Nobody Like You

I Won't Be Back

"Halle, this is going to sound outrageous, but I know where my mother and I've known for days," he confessed as he curled himself up against the driver's door, squinting his eyes, thinking she was going to hit him, and she did in his chest.

"Is something wrong with you? Do you just have some sick obsession with keeping really important things from people?!" Halle said as she turned to him.

She couldn't believe he was just now saying something.

"Hey Jordan, What the hell is wrong with you? You're telling me that we could have saved your mom days ago, but you didn't call the police or tell my mom?!" Halle said as she turned completely to him and he opened his mouth to explain.

"Look, I understand that it's messed up that I've been sitting on this information, but it was only for a day! I've been planning; I couldn't do anything sooner, and I didn't know how to tell you!"

"Planning—what could you possibly be planning other than a call to 911?"

"Halle, they declared my mom's case a cold case, and it wasn't getting anywhere, and it wasn't going to! Hell, your father is at the head of the case, and we all know he did something to my mother! The police aren't interested in finding a grown woman, especially when it keeps saying that her phone is pinging off of towers within the city, and we all know that your dad is going to help the case when he is the  criminal."Jordan said as he shook his head and realized he was calling her dad a criminal with no way to prove it.

"I shouldn't have said that... I'm sorry, it's your father, and"

"No, you're right, my dad is a criminal. Keep going, just explain yourself."

"But I found out where he took my mother. I went back to the apartment to see if I could sell anything from the fire, and I noticed an eviction notice on his door. My landlord only sends eviction notices when someone hasn't paid rent or just abandoned the apartment, so he hasn't been there for days. So after we went to church and he was on his way home, I followed him. I drove for hours following his car until we reached this hotel. I parked as far away as I could without being seen and watched him go into one of the rooms, I saw my mother, and I knew it was her. I wanted a group to march right up to him and get my mother out of there, but when I got one from the stairs, I started hearing yelling and all of this banging in the hotel room. She was alive, but I knew what he was doing to her, and I couldn't see that. I didn't want to see that.

He sat there for a moment, feeling his guilt. He felt like he had failed his mother like he couldn't do anything to help her. He had the opportunity, but he didn't take it. But Halle understood why.

"At least you know she's alive; at least you didn't give up on her. Why didn't you tell him at least?"

"Halle, your mom loves my mom, and if I had told her this, she would have marched her right up there, no warning, no explanation, and I didn't want to get her hurt too. We both can't be missing our moms. and if I had any found out, I don't think my mom would be alive nonetheless, still in the city," he says as Halle shakes her head, trying to think of what they should do now.

"Why didn't you call somebody else?"

"Halle, Who am I going to call? Fucking Ghostbusters?! Your father is 911; he's probably got every officer who was even remotely connected to the case, feeding him information as it comes in!"

Halle rolled her eyes and leaned against the dashboard. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Everything Jordan said made his situation sound even more helpless.

"So, what do we do now? Jordan, I honestly don't know what to say..." Halle questioned as she leaned back in her chair as Jordan began putting the car in drive and pulling from the parking lot onto the main road