Lance just amusingly grinned. Ellen gave Everett a curious look as Everett continued with, “Your mom or your dad?”
“Where did that question come from?” Ellen quickly asked.
“I’m just changing the subject from tampons and I am curious to know,” Everett replied.
Ellen shook off the abrupt subject change before saying, “I look very much like my mom… except for my eyes and ears. My eyes and ears I got from my dad. Oh, and I’m currently the same height as my mom was.”
“Short,” Everett playfully said in a joshing tone.
“Five-five isn’t all that short,” Ellen defended. Everett and Lance grinned. “Also reaching full height at sixteen is just an average age for girls. Girls can stop growing at fifteen or continue to grow until they reach eighteen—it just depends on the girl, and my mom didn’t reach her full height until just after her seventeenth birthday. So I just might become five-six or taller before I stop growing.”
“Okay,” Everett said in an appeasing tone.
“And you’re only five-nine,” Ellen continued. “So you’re not exactly towering over me.”
“Okay,” Everett said with a slight laugh. “I was just messing with you.”
“Sure you were,” Ellen playfully retorted before shooting him a delightful grin. She then took and held Everett’s hand before continuing on with another topic.
Chapter Four
The conversation from Dr. Pendell’s office to a twenty-four-hour drugstore had remained casual. Their time within the drugstore was short before reaching the moderate size checkout line with their items to be purchased.
Lance glanced at the box of tampons before saying, “So not to give the cashier double work, we’ll combine our purchases. So let me have your money.”
“Alright,” Ellen said before pulling out her money from her front pocket and handing it to Lance.
When Everett saw beef jerky on one of the shelves at the checkout line, he grabbed a few bags to be purchased. He then saw that Ellen was looking at the bags in his hands.
“There’s a lot of protein in beef jerky,” Everett supplied.
Ellen amusingly grinned before saying, “I just assumed you just like beef jerky.”
“I do actually, but I mainly get them for the protein.”
“Okay,” Ellen said in an appeasing tone as a muscular twenty-something-year-old man with a full beard stepped in line behind her group. Ellen glanced at the man and saw that he was carrying shaving supplies. After seeing what the man was carrying, Ellen faced forward.
Once Ellen, Everett and Lance had finally reached the cashier, the cashier stared puzzlingly into Ellen’s face.
As Ellen was returning the puzzled look that she was receiving, Lance asked the cashier, “Is there anything wrong?”
The cashier broke his stare, and as he went to scan the first item, he said, “There’s nothing wrong.”
Ellen shook off the incident, and as she glanced down at the item that was being scanned, she noticed a thorn vine tattoo that encircled the cashier’s right wrist. Ellen then noticed that the tattoo was tattooed over a thick scar that also encircled the wrist.
Ellen quickly grabbed the cashier’s right hand and flipped it over in order to see the opposite side of his wrist.
As the cashier pulled his hand from Ellen’s grasp, he uttered, “Excuse me!”
Ellen locked eyes with the cashier before saying, “I know you.”
“I have been working here for six years, so…” the cashier was only able to get out.
Everett and Lance had confused expressions on their faces as Ellen interrupted with, “You’re Tucker Wiley.”
Lance saw the fear in the cashier’s face before he told Ellen, “You-you’re mistaken. My name is David Robinson.”
“You weren’t killed thirty-two years ago,” Ellen continued as if the cashier didn’t speak.
“Kid, you have me confused with someone else,” the cashier told Ellen.
“My name is Ellen, and I’m your sister’s daughter,” Ellen informed.
An acknowledging expression, that Lance saw, came across the cashier’s face before the cashier said, “I’m not your uncle, Ellen…”
“She died back in June from a brain tumor,” Ellen informed.
“Ellen, stop,” the cashier demanded. “I’m not Tucker Wiley. I’m not your mom’s brother.”
Ellen glanced at the cashier’s right wrist before saying, “You were twelve when your right hand was severed off after my mom had accidentally shoved you into a large glass window. She shoved you to keep you from accidentally stepping on your pet hamster. She prayed from the time when your hand was severed off to the time that it was reattached that you wouldn’t lose your hand. And even after learning that you would recover full use of your hand, she felt so guilty for what had happened to you that she had done your chores for two years.”
The cashier grinned before correcting, “It was nineteen months actually. It would’ve been longer if your grandpa didn’t intervene and insisted that I do my own chores.”
“So you are Tucker Wiley?” Lanced questioned.
“I am,” he replied. “And my handler isn’t going to believe that I was identified by my sister’s daughter.”
“Handler?” Ellen echoed in a confused tone.
Tucker leaned closer before whispering, “For the past thirty-two years, I’ve been in the witness protection program.”
The customer behind Ellen’s group asked impatiently, “Can we move along here? I have somewhere to be.”
“Of course,” Tucker told the customer. As he continued to scan the remaining items he asked Ellen’s group, “Can you three stick around for a few minutes?”
“We can spare a few minutes,” Lance told him.
Tucker nodded before announcing the total amount that Lance owed. Lance pulled out the money and handed it to Tucker. Tucker put the money into the cash drawer before handing Lance his change. Before Tucker went to the next customer, he picked up the phone and dialed it. After a short wait he requested for someone to come to his register to take over for him.
After Tucker hung up, he told Ellen’s group, “Once Dennis gets over here, we’ll talk.”
“In the meantime, can you wait on me?!” the customer behind Ellen’s group strongly requested.
“Of course, sir,” Tucker told him.
As
