Meredith

Wow. Things sure can change in the blink of an eye. I would have never thought I would be spending the night in Derek’s home so that he can keep me safe. I feel bad that he has to think about keeping me safe when Nellie is the one he needs to concentrate on. This should be a scary situation but for some reason I don’t feel scared; I feel safe around Derek.

The room that Nellie brought me to is very nice. It’s the perfect guest room; it has its own full bathroom. The bed is queen sized with a dark cherry wood headboard and on it are big, comfy, covers and lots of pillows. The room has been color coordinated with shades of teal and brown. To the left of the bed is a coordinating chair in the corner and next to that sits a bedside table with a matching lamp. The left wall also has a large window with beautiful draperies to match the décor. Mounted on the wall opposite the bed is a 32-inch flat screen television with a bookcase just below it. The bookcase holds a variety of books to cover many different topics and tastes. To the right of the bed are two doors; one door belongs to the bathroom and the other to a large walk-in closet. The closet houses a chest of drawers and a slew of hangers. The bathroom has a small closet filled with towels, cloths, and toiletries to include a hair-dryer and iron. Even the shower curtain is color coordinated with the bedroom. This room took careful planning. Someone had fun doing all of this. I can’t see Derek as the decorator.

I take a few moments to unpack. Derek said I might be here several days so I may as well get comfortable.

When I have finished unpacking, I go out to the living room where I find Derek, Ned, Lacey, Ron, and Nellie sitting and chatting. As I enter the room Lacey gets up and gives me a welcoming hug and says, “I hope you found everything you might need in the room.”

“Oh yes,” I tell her. “The room is beautiful. Whoever decorated it didn’t forget a thing. I feel like I am in some fancy resort room in there.”

Lacey is happy with my response and goes on to say, “Derek let me do the decorating in there. He did request there be shades of brown in the coloring but left the other coloring to me. It was a lot of fun, especially since I was shopping on his dime!”

We all get a laugh out of that. What woman doesn’t like shopping on a man’s wallet?

Derek laughs and then says, “We will try to make your stay here as comfortable as possible.”

I look at him and say with a big grin, “Well then, I might never leave.”

Ned is next to speak. “We may never let you leave. We all enjoy your company. It will be like that song, the Hotel California, you can check in any time you like but you can never leave!”

“Now you are showing your age, Ned!” Lacey teases.

“And yours too!” Ned jokes in return.

“That sounds like a scary song, you guys.” Nellie chimes in.

“I don’t think it was meant to be scary, Nellie,” Derek informs her. “Although, we do have a bit of scary stuff going on right now, so let’s talk about that for a minute or two.”

We haven’t heard much from Ron but now he joins in, “I think that would be good.”

“Well,” says Derek, “I think we are now in the caution zone and closing in on the red zone, so to speak. I want you all to be extra careful now. Don’t stray far from the house. I will play escort for Nellie and Meredith so that they don’t have to miss school. They should be safe at school. The rest of you just need to stay on the property until I tell you it’s safe to leave again. There is nothing more important than you staying safe. Leo and I have made this place about as safe as it can be. We have rehearsed enough that I trust that everyone, but Meredith, knows what to do if an attack comes our way. I will go over our safety procedures with her in a couple of minutes. Any questions?”

All the others shake their head no, so, Derek tells them they can leave and that he will go over the necessary stuff with me. What Derek goes on to tell me is incredible. He and his friend, Leo, have been quite busy preparing this place in case someone was to come looking for Nellie. He has three safe rooms; one in each house and one in the barn. The safe rooms are not easily detected; so, one must know that they are there and know how to access them to gain entry. He tells me how to access them, then, he has me access the one in the house. It works exactly how he said it would. I am amazed at the thought put into the safe rooms. Each is made very comfortable with a mini living room, two single beds, and a kitchenette with table and chairs. Apparently, there is plenty of food and drinks to get by for at least a week. There is also a desk with electronics to include a computer and a telephone. I also see two security monitors on the wall. One monitor shows a view of the property in different locations and the other shows the inside of the houses and barn. I am told that each safe room is set up the same way. He goes on to explain that the phone can be used to call the other safe rooms as well as any outside numbers; however, there are only three numbers that are set up to call in: his cell phone number, Leo’s cell phone number, and the sheriffs cell phone number. All other numbers are blocked.

And if that wasn’t enough information already, Derek lets me know that there is more going on outside the buildings, some that he has already mentioned to me. The fences are hot-wired and the fence posts are pressure plated. So, you’d have to be a pole vaulter to get over the fence to not be detected. Then, there’s the strategically placed motion detector cameras that notify his phone if there is any detection of motion. Apparently, the motion detectors have been programmed to only send notifications for things above a certain body mass; otherwise, Derek would get a notification every time a bird flew in. Lastly, but I’m not certain about lastly, he has weaponry planted just about everywhere.

Derek goes on to tell me where some of the weapons are located, just in case I might need to know. He looks at me seriously and asks, “Can you fire a gun? Are you okay handling firearms?”

I would like to mess with him a little bit but he looks so serious that I think maybe the timing might not be too great for that, so I say, “I am okay with firearms. My dad and I used to go hunting often. I can shoot a rifle, shotgun, and various handguns. I am consistently on target with whatever gun I am shooting. Growing up in the country has proven to be helpful in many ways, wouldn’t you say?”

“I’ll say. I didn’t know I was getting involved with Annie Oakley.” Derek says with a look of relief. “I guess I will just wipe out of my brain all thoughts that you are an innocent little school teacher. You certainly have changed my outlook on people in your profession.”

“Oh, you really do need to watch out for us teachers. We will surprise you every time you think you have us figured out!” I tease back at him.

“Hmm. I can’t wait to find out about more of these surprises.” Derek says as he gets up and offers me a hand. “Well, it’s getting late and I know you probably need to start getting ready for bed, so I won’t keep you any longer. I feel better now that we’ve had our security chat. Is there anything I can get for you?”

I take his hand to get up and respond with, “No, I believe I have everything I need. I do need to be at school by seven-thirty in the morning. Will that be doable? Nellie can go in with me and help me in the classroom since that is a little earlier than she usually arrives.”

Derek replies that the timing will be fine and that he will let Nellie know so that she will be ready to leave on time.

When I get back to the guestroom I notice on my cell phone that I have missed several calls from Allison. She is starting to sound a little frantic in her last message so I give her a call. She answers the phone immediately; as if she has been holding the phone waiting on it to ring. I briefly tell her that I am fine, that I was out later than expected. I tell her that I will tell her all the details about the date with Derek tomorrow at lunch. I don’t tell her about me staying with Derek yet. I think that should be done in person, and I need a little time to decide what I should, and should not, tell her. Nellie’s situation is a ‘need-to-know’ situation. Allison seems content knowing that I had a great time and that the date went beyond the time I would have expected it to. She did want to know if we got another kiss in so I told her that, yes, we got several kisses in. That made her squeal with delight! As we are hanging up Allison starts singing, “Meredith and Derek sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…” She’s hilarious!