Random call, p.1
Random Call, page 1
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events or locations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Geof Johnson
ISBN: 9781543999860
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Thanks to Valerie Johnson for her helpful suggestions and editing expertise.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Author’s Note
About the Author
Chapter 1
It is no great accomplishment to be born rich. Nor is it a notable triumph to be born handsome or beautiful, or tall and graceful, or even smarter than the average person. It only takes sheer luck, the best kind, to be born into a close, powerful, well-established family, the kind dynasties are made of.
It also takes no talent to be born into a family that is always on the edge of the abyss.
This was the fate of Finn Garland.
* * *
Finn slouched in his chair like a discarded overcoat and stared glumly at the computer screen. Displayed upon it was the Facebook page of Olivia Garland, second wife of Wade Garland, Finn’s father.
His utterly absent father.
Finn had never seen him in person, except when Finn was a baby (which he couldn’t remember). Olivia saw him every day, in Vancouver, British Columbia, their home.
Finn lived 5,106 miles away in Jacksonville, Florida. From there, it was only a 47-hour drive to Vancouver, without traffic. Finn knew this because he’d checked it on the Internet several times. It didn’t matter how far it was, though, because he didn’t have a car. He had his driver’s license, having already turned 16, but had nothing to drive except his mother’s old Honda Accord, and she would never allow him to take it for that long or that far, and it was questionable as to whether it could go that distance without breaking down.
His father hadn’t asked Finn to come visit, anyway. Finn had never spoken to him, not even by email or text.
Sometimes Finn wondered if his father even knew he existed.
Vancouver looked to be beautiful, sitting on English Bay, with a stunning view of the nearby mountains. Jacksonville was flat as the bottom of a cast iron skillet. The highest elevation was about 40 feet — Finn checked that on Google, too — but he didn’t know where that elevation was. It wasn’t near his dull, featureless neighborhood of concrete-block ranch houses, constructed during the boom of the 1950s, when couples were having kids at astonishing rates and needed some place to raise them.
The boom had ended but the houses remained, and Finn and his mother lived in one. It was all they could afford.
Finn’s father didn’t have a Facebook page, so the only way Finn could keep up with him was by reading Olivia’s posts, and she had plenty of them. Besides the all-too-many selfies of her with Finn’s father, there were an enormous number of pictures of her twin 14-year-old girls, Finn’s stepsisters. He’d never met them. He doubted he ever would. He didn’t particularly want to.
There were pictures of them at every birthday party, pictures with their lacrosse team, swimming at the lake, snow skiing, rock climbing, summer camps, and vacations. It seemed like they did a lot of fun and exciting things. Finn rarely did. Money was always the issue, or rather, lack of it.
The current Olivia Garland Facebook post Finn was scowling at was from their spring break trip to Alaska. Finn had never been anywhere more exotic than Disneyworld in Orlando, and that was just once, on his twelfth birthday, and he and his mother didn’t spend the night because it was only 140 miles away.
There was a photo of his father with the twins, each of them holding up a stringer full of fish, grinning like proud winners, their Alaskan campsite in the background, and beyond that, majestic, snow-capped mountains. Finn had never seen a mountain, except in pictures like this one.
He was jealous. He couldn’t help it. He hated the feeling.
He abruptly stood and grimaced at the pain in his ribs, then opened the door to his bedroom and stomped down the hall to the kitchen, where his distressed-looking mother was sitting at the table, staring at a slew of mail scattered before her. “Mom, when are we going on vacation?” he said as soon as he entered the room.
She looked up, somewhat startled. “I beg your pardon?”
“Are we going on vacation this summer, or what? We didn’t go anywhere for spring break.”
“I had to work. You know that.”
“Almost all of my friends went somewhere.”
“Warren didn’t. He stayed here and surfed, as I recall.”
“Yeah, well, Warren’s okay with that. But you didn’t answer my question. Are we going on vacation this summer?”
She sighed long and hard, and he knew what that meant before she said it. “I doubt it.”
“Why not?”
She gestured at the opened mail on the table. “You see all these bills? That’s why.”
“So? We always have bills. Everybody has bills.”
“We seem to have more than our share, and we only have one income.”
He felt his scowl returning, dark as midnight. “Dad should be paying.”
“I’ve told you a hundred times, I can’t do anything about it. He’s a scofflaw. Always has been, always will be.”
“Derek’s mom took his dad to court ’cause he wasn’t paying child support. She won, so he got his paycheck garnished. You should do that.”
“Your father lives in Canada, Finn. I don’t have the money to fly up there, find a lawyer, and pay for a hotel room. Plus, I’d have to take off from work, and I can’t do that. I don’t know how the Canadian courts work in cases like that, either. It’s not easy getting an ex-husband to pay child support here in the US. It might be even harder in Canada.”
Finn’s foul mood remained, despite the explanations. “Can’t we go somewhere this summer, just for a weekend? Even Warren goes to North Carolina.”
“That’s because his grandparents live there, so he and his family have a free place to stay. Your grandmother lives here. You can stay with her for a while if you want. She might like that. She’s a lot closer to the river. Walking distance.”
“I don’t want to stay with Grandmama,” he grumbled in his best teenage-petulant voice. “She’s too weird. And the river’s boring.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, except that I’m sorry. I’m going to try to pick up a few extra patients at work, since a couple of the other hygienists will be taking vacations soon, but even that might not be enough. I’m still paying for the new fender on the car, and for your broken ribs.”
“I’m sorry about the fender, but I thought we had insurance for that. For both of them, the fender and the hospital.”
“We do, but our deductibles are high. I had to pay for most of the fender out of pocket, and your medical bills seem to keep coming in no matter how many I pay.” She picked up a letter from the table and shook it at him. “Radiologist. Five hundred and thirty-seven dollars.”
“Really?”
“That’s not the only one. By the way, how are you feeling? Do I need to renew the prescription for your pain meds?”
He involuntarily touched his side, a habit, now. “Um…no. It still hurts when I sit up or move suddenly, and it kills me to sneeze or cough, but I don’t notice it so much when I breathe.” That simple action had been sheer agony the first few days after the injury.
“Are you sleeping better?”
“If I lie on my back.”
“Don’t worry about mowing the lawn, then. I’ll do it.”
“I’m sorry I’m not doing my share, Mom.”
“You will soon.”
“I talked to another guy on the football team who hurt his ribs last year, only his was in a game instead of practice. He said it hurt for months, but he only sat out three weeks before he started playing again.” Finn couldn’t imagine doing that. It had been that long since his injury, and it still felt like someone was stabbing his side with a hot knife if he moved the wrong way, which seemed to be just about every way possible. He couldn’t even roll over in bed without experiencing severe, momentary agony.
“So do you understand why we’re not taking a vacation this year?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said. “Can Warren come over now?”
“Are you going to play video games?”
“There’s nothing else to do.”
“How about finals? Shouldn’t you be studying for those? There are less than two weeks of school left.”
“My first one’s not ’till Friday, and today’s Sunday. I have plenty of time.”
“ Which class? I hope it’s not Environmental Science.”
“It is.”
“Last I checked, your grade wasn’t very good. You’re barely pulling a C.”
“So?”
“Finn! Your overall average may slip below a three-point-oh. That’s bad.”
“I have time to pull it up. I’m only a sophomore.”
“The longer you wait, the harder it is. And the lower your average, the less of a chance you have of getting into a decent college, and you can forget about getting any scholarship money. You need to study and get that grade up. Did you bring your textbook home?”
“I forgot.”
“Can you study online?”
“My teacher doesn’t post stuff until the last minute.”
“You can’t wait until the last minute. You need to start studying now. Do you know anybody you can borrow the book from? How about Warren?”
“He doesn’t have that class. None of my friends do.”
His mother stared at him, unmistakably exasperated. He recognized the look because he’d seen it often. “Honestly, Finn. I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. At this rate, we’ll be lucky if we can get you into the community college here in Jacksonville.”
“What’s so bad about that? That’s what Warren is thinking about doing.”
“Warren is a classic underachiever. He doesn’t care about the future, and apparently his parents don’t either. But I do, and I wish you did, too.”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “I do. I mean, I want to have a career and all that. I just don’t know what it’ll be, yet.”
“You can decide later about that, but you’re limiting your chances of success by lazing around now. This is the time to start preparing, Finn!”
“Does that mean Warren can’t come over?”
“I’m upset with you for leaving your textbook at school. I don’t want to reward you for being forgetful.”
“I’ll study tomorrow, soon as I get home from school.”
“I won’t be home until nearly six o’clock. How do I know you won’t play video games instead?”
“I promise, Mom. There’s nothing to do right now and it’s Sunday. I don’t have anything to study and I can’t mow the lawn. All I can do is play video games or watch TV, and there’s nothing on that’s any good. I checked already. I’m bored.”
“Is Warren even home? He’s always at the beach, seems like.”
“He’s home. He sent me a text. The surf’s bad. Too choppy.”
“All right. He can come.”
Finn made a quick maneuver with his ship to avoid the debris from the enemy vessel he’d just destroyed, and he scanned the screen for more hostiles. Warren, whose ship occupied the second monitor, said, “There’s a squadron of Darvellan fighters approaching from ten o’clock.”
Finn used his game controller to swerve his virtual craft in that direction, and he spotted the eight blips that signaled the approaching foe. He checked the lower right corner of the screen to assess his weapons’ inventory and said, “I’m low on missiles.”
“Then use your lasers.”
“Charge is down to twenty-two percent.”
“Plasma shells?”
“Four left. You’ll have to do most of the fighting. I’ll be your wing man.”
They accelerated toward the incoming vessels and prepared to fight.
Bonnie planted both elbows on the kitchen table and clutched the sides of her head so hard that it hurt. The pain was a welcome distraction.
The bill from the radiologist sat in front of her, glaring at her accusingly. Past Due, it said in stark letters. Her checkbook was beside it, open, and next to that was her calculator. No matter how she worked it, she wasn’t going to have enough money to pay the bill and still be able to cover the others, electric and water, also due.
She didn’t want to use her credit card to settle the account. Only if I absolutely have to. That was a trap that was hard to get out of. One of the other hygienists at work had done that, online shopping, and had to take out a loan to pay it off, and her husband made her tear up her card.
I have to save mine for emergencies only.
She briefly considered cancelling cable TV, but that was part of a package that included their telephone service and Internet, and Finn needed the Internet for school, and the television was the only entertainment she had. She hadn’t been to a movie in so long she couldn’t remember which one it was.
Maybe I should cancel our cell phones. Then she remembered she’d have to pay a penalty because she recently signed a contract for a new plan, so that was no option.
And she hadn’t given Finn his allowance for the week.
She got up and headed down the short hallway to his room. Through his closed door she heard the all-too-familiar sounds of video combat — piercing, shrieking sizzles of energy blasts. Sharp rumblings of explosions. The muffled voices of Finn and Warren.
She knocked and let herself in.
Finn and Warren were sitting side by side on the edge of the bed, each holding a game controller and their eyes intent on the two screens on Finn’s desk a few feet away. Finn only glanced at her before shifting his attention back to the virtual destruction they seemed to relish.
“Finn,” she said, “can I speak with you for a second?”
“Can it wait? We’re in the middle of a battle.”
“You’re always in the middle of a battle. I don’t think you’ll get a commercial break. So please pause your game and come out into the hall with me. It’ll only take a minute.”
“But if we destroy this batch of fighters, we can get to the mothership and that’ll give us a chance to get enough points to move up to the next level.”
“Now, Finn!”
“Aw…crap. Okay.” He pressed a button on his controller and got up and said to Warren, “I’ll be right back. Don’t play without me.”
“I can’t. We’re in dual player mode.” Warren slipped his phone from the back pocket of his pants and turned it on while Finn left the room with Bonnie.
Once they were out in the hall, she closed the door and said in a quiet voice, “I’ve been going over our finances for the last hour, and no matter how I try to fudge things, I’m going to come up short this month. I don’t have enough for your allowance this week.”
His brow fell. “Again? You didn’t give it to me last week.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. Finn, something’s got to change. I can’t keep up at this rate. You need to get a job, and soon.”
“A job?”
“Yes, a job. You know what that is, right?”
“Sure, but I just turned sixteen, and…and how am I going to get to work? You have to take the car every day.”
“You can use it on weekends, though you need to work more than that. You need to work as much as you can during the summer. You’ll have to ride your bike to work.”
“You’re kidding.”
“DO I LOOK LIKE I’M KIDDING?”
He gestured with both hands. “Calm down. Warren can hear you.”
“I don’t care. You need to get a job and you need to do it now. I have a regular patient who told me about an opening this summer at the Driftwood Bay Country Club. She said you have to apply soon, though, because they want to fill the position right away. She’s the personnel director and she seems to like me, so I think your chances of getting the job are good.”
“Ride my bike?” he said with his lip slightly curled.
“Yes, Finn, ride your bike. It won’t kill you to do that. You’ll have to wear your helmet, or course.”
“Helmet?” he said vacantly, as if he couldn’t believe his own mother was suggesting he give up all vestiges of cool.
She patted her head. “Helmet. The hard plastic thing that protects your skull.”
“I’ll look like a dork.”
“If you have an accident, you’ll be worse than a dork. You’ll either be dead or brain damaged.”
“But the country club is far. It’s like, ten miles, at least.”
“It’s three point one. I checked. Easy biking distance.”
“But I’ll get all sweaty.”
“Not in the morning because it won’t be too hot yet, and it doesn’t matter if you get sweaty when you ride home in the afternoon. You can take a shower then.”
