And that he intended to pay Tom back by robbing him blind and then killing him.
How crazy had that been? He hadn’t even known a Donnie Shortridge, much less gone out with his wife Jesus Christ-he had gone out with his wife!
Mindy Conkel!
Mindy Conkel, he did know. And not only had he gone out with her, he had gone to bed with her. Just once.
And that one time had been enough to get her pregnant!
And now suddenly Tom was beginning to understand why he had had this crazy dream. He had felt guilty for blowing off Mindy when she had called him in New York to let him know that she was pregnant with his child. He hadn’t given the news much thought at the time-he had been way too wrapped up in his new life in the Big Apple to give a shit. In a nutshell, he had basically told her “too bad, so sad-”
Wait a minute here!
Erin had shown him a picture Tom recalled the very end of the dream. And like a bolt of lightening from out of nowhere, he was struck with why he had dreamed this dream and what he now had to do about it.
Erin had shown him a photo of her birth mother holding her as an infant before she had been put up for adoption. The woman in the picture had been none other than Mindy Conkel!
Was it really possible that he was Erin’s father? And that was why he had dreamed all of this?
It had to be! As crazy and impossible as it seemed, this whole dream must have occurred so that he would discover he had a child running around in this world that he never knew he had. It was one of those weird, unexplained psychic phenomena like he’d seen on Unsolved Mysteries!
He had to talk to Erin, he resolved. He had to find out if she really was his daughter.
On impulse, he fired up the engine and pulled away from the curb. He circled the block and headed back toward the supermarket, trying to decide what he was going to say once he approached Erin with this. He realized it wasn’t going to be easy. “Hi again, Erin. I was just driving home with my groceries and started wondering if perhaps you are my daughter. I know it sounds a little weird, but you see, I had this dream yesterday and I-”
Tom laughed out loud. Yeah, right-she’s going to think I’m a blithering idiot!
As he drove through the intersection at Dublin Granville Road, Tom realized he would have to ease gracefully into this when he spoke to the girl. Maybe just start up a casual conversation and then ask if he could perhaps up meet with her when she got off work-that he had a couple of questions to ask her.
And of course she would look at him oddly, no doubt wondering why this strange man old enough to be her father was basically asking her out on an impromptu date Frick it! he sighed. This would be more difficult than he’d thought.
He reached the Jubilee Supermarket parking lot and pulled in. As he searched for a space, he spotted Erin getting into her car at the far end of the lot. She was probably just getting off work and heading home.
Tom glanced at the clock in the dash: 4:05. That had to be it.
He pulled into a spot and watched Erin start up her car and back out of the parking space. He waited until she drove past him and stopped at the exit before pulling out behind her. She turned left and was stuck at a red light on High Street. Tom pulled out and stopped behind her at the intersection.
When the light changed, she turned left onto High Street and drove south several blocks before turning into a gas station and pulling up to a pump. Tom also turned into the station but parked beside the mini mart. He looked at his rearview mirror and saw Erin get out, swipe her credit card through the machine and reach for the pump handle.
As he sat there, Tom wondered if it was such a good idea following her like this. He almost felt like he was stalking her. After all, he was a virtual stranger and when he approached her, she was going to feel intimidated if not downright threatened by him. Perhaps he should wait until he could speak to her at the supermarket another day.
Erin placed the pump handle back into its slot and got into her car. Tom backed out and followed her. She continued south on High until she entered Clintonville and took a right onto a street just north of North Broadway. Tom followed behind, trying to keep as much distance between the cars as possible.
Erin drove another block or so, then pulled into the driveway of a gray two-story house. Tom recalled that she had lived in an apartment building in Worthington in his dream. This was a house large enough for an average sized family to live in.
He pulled up to the curb a couple of houses before Erin’s and parked. He watched her as she got out of the car and headed for the front porch.
It was now or never, he thought.
He jumped out and walked swiftly toward her.
“Hey Erin!” he shouted.
She glanced back at him. At first it looked as if she was going to ignore him as she continued up the steps to the porch. But she came to a halt on the porch and turned around.
As Tom drew closer, she stared at him with a confused look on her face and said, “Hi. What do you want?”
Tom caught up to her and smiled idiotically. “Um, I just wanted to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind. It will just take a minute.”
Erin eyed him suspiciously and Tom could tell that she was more than a little put off.
“About what?” she said.
“Well, it’s difficult to say, really. Is there any chance I could buy you a soft drink or a coffee somewhere so we could talk? I’m afraid it may take a while to explain.”
Erin suddenly lightened up a bit and smiled. “Okay, I guess that would be all right. Let me just run inside to let my brother know I’m home then we can go.”
“Great. I’ll just wait here.”
Tom stood by as she unlocked the door and went inside. When he realized that the teenager lived in this house with her family, he questioned how in the world he could ever fathom that she was his long lost daughter. He considered the absurdity of it all and was about to abandon the whole thing before he made an utter fool of himself when Erin suddenly came out the door.
“Let’s go,” she said sweetly, joining him at the bottom of the porch stairs. “Where are we going?”
Tom said, “How does Starbucks sound?”
“Awesome-I’m in the mood for a great big cafe mocha!”
“You’ve got it.”
Tom led the way to Peg’s car, held the door open for Erin, went over to the driver’s side and got in. He started the engine, noticing out of the corner of his eye that she was staring at him.
“I feel sort of weird doing this,” she confessed.
Tom fastened his seat belt. “I don’t blame you at all for that. I realize this must seem very odd, but I want to assure you that I my intentions are good. If it would make you feel more comfortable, we could just talk here in the car or on your porch,” he added.
She chuckled. “Oh, no-I would much rather be treated to Starbucks! And I’m not afraid of going with you, Mr. Grayson. My brother told me he’s seen you at Capital and that you teach there.”
“Smart girl-you had him case me out while I was waiting, didn’t you?”
“Yeah-one can never be too careful nowadays,” she said with a knowing grin.
Tom pulled out and headed back toward High Street. As he tried to think of a good way to lead into what he wanted to say, Erin cleared the way for him.
“Aren’t you the man they found unconscious in the supermarket parking lot yesterday afternoon?”
“Yes I am, as a matter of fact. I was overcome by gas fumes and carbon monoxide.”
“Wow, I thought you were the same guy when I saw you earlier at the store, but I wasn’t sure. I sort of doubted it since it seemed unlikely that you would be out of the hospital so soon. You looked awfully bad when they pulled you out and wheeled you into the ambulance.”
“You were there when they did that?”
“I watched from the store. It was snowing really hard so I couldn’t see what was going on very well. One of the customers came in who had seen everything and said you looked like you were dead!”