Cracker Jack

Jack's head was bobbing sporadically when I pulled over in a roadside rest stop. He gave me a confused look.

"Get some sleep, Jackie. You're no good to me when you're in this shape."

"I'm okay," he argued. "I'll drive if you're tired."

"There's no way in hell you're driving. You'll pass out at the wheel and we'll both wind up dead. Just go to sleep for a few hours and we'll pick this up in the morning."

He glanced over his shoulder and out the back window, as though he could already see the police showing up and catching us. "Are you sure?"

I yawned and stretched my arms out in front of me. "I'm sure, Jack. I need sleep, and so do you."

He didn't say anything more, he merely brought his feet up onto the edge of the seat and curled up as best he could. I would have told him to go and lie down in the backseat, but it was nice to have the company up front with me. I drifted into a light and uneasy sleep, and I was constantly being awoken by the slightest noises.

I started driving again when I woke up for the sixth time and found that it was light outside. Jack was still sleeping; apparently he was immune to the thundering noise of the engine, as well as all the noise I made when I had to stop for gas. I had been on the road for almost an hour when he woke up.

"I think it's my turn to drive, Hayley."

"I'm fine. Don't worry about it. Are you hungry? We can stop for something to eat if you want," I offered.

He didn't answer my question, but instead asked one of his own. "How much longer do you think it will take to get there?"

I shrugged. "I'd guess about an hour and a half, but I can't be totally sure."

He nodded slowly. "Okay, I can handle that. We can just get some food once we get there."

We hardly spoke for the rest of the trip. Jack seemed to sense that I needed a bit more time to think, so he watched calmly through the frosted window as I drove in silence. I still didn't feel ready when I drove into the outskirts of the town I was looking for. I had never heard of it before. It was a relatively small town; it shocked me that it had the prison facility that it did.

"This map doesn't show how to get there once you get this far," Jack told me, flapping the paper noisily in front of his face.

"It can't be that hard to find," I said confidently, turning down a random street.

In actuality, it was a lot more difficult than I'd anticipated. It turned out that the prison wasn't even in the town at all; it was a few miles away. I parked the station wagon at the farthest end of the parking lot, trying to keep the car out of anyone's view.

I was nearly shaking from nerves as I approached the front desk. A security guard in a blue uniform was sitting behind it, looking bored. He arched an eyebrow as Jack and I walked up.

"Can I help you?"

I smiled as best I could before replying. "Can you tell me when visiting hours are?"

The man glanced at a clock on the desk top. "In about forty-five minutes. Can I ask who you're here to see?"

"Kevin Grove."

His eyebrow shot up even farther on his forehead. "He's never had a visitor before."

"I've never been in the area before," I countered, feeling my cheeks begin to color.

"Well, you can feel free to have a seat and wait, or you can go back into town and find something else to do until we allow visitors in."

"Thanks."

Jack and I wandered back outside. We decided to wait in the car, where we could at least talk in private and avoid the security guard's incriminating glares. Unfortunately, the extra time made my nerves get worse. I would have felt less scared if I could have gone in right away. Instead, I was facing nearly another full hour of time to think about what I was about to do.

"Distract me," I requested, looking earnestly at Jack after a few minutes of silence.

"How?"

"It doesn't matter. I just can't think anymore."

"What do you think is going to happen when we get home?" He asked.

"I think you'll get grounded. And I will too, but it won't actually stick. So I'm sorry about that in advance."

"Hey, don't worry about it. It's not like you didn't try and talk me out of it."

"Yeah, but what if Evelyn doesn't want you hanging out with me anymore?" I was finding more and more things to worry about.

"Mom loves you. You need to calm down, okay? Everything will be fine."

"I'm just kind of stressed out right now, I'm sorry. Everything's freaking me out more than normal."

"Just breathe," he reached over and put his hand on my shoulder. "Stop apologizing; it's okay. You're going to go in there and see your brother, and we're going to go home. Nobody's going to stop me from spending time with you, and things will go back to normal."

I stared into his intense eyes and felt suddenly calm. "Okay, Jack. I believe you."

"Good. Now let's go back in there and do what we came here to do."

Jack held my hand as we re-entered the thick-walled building. I hated this place already. This time, the security guard let me into another room, where I passed through a metal detector without incident. I was then led into a room filled with tables and chairs. Jack leaned against the wall beside me, waiting in case I needed him.

I immediately recognized the tall, blonde figure that walked into the room. Kevin looked around curiously; he obviously hadn't expected me to ever come here. When his eyes fell upon me, his whole face lifted with the power of his smile.

"Hayley? What the hell are you doing here?" He rushed over. I could tell that he wanted to give me a hug, but there were strict rules against the inmates touching their visitors.

"I couldn't exactly write you back, could I? Mom would just find your next letter and destroy it. In fact, it's really just a fluke that I got your last letter."

Kevin lowered himself into the chair across from me. "Who's the boy?" He nodded his head toward Jack.

"That's my friend Jack. He decided to come along for the ride. He's in sync with my lifestyle; he's Bobby's newest brother."

There was a new interest in my brother's eyes as he inspected Jack. "There's a new Mercer? How's Bobby doing? Oh man," he continued without pausing to let me answer his questions. "I'll bet that Mom loves you for hanging out with a Mercer. Speaking of Mom, how the fuck did you get here?"

"That's not really important."

"Sure it is. Did Jack drive you? He doesn't look much older than you."

I shook my head, dropping the volume of my voice. "I drove."

He seemed to pick up on everything in a single instant. "Hayley, what the hell did you do?" He whispered urgently.

"It doesn't matter, Kevin. I'm not sticking around long enough for anyone to find out. Just answer a few questions for me, and I'll be on my way before anybody is the wiser."

"Christ, did you bring a hot car here?"

"Relax," I hissed. "They wouldn't have even noticed it was missing until a couple of hours ago. I'll have it back before the cops even start looking."

"How could you be so stupid?"

"I'm stupid? Which one of us is wearing the orange jumpsuit?"

"A friend hid some shit at my house, Hayley. The cops showed up, and it turns out he robbed an electronics store. I didn't do anything. And if they threw me in here when I'm innocent, what do you think they're going to do with someone guilty?"

"You're not guilty until you get caught. Can we stop fighting for five minutes? I didn't come here to get my ass chewed out," I scowled. Jack was tense as he watched the whole scenario play out.

"Fine. But don't blame me if things go sour. Why did you really come here?"

"I wanted to find out why you never came back for me."

"Mom never would have let you go," he sighed. "It would have been pointless. I didn't want to get your hopes up for no reason. Besides, you seem to be doing alright. You've got yourself a nice little boyfriend, don't you? Is he treating you alright?"

"Jack's not my boyfriend, Kevin."

"You could have fooled me. He seems to be itching to protect you."

"I'm only here for a little while. Do you really want to waste time talking about whether or not I have a date for Saturday night?" I snapped, feeling increasingly more irritable.

"I don't know what we should be talking about. To be honest, I'm pretty concerned with getting you home before things get bad. As much as I miss you, I don't want to have you in here with me," he flashed me a small grin.

I nodded slowly. "I don't really know why I expected this to accomplish anything. I should go home before every cop in Detroit is searching the streets for Jack. He's still new."

Kevin's eyes widened momentarily before he composed himself. "You're spending all of your time with a fresh Mercer? Be careful, Hayley."

I smiled widely, knowing that Kevin would never understand how different Jack was from his brothers. "I'll tell Bobby that you said hi."

"Come see me again. When you're older and have a car, I mean. I'll come home as soon as I'm out of here."

"In that case, I'll see you soon."

Jack followed close behind me as I walked briskly from the room. "Do you think he's really innocent?"

"Not a chance. He just doesn't want me to lose faith in him."

"Do you feel any better?"

I shrugged. "Not really. But at least I know where he is, and I know that he still cares about me."

"Someday we'll come back, if you want."

"Maybe someday I'll be ready to try that again. For now, I just want to go home."

Jack opened the driver's side door and slid into the seat. "This time, I'll drive. You need a break, and I just want to give it a whirl."

I couldn't argue with him. I was feeling let down over the way everything had turned out. "Thanks Jack. I couldn't have done it without you."

"You would do the same for me," he replied, shrugging off my gratitude.

"I really would."