"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven..."
Ecclesiastes 3:1
By Atonia and Jo
Jo writing Maximus, Caroline, Bud, Marie, Lachlan, Hope, Cort, Daisy, Ben, Zack
Atonia writing Terry, Dee, Alex, Linda, Jack, Tarwyn, John, Bethany, Dino, Max, Sophia
PART 12:
Terry was behind the wheel of his dark green MG. The top was up and somehow that was confining to him. Deidre was following behind him. It was getting late as the days were getting shorter but he had the strongest desire to ride out in the country…to their special place, the land he’d bought from the old farmer’s family when he’d passed away. Maybe it was crazy, considering what they’d been through this past week.
He drove to the apartment complex but didn’t get out of his car. Deidre parked and walked over to the window he’d rolled down.
“You’re not coming in?” She looked into the blue-green of his eyes.
“Get in.” He moved his head slightly and she went around and got in on the passenger side. “I feel like a ride out to the country.”
“O-kay, the road might be impassable. You realize that?”
“We’ll find out.” He shifted into reverse and then left the parking lot.
It was good to see the lights on downtown. He stopped at a traffic light and glanced up. “That’s the building…HAWCO on the top two floors.”
“Ahh,” Deidre turned and looked at him. “Terry, you can say no.”
“I know.” The light changed and he shifted gears, liking the feel of the car’s muscle.
Thirty minutes later they were parked on the bluff.
“You know, this used to be a lovers lane.”
“It still is.” She reached over and put her hand on top of his. He brought it to his lips.
“This… is a special place for me. I don’t know what you have in mind, luv, but this is where I’d like to marry you. I want, I want us to build a house here, somewhere, maybe not here on the edge but on this land. We have no choice now unless you want to find another house in the city.”
She was shaking her head. “No, I don’t want to find another house in the city. I know this is a special place for you. It is for me, too…it’s where you first opened up to me and told me about yourself…from the early days when you were lost and alone.” She looked through the windshield toward the void of the sky. “I was so upset over losing the house…everything we owned, photos, parts of my childhood…all wet and garbage now. All the things I’d saved and found during my digs around the…then I realized today when you were gone. The most important thing…the thing that could never be replaced, is you. We’re still here and that’s all that matters now. We’ve got a clean slate.”
He reached for her and she navigated over the gear shift and sat in his lap. They kissed for a long time. Her hands went up the back of his head into his hair, down on his neck and around to his face. “I love you Terrence Thorne.”
In an unoccupied room across the hall, Zack changed into a hospital gown then lay on a gurney. Dr. Canfield taped what looked like the end of an IV to his arm, but wasn’t. There was no needle.
“I want you to act like you’re unconscious when we wheel you in, Zack. I’m going to have to strap you to the bed once you’re in it but I’ll leave them really loose and you’ll be able to slip out of them should you need to. The whole staff up here knows exactly what’s going on.” He applied a large bandage to Zack’s arm and a smaller one on his cheek. “You’re Australian just like he is, so there’ll be that bond among Aussies. That’s another reason I wanted you for this. With the beard he may not notice how much you look like him. Another reason. And both of you will be lying down so he won’t be able to see you all that well anyway. I want him to be awake when we bring you in, so he can be aware of your arrival, of the fact that you’re strapped, too, and have an IV like he does. Just play it by ear, see how it goes, what he says to you. I’m hoping you’ll gradually be able to inject some reality into the situation.”
When he was lying down on the gurney and covered, Hope came in. “Thank you so much, Zack, for trying to help him.”
Cort was there, too, and squeezed his shoulder lightly. “Good luck, Zack. This is great of you to do this.”
“Just be sure all the others of us know about this.”
“I’ve already filled John in on the plan, Zack,” Canfield said. “He’s right next door and has been hearing Lachlan’s outbursts.”
“I’ll call all the rest of us, Zack,” Cort volunteered. “Probably best if they don’t try to come by and see Lachlan right now anyway.”
“I agree. Tell them not to come, not until I give the go ahead.”
In the time it had taken for Cort to bring Lachlan into the city and then to get him ready, Lachlan had begun to wake. He lay there now, alone in his room, just trying to breathe quietly. It gave him a definite panicky feeling not to be able to lift his arms or move his legs and he still had grave doubts as to what they’d done to him. Something was wrong down there and he never felt like he needed to pee. That bothered him. It wasn’t right.
The door opened and the man in the white coat came in followed by two orderlies wheeling a gurney. He strained to lift his head enough to see what was going on. There was a man on the gurney and he appeared to be out of it. He watched as the gurney was moved beside the empty bed in the room and the man was lifted onto it.
Clearing his throat, Dr. Canfield said very distinctly, “Be sure and strap him down well. We don’t want him hurting himself.”
Lachlan let his head settle back on his pillow. Another prisoner.
Max reached over Sophie’s head and picked up his phone from the bedside table. He didn’t recognize the number. “Skinner.”
“Max, Dino here.”
“Oh, hullo, Dino. Are you still in town.”
Sophie ran her nails along his armpit and across his chest, stopping and making little circles on his flat nipples.
“Yeah, I am for a little while. I was wondering if…are you okay?”
“Um, yes…I’m…okay.” She replaced her fingers with her soft warm mouth. He made a little sound in his throat. “What, ah, what can I help you with?”
“I’m trying to raise Terry and he’s not answering his phone. I wondered if you’ve heard from him tonight?”
“Not a word.” It came out in a rush.
“Oh, all right. If you hear from him tell him I’m looking for him.”
“Will…do.” His voice broke and he ended the call.
“You put that phone away,” she said, from somewhere down his belly.
Max dropped his phone on the floor.
Ben made sure Mae was covered with several quilts. She had to be exhausted and cold from trying to keep up off the barbed wire under her and not let that around her sink more deeply. He’d taken the big bedroom on the main floor as his own and it had a fireplace in it. Building a fire for added warmth, he went back out to the kitchen. He was hungry and fried himself up some eggs. Taking the plate, along with a chunk of bread and a mug of coffee out to the living room, he ate quietly looking in the flames of the big fireplace there.
What did all this mean? Did it even have a meaning or was it all just coincidence? He was a practical man, liked practical things like the Book of Proverbs or a good map of the territory. There was nothing practical about this and he wasn’t sure what to do with it. He looked toward the open bedroom door. There was no way to tell how long she’d sleep. That meant there was nothing more to do right now, so he propped his feet up on the coffee table, set his plate aside when he was done, and leaned his head back on the couch.
Zack lay as he was for about fifteen minutes then moved his head as though he were waking up. He felt rather awkward about all this, but it was for a good cause. Still, out and out lying didn’t sit well with him and he’d have to see what he could do about that. Groaning a little, he tried to turn but couldn’t because of the restraints. For a second he felt trapped then realized how loose they were. Lachlan’s, though, were not loose at all and that fleeting sensation of entrapment helped him understand at least a little what it must be like for him.
“English?” Lachlan asked hopefully. “You speak English?”
“Too right,” he replied.
Lachlan sighed. “Good. Where you from?”
“New South Wales, mate. And you?”
“You’re Aussie…really?”
“Seem to be.” That was true. They all thought he was Australian and Russell lived in New South Wales.
“Where’d they find you?”
“Rocks…by some stream. Don’t know the name of it. I think I’d fallen a long way.”
“You parachute?”
“I…don’t remember. I don’t even remember the rocks or the stream or being brought here.”
“You know where ‘here’ is?”
“No, I don’t. I was unconscious when they brought me in.” So far so good. Everything he’d
said was the truth. “Do you know where ‘here’ is?”
“Probably Germany. I saw a sign in German after I was shot down. They shoot your plane down, too?”
“I…I don’t think so. I don’t remember…nothing before I woke up in this place.” He licked his lips. “This might not be Germany.”
“What’s your name?”
“Zack…Zachary.”
“You a pilot, Zack?” This was the calmest he’d felt in prison. Just talking to someone else who was in the same fix he was in made him feel less alone.
“I don’t think so. I don’t remember being a pilot.” He paused. “Are you a pilot?”
“Australian…volunteered for duty with the RAF. Name’s Lachlan.”
“You hurt bad, Lachlan?”
“Seems mostly my head got hurt when I crashed. They’ve been doing bloody awful things to me since I’ve been here, though.”
“Like what?”
“Not exactly sure. They always knock me out and when I wake up again, I don’t know what they’ve done.”
“That’s got to be a horrible feeling.” Zack meant that.
“It is.” He closed his eyes. It was actually even worse than that.
“Where were you flying, Lachlan?”
“I…I’m not sure. There was somewhere I had to be.” His voice trailed off. “Somewhere important I had to be,” he almost whispered.
“What was that?” Zack probed.
“I’m not sure of that, either. I think I got hurt in the crash and it messed my head up. Seems real hard to think about things.”
“I bet that’s what happened, Lachlan. I bet you hit your head when you crashed and you’re having a hard time remembering things. I know about that…not remembering things. It’s…hard.”
“You been here long, Zack?”
“Longer than you, I think. I was in this area before, then they took me out, but now I’m back.”
“You got any idea why you’re back?”
“They…they said it was the…the best thing for me to be back.”
One last long kiss and Deidre carefully unwound herself from Terry. Giggling at her awkwardness, she almost fell over into the passenger seat. “Oh, Terry, you have no idea. I haven’t done something like this since I was a teen.”
Terry was adjusting himself and zipping up. “You shagged in cars as a teen?”
“I did a couple of times.” She felt in the floorboard for her panties. “It was perfect,.” she smiled. “Just what we needed.”
“I agree with that. It’s been a hell of a week. We needed something off the grid.” Terry opened his car door and felt for his smashed cigarettes. “Want to get out?”
“Um hm.” She finished buttoning up her shirt and climbed out of the car. “It’s cooler up here.” The air was cool, especially after the heated exchange in the car.
Terry put his arm around her, tugging her sweater a little closer up around her neck. “We didn’t hurt your neck, did we?”
“No, and I’m about ready to get rid of this collar.”
“I thought you had another week to go?”
“So says Dr. Canfield but I’m feeling pretty good. I think the heat treatments helped a lot. You know, I love this spot. We’ve had some good times right here.”
“Is this the place? I’m serious about the wedding.”
“Yes, this is our place. I would be honored to marry you right here, Mr. Thorne.”
Bud had come to visit John the following morning. “I can’t believe they’ve got Zack back in here. Guy just barely got out, but Canfield says it seems to be working well. At least Lachlan’s not had another outburst since Zack’s been in there with him.”
“Anything to keep him from screaming.”
“Listen, John, since my place is all right I want you to tell me what I can do to help you and Beth. With you in here and her pregnant and all, I don’t want too much arranging for what needs to be done falling on her shoulders. You want me to go over and have a look around?”
“I really appreciate that, Bud. Bethany said the yard was full of debris but the house looked okay. I wouldn’t mind a second opinion on that. It really sucks having to lay here day in and out. Canfield’s not going to let me go yet. I was hopin’, you know.”
“I’ll get the key from Beth and go on over there now. I know how hard it is being cooped up in here. You got your phone where you can get to it? Ah, there it is. Good. I’ll call you and let you know what I find and see what’s ok with you for me to do about things.”
Mae had slept through the night, exhausted from her ordeal in the storm and the long wait after. Ben had slept on the couch and when he came in to check on her, she was just opening her eyes.
“Mornin’,” he smiled. “Bet you’re right hungry.”
“I am, yes.” When had she last eaten? She wasn’t sure anymore.
“I’ll be out there rustlin’ up some grub. When you’re ready, come on out. You think you can walk?”
“You going to carry me if I can’t?”
“I done it twice already. You ain’t heavy.”
He was smiling at her. Who was he? He’d said his name yesterday. What was it? “Ben?”
“Mae?” he replied with a slight grin.
“I think I can manage. Um, thank you again. You’ve been very kind.”
“I been practicin’,” he said and she had no idea what he meant.
The dog was poking his nose at the edge of her covers. “Come on, Outlaw. Leave the lady alone.”
“Outlaw? That’s his name?”
“This here place is called Outlaw’s Roost.”
“You named your home after a dog?”
He shrugged with a little smile. “Ain’t just for him.” Then he left her to do what she needed to do.
She went to the bathroom, standing, staring at herself in the mirror. “You are a mess,” she said to herself. No makeup, hair every which way, two or three scratches on her cheek. But she was clean. She remembered being dirty. Ah, yes, she’d taken a shower. Very clearly she recalled how good the warm water had felt. She didn’t remember anything after that, though, until
she’d awakened just a few minutes ago. Looking down at herself, she saw she was wearing a large flannel shirt. It had to be his. She lifted it up. The shirt was all she had on. How? Her head turned toward the door. Him. Ben.
Alex was waiting at the airport when Terry and Dino showed up. They shook hands all around. Alex tossed his empty coffee cup in the trash. “So where are we going?”
“Out toward Twin Oaks Reservoir.” Dino replied. “We’ve got a HAWCO mechanic to fly with us and hopefully he can get our bird in the air for us.”
“All right…let’s do it.” Terry led the way out onto the tarmac.
The HAWCO helicopter was more of a luxury ride than their own search and rescue bird. And, since they weren’t searching the ground today it was a relaxing flight. Dino kept the conversation light and commented on the hurricane.
“So you guys are based out of Houston?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, that’s where we HAD our office.”
“Have you been by there, Dino?” Terry asked.
“I couldn’t get down the street, Terry. I can only imagine.”
Terry sighed. “We’ve got to get something up and running. We have clients out there that may be trying to contact us.”
“You had any phone calls?”
“Nope.”
“Me neither. I think we need to let everybody know we’re still in business.”
“Good idea.”
“Terry, how does this work out with you being CEO of HAWCO?” Alex wondered.
“I haven’t actually agreed to that…yet.”
“Are you going to? Linda needs you.”
Terry looked out of the side window. “Probably. I’m going down to Port Arthur tomorrow. Why don’t you come with me?” The thought suddenly came to him. He looked at Alex.
Alex smiled a little and glanced out of the window. “I could, I guess…tag along.”
“I’d like it if you did. This is all new territory for me.”
“I’ll check with Linda.”
“Why? If I’m CEO…I call the shots, right?” Alex met his eyes for a moment and looked away.
John’s house was in pretty good shape. Bud found two broken railings on the deck and a large branch had damaged an area of the flooring there. As Beth had said, the main thing was the yard. A lot of trees were down behind the house and Bud made a count. Fifteen. A low area of the yard had become somewhat of a bog, but could be drained and filled in. Some of the decorative shrubbery in the front was uprooted and, of course, there was a certain amount of debris littering the grounds.
After talking with John he made arrangements for a tree service to come in. They were pretty booked up and wouldn’t be able to come for five days. He’d expected that. He did find a company that would come out and repair the deck tomorrow. Getting out several big trash bags, he set about picking up some of the smaller pieces of debris that had blown into John’s yard.
As he carried a full bag out to the curb he asked himself, “What the fuck are you doing, White? You trying to make up for leaving your cell at the office the day John was hurt?” He wasn’t sure. He thought maybe he was at least to a certain extent, but he also knew that even if that hadn’t happened, if he’d remembered his phone, he’d still be wanting to help John.
Maximus, wearing a thick bathrobe, came out to the studio where Caroline was doing some touch ups to her portrait of Daisy. He walked bent forward, every muscle and joint still stiff and very sore. “I feel as though I am ninety,” he commented, sitting on the daybed to watch her.
“It’s only temporary,” she smiled, “but I’d love you even if you were.”
“I am closer to two thousand years old.”
“Ah, but you skipped over most of that so it doesn’t count. You are as old as you were in Gladiator.”
“No, I am that old plus the time I have been out. I am aging.”
She set her brush down, looking at him. “Are you? I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Can you not tell the difference?”
“Decimus,” she breathed. “He would have been younger than you. I hadn’t thought of that, either.”
“I am not sure that would have helped greatly in determining which of us was which.”
“Sid stopped your memories at the same place but Decimus was exactly your age in Gladiator while you had lived past that.”
“The graveyard,” he said, “have you seen it? Is it…intact?”
“It’s fine, darling. The trees fell in such a way that the water and mud were diverted away from it. I saw it while we were looking for you. The oak is fine. A couple of pines had snapped, but the graves were all right.”
“I am glad. It is why I was out by the stream in the first place.”
“I know it’s important to you.”
“They are the only graves…the only real graves…I have. Somehow the ones I made in Spain, the ones I remember making…these here on our land help, their reality helps with the scripting of the others.”
The helicopter set down on the dirt road and Dino, along with the mechanic, started going over the silent bird. Terry stood around and watched them for awhile then walked off with Alex. He’d known Alex wanted to talk but getting him to open up with what was bothering him was proving a job.
“What are you doing now, Alex?”
“Aside from pecking out a column on Hawkins’ despicable life…nothing.”
“What happened to all the investigative reporting you used to do?”
“I don’t know…I’ve spent so much time trying to recover from this and that until I’ve lost touch with the community. Not that I especially want to be all that involved anymore. It’s too close to home.”
Terry hesitated and then finally asked, “How are things at home?”
“Good…Linda and I get on fine. You know, I even asked her to marry me.”
“Oh yeah…and?”
“She put me off. She worries too much about the age difference.”
“How many years are you talking about?”
“Seven. It’s not an issue with me.”
“What is an issue with you, Alex?”
Alex stopped walking. “I’m a kept man, Terry. I’m smothered with it. I don’t even get to want something before I’ve got it. I know she means well, she loves me, you know? I feel like a…a…a fuckin’ toy sometimes.”
“You need a job.”
“Yeah, I know I do. I’m unemployed for all intents and purposes. Not for the income…God…I’ll never need a dollar I have to earn. I need it for me. She’s offered me anything I want in HAWCO…I don’t want it. I flat out said no. Am I crazy?”
“No, I don’t think you’re crazy, but you know in a way…we’re all kept men. Linda is financing all of us.”
“Max earns his and you will too if you’re CEO. Don’t doubt that. Linda’s a giver and I’m a big taker. I don’t like that role. I was never anything but a second rate stringer in Mexico, a whore for the money. I’d do anything, you know…a little spying or whatever a politician wanted of me…or the military. I’m not a cowboy, not cut out for ranching. So what the hell am I supposed to do besides sit around and look pretty?”
Terry smiled a little. “You want to work with me and Dino? No pretty faces required for the job.”
“In Houston?”
“According to Dino, our operation is pretty much dead there. We’re going to have to revamp, resupply. We were talking this morning about moving it up here. No reason not to. With the technology available now it doesn’t matter where we set up shop. We’ve got a plane and two helicopters, a crew we pull out of the woods when we need them. Dino’s got a Panama crew he trained. I ain’t got shite, except myself.”
“Not sure I’d be qualified for the type of work you do, Terry. I don’t even own a pair of camo pants.”
“You wouldn’t need them. We really need an inside man.”
Alex looked at him for a long time and took a breath. “Let’s talk about it.”
“You, um, live here alone?” Mae asked.
“No,” he smiled.
“Oh! Ah…you were cooking so I thought you, um, didn’t have a, um…”
“I live with Outlaw.”
“Why’d you name him that?”
“He was livin’ in an alley in the city, takin’ what he needed to live ‘cause nobody cared about him.”
“And that made him an outlaw?”
“Tends to do that.”
She made a very odd sort of face that intrigued him. He liked being intrigued. “Where you from, Mae?”
“Not from around here for sure or I wouldn’t have gotten myself lost.”
“You was lost then?”
“Pretty damn lost.”
“Where was you lost from?”
“Kind of far away.”
“You good at dodgin’ questions, Mae. How come you so good at that?”
“Practice,” she whispered and stared into the fire.
“You got yourself more to your name than Mae?”
“Mae’ll do just fine…Ben.”
His lips twitched. “So we got ourselfs three of us…Mae, Ben, an’ Outlaw.”
“Looks like.”
“An’ where’d Mae be headin’?”
She licked her lips, not meeting his eyes.
“You got no place you goin’, Mae?”
“Not at the moment. I’ve got no clothes to go anywhere anyway.”
“Clothes can be got, Mae. It’s the place to go that can be hard to come by.”
“You came here. You been here long?”
“Not long, no. I come a long way to get here.”
“How far, Ben?”
“Farther than I knew it was possible for a man to come.”
“You like it here, Ben?”
“I’m still decidin’ about that…Mae.”
Dino hung back, seeing the two brothers talking seriously together. Finally he sauntered on up. “Is this a private conversation or is it open to the public?”
Terry glanced over with a raised brow. “Depends…how public are you?”
“Depends.” He looked up at Terry.
“I’ve just offered Alex a job as an inside man. He’s thinking about it.”
“Inside man…ah…manning the computers? Answering the phone, talking to clients and begging for money?”
“He’s all out of camos.”
“I see…well, welcome aboard, Alex.”
“Not sure I am yet…I’m kinda like Terry with his offer of CEO of HAWCO.”
“We aren’t running Luthan Risk, you know. I’m not a suit and tie kinda guy and neither is Terry, although he’s got more ties than I do. You’re a nice looking guy…yeah, he can front us, Tio.”
Alex slid a grin up his face. “What you do is legal, right?”
“Oh, yeah…legal. It is, scout’s honor.”
“We don’t always have permission to undertake rescue operations in some countries, Alex, but we’re a real company,” Terry chuckled.
“Why would you wanna get mixed up with us?” Dino asked.
“I need something to do. Something not…bought and paid for by Linda. I need it because as much as I love her, if I don’t do something…I can see problems coming and they’ll be my fault. She deserves better.”
“Say the word, Alex, and you’re on.” Terry looked him in the eye.
“Word.” Alex laughed. “I said it.”
“Good.” Terry hugged him around the shoulders.
“You can help me get set up while Terry’s off being CEO.” Dino put an arm around his shoulder and guided him back toward the helicopter. “We’ll need to run down to Houston and see what’s salvageable from our offices there, hang by the airport and let them know we’re clearing outta the hanger we been renting. You happen to, um, pilot?”
“No, strictly ground force.”
“Hmm, that’s good to know.”
Mae knew it didn’t need to be spoken that he had put his shirt on her and let her sleep in his bed.
“What you thinkin’ about, Mae?”
“I’m thinking about things that don’t need to be said so if I say them, they’ll be said without needing to be.”
She’d been fingering the buttons of the big shirt and he knew well and good what she was thinking. His lips twitched again and he said, “You like that there shirt, you go on ahead an’ keep it.”
“Now where could I go in just this shirt?”
“You ain’t got no place to go, Mae.”
“I might.”
“No, you ain’t.”
“If I had some real clothes I might.”
“Well, now, I’m plum out of clothes that would fit a little gal like you.”
“How’d you know what would or wouldn’t fit me?”
“Now, Mae, I thought you said them there things didn’t need theirselfs said.” He cocked his head, studying her. “You close to the same size as Daisy an’ Caroline. I can round you up somethin’ to wear from them.”
She tensed a little. “Who are Daisy and Caroline?”
“Them there’d be two of my sisters-in-law. I got me two brothers live just over the hill an’ we run this place kinda together.”
“You raise cattle?”
“Just startin’. I got me a few beeves already an’ I’m plannin’ on getting’ a lot more. Maybe some horses.”
“Have you thought of alpacas?”
“You makin’ that up, little lady?”
“You don’t know what an alpaca is?”
“Can’t say as I’ve ever met me a alpaca.”
“They’re raised like sheep…for their wool. People get a lot of money for alpaca wool.”
“Now that there’s a right interestin’ thought, Mae. You know about alpacas, do you?”
“Some.”
“What else you know about?”
“Not much.”
“Now I’m findin’ a hard time believin’ that, Mae.” He studied her some more and she looked away from his gaze. “Where you from, Mae?”
“Why?”
“Why not? I’m from Arizona. Now it’s your turn.”
“Tennessee. I’m from Tennessee. Does it matter?”
“Now, Mae, I’m just attemptin’ to be polite an’ gentlemanly.”
“You carried me naked.”
“I didn’t think it would be particularly gentlemanly to leave you in a heap at the bottom of the shower.”
“I passed out?”
“Cold,” he smiled. “Well, maybe not cold. That was a pretty warm shower you was takin’.”
“You’re right. There was nothing else you could do.”
“I’m mighty obliged you understandin’ that, Mae.”
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
Somehow she was sure it had been.