Six
Gene stood in front of the unmade, disheveled bed, packing his clothing into a khaki duffel bag that was stretched open before him. It had taken a lot of prodding and physicality earlier on in the night, but he had finally gotten it out of his girlfriend that Sharyn was in all likelihood heading towards Louisiana to find her father. How she knew her father was in Louisiana was beyond the two of them, as Sharyn's mother Sherri had never told Sharyn where her father was located. It had surprised Sherri, however, as Sharyn had grown up never asking questions about her father. The household more or less treated him as though he never existed.
Gene was surprised it had taken Sharyn so long to run away; Sherri had always been so dependent on her daughter, to the point where it seemed like Sherri couldn't function without knowing that her daughter was close by. Something had to give eventually; Sharyn was too young to be tied down to a dependent mother, who drank excessively and tried a new drug each week to see if she could feel something different than the angst that had ravaged her over the years. Sherri had more or less accepted a while ago that Sharyn didn't want to be around the house anymore, and knew that Sharyn was working so hard to distance herself from her mother's circle of associates and her lifestyle choices, but he was pretty sure that Sherri never thought in a million years that Sharyn would just pack it up and leave. Sherri felt helpless at the absence of her daughter, and since Sharyn was nineteen, if she wanted to leave, there was nothing Sherri or Gene could do to pull her back home and resume the lifestyle Sherri had become so familiar with and dependent on. The truth was, he had other ideas in mind. He planned on getting his hands on Sharyn if it killed him in the process. She had been tempting him and teasing him for the last year and a half and while he was out in Louisiana, he planned on getting himself a piece.
He had been having suspicions about that Cody Rhodes kid he had met on the road the night before when he had gone searching for Sharyn. The kid had seemed so damned nervous when he had brought up Sharyn's description. The way his entire body jolted, the way his eyes darted to the car. But he hadn't seen Sharyn anywhere at the time, and he was sure a nice kid like Rhodes wouldn't hide her in a trunk or whatever. He seemed too gentlemanly for that. Unless she had been lying in the backseat. He didn't know; he hadn't even thought to look for her in the car. He had come up upon the kid so quick that he would be surprised if Sharyn even had the time to hide. He had been too busy studying Rhodes' mannerisms at the time. And it wasn't like he could have just asked the guy to look inside of his car; even if he did outweigh the kid by two hundred pounds, he was sure the law would be on Cody's side.
He threw a few pairs of jeans into the bag; he wasn't sure how long he was going to be away for. Despite all the fighting with Sherri, who was now passed out on the couch with an empty bottle in one hand, and the cordless phone on her chest in the hopes of Sharyn calling, he couldn't get an address from her. This time, however, since it had been so many years, he was open to believing that she just didn't know. Because she hadn't heard from him since they had split up. Sherri wouldn't talk much about that time, but Gene had suspected that she had just wanted a child, and had said to hell with the father. But he didn't know. Nor did he care. He had a flight out to Louisiana the following morning and he was going to spend his time looking for Sharyn, in hopes of intercepting her before she made it to her father's and bring her back home. He figured he'd take her back to his hotel for a day or two before bringing her back home to Sherri. They could have a nice vacation together. Gene knew that even if Sherri believed Sharyn, she wasn't going to go anywhere. He was as good as she was going to get, and she had finally come to realize it.
Maybe he wouldn't come back from Louisiana. Maybe he'd just take Sharyn and run away. She'd been teasing him for what seemed like forever, and maybe this was just her way of telling him that she was ready for him. To meet her in Louisiana and run away together, to get away from the dark cloud that hung over Sherri, sucking in the people around her like a black hole, into her cycle of depression and cynicism. Maybe she was offering him a way out, too.
He went into the bathroom and grabbed his brush and a few other toiletries, bringing them back out and dropping them into the duffel bag. Sharyn Halliday was the woman of his dreams; a Gothic Princess of sorts. He had seen pictures of Sherri at Sharyn's age; a dead ringer to her daughter. But Sharyn still had that innocence, was still so full of life, and hadn't aged to the extent that Sherri had. Sharyn still possessed a worldly innocence; he could see it in her eyes. She had yet to become jaded like her mother.
He put a few shirts into his duffel bag and thought about what he was about to do. The flight was going to take a few hours, and then he was going to have to think about how on Earth he was going to find Sharyn. Louisiana was a decent sized state with a lot of people; where did he even begin to look for her and the kid she had shacked up with? He wasn't a stupid man; he knew that she was with someone, and he was pretty sure it was with that Cody kid. He knew when people were lying to him, but he knew better than to start something with the kid.
Zipping the duffel bag shut and dropping it onto the floor, he climbed into bed and under the blankets. He would leave Sherri on the couch for the night. She was dead to the world anyways. It was ten-thirty; his flight left at seven, and he had to be at the airport at four for the baggage screenings and other protocols. From there, he had a picture of Sharyn he could take around and see if anyone recognized her. He wasn't even sure he knew where to start, but he was most definitely going to devise a strategy on the plane.