Part
and Parcel
It sat on
her desk like some scary omen. It was
medium sized, the brown packaging nicely tapped together but it was from
Jane. The Jane who had disappeared for
three days because he thought he had a Red John clue. It was bogus of course as Lisbon had told him
it would be. A man claiming to be
Orville Tanner’s kin said he had information, that he had seen Red John. Soon Harvey Dweeb was no longer at his
residence and Jane wasn’t parked on his couch.
Lisbon knew Jane had kidnapped…well persuaded Dweeb to join him on a
journey somewhere to answer his questions in private. Lisbon also knew this was so Jane could reach
Red John first and gut his Moby Dick.
Jane was
back with them but not talking spending all his time upstairs in his adult tree
house. Lisbon was ignoring him out of
anger and fear. She was rightly upset
that he had gone off by himself, took someone with him and was going to parley
himself into becoming an executioner.
She feared that one day he would never return that either he would
accomplish his task or give up on life or just leave. She did not know what she would be without
him and she didn’t want to find out.
The hot
mail room guy had dropped off the package to her and there it sat. She had figured out what was inside of it and
that was what seemed so scary- that he was preparing her for his eventual
departure. Jane, she realized, was
trying to make her understand that he would not have a happy ending. Sighing out loud, Lisbon gave me and took out
her large metal scissors. She opened the
package carefully thinking she would find books on Mentalism so she could carry
on his absence. It was a box of books but the first one she pulled out was Jane Eyre. Lisbon looked at it as if it was a bomb ready
to go off instead of a classic novel.
Looking at the label again she checked to make sure he hadn’t ordered
this for Cho. Seeing her name looking
back at her she pulled out another- Wuthering
Heights. Did he feel she didn’t read
enough? It made no sense to her.
By the time she was done she had eight
books. Along with the Bronte sisters
books there was Little Women, Ethan
Frome, Pride and Prejudice, The Invisible Man, Moby Dick, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Lisbon was so engrossed in looking at them with utter confession she never
heard him slip in until his voice made her jump.
“Well,
Dweeb was an outright liar.”
“For a guy
who can read people so well you should have figured that by the last name
alone,” she retorted.
Jane
shrugged, hands in his dark grey trousers,
“I bought him a lobster dinner, too.”
“Dinner
without a reward later, poor Jane,” Lisbon teased.
“I see
you received the reading materials.”
“These?
Yes. You do realize that I don’t have a
lot of spare time on my hands to go through a reading list of the classics.”
Jane
leaned back on the heels of his feet and shrugged. “They might be helpful for you.”
Lisbon
picked up the Wells book. “I know these are great books and thank you for them
but I guess I am just confused why you bought me these in particular.”
Jane smiled
brightly. “Look closely my dear at the
books, read them a little at a time and you will see why I did. When you are have completed them we can
discuss it if you are still confused over my intentions.”
“Jane, it
will probably take me years to finish these.”
“I know,”
he responded and for a moment he let the mask slip and she saw the real
him. She understood then. The books all had shades of how to decipher him. It would take her a long time to read…he
wasn’t going anywhere yet.
“Thank
you,” she said meekly, trying to hide still behind her mask but failing she
knew.
“You are
welcome, Teresa,” he responded before leaving her office.
She felt
his presence still as she rubbed her hand over the classic book’s cover. Opening the novel she turned to the first
page ready to begin her journey to understanding better the blonde that
complicated her life for the better.
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