“Shush,” Emily chided him. “It’s okay, boy.”
A man, roughly thirty Emily guessed, with a neatly trimmed dark-brown beard and a pair of glasses perched on his nose appeared from around the corner of the corridor.
He stopped for a moment and stared at the three visitors.
Thor gave another uncertain growl but quieted at the touch of Emily’s hand on his head.
“Hello, Emily. Hello, Rhiannon,” said the stranger, a smile breaking across his pale face as he rolled his wheelchair into the room. “I’m Jacob, and it is so very nice to finally meet you both in person.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
The wheelchair was a surprise to Emily.
Jacob had never mentioned anything about being disabled. But then why would he? It was hardly relevant.
Emily had imagined how this moment would be, this first meeting between them. She had a little speech ready, but she found herself unable to speak a word of it. Instead she walked over to him, placed her arms gently around his neck, and whispered into his ear, “Thank you,” soaking the collar of his shirt with the tears that had begun to flow even before she had taken a step.
Rhiannon joined them for the group hug; even Thor came over and gave Jacob an exploratory sniff.
“Let’s get you out of that gear,” he said after Emily and Rhia finally broke away. “Maybe you’d like a shower or something to eat?”
“I’d love to meet the rest of your team,” Emily replied.
“Of course, but why don’t I get you to your room first? You can freshen up and then we’ll deal with that. Okay?”
“Sure,” Emily replied with a smile. He was politely letting them know that they smelled worse than a week-old dead cat, she realized. “Lead the way.”
Jacob accompanied them from the first room, Emily on one side of the wheelchair and Rhiannon on the other. “This is my room,” he said, indicating a door on the right of the corridor. “And these two are yours. I assumed you wouldn’t mind having a room apiece?”
Emily welcomed the idea of some privacy, but she worried about Rhiannon. The two of them had been sharing the same space for so long now, she wasn’t sure whether the girl would be reticent about being alone. That concern disappeared as she watched Rhia disappear inside the room with her bag. “See you later,” she said, smiling from the doorway.
“When you’re done, just head down the corridor to your right. The first big room on your left is the meeting room.”
Rhiannon nodded to Jacob and disappeared inside, leaving the two adults alone in the corridor.
“I’d better get freshened up.”
“And I’ll go rustle up some dinner for you guys. You must be starving.”
Thirty minutes later there was a quiet knock on Emily’s door.
“Can I come in?” asked Rhiannon.
Emily pulled the sweater she had just removed from the backpack over her head and reached for the door handle. She had forgotten just how pretty Rhiannon was; the girl had been hidden under layers of clothes and grime for so long now. Standing in the doorway was a girl transformed. Her long blonde hair fell freely over her shoulder, newly washed and shiny. She had on a pair of loose blue jogging pants and a turtleneck sweater and the biggest smile she had ever seen from the kid.
“They have a hair dryer,” she whispered, as though it was the greatest discovery of her young life. Emily understood. After stepping out of the shower, she had luxuriated in the feeling of the hot air of her own dryer.
“You look beautiful,” she told the girl. Rhia blushed at the compliment.
“Well, I think it’s time we went and introduced ourselves to everyone, don’t you?”
Rhiannon nodded in excitement.
Thor was laying on the bed, his head over the edge, tail thumping against the sheets.
“Come on,” she told the malamute. “Let’s go do this.”
Jacob was waiting in the meeting room for the new arrivals. On the table in the center of the room were two plates with metal warming covers to keep the food hot. A pitcher of water and another of orange juice rested nearby, with a complement of glasses and cutlery.
“I saved something special for Thor,” said Jacob, and he reached for a bowl of what looked like chopped beef roast, placing it on the floor for the dog, who began devouring the food with his usual gusto.
“Quite the appetite,” remarked Jacob.
Emily lifted the cover off her plate and revealed a burger between two buns. There was a side of lettuce and onions, along with a couple of packets of ketchup and mayonnaise.
“I didn’t know if you liked lettuce on your burger or not, but I did assume you wanted cheese,” he continued, beckoning to Rhiannon to join him at the table. “Enjoy.”
“Oh my God,” Rhiannon said after taking her first bite of the burger. A look of utter bliss swept across her face. Here was a girl who had found nirvana.
Emily couldn’t help herself, she laughed, spraying a fine mist of her own burger—which was as delicious as she had imagined it would be—over the table.
Rhiannon choked down her own bite of the burger and coughed. “Sorry,” she said, snickering.
“Wow! What a great first impression we’ve made,” laughed Emily after she swallowed her food. “Sorry about that, it’s just the tension…This is just all such a relief.”
Jacob joined them in their laughter, raising both hands in a gesture of détente. “Not a problem at all, ladies.”
They ate the rest of the food in silence, savoring the flavors and the full feeling as their stomachs began to process the burgers. It was the first real food they had eaten since leaving Stuyvesant.
“That was delicious,” said Emily after finishing. “Thank you.”
“You’re more than welcome. There’s dessert. Parfaits, if you would like one?” Rhiannon nodded her head enthusiastically; Emily declined. Jacob wheeled himself over to a small refrigerator and pulled out a plastic container of parfait, complete with a disposable plastic spoon attached to the lid. “Sure I can’t tempt you?” he asked Emily.
“No. Thanks. I think I’ll pass.”
Rhiannon eagerly dug into the plastic cup of fruit and cream. She devoured it with the same look of bliss she had while eating the burger. The two adults sat back and watched, enjoying the child’s pure joy.
Finally, Emily spoke. “Thank you so much for that. I honestly don’t know what either of us would have done without you, Jacob. We would have…well…I guess we would have been lost without you.”
“I’m just glad you’re here, safe and sound,” he replied.
“So, do you think we can meet the rest of your team?” she asked, smiling in anticipation.
Jacob bit his bottom lip for a second, dropping his eyes to his immobile feet. When he raised them again, it was to meet Emily’s expectant gaze.
“There is nobody else,” he said finally.
“What? I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“There is nobody else,” he repeated. “It’s just me.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
There. Is. Nobody. Else.
Even when she sounded them out individually, the words just did not fit together as a sentence. They didn’t seem to want to stay still in Emily’s brain long enough for her to rationalize what Jacob really meant by them. They kept sliding around, bouncing off of each other, refusing to form any recognizable meaning.
“What?” she repeated for the third or fourth time.
“I know you’re probably confused, and I know you’re probably very upset, but I just need you to hear me out, okay? I need you to understand why I had to do what I did.”
Emily couldn’t quite fathom what he was saying. “But you said you had a team. What about your team?”