Jondy the Abandoner 4: Streaming Freedom Video
Chapter three: Always Abandoner
Aldrea lay on her bed, covers off, staring at the ceiling. After what seemed like at least an hour, she looked at the clock radio on the box next to her bed. 1:27. She hadn't even been sitting in her bedroom for twenty minutes yet. She groaned and rolled over, to flop down catlike into a crouch on the floor.
She listened as intently as she could to the sounds of the apartment. The infant down the hall had stopped screaming, and faintly Aldrea could detect the sounds of soft snoring coming from the living room. Beth was asleep.
Aldrea opened her door slowly, so as not to risk the hinges creaking. She held her breath and listened once again for Beth's snoring. Yes, Beth was still asleep. Aldrea let the air out of her lungs, and crept down the hall, and into her mother's room. Jondy kept Zack's contact number in her closet somewhere. Aldrea had heard the closet door open when Jondy had gone in there to hide it.
As quietly as she could, Aldrea began to rummage through her mother's piles of clothes, books, movies, and shoes. And candy wrappers. So this is where all of Aldrea's candy was going! Aldrea blew air out of her nose angrily, and continued in her search.
After several minutes, Aldrea hadn't found anything just laying about, which was her mom's classic style of hiding something, lazy and in plain sight. She also hadn't found any crinkled up pieces of paper in the toes of any of her mom's shoes. So she began to open up the DVD and CD cases, and leaf through the inserts. Finally, a yellow sticky note was stuck inside the DVD case of Jurassic Park. It was the only thing in the box actually. Who knew what had happened to the DVD.
The note read, "New contact number: 1-907-228-555-4460. Don't give to Aldrea, or she'll keep calling me!" Aldrea smirked at the note. "Too bad Zack, I found it," she said to herself, and sneakily walked out of the room.
Aldrea moved in "stealth mode," mimicking spy people on TV, as crept passed the lightly sleeping Beth on the couch. Then, as quietly as possible, she lifted the phone off it's pedestal. A click echoed throughout the quiet apartment. Aldrea froze. Beth didn't move either, her breathing remaining steady. Aldrea let her muscles relax, and she snuck back to her room, thanking whatever gods existed that they had a cordless phone. Glancing at the door to make sure that Beth wasn't coming, Aldrea dialed the contact number.
Zack looked at the clock display of the annoying excuse for a vehicle from where he sat in the back seat. "Can't this thing go any faster?" he asked, when the cell phone on the dashboard began ringing.
"Give me the phone," Zack demanded.
"I can get it," said the woman in the passenger seat as she pressed send. "Hello?"
"Zack?" came a small voice from the other end.
"Who's this?"
"This is… Who's this? I need to talk to Zack."
"This is Max," said the woman.
"Max give me the phone, now!" Zack shouted.
"Okay, hi Max," Aldrea politely greeted. "Can I talk to Zack now?" With a sigh, Max handed the phone to the nearly furious man in the back seat.
"Jondy?" Zack inquired into the phone.
"No this is Aldrea."
"Aldrea! Where's your- Where's Jondy?"
"She's at work still. She's off at two and I called her and she won't come home."
"How'd you get this number anyway," Zack wondered.
"It was inside of Jurassic Park," replied Aldrea. "What should I do? What are the bad guys going to do to us?"
"Settle down," said Zack. At this suddenly comforting tone, Max turned around and gave him a smirk. He glared at her. "The bad guys are coming, but they probably won't get there by two, because they live all the way in Wyoming. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Can I talk to Brian please."
"Brian's not here, Beth is and she fell asleep otherwise I wouldn't have even been able to call you! Beth has to be my babysitter because you're never here anymore and Brian went away this week to plan the wedding."
"THE WHAT!"
"Zack, just find out where she's headed and hang up," said Max. "We're nearly there and we need to gave at least some idea of a plan."
"Okay," said Zack. "Tell Jondy everything when she gets home, and then you guys will have to take off for somewhere. Have her call me on the road sometime after four AM. Got it?"
"Got it Zack. Will you come see me again soon?"
"Sure thing. Gotta go though, bye."
"Bye," said Aldrea, and flopped back down on her bed. Tapping her fingers noiselessly on her pillow, she waited for two AM to arrive.
Eloise entered her apartment soundlessly and peered around in the darkness. Beth was snoring on the couch, and Aldrea was nowhere in sight. Eloise could sense that she was in her bedroom. With a sigh she dropped her jacket on the nearest chair, and watched it slip to the floor. Eloise didn't bother to pick it up.
Suddenly Beth awoke. "Oh. How long have you been home?"
"About twelve seconds."
"Oh. Okay, well Aldrea went off to bed, but I don't know if she actually went to sleep or not," said Beth.
"Okay," Eloise replied, staring into space behind Beth. "Here," she handed Beth some money, "have a good night."
"Good morning," Beth corrected and left. Eloise rolled her eyes at her and yawned. She felt hardly able to form a coherent thought. Suddenly something was flying at her.
"Mommommommommommommom!" Aldrea shouted as she leapt into her mother's arms. "We have to go. I called Zack and he said that we have to leave and that you should call him after four o'clock."
"Where did you get his phone number?"
"It doesn't matter. But Mom, he said that we have to go. And didn't you watch the message?"
"What on Earth are you talking about Aldrea?"
Aldrea let go of Eloise's neck and let herself drop to the floor. She went over and turned on the TV. "I snuck past Beth and recorded it while she was sleeping." She pressed play.
After the message finished, Aldrea looked proudly at her mother, feeling smart and vindicated. Aldrea knew she was right and now her mom had to listen to her!
Eloise didn't say anything. "So?" Aldrea prompted. The silence continued for a few more minutes.
"Pack your things," Jondy demanded. "Get everything that you ever want to see again." Aldrea nodded and rushed off toward her bedroom. Jondy sighed, and resigned herself to the painful realization that she would never be seeing anything to do with this place ever again.
Tears pinpricked her eyes as she haphazardly threw clothes into a large blue duffle bag. In her mind she was reciting the note that she would leave to Brian, but all the time she knew that leaving a note was a terrible idea that would only lead to she and Aldrea's death. She would never be able to talk to Brian again. Never be able to say goodbye. Never be able to explain…
A deep, painful sob escaped her, as she grabbed the photo album and neatly packed it into her backpack. Most of the pictures in it had been taken by Brian, and Aldrea was his favourite subject. All the pictures in the house had to be taken, lest Lydecker learn what Jondy looked like, and of the existence of Aldrea. Jondy left her room and rooted through the place, finding all incriminating evidence and packing it away. Then she went across the hall and picked the lock to Brian's place. There were pictures of her over there too. The last thing Brian would remember about her was how she looted his place before she abandon him forever.
TBC…
