Abby shook her head, slapped herself across the face once. “No,” she said aloud. “I’ve got Hiamovi now. He’s great, and I don’t need these memories anymore.” And as quickly as they’d popped into her head, the memories were gone, shoved back into their compartments, and Abby smiled again. A few weeks ago, an episode like that would have driven her to the top cupboard above the fridge, where she kept a steady supply of whiskey and rum. But now it seemed that Hiamovi was enough to finally defeat these demons for Abby.
“However,” Abby thought, “I really need a smoke.”
She grabbed her pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and headed outside.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The next day, DAS agents swarmed into District 2. Conducting raids on homes and businesses and harassing citizens on the streets, they sought any information they could find on who had ambushed the convoy. But Hector played things close to the vest, and the only people in the entire city who knew about the ambush were the ones who had actually done it, and they would not incriminate themselves, of course. The DAS agents knew this, and in truth they did not expect to catch whoever did it. No, this show of force was about making a point.
And the point was made abundantly clear in the diner where Abby worked. Several of the customers were clubbed with rifles, including one of the employees. Abby watched it all with a knot in her stomach, part of her wanting to draw her concealed pistol and kill the agents, but another part knowing the futility of resistance at the moment. So she stayed still and silent, hoping to be invisible.
Unfortunately for Abby, a pretty face like hers rarely went unnoticed, even when covered in sweat and smelling of cooking grease. One of the agents approached her with a licentious smile.
“What do we have here?” he asked. “What’s a gorgeous thing like you doing at a place like this?”
“Just trying to make a living,” Abby muttered, refusing to meet the agent’s gaze.
“Come out back with me for a few minutes, I’ll help you earn a real good living,” said the man.
Abby was saved from the corner into which she’d been boxed by the other agents as they began to taunt their comrade. “A few minutes? Being generous to yourself, Tommy?” one of the agents said.
“I heard the last girl gave his money back, said charging an hour’s worth for eighteen seconds of action wasn’t fair,” said another.
“That’s true, your mom always did have a good sense of fairness,” the agent named Tommy said, replying to the last jibe. The agents all laughed, and this exchange seemed to them a good time to leave as they all filed out of the front door, the bell jingling to announce their departure.
“Fuckin’ pricks,” Abby said, slapping the towel from her shoulder onto the counter. She left her station to check on the people who’d been hurt. A lot of bruises and lacerations, but it seemed that the injuries were all superficial.
The bell above the door jingled again. Abby looked up and to her relief saw Hiamovi.
“Hey, you alright?” he asked, kissing Abby.
“I’m fine,” she replied.
“You sure? I was looking through the window, saw one of those assholes talk to you.”
Abby smiled and kissed Hiamovi. “I’m fine, I promise.”
That was a lie. The wicked smile worn by the agent that had talked to her, and the way he had eyed her, brought too many memories to mind, memories of people and places she’d rather forget. But kissing Hiamovi forced the demons to retreat back to the darkness of her subconscious.
“Okay,” Hiamovi replied with a smile. “What do you say you come over tonight? I’ll make you dinner and we can watch a movie or something. I figure it’ll help distract from everything that’s been going on.”
“Sure, it’s a date.”
“Alright!”
Abby finished her shift at the diner, then went home to shower and change into regular clothes. And for the first time in… years probably, Abby took several minutes to compose her outfit, trying on three or four shirts and two different pairs of pants. Finally, she settled on the same outfit she’d worn the other day to the warehouse across town since that was the most flattering to her figure. But this time she didn’t feel weird wearing them. In fact, she was quite anxious to hear what Hiamovi would say.
She left her apartment and headed up the stairwell to the next floor. After knocking on Hiamovi’s door, Abby took a second to fuss with her outfit one more time, hoisting her pants up by the belt loops and smoothing out her shirt.
“Hey you,” Hiamovi said as he opened the door. His eyes went quickly down the length of Abby’s body for a second before snapping back up to meet her gaze. “Thought you didn’t like that outfit?”
“Hm, I suppose it’s grown on me,” Abby said with a wink. She tried to play it cool, but Hiamovi’s reaction forced a smile onto her face.
“Well, come on in. I was just about to start cooking.”
Abby followed Hiamovi into the apartment and towards the kitchen.
“Is your granddad here?”
“Nope, not till later.”
Abby nodded her head. “So what’s on the menu then?”
“Cheeseburgers. I’m using an old family recipe for the seasoning.”
“Ooo, can I help?”
“No,” Hiamovi said, pointing a metal spatula at Abby with a look of mock sternness. “You’re always cooking for me, now it’s my turn.”
“Yeah, but that’s at work.”
“Fine, I’ll let you pay me if it makes you feel better.”
Abby laughed and hit him playfully. “You’ll have to take an I.O.U.”
Hiamovi laughed. He turned on the stove and heated up a cast-iron pan. After a minute, he laid four beef patties onto the hot pan, and the kitchen was bathed in the sounds of sizzling meat and the smell of spices. Before long, a simple but delicious dinner was served.
They ate their food on the couch, watching an old movie on TV. It was a comedic movie, and Abby and Hiamovi frequently laughed out loud together.
“Don’t go spitting any food out on the floor,” Hiamovi laughed. “I just cleaned this place.”
“I wouldn’t have known, it looks dirty as hell in here.”
“Ha. You’re so funny I forgot to laugh.”
“You are such a dork,” Abby said, and she leaned across the couch to kiss Hiamovi. “These burgers are really good, by the way.”
“Thanks, but I’m really not much of a cook. Like I said, it’s an old family recipe I’ve done a hundred times. If I actually wanted to cook something new, I’d have to find a Cooking for Dummies book or something.”
Abby put on a fake smile as she was carried off to an old cottage in some Illinois woods in an instant. Zach had just finished whipping up their supper when Abby teased him about finding a Cooking for Dummies book. And that was it, the last thing she said to Zach before those marauders chased them out of their home. Was it her fault those marauders found them? Did she leave a trail? It probably was her fault, just like everything else that happened while she and Zach were on the road together.
“You good?” Hiamovi asked. He’d noticed the vacant stare in Abby’s silver eyes and was concerned.
Abby snapped back to the present. “Yeah, sorry,” she lied, using as cheery of a tone as she could muster. “I just… that reminded me that I’ve been meaning to buy some more books lately.”
Hiamovi nodded his head, though not fully believing her.
“What kind of books?” he asked, trying to move the conversation along.
“Anything,” Abby replied. “But I’d kill for The Lord of the Rings.”
“Oh, that’s a classic,” Hiamovi said. “You’ve read ‘em before?”
Abby nodded.
“Who’s your favorite character? I really liked Frodo.”
“Boromir.”
“Really? Boromir?”
“Yeah. He’s just such a tragic character, you know? Here you have a tall, handsome warrior, the greatest captain of his country.
He goes on this epic quest, his only goal the safeguarding of his people, only to be brought down by an ancient, irresistible weapon, one that claimed the lives of even greater men before him. He betrays the Fellowship, but in the end he gives his life defending the hobbits, and they weren’t even the important hobbits. It was an act of redemption, which is really what his story is about, I think.”
“Makes sense, now that you say it,” Hiamovi said, nodding in agreement. “Never thought about him like that.”
“Yup. You should probably just get used to me being right,” Abby teased.
Hiamovi laughed and kissed Abby. She kissed him back, and they didn’t stop kissing for what felt like hours as the movie continued to play in the background. But a different noise, the sound of a door being unlocked, forced them apart.
“Shit, he’s early,” Hiamovi whispered as both he and Abby jumped to disentangle themselves from each other. They scooted apart a bit and tried to hide the blushing in their faces as the door to the apartment swung slowly inward.
“Hello, you two,” Hector said as he entered the apartment with a package of some kind under his arm.
“Hi, Granddad.”
“Hey, Hector.”
Hector set the package down on the ground, then slipped out of his shoes and nudged these to the side. “Ah, I remember this movie,” he said as ambled into the kitchen. “Very funny.”
“Yup,” Abby and Hiamovi said together, though by looking at their faces you wouldn’t believe they thought so.
Hector filled a glass with water and prepared a sandwich for himself, stopping once or twice to chuckle along with the movie, though he was the only one; Abby and Hiamovi still sat silently on the couch. With his dinner in hand, he declared, “I’ll eat this in my room. I’ve a book I’d like to finish tonight.”
“Sounds good, Granddad.”
Carrying his plate and glass, Hector headed towards his bedroom but stopped before reaching the hallway. “I’ve interrupted something, haven’t I?”
“Granddad! Come on!”
Hector shrugged. “Sorry, sorry. I’m going now. Goodnight to both of you.”
“Sorry about that,” Hiamovi said as soon as Hector closed the door to his bedroom.
“Well, I suppose it could have been worse.”
“Still killed the mood though, huh?”
“Definitely killed the mood.”
They finished the movie without further romantic distractions, though they did end up back in each other’s arms. Once it was over, the young couple bade each other good night and Abby retired to her own apartment. Still exhausted from the activity of the last couple days, she went immediately to bed and soon fell asleep.
***
So went the next few months. Hector kept insurgent activity down at first, on account of heightened DAS security following the ambush, so Abby and Hiamovi had plenty of time to spend together, working on their new relationship. They went on two or three dates each week, just out for a walk, training with Bob, or going to the video arcade. Most evenings were spent either in Abby’s apartment or Hiamovi’s, sitting on the couch and holding hands or cuddling while they talked the night away. And though neither of them voiced it out loud yet, they both grew very fond of each other. In fact, they even dared to believe that they were in Love, with a capital ‘L’.
Between working a full schedule and spending most of her free time with Hiamovi, Abby felt like she was finally breaking free from her past. A few times a week she’d see or hear something, or Hiamovi would do or say something, that’d trigger a memory in her, but she was quick to push it right back down. She’d only had one really bad day since the ambush, a day she spent mostly alone. She’d woken up with what felt like the treads of a tank crushing her chest. She told Hiamovi she was sick and spent the entire day in her dark bedroom.
But that was just one day. It would surely not be long before these instances waned and then ceased altogether, Abby assured herself. Hiamovi was simply too wonderful and their relationship too perfect for these gloomy thoughts to stick around for long.
However, another bad day was inevitable, and it came just a couple days before Abby’s six month dating anniversary with Hiamovi. She almost went to tell Hiamovi that she was sick, just as she’d done last time, but she decided against it. That had been an exceptionally hard day, and she didn’t want to repeat that. She wanted to see Hiamovi, hold his hand, and kiss him. That would probably help her bad day more than sitting alone in a room would.
But she had to work first, and today it was a double-shift. Abby worked from six in the morning until six in the evening, and it was busy enough that she managed to mostly ignore the bad feelings that had menaced her earlier. Immediately after clocking out, Abby went home, showered, and changed into regular clothes. She then marched right up to Hiamovi’s apartment and knocked on his door. She felt a tugging in her gut as she waited for the door to open, but she ignored this and clasped her hands together in front of her.
“Hey Abby,” Hiamovi said when he opened the door.
“Hi,” Abby replied. “I just got done working, and I was wondering if you wanted to go out for a bit and just walk around.”
“Sure! Give me a second, I’ll meet you outside.”
“Okay, sounds good.”
Abby headed outside, where the cloudy skies and warm breeze hinted at a possibility of rain. She scowled at the sky, hoping through sheer force of will to turn the rain aside. She hated the rain. Hated it. It’d rained the night she killed Zach. It’d rained the night Henry…
“Shove it down,” Abby whispered to herself. Her trembling hand reached to her back pocket, where she retrieved her pack of cigarettes. She lit one, inhaled deeply the nicotine-laced smoke, and slowly blew it out. A calming sensation washed over her, and it was enough to cloud the memories that had begun to surround her.
A minute later, Hiamovi joined Abby outside. “Anything specific you want to do?” he asked.
“Not really, I just wanted to get out and spend some time with you,” Abby said. She dropped the cigarette and smothered it under her foot.
“Okay. Well, maybe if we wander around, we’ll think of something,” Hiamovi said, and then both he and Abby walked down the road, hand in hand.
It was summer, so the sun was still high in the sky, even as it neared seven o’clock in the evening. Abby figured that she could easily kill two or three hours with Hiamovi. Then she could go home and go straight to bed. “Easy day,” she thought.
And it was, at first. They took a long walk around town, just talking and even doing a little casual flirting. They spent a little time at the video game arcade where they once again became embroiled in serious competition against each other. They were having a great time there until thunder started to boom overhead.
“You okay?” Hiamovi asked. The first clap of thunder had not been too loud, but Abby jumped like a skittish cat.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Abby lied. “But… I’d like to go home now.”
“Maybe we should wait until the rain clears up,” Hiamovi said, pointing towards the front door. Rain drizzled down outside, slowly at first but it sounded like it could pick up at any moment.
“I’d really like to go home now. Please,” she reiterated, undeterred by the threat of getting wet.
“Okay. Whatever you want,” Hiamovi said. He was a little puzzled by Abby’s reaction, but he knew her well enough by now to know not to ask questions. If something bothered her, she had a reason and if she wanted him to know that reason, she would tell him on her own. Asking her questions usually just made her angry or distant.
They walked as quickly as they could, but a few minutes out in the rain was sufficient to leave them soaked and chilled. Abby was particularly quiet as they walked, Hiamovi noticed, and she still had a frightened look on her face. Her eyes darted from right to left and she glanced over her shoulder every half minute or so. She kept her right hand still along her side, where her pistol was concealed, only moving it to
touch the folding knife in her pocket. Hiamovi worried about her, but he still held his tongue.
Hiamovi walked with Abby all the way up to her apartment. When she opened her door and went inside, he started to follow her in, but she stopped him. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Coming in with you. Like I always do,” Hiamovi said slowly.
Abby appeared to think this over, as if Hiamovi had proposed a joint-business venture. “At least go put dry clothes on,” she finally said, and then she shut her door.
Hiamovi did as he was told and came right back down. He tried to open Abby’s door, but the handle was locked. This was strange, considering that she had lately taken to leaving her door unlocked if she knew that he would be stopping by. He knocked and waited for several seconds, but heard nothing from inside. He knocked again, and again waited for longer than he expected.
He was about to call her name, already imagining the worst, but he heard the deadbolt being withdrawn and then the door opened. Hiamovi took a step inside and saw Abby pulling the bottom of her shirt down to the waistband of her gym shorts as she shut the door again, as if she had just now put it on.
“Sorry, I was changing,” she said as she closed the door.
“No big deal,” he replied.
An awkward silence followed as they both stayed standing at the door, looking at each other. Hiamovi felt increasingly uncomfortable and was not sure what he should say. He was concerned about Abby’s behavior, but he knew that she would probably not react well if he tried to get to the bottom of it.
“Is it alright if we just sit and talk?” Hiamovi finally asked.
Abby looked away, over towards her couch and out her window. The rain fell furiously now, and flashes of lightening, accompanied by noisy thunder, illuminated the sky. She said nothing, but simply nodded her head, walked over to her couch, and sat down on the middle cushion. Hiamovi followed her, but gave her a little space when he sat.
His Name Was Zach (Book 2): Her Name Was Abby Page 24