Chapter Nine – "Luckily, Roller Coasters Are His Thing"
Previously: At Myrtle's Boardinghouse Zendall discovers two walls, one worse than the other. The wall in the kitchen lists everybody who has vanished. The wall in one of the bedrooms lists everybody who is going to vanish. Kendall Hart Slater is listed on the To Be Gone wall, as is her Mother and Jackson Montgomery. At least Erica's and Jack's names were on that wall when Kendall and Zach first looked at it. When they weren't looking, somehow both names disappeared and appeared on the Already Gone wall. JR joins Zendall just in time for Kendall to beg him to take her away from Zach, whom she almost suspects is behind the mystery. Meanwhile, Tad and Di are launching their own investigation, Amanda is still at Casa Chandler where she is absolutely unwanted by all, and NuGreenlee has discovered some sort of a script while cleaning up the Penthouse.
Ryan could not believe what he was reading.
"What it is, Ryan? NuGreenlee asked him. "Next week's script? Don't they usually mail it or messenger it over or something?"
"Greenlee, this is the Answer!" Ryan told her, excitement dancing in his eyes. "This is the blueprint! This says who dunnit!"
--
"Kendall thinks I've made off with her Mother and Stepfather along with most of Pine Valley," Zach summarized to JR, who couldn't take his eyes off of the kitchen wall.
"I want a look at the other wall again," JR decided, trying to remember if his Father's name had been on it.
"Please, JR," I can't stand this! Please take me away!"
Kendall was thoroughly unstrung. The thought of Erica missing filled her with panic. And the suspicion that Zach had something to do with all of this was killing her.
"Why do you suspect me, Kendall?" he asked her pointblank. "Because I love you and you can't tolerate that?"
That hit her as hard as he meant it to hit her. "No," she said, trying to work it out. "No, that's not why. I'm happy you love me, Zach. I love you. I've loved you for such a long time. I was the one who pushed us to admit our true feelings. It's just that none of this makes any sense!"
Zach nodded solemnly. "And that being the case, you naturally suspect me of being the guilty culprit. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Lovely."
Because he knew that Kendall had severe trust issues, he tried not to feel overly injured by her sudden lack of faith in him. Or was it so sudden?
"You didn't trust me before today, did you Kendall?" he asked quietly. "Not that you should have. I'm a pretty untrustworthy sort, all in all."
She scowled at him. "Don't make this about me. It's about the fact that everyone I care about in Pine Valley is vanishing without a trace."
"I care about some of those people too, Kendall," he reminded her gently.
Her head was beginning to ache. She looked around for JR, but he had left to go look at the other wall.
"I can't do this now, Zach," she said, running out of the kitchen. "I need to find JR." She tried not to scream. "I need to find my Mother!"
--
After visiting Pine Valley Hospital and the Martin home, Tad accepted the impossible-to-accept fact that his parents had totally disappeared. Di tried to keep his spirits up as they drove aimlessly around Pine Valley.
"They must be somewhere, Tad," she tried. "Everybody must be somewhere. They couldn't have been beamed up by a UFO."
Tad grimaced. "UFO abduction. Put that down on our Theory List. I wonder if any crop circles have been sighted around here."
"You're kidding!" Di wanted to believe.
But Tad didn't look like he was kidding. "I'm fresh out of logical explanations, so bring on the Twilight Zone!"
"You know. Tad, sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction." The truth she was referring to was that his wife Dixie was still alive, which Tad didn't know because Di had given her word to Dixie that she wouldn't tell him or anybody else. But that promise wasn't the only reason Di hadn't told Tad the truth. She knew she'd lose him forever if he knew. And she wasn't ready to lose him forever. Particularly since she hadn't gotten him back yet after he and everybody else in town had found out she wasn't Dixie.
"The truth is that I haven't got a clue about what's really going on," Tad muttered, as if he were reading Di's mind, which she prayed he wasn't.
"Tad, that tune everybody hears when they try to call a person who's disappeared. That's got to be a clue. What does it sound like? Can you hum it for me?"
Tad did his best, but Di couldn't tell if he was humming "Battle Hymn of the Republic" or "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
"Why I don't try to call your parents so I can hear it for myself?" she suggested.
"Okay, here," he said handing her his cell, after he punched in the Martins' home phone number.
Di listened and nearly forgot to breathe.
"Let's pay Dereck a visit!" Tad suggested, not noticing Di's reaction to the tune. "Maybe he's come up with something."
Wordlessly, Di nodded and handed the cell phone back to Tad.
--
Kendall found JR in the bedroom, staring at the Wall of Vanished to Come.
"Is your Father listed?" she asked him, preferring not to look herself.
JR nodded grimly. "And my Uncle Stuart."
Kendall shrugged philosophically. "Uncle Stuart? Well, at least I'll have somebody worth talking to when I disappear."
JR looked at her and he wasn't even smiling.
"I'm sorry, JR. I only said that because I'm so scared. Sometimes when I'm scared, I get stupid."
She collapsed into his open arms.
"Oh, JR, what are we going to do?"
JR had no idea, so he kissed Kendall. And, equally all at sea, Kendall kissed him back.
--
"Amanda, if you don't get the hell out of here by the count of three, I'm calling what we laughingly call the police."
Amanda didn't even blink. "I come over here to tell you what your wife and daughter-in-law are up against, and you want to have me arrested. Typical. You wouldn't be treating me like this if I weren't a Newbie!"
"Actually, Adam has a pretty good idea, Amanda," Babe told her. "Why don't we all go over to the police station and find out what Dereck knows about all the disappearances?"
"Good idea, Babydoll," Krystal said, getting their coats.
"Waste of time," Adam muttered as he followed the three of them out. "Bloody waste of time."
--
Ryan and NuGreenlee were just coming out of Dereck's office when Tad and Di arrived
"Tad!" Ryan greeted him. "We've solved it!"
Tad's eyes narrowed. "That's swell. Who's the brunette?"
"Oh, that's Greenlee," Ryan replied. "She's come back to me."
Di looked confused. "Tad, that isn't –"
"Recast," he whispered to her. "It happens sometimes."
Di shuddered.
--
Kendall gently pushed JR away. The kiss was sweet enough. JR was a sweet boy. And she had always loved him, in her way. It was always so simple between them. Falling in bed without falling in love. Pleasure without pain. Buddy sex. That used to be fine with her. Used to be.
"What's the matter, Kendall?"
"People are disappearing," she replied, knowing JR had asked a different question.
"Kendall, what is it?" he persisted.
"Nothing!" she insisted, wondering why that wonderful kiss had felt so completely wrong. "Nothing! But, well, I'm a married woman, JR."
"In name only," he recalled for them both. "Kendall, has anything changed between you and Zach?"
"Several times," she answered.
"Omigod, tell me you didn't go and fall in love with that sonovabitch!" JR cried out, really annoyed.
"You fell in love with Babe," Kendall said in her own defense. "Twice. You know how it is."
JR hugged her hard, wishing with all his battered heart that he didn't know what she was talking about.
"Zach and I can touch without touching," Kendall was going on, as if JR wanted to hear what she was saying. "All we have to do is be in the same room. It's the craziest thing. I can feel the heat from 20 feet away. It's like he's projecting some sort of force field. Even when we're not together, I can still feel him."
JR stopped hugging her. "Shouldn't you be telling stuff like this to a girlfriend?"
"Why would I need girlfriends when I have you?" Kendall teased him.
--
"Have there been any further developments?" Adam demanded when he arrived at the Police Station.
"Now my day is perfect," Chief Frye replied. "Get out of my police station, Chandler! And take the rest of this bunch with you!"
"Adam, Ryan has found a clue!" Di exclaimed, ignoring Dereck's remark. "We may know who's responsible for all of this!"
"But we can't be certain," Tad cautioned. Ryan had shown him the script, and he wasn't happy with what he had read.
"We can be pretty certain," NuGreenlee differed.
"Who are you, Miss?" Adam asked her.
"Zach did it!" Ryan crowed, waving the script above his head. "I gotta find Kendall! She's got to know! Zach is behind everything!"
--
When Kendall and JR came back into the kitchen, it wasn't empty, which surprised her. But in a good way.
"You waited," she said to Zach.
"You're surprised?" JR asked her sourly. "Didn't you feel the heat from 20 feet away?"
"I'll always wait for you," Zach told her because he always would.
It was then that the dam broke but good.
"I'm so stupid!" Kendall cried out, throwing herself in Zach's general direction. He caught her easily and held her tightly against him while she sobbed.
"You're not stupid," he disagreed. "You're extremely bright. How could I be madly in love with a stupid woman?"
"I'm in this room, you two," JR said loudly.
"Maybe not stupid," Kendall sniffed. "But definitely deranged. Look who I almost threw away."
He smiled down at her. "You can't throw me away, Lovely. I'll always bounce back to you. Don't you know that by now?"
"I can't stand this," JR said. But nobody was listening.
"You'll walk away from me one day, Zach," Kendall predicted in a low voice. "When I make you mad enough, when I do something unforgivable, you'll stop loving me. You'll figure out I'm not worth it, and you'll walk away from me. And you won't turn back."
He laughed at that.
"I can't stop loving you, Kendall. Believe me, I've tried. Can't be done."
That got her attention. "You've tried to stop loving me already? Why did you try to stop loving me?"
That was easy to answer. "You're not exactly a walk in the park, Lovely. More like a roller coaster ride. Luckily, roller coasters happen to my thing."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?" she asked although somehow it did.
"Kendall, look at me."
She left his arms long enough to look into his eyes, his tragic, beautiful eyes. Only they didn't look so tragic right then. They look determined.
"I am in this for the distance," he told her, willing her to believe him. "That means forever. I can't be voted off the island. We are for keeps."
She nodded, completely under his spell.
"Until he makes you vanish, Kendall," JR predicted heartlessly, breaking the spell completely.
Mother of Mercy, will Ryan's revelation be the end of Zendall? Again? And for how long this time? What does the script NuGreenlee found say, and how does it implicate Zach? Did Di recognize the haunting tune everybody almost recognizes but doesn't? Will Tad ever get a clue? Tune in for our next exciting chapter! Your review would be cherished!