Chapter 20

A few days later, Hanson the band appeared before cameras again.  For all they knew, it would be for the last time.  The press release was one of those vague, mysterious pieces that raised more questions than it answered.  Isaac was chosen to represent the group and read the statement.  Zac and Taylor stood beside him.  Only Tulsa's newspeople were informed and they were asked to pass it along to any affiliates who cared for the story.  All three boys were nervous with Zac and Taylor appearing to be on the verge of tears. The reporters were expecting some small announcement about the postponing of some dates or some update on Taylor's health as the last they'd heard he'd had a one day stay in a hospital in New York City.

Isaac began, "Hello everyone and thank you for coming.  This won't take long and unfortunately we will be unable to take any of your questions at this time.  Due to circumstances beyond our control, we, as a band, will no longer be able to fulfill obligations and all scheduled and future appearances are cancelled.  We are sorry for any inconvenience to anyone and especially to our fans who have supported us through thick and thin as well as our record company.  We will miss you all and we hope everyone has a safe and happy new year.  Thank you for all the joy you've given us.  God bless."

Zac's eyes hadn't left Taylor who looked like he would either pass out or freak out, he'd kept his eyes focused on the floor almost exclusively.  As Isaac finished, the quiet room immediately became a melee of flashes and questions shouted out at the boys.  Their father quickly joined them and walked with them off the platform.

~~~~

For the next few days the story was kicked back and forth with speculations ranging from an obvious mental breakdown to signs of drug addiction with Taylor being the apparent target of all the rumours.  It was easy to tell, they'd assumed, what with the way he'd carried himself, the dark circles under his eyes, etc, etc.  Diana and Walker kept all the children busy that week and no TV was allowed.

The detectives had informed Walker that the name Taylor had given them was that of a Dr. Thomas Harris, a surgeon from New York City.  He had apparently taken a leave of absence from his practice when his pregnant fiancée had committed suicide.  Also, a couple of days before abducting Taylor, he had closed all bank accounts and tied up all loose ends, apparently deciding to disappear.  They had found the summer home he owned in the mountains and it had obviously been the place where he'd kept Taylor as his blood was found not only on the floor, but also in a make-shift operating room in the back of the house.  There were fingerprints everywhere but they weren't able to identify the accomplice yet.

In order to keep everyone away from tv and newspapers and the internet, their parents drafted them all in the business of getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Pies, cookies, paper cutouts of turkeys, indians, and pilgrims, whatever they could think of.  Taylor was looking much better and had no problem picking up Zoe or going up the steps two at a time.  At times he got frustrated when he was in need of communicating and was ignored or misunderstood.  In a week's time he was on his second pad of paper and had been called "Thumper" more than once by his family because of a tendency to stomp his foot or slap the table in order to get someone's attention.  On the night before Thanksgiving Diana realized she didn't have sour cream for the corn pudding she was making to take to her sister's house the following day.  As she grabbed her coat and purse, Jessica came up to her, "Where you goin' Mom?"

"To the store.  I need to pick up a couple things."  She answered.

"Can I go with you?"

"Of course.  Put on a coat, it's feeling like winter out there."  Jessica grabbed Isaac's denim jacket off the back of a chair where it hung and they were on their way.  The parking lot was crowded as it always is on the day before a holiday.  They had chit chatted in the car but now as Diana gazed at the apples in the produce aisle, Jessica finally got around to what she had wanted to talk to her mother about.

"Mom," she started.  Diana was looking closely at a Granny Smith.

"Yes baby?"  she answered absently.

"Has Tay told you what happened?"  Diana looked over at her daughter.

"No honey, I guess he's not ready, yet."

"Zac knows."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, a couple nights ago, I heard 'em talking...  Well, Zac anyways, and Tay was crying and Zac kept telling him it wasn't his fault and stuff."

"Jess, did you hear anything that your father and I should know?"

Jessica thought for a moment before answering.  "Not really, I couldn't tell what Tay was saying, just Zac...  But Mom, aren't you worried about him?  He's not the same.  He has nightmares sometimes.  He even walks different."

For an instant a horrible thought flickered in Diana's mind but she quickly dismissed it.  "This whole thing has to be a nightmare for him, honey."

"I know Mom.  But, it just seems like he's fading away or something.  Y'know Allison at dance class?  Her sister is deaf and she doesn't speak and she's not like that.  She signs, why don't we do that too?  It's not hard, she taught me some."

Diana looked at her, "Jessica, you are the smartest person I know.  It's time our curriculum got a second language.  You and I are going shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, but not at the mall."  The rest of the trip to the grocery flew by and Jessica noticed her mother had a bounce in her step that had been missing since that horrible time in New York.

As they stood in the checkout line they both laughed at the tabloid magazines and their "exclusive" stories until they came across the National Star, there on the cover was a picture of Taylor and the headline "Mmmbop Kid Kidnapped!"

"Mom!!"

"Sssshhh!  I see it Jess, go and get all of them you can find, at least maybe people in our own neighborhood will be spared this."  Jessica went from lane to lane.  When she was finished they counted fifty six copies. When she handed them to the checkout girl, she looked at Diana like she had two heads.  "There's fifty six, you don't have to count them."

"I still have to count 'em."  Fifty six times the cover flashed before her eyes as the girl slapped each one of them down on the stack.  Once in the car, they looked inside at the article.  Most of what the reporter had written, they'd gotten from an employee of the restaurant where the boys had gotten food and whose dumpster Zac had been locked in.  There was also a photo of Zac and Taylor in the window of the hospital and one from the press conference.  An anonymous source from the hospital had confirmed that Taylor's vocal chords had been  "damaged" and that due to the nature of the injury, it was unlikely they'd improve enough for him to sing again.

"Well, Jess, I guess, the cat's out of the bag, now the real fun starts.  We better get home."

~~~~

The cat was indeed out of the bag, as Taylor had discovered on the internet.  The magazine had hit the stands that morning and the internet was ablaze by that afternoon.  When Taylor signed on that evening to check e-mail, there was a huge amount of correspondence in his box.  He immediately went to a site that was always first with scans of articles and always had people sending in sightings, rumors and such.  There it was, his face on the cover and inside, an article that was a little too close to the truth but not entirely accurate.  "Oh no..."  he turned the computer off.  Isaac would be mad but he couldn't bear the fifteen seconds or so it would have taken to shut it down properly.

He walked out into the hallway and sat down on the top step.  His knees felt weak and shaky and he knew his nerves were doing a number on him again.  He got up and carefully made his way downstairs.  He looked in the living room.  Beauty and the Beast was on tv and Avery, Mackie, and Zoe were all watching.  He heard something in the kitchen so he went there.  Isaac was fixing a sandwich and humming some unknown tune.  Taylor tapped him on his shoulder and he jumped.

"Oh God, Tay!  Get some squeaky shoes or somethin'!"  He went back to his meal.  Taylor stomped. "What!?"  But he hadn't turned around.  Taylor just stood there waiting as his pulse quickened and sweat was starting to form on his forehead.  Isaac put the last piece of bread on his double decker PBJ and grabbed the glass of milk he'd just poured and turned to see his brother staring at him.  "What?"

"Can I borrow your car?"

Just as he said it Avery walked in and Isaac's eyes drifted over to her.  "Hey Ike, what'cha got?"

"Peanut Butter and Jelly."

"Can I have one?"

"God bless America!  I just wanted a sandwich and now everybody's needy..."  Taylor thumped again. "Taylor, I swear, it's like living with some insane jack rabbit.  What do you want?"

Taylor put his hands on Isaac's shoulders and very carefully said, "Please, can I borrow your car?"

"What do you need to borrow?  You faded out at the end there."

Taylor closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.  He reached in his pocket for the small pad that had become his lifeline to everyone around him.  CAR he wrote.

"My car?  No.  Why?"

"Please."

Mackie walked in now.  "Ike, I'm hungry..."

Taylor suddenly felt like the world was spinning and he was left standing still.  "Where's Zac?!"  He asked, but Isaac's attention was turned to his other brother.  Taylor couldn't help it, he just snapped.  He grabbed the closest thing, the jar of grape jelly and heaved it as hard as he could.  It slammed into the wall where coffee mugs were hung on pegs and smashed to bits taking numerous cups with it.  Purple jam ran down the wall onto the counter and the floor.  Now, he had their attention.  Mackenzie had never seen anyone in his family do such a thing and he began to cry.  Avery was frozen where she stood and Isaac looked over at Taylor now and finally saw him.  His face was flushed and he looked angrier than he thought he'd ever seen him.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"  Taylor just shook his head and turned toward the back door.  "Uh-uh, you're gonna clean that up and then we'll talk."

Taylor spun around, "I can't talk, Isaac!"

"Tay..."

Isaac was cut off by his father.  "What in god's name are you all doing in here?!!  I'm in there on the phone and suddenly it sounds like world war three..."  He stopped when he saw the wall.  Nobody said anything.  "Isaac?"  Taylor turned to the door again and Isaac grabbed the back of his shirt, but he kept going.  When Isaac didn't let go, the two faced off.  "I said what is going on?"  Walker had gone into parent mode now.

Isaac replied, "Taylor's upset."

Taylor gave a very disgusted look to his brother and a dismissive gesture with his hands and turned to leave again.  Isaac let him go.

"Jordan Taylor, come back here." his father said.  He was answered with a slam of the door.

~~~~

Diana and Jessica were pulling in through the gate and saw something they hadn't seen in  a while.  Girls.  Many girls were camped outside the entrance to their neighborhood.  "Oh boy.  I guess they know, Mom."

"Great.  I was hoping for a nice quiet holiday for once, not that it's ever quiet with all of you, but still..."

They pulled into the driveway and grabbed the grocery bags.  When they went in the front door Diana immediately knew something was amiss.  Mackie was sitting on the couch crying with Avery comforting him.  Zoe was sitting on the floor by the stereo with a bottle of milk hanging out of her mouth and a pile of CD's around her, the shiny discs keeping her occupied like no toy ever could have.  They went to the kitchen to find Isaac and Walker scrubbing the floor.  "What in the world..."  She sat the bags on the table.  Jessica's mouth fell open.  Grape jelly was everywhere.

Walker looked up, "your son..."

"Wait a minute, how come they're always my son when something happens?  I have four sons, which one are we talking about?" Diana asked.

"Jordan!"  Ouch.  Jessica knew that was not a good sign.  The last time she'd heard him just be Jordan was when the rug got burned.

"Don't call him that, he doesn't like it."  Diana said.

"Right now, I don't really care what he likes or dislikes.  When I see him again..."

"What do you mean, 'when you see him again'?  Where is he?" she asked.

"He freaked out then he took off."  Isaac said.

"Mom, do you think he saw it?!"  Jessica asked, a little panic stricken.

"He must have.  Oh Walker, this is awful."

Isaac and his father both were puzzled.  "Mom, what's going on?"  She reached in the bag and pulled out the magazine.