Jackson was a very patient person when it came to waiting for something. He had to be considering his line of work. He had been watching Lisa periodically in his free time since their last visit over three years ago. He still worked for his previous employers trying to prove that the red eye flight would be his only failure. It was a good thing he had such a great success record.
By watching Lisa and her family he had figured out the best way to get to her. His plan had led him to be sitting outside Alexis's school waiting for recess to begin.
He knew he wasn't going to be able to just walk into the school and pick Alexis up. He had a better idea and considering the fact that she was only three he doubted that this would be too difficult.
He had been watching her play by herself on the playground. She looked exactly like her mother with the exception of his eyes. All the other kids were playing with each other but she didn't bother to join any of them. She was a little young to already start to be loner like her mother had been until she met that husband of hers. That would just make his job easier. There would be no other children to tell any of the teachers that Alexis went off with some man.
He exited his car when he realized that the teacher's on the playground had been distracted momentarily.
Lisa had offered to stay with Alexis until she got comfortable at school but she was ready for her mother to leave before they even got there it seemed. She tried to be very independent in that respect.
She had known this day was going to come eventually. When Alexis didn't need her around all the time and she was just going to get more independent as she got older.
Alexis may have felt that she didn't her mom anymore but by the end of the day she still hadn't really made any friends. She was rather shy to start talking to the other children herself and nobody seemed very interested in talking to her.
Recess so far was Alexis's favorite part of the day. It had come once right after lunch and then they had a short recess before everyone went home for the day. She had been playing by herself when she dropped her ball and it rolled away from her.
She followed it towards the street forgetting the fact that she was supposed to stay on the playground unless she was with a responsible adult.
A young man with eyes just like hers was holding her ball she had lost.
"Is this yours?" he asked holding it out to her.
"Yes." she took the ball and starting walking away.
"What's your name?" he asked. He already knew the answer but his plan wasn't going to work if she just walked away from him
She turned back around to answer his question. "Alexis, but I'm not really supposed to talk to strangers my mommy and daddy told me so."
Jackson silently laughed to himself. He knew Lisa would have made sure to tell her daughter that.
Jackson walked up to Alexis and crouched down so he was down at her level. Alexis wasn't sure whether she should stay or run and get a teacher. He didn't seem like a scary person.
"Well if I tell you what my name is then we're not really strangers anymore now are we?"
"I guess not." The logic had made sense to her. Anyways strangers were scary looking. This guy was dressed very nice and wasn't dirty or anything. He looked completely normal just like her daddy.
"Well my name's Jackson. So, now that we're not strangers anymore maybe you can help me with something."
"What?" she asked inquisitively. Wondering how much help she could be since she had just only turned three.
"Well I was walking my dog the s'morning and he got away from me" he pulled a picture of a random dog out of his pocket trying his best to look heart broken. "Do you think maybe you could help me find him?"
"I guess so but my mommy is going to be coming soon to pick me up today." She answered. She decided to follow him since wasn't enjoying school as much as she thought she was going to.
Jackson took her hand and starting leading her away from the school. "He could be anywhere by now. So is it okay if we use my car to look for him. It would be a lot of walking otherwise."
"Okay" she didn't find anything wrong with going with him as long as she was back by the time school ended.
He opened the door for her and she got into the front seat. He realized it was dangerous for small children to ride in the front but he thought it might seem a little suspicious to have a car seat for no apparent reason.
"Mommy and Daddy never let me ride in the front seat." She stated to Jackson obviously excited to sit somewhere other than the back seat.
Jackson handed her the picture of the dog he showed her earlier. "I'm going to drive slowly and you tell me if you see the dog in the picture. Do you think you can handle that?"
"Yeah." She answered staring at the picture in her hand.
They had been driving for a couple blocks away from her school when Alexis just starting talking to him.
"I've been asking for a dog but I haven't gotten one yet"
The fact that she was talking to him more was a good sign to Jackson. It made him think she was getting comfortable with being him
"That's too bad. Maybe once you're older your Mommy and Daddy will get you a puppy."
He knew eventually she was going to realize that there was no missing dog. He tried to continue having a conversation with her hoping to distract her until they arrived at there destination.
"Do you like school?"
"None of the kids there like me." She answered sounding like she was about ready to cry.
Please don't start crying Jackson kept thinking to himself over an over again.
"It was only the first day. I'm sure you'll start making friends" this whole being sympathetic thing was harder than it looked. Jackson personally had never liked school. He had never made any friends and he was constantly getting picked on because of his name.
"My teacher is nice though" she stated as an afterthought.
Just as she had finished her last comment they had pulled up to his house.
"I thought we were looking for your dog? Why are we stopping?" She asked starting to get a little worried. She couldn't tell time but she was figured it was almost time for her mom to pick her up.
"This is my friend's house. Sometimes my dog likes to come visit them. So I thought maybe we would find him here." Jackson said trying to explain the abrupt stop.
"And what if he's not here?" She asked curious of his answer.
"I'm sure he'll show up eventually. Especially once he gets hungry and needs fed." He needed to start thinking up better answers or she just needed to stop asking him questions.
She got out of the car and allowed him to lead her to the front door.
"I don't see any cars. Maybe we should just leave"
Wow she was perceptive for a three year old who had bought his story of a lost puppy
He just needed to get her inside before she realized what was happening. He unlocked the door while still holding Alexis's hand and pulled her through the front door with him. He locked the door immediately after shutting it. He wasn't really worried about her opening the door since she wasn't tall enough to really reach the door knob.
He had disconnected the phone though because he had underestimated her mother and he wasn't going to underestimate her just because she was only three. Even if she didn't know her home phone number her parents had surely told her how to use 911 in emergencies.
She was starting to get scared and didn't know what to do. "I want my mommy. You said you would make sure I was back in time for her to pick me." Tears were starting to fall down her face.
"Your mommy will be here shortly. That is if she loves you enough to show up." Jackson said no longer trying to be nice. It was funny how he wasn't feeling any kind of bond with her. He had already accomplished his goal.
Alexis couldn't stop herself and just starting crying even harder.
"Stop crying." Jackson demanded.
But this just made her cry even louder. He couldn't deal with this right now. He roughly grabbed he tiny arm and led her down the hallway to a bedroom. He sat her down on the bed and she brought her knees up to her chest to comfort herself.
"Now you're going to stay in here until you can calm down. Once you've stopped crying we can have dinner. Got it?"
She nodded in response to his question. When he left she heard him lock the door behind him. She was starting to miss her mommy and daddy already. She wondered how she was supposed to get through the night all by herself.
When Jackson had come back to check on her later he found that she had fallen asleep. He decided not to wake her up just yet. They still had time to eat dinner. His luck she'll be like her mother and be too stubborn to eat with him anyways.
Hope you all enjoyed Jackson re-entry into the story. I figured her teacher would be too pre-occupied with getting a large class-considering it's Miami-ready to leave for the day after the short recess to notice one girl being missing on the first day. Sorry if this doesn't seem realistic to some people.