96 - Moving Day

*I can’t do a custody agreement for Darkness because I don’t practice in Louisiana or Arkansas. I can do one for Camille because you are a resident of Massachusetts. There is a solution, but I’m pretty damned sure that your father will not like it. - Celt*

Their little two-bedroom house was crammed pack with people who were helping to pack up everything and break down the furniture. Every so often, Camille stopped what she was doing and texted back and forth with someone. Just before the couch and recliners were to be moved out, she sat down on the recliner and answered a call from Evie.

“Evie, what’s going on up there?”

Evie sighed heavily over the phone. “I don’t know. The clubhouses are locked out for anyone not patched. They are in a church meeting and have been there for over an hour. And this one is after some got called to a meeting at your dad’s club,”

“That explains why the musketeers aren’t answering,” she leaned her head back against the couch cushions and looked up at the ceiling. “I keep getting a strange message from Priscilla’s phone.”

“When my guys get home, I’ll try to call her.”

“I appreciate that.”

“Anyway, you found a Jeep?”

“I did, but I can’t get ahold of Ryder to get money transferred so I can pay for it. I know we have it in the corporate account and Priss and I talked about me taking a loan through the company.”

“Calm down, Camille,” Evie soothed. “Send me the details for the Jeep and I’ll send the money.”

“Evie-“

“What’s the difference between you taking a loan from yourself, or a loan from me?”

“I wasn’t going to pay interest to myself,” Camille admitted.

Evie chuckled. “I’m not doing this to make money. I’m doing this because a friend needs help.”

“I’m a friend?” Camille grinned.

“I was actually thinking about Darkness, but yeah, I guess you too.”

“Bet.”

Evie laughed but Camille could picture her cringing at the slang.

“Send me the details, Camille.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

After ending the call, she pulled up the email from the dealership that was just inside Arkansas. She forwarded the email and then sent a message to Evie that it had been sent to her personal email. Then she returned to helping move her household belongings from the small two-bedroom cottage to the much larger six-bedroom house.

She was pulling out of the driveway when Evie called her back. Putting the Jeep in drive, she answered the call through the handsfree system.

“They misspelled your name,” Evie laughed. “They left out that infamous A.”

Throughout her life, Camille had fought to keep her name as Johanson and not Johnson. With Johnson being a more common name, teachers were constantly leaving out the A and she would spend the first few weeks of school correcting them.

“Actually, no. it’s right.”

There was silence on the line and Camille checked to see if the call had dropped.

“Evie?”

“I’m here, I’m just… a little lost.”

“The only way that Celt could do our custody agreement was that we were married. My permanent residency address is there in Massachusetts. So, we got a courthouse wedding here and established his residency there. We thought that we’d have more time.”

“Do your parents know?”

“Half of them do,” Camille admitted with a small laugh.

Evie chuckled, “Your mom.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, “my mom. Dad knows that Darkness is getting mail there to establish residency, and it has to do with his niece and nephews, but not about the marriage. I am only using Johnson on legal documents. Everything else is still Johanson.”

“For once, that dropped A is helping you.”

“Could you imagine the shit storm dad would be creating if he knew?”

Evie laughed. “There have been very few times that I have seen the Marine side of your dad. That side scares me, I prefer the fun-loving guy that when he gets drunk fucks your mom wherever she is.”

“Yeah. I just prefer the fun-loving guy and would prefer to never see that ever again. Ever. There is not enough bleach in the world to clean that image from my brain.”

“Trust me, I know that feeling.”

They both shared a laugh as Camille approached the neighborhood from the eighties that was filled with large rambling houses. Unable to help herself, she gave a low whistle. “Damn, these are bigger than I was expecting.”

“Um, to quote half the boys in my classes, that’s what she said.”

“And I am a she, so … accurate.”

“Yes, yes you are. What’s bigger than you were expecting?”

“The houses in the new neighborhood. Going from post war minimalism to the excess of the eighties.”

“Culture shock?” Evie teased.

“Very much so. I’m at the end of a cul-de-sac and I’m very tempted to just drive around and look at these houses. Holy shit, that one is three stories. Oh wait, fuck me. That’s my house.”

“A three-story house?” Evie asked as Camille’s radio screen showed a new call from JASPER – DARKNESS BROTHER.

“Hey, Evie, Jasper is calling me.”

“Okay, I’ve sent the payment, call me if you need anything else.”

“Thanks, Eves,” Camille said using the nickname that her family gave her friend as a child. She ended the call with Evie and answered the call with Jasper as she backed her Jeep into an empty spot on the curve of the cul-de-sac in front of the three-story house. “Hey, Jasper, how are you feeling?”

“Is this Camille Johnson?” a woman asked in a tired but no-nonsense tone.

“Yes, ma’am.” A feeling of dread settled over Camille, and she switched the call from the hands free to her phone and grabbed it off the holder on the dash.

“My name is Dr. Catherine Devereux, and I have been treating Jasper Johnson at…”

The world fell away and all that she could hear was the roaring of her pulse in her ears. She took a deep breath and focused on the woman on the other end of the line.

“…on a ventilator and no longer breathing on his own. He has a living will, but we are trying to give families a chance to say goodbye.”

“How long do we have?”

“Unfortunately, with the need, I cannot keep him on it for more than a few hours,” the doctor admitted.

“I’m going to ask for a huge favor. Huge,” Camille pleaded. “We’ll head up there immediately and I want to tell his kids. They don’t need to say goodbye to both parents by themselves.”

Camille heard the resigned sigh, felt the heaviness of it herself.

“How quick can you be here?”

“Five, six hours.”

After a brief pause, the doctor advised, “Make it under six.”

“Let me pee and we’ll be on our way up,” Camille promised.

With that promise, the doctor agreed, and they ended the call. Camille got out of the Jeep and grabbed the nearest Cajun.

“Priest, I need you to empty out the back of my car,” she walked around and opened the back of the Jeep. “Just back here, everything in the backseat stays.”

“Where do you want me to put it?”

“I really don’t care,” she admitted and dashed towards the house. Thanking whatever deity was listening to her guardian angel, she grabbed Zydeco and pulled him off to the side.

“What’s going on?” he asked with a laugh. Looking at the young woman, his grin fell. “What happened?”

“Jasper’s doctor called me,” she said softly. “He’s on a ventilator, not breathing on his own.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, they’re going to keep him on life support for about six hours. Just enough time for us to get up there to the kids.”

“They don’t need to go through this alone.”

She nodded, “That was my argument. They already lost their mom.”

“Have you told Darkness?”

“No,” she shook her head. “I just got off the phone with her.”

“With who?” Darkness asked as he joined them and slid an arm around her shoulders.

Camille turned and looked at Darkness, she braced her hands against his chest before tipping her head back and looked up at him. “Jasper’s doctor.”

“One he works with?”

“No, son,” Zydeco said. “*His* doctor.”

“Oh…”

“We need to leave, right now,” she told him.

“We can’t… we can’t see him,” Darkness argued.

“No, we can’t,” she agreed. “But we can be there with his kids when they say goodbye.”

Understanding dawned on him. “Oh, shit, the kids.”

“Yeah, we need to leave.”

“I’ll stay here,” Zydeco said.

“Zy…”

“Amos, go,” his adopted father ordered. “I’ll be here when you guys get back. Besides, someone has to get you moved.”

Camille could see the struggle that Darkness was having. Wise words from Becks floated through her mind. She cupped his face between her hands.

“Right now, this is not about me, or you or even Jasper. It’s about those three kids.”