Um … it’s a secret.” Deirdre smiled, and Jackie knew what she was thinking. “I do not have a boyfriend, Mom.”
“Okay, okay … whoever it is, though, keep working with them. You guys are doing a great job.”
When they arrived at the house, a security guard opened a gate in The Wall. The seven-foot barrier separating the Stone family from the rest of the world was, despite assurances to the contrary from Ethan Overbee, very much an eyesore. When Jackie had first envisioned the wall, her mind had conjured the image of a giant white picket fence, something protective but neighborly. Instead, she was now looking at a chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. And while the network did stay true to its word to plant hedges, they measured only five feet. The sight of the fence rising up out of the bush was even more ominous than if the hedges hadn’t been there; it was like something out of an apocalyptic science-fiction movie.
Jackie hid the Apple bag under her seat and tucked the phone into her hiking boot as the car pulled into the driveway.
Deirdre stopped short of the garage, control of which had been ceded to the crew, and the three of them stepped out onto the front lawn. A security table had been set up just inside the front door. As two security guards, one man and one woman, were going through Deirdre’s purse and Jackie’s backpack, Ethan stepped into the foyer from the living room.
“Hi, everyone,” he said. “Janet,” he said to the female guard, “please remove Jackie’s shoes. Gunther, take Deirdre’s and Jared’s cell phones.”
“What?” Deirdre shrieked.
“Don’t worry, Deirdre,” Ethan said, his voice dripping with sweetness, “you can have them back when you leave the house.”
Not sure what to do, Jackie surrendered her boots and Jared tried to hand his phone to Ethan. “Thanks, Jared, Gunther will take that,” Ethan said, gently pushing Jared’s hand to the security guard. Jackie noticed that neither Gunther nor Janet could or would make eye contact with her, her mother, or her father.
“Ethan, this is too much.”
“I’m sorry, Deirdre. This television show is a very important asset for the network, and we need to protect it.”
“Asset? This is our home!”
“Mr. Overbee?” Jackie interrupted quietly.
“Yes, Jackie?”
“How did you know that phone was in my shoe?”
When Ethan smiled, Jackie knew the answer. From the look on her mother’s face, she could tell that Deirdre knew, too. “You have a camera in our car, don’t you?” she asked.
Ethan’s smile widened, but he didn’t answer. “Come with me. I have a surprise for you.”
The three of them followed Ethan up the stairs to Jared’s office in a trancelike stupor. When he opened the door, they saw that the small space had been converted to a fully functioning hospital room, replete with bed, IV drips, and a series of complex-looking machines with blinking lights and digital readouts. Standing next to the bed was not a doctor or a nurse, but a nun.
Looking at the woman, Jackie was immediately reminded of Dr. Seuss’s description of the title character from her favorite childhood book, The Lorax: “Shortish, oldish, brownish, and mossy.”
Before anyone could say anything, Jared let out a big sigh of relief, stumbled across the room, and crawled into the bed, giving the pillow a full-body hug.
“There, there, Mr. Stone, you rest. The Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration will care for you now.”
Jackie turned and ran to her bedroom.
***
The opening scene on that night’s episode of Life and Death was of Jared crawling into bed and Sister Benedict tending to him. There were interviews with the Sister, with Cardinal Trippe, and with the medical team from Saint Ignatius Hospital.
Missing from the episode were the daily interviews with the Stone family. The director and editor repurposed footage from an earlier episode and were able to cobble together some semblance of family reaction, but for the most part, other than Jared in the hospital bed, the Stones were absent.