Happy Birthday to Me Again (Birthday Trilogy, Book 2) (24 page)

“I… uhh…”

“Honey, sit
down,” my mom said.

“Oh my God,” he said. “Is he here because
of Cameron? Did something happen to Cameron?”

“He’s fine,” my
mom said.

“I’m fine,” I
said from the corner.

“Oh,” he said, bringing his hand to his
heart and laughing for a moment. “Oh, thank God.” He took a few loud deep
breaths, then turned toward me for the first time. “Who the hell is
he
?”

Nobody said anything, not even my mom. We
just waited for the realization to hit him. My dad had spent a year with me
when I was ten. He would know.

My dad continued to stare at me. “Jesus
Christ.” He darted his eyes to Kimber. “Is this a friend of yours? He’s the
spitting image of Cameron when he was a kid.”

“Dad,” Kimber
said, “it
is
Cameron.”

“What?”

“
That’s
Cameron.” She pointed at me.

“Your friend’s
name is Cameron?”

My mom took my dad’s arm and pulled him
close. “Honey,” she said, “it’s happening again. Only this time he’s getting
younger, if you can believe it.”

She let go of my dad’s arm, and then he
brought his eyes back to me. He knew, I could tell. Now he could see me for
what I really was.

A freak.

He nodded and sighed, nonchalantly,
before turning around and exiting the kitchen. He didn’t utter a single word.

I expected Mom to follow him, but she
didn’t. I think she knew, as well as I did, that it was best to just let him
be. I’d known for the last few days just how tough it was going to be for my
parents to see me going through this again. What were they supposed to do?
Nothing. There was nothing they could do.

I have to find Liesel… she’s out there…
somewhere…

---

It did feel nice—I have to
admit—going to sleep that night in my own bedroom, in my own bed, under a
roof. Wesley took the guest room, while my dad took the family room
couch—I only noticed this when I went to get a glass of water before bed.

“Can we talk about this tomorrow?” I
asked my dad, my voice as high and screechy as ever.

He didn’t answer. He didn’t even move. He
was faking sleep—this I knew for sure—but I hoped that in the next
day or two he would find the time, and the decency, to come talk to me, about
my illness, about my future plans, and about the current status between him and
Mom. There was a lot of shit going down in the Martin family household, and
keeping tight-lipped right now was a road to nowhere.

I peed before heading to bed. When I
finished, I looked down, and shook my head in frustration. “It’s the worst part
about all of this,” I said to myself, looking out the window at the cloudy
night sky. “My wiener’s the size of a goddamn toothpick.”

I didn’t laugh. I just flushed and headed
straight for bed. Tomorrow was Monday. It was time to get to work… and find
some answers.

10.
Nine

When I opened my eyes, I was already in
his arms. We were making our way down toward the kitchen and the garage.

“Dad…”

“Shh…”

“Dad… Dad!”

He shoved his hand over my mouth and kept
me from screaming as he walked faster, holding me tightly in his arms as he
whisked me out of the hallway and into the garage with a semi-loud slam of the
door.

He raced down the stairs toward his Lexus
on the far right of the garage and unlocked it, opening the passenger door. He
finally let go of my mouth.

“Dad!
What are you doing—
”

He pushed me up
against the passenger seat and buckled my seatbelt.

“Dad—”

He pointed right at me. “Not one word,
Cameron. For once in your life, shut the hell up, sit back, and just let me do
what I need to do. If you scream, or try to get out of that seat, I’m gonna
smack you in your ridiculous face, I swear to God.”

My dad had on occasion used not the best
choice of words with me, but this little ditty took the goddamn birthday cake,
so to speak. Not only was there both rage and cynicism in his outburst, but
there was also the underlying message that he had been frustrated with me long
before these last few hours.

He slammed my door and walked around to
the other side of the car. He was dressed in a casual long-sleeved shirt and
jeans, clearly not work attire.

Where is he taking me?

Back when I was growing older last year,
I would always have visions of my dad driving me out to the middle of nowhere
to shoot me and leave me for dead, given that his plastic surgery business
flourished on appearances. My dad always looked amazing, no doubt about it. His
dark brown hair was always cut at the perfect length, he worked out almost
every day before work, keeping a toned, muscular body at all times. But his son
looking anything less than perfect was something never to be tolerated. I made
it through the craziness of last year, but here I was again, with a condition
even more insane than the one before, and I assumed, as my dad turned on the
ignition and started pulling the car out of the driveway, today was the day I
was going to die.

I patted the
sides of my pants. “My phone… Dad, can I just go back and get my phone?”

“No.”

“What if Liesel
calls me? What if—”

“Cameron, quiet!” He turned onto McCarron
Boulevard and started speeding toward the freeway. “We have a long drive ahead
of us. I want you to keep quiet, you understand me?”

“Or what? You gonna push me out of the
car into oncoming traffic? You gonna murder your only son, Dad?”

“Of course not,” he said, swallowing
loudly and blinking erratically, like he was wearing a faulty contact lens.
“I’ve just got a lot on my mind. I’ve got a lot to—”

“Where are you
taking me? Just answer me that. And then I’ll shut up.”

“I’m taking you
somewhere where you will get
well
,
Cameron.”

“Where?”

“The Kensmarck Clinic in Lone Pine. It’s
a hidden gem in the middle of nowhere, a place that’s even higher rated than
that Phoenix clinic we were gonna bring you to last year.”

“Where the hell
is Lone Pine?”

“It’s down Route
395, about six hours south from here.”

“
Six hours
? Are you
serious
?”

“Get comfortable,” my dad said. “I’m not
about to let you rot until the last possible second again, Cam. I’m gonna make
sure you get well. And then we’ll talk about what brought this on. Again.”

“Dad. There’s
nothing these doctors will be able to do for me.”

He didn’t say anything. He checked his
phone for no apparent reason and then changed lanes, maneuvering from the I-80
freeway to US-395 South.

“Dad! You’re
wasting gas, and time, and money! A doctor
can’t
save me!”

“I don’t care. You’re getting younger
every day. That means we only have a few days left. Do you have a better
suggestion?”

I really wanted to tell him about Liesel.
But I knew he wouldn’t believe me. I also figured if I told him about her, if I
did get better one of these days, he’d make us call off the wedding, and he’d
never want to see her again.

Let’s keep Liesel out of the
conversation. For now, at least.

“We can’t just
go see some Reno doctor? At least for today?”

“No,” he said. “And don’t think you’re
gonna talk me out of this. I’ve already made up my mind. We’re doing this.
There’s no stopping me this time. Do you understand?”

I sighed and nodded my head. When my dad
made his mind up about something, it was difficult to stop him. And I knew
today, of all days, would be a time to just sit back and let Dad guide the way.
I didn’t have any leads on where Liesel could be, anyway. It was time to give
up. It was time to move on.

And pray.

I looked out the window to see the sun
creeping over the horizon, promising a new day that was bound to end with
disappointment. I looked at the clock on the front of the car. It was only 6:08
A.M.

I yawned and turned over on my right
side. If my dad wanted me quiet, he’d get me quiet. I wasn’t about to make a
peep, at least for the next few hours. I fell asleep a minute later, and I
didn’t wake up for over four hours.

---

I awoke in a wet pool of slobber, as my
dad slammed on the brakes of the car and opened his door.

“Come on, Cam.
Let’s get some lunch.”

I looked at the
clock. “Lunch? It’s only… it’s only 10:30.”

“I’m gonna get a
sandwich. You get breakfast if you want. Come on.”

He slammed his door and raced over to my
side, almost as if he suspected if I unbuckled myself I’d start running back
home. But I knew that wasn’t an option anymore. We weren’t anywhere close to
Reno now.

I stepped out of
the car and stretched my little body. “Where are we?”

“Bishop,” he
said.

I surveyed the drab surroundings. There
looked to be only one main road, lined mostly with fast food joints and sketchy
motels. Mountains hugged the town from almost every side. “Looks… pretty boring.”

“Come on,” he
said. “Let’s make this quick.”

I followed him into the left side of the
bakery, where there was a long line for specialty-made sandwiches. I was happy
to learn that they were still selling breakfast sandwiches until 11 A.M.

“Can you get me
the sausage and egg?” I asked, before breaking away from the line.

“Where are you
going?”

“The bathroom.”

“No, Cam, I
don’t want you out of my—”

“Can you let me
go to the bathroom, Dad!
”

A few people
glared at my old man with confusion. He licked his lips and nodded at me.

“Thank you,” I
said, and stepped toward the other side of the store.

As soon as my dad disappeared from my
line of sight, I raced past the bathroom and stepped back out into dismally
dull Bishop, California. I knew I had two, three minutes max, to pull something
crazy. I thought I could just start running, but where would that get me? I
could try hitchhiking, but again, that would be a crapshoot. I had about a
dozen ideas flow in and out of my brain when I caught sight, unbelievably, of a
payphone sitting outside the Taco Bell across the street.

“Bingo!” I said
out loud.

I ran across the street, almost getting
swiped by a huge semi-truck, and grabbed the phone. I pulled out my wallet,
which thankfully still had a few quarters inside of it, and entered enough of
the coins to make the call.

Of course in this day and age I didn’t
know any of my friends’ cell phone numbers off the top of my head. Wesley had
been using the same phone number for over four years, and I still couldn’t
think of that one. There was only one number I could think of.
Home
.

I called the
house, and Wesley, of all people, picked up the phone. “Martin residence.”

“Wesley?”

“Cam?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Where the hell are you? Your mom and
sister are driving around looking everywhere for you. They told me to stay back
just in case you called or showed up.”

“I’m with my
dad! He kidnapped me!”

“He
what
?”

“Look, listen, I don’t have much time.
We’re heading down 395. He’s taking me to some town called Lone Pine, to some
clinic. Mom will know what it is.”

“Lone Pine?
That’s on my way to L.A. That’s like six hours from here!”

“He’s not thinking straight, Wes. This is
only going to keep me further from finding Liesel. If he gets me into this
clinic, I’m a dead man. You’ve gotta do something.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know!
Think of something!”

“Umm… OK…”

“Start by telling my mom what he’s doing.
Maybe she’ll be able to call him and talk some sense into him.”

“They thought
you ran away. I think they just assumed your dad went to work.”

“No. He’s with me. And he’s keeping a
close eye on me. I have to get back, do you understand?”

“OK. Well at
least now we know where you are.”

“Yeah.” I turned toward the bakery. I
needed to get back. “OK, Wes. Tell my mom I’m in Bishop, OK?”

“Sure
thing.”

“OK, bye.”

I hung up the phone and ran back across
the street. I didn’t know what this trio back in Reno could do for me at this
point, but I felt better knowing they weren’t completely clueless as to my
whereabouts.
 

I entered the bakery and made my way over
to the sandwich line, where, thank God, my dad was just now paying for the
food.