THE LIGHT WE LOST: a gripping thriller

by Valera Titov

  He looked at Glory. She looked even more beautiful when she was sleeping.

  He took a shower, shaved, and dressed up for work. Before grabbing his backpack and briefcase, he pulled the duvet cover over Glory and kissed her gently on the forehead in order not to wake her.

  Adam Kennedy was a man on a mission. He never knew when he would be coming back. He never knew if he would be coming back.

  If only he could take Glory with him. No. That's a bad idea, he thought. Then she wouldn’t know when she would be returning either.

  Glory rolled over on the bed and looked for a moment as if she was going to wake up.

  Adam knew that he had to leave – it was now or never!

  He took one last look at her. God, he hoped he was doing the right thing!

  Chapter Four

  Barefoot and Pregnant

  Glory Carter dressed in a dressing gown and barefoot, stared into the mirror above a small desk in the bedroom of Adam Kennedy’s apartment. Her emotions were running wild.

  Yeah, she had received a video message from Adam who stated that he was well and working hard at the mission, but he wasn’t able to provide her with a date of his possible return.

  Glory had another potential problem on her hands too. She had missed her period and was providing stalling tactics. ‘Oh, my God, I can’t be pregnant, surely,’ she thought.

  She needed to speak to someone who would be able to keep her secret. Glory picked up her mobile.

  “Debbie, how has the new year treated you so far?”

  Deborah Summers, back at her parents’ home in Dallas, Texas, was pleased to hear from her friend.

  “Is Adam back yet?” asked Deborah.

  “No, and I just have this feeling that it could be another few weeks or months before he returns,” answered Glory.

  “As long as he stays in contact with me and I know that he is alright, I will have peace of mind. Besides, as Adam always says, the more he works; the more money in the bank.”

  “Do you know where he is?” pressed Deborah.

  Glory was becoming even more and more certain that her boyfriend was on a space mission, but she couldn’t get confirmation on that, when the US Presidency had made it clear that the country had closed down its space operations a few years back.

  “I haven’t got a clue where Adam is, but he contacted me to say that all is well with him,” replied Glory.

  “However, this is not the reason that I am calling you. Debbie, I skipped my period a few days back.”

  Deborah gasped.

  “Glory, do you think that you are ‘PG’?”

  “Possibly, Debbie, I am vomiting a bit and eating like a horse. Also, I am feeling tired in the afternoons which is unlike me.”

  Debbie was so excited as if it was her that was pregnant.

  “Glory, I am telling you that you are ‘PG’. All the symptoms are there. I mean, I am presuming that you made love to Adam before he left?”

  “Yeah, on Christmas Eve,” responded Glory.

  “So why don’t you do the at-home pregnancy test to find out for sure?” questioned the girl from Texas.

  Glory Carter remained silent for a moment.

  “Deborah, I am afraid,” she quipped.

  “I mean, I don’t even know if Adam wants kids. We never had a chance to discuss those finer details of life.”

  Deborah made a clicking noise with her tongue as she thought.

  “Well, either way, you need to find out,” she said.

  “It’s one of two ways. Either you do the home pregnancy test or go straight to the hospital. They will tell you for sure.”

  Glory agreed.

  “Let me go to the hospital and find out,” she said.

  “I don’t trust these home pregnancy tests which have a chance of error when one has raised expectations. I promise you will be the first to know either way.”

  Glory took a shower and let the warm water run over her beautiful face and body, as she went into a deep-in-thought trance.

  Was her life a dream? Did she really finish her planetology degree at the University of Chicago? Did she really meet Adam Kennedy? Did she get offered a potential job opportunity by Alan Falcon? Was she about to become a mother?

  She dressed and made her way across the city to the North western Memorial Hospital at 251 E Huron Street.

  As she walked in through the main entrance of the hospital, she saw a long queue of pregnant women waiting for their turn to see the on-duty gynaecologists.

  Glory had never been to a gynaecologist in her life as she had never been sexually active before. She had heard horror stories from some of her more promiscuous girlfriends, who explained in utmost detail of how they hated going for such check-ups and what the doctors did to them according to medical practice.

  How she wished that she had a background in karate. If the doctor, male or female, put a hand too deep into a sensitive area of her body, she would have sorted the problem out with a kung-fu move.

  Her mind returned to reality and after a two-hour wait in the queue, she got her chance to be examined. A female gynaecologist, Dr Blanche Miller examined her. Thank God, she thought, a female doctor!

  Forty minutes later, Glory Carter walked out of the doctor’s consulting room filled with more mixed emotions. Pregnant she was, with a huge possibility of being the mother to twins in just over eight months from now.

  She had promised to tell Deborah Summers first but she knew that she needed to tell Adam. The problem was that there was just no way for her to get hold of him. When he sent video messages to her, it was a one-way communication. He could contact her, but she had no way to contact him.

  As for her parents, they were very old-fashioned. Pre-marital sex was out of the question as far as they were concerned. So too was living with a boyfriend, which is why Glory had to tell her mother that she was rooming with one of her former student girlfriends, not with the love of her life.

  Saturday arrived and the sound of an incoming message on her mobile phone awoke Glory Carter as she lay on the double bed in Adam Kennedy’s flat.

  Yeah! It’s a video message from Adam. The speed of work on the mission had increased and he felt that he would be home sooner than expected. Unfortunately, he still could not provide a date or time for his return from the secret mission.

  Glory played the video recording over and over again. She could see that her man was in good health and that he spoke with a great sense of confidence. His mood seemed to be upbeat

  Her heart pained just to have five words for him. Those would have been ‘Pregnant with twins. Love you’.

  Life had never been easy for Glory Carter. It seemed like one challenge followed by the next. Sometimes, she felt like the more she prayed, the worse things got. Most of her girlfriends had given up on church. Now in their early twenties, partying until the early hours of Sunday morning was the thing to do and then to get up four or five hours later to go to worship was just too big an ask.

  Glory Carter’s life changed forever in the space of a few minutes as she gave birth to her twins, Adam Jnr and Rachel, at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

  At her bedside was her mother Betsy and her father Conroy, who had not spoken a word to his daughter since he found out that she was pregnant out of wedlock. Conroy, now in his late fifties, was a prominent insurance broker and a church deacon. He felt that he needed to keep his daughter’s out-of-wedlock birth silent to avoid embarrassment to his image.

  Betsy meanwhile, was just too happy to become a grandmother, and was open to telling anyone who was keen to hear.

  Also at Glory’s bedside was Deborah Summers who had made the trip from Texas to share in this life-changing moment with her friend.

  What Glory could never share with her parents was the amount of crying that she had done over the past few months due to the absence of Adam. Communication from Adam Kennedy had now become far too irregular. Instead of once-a-week video messages, Glory received his communicatio
n once every two months or more.

  Prior to the childbirth, Deborah had put Glory’s wrinkled skin, in particular under her eyes, down to motherhood stress, but soon found out from her friend that it was all down to the worry over the father of her children.

  Adam never even knew that he was going to be a father or even that he had become one. Although, it was not the faulof Glory.

  Time was ticking and Glory’s life was changing rapidly by the minute. Since Adam’s departure, she had managed to get a job as a salesperson at a leading boutique chain-store not far from where she stayed. The pay was good too and her mother had been of great help by spending much time in Chicago at the apartment. Needless to say, her father hadn’t put a foot in the city, and Glory had made Betsy Carter promise not to reveal a word about her staying place to him.

  Glory Carter is leading a hectic life. At least, the kids are keeping her mind of Adam’s absence, but the absence is now too long. She hasn’t heard from him for a few months and had even approached the local police station. The officers on duty were keen to open a ‘Missing Persons’ case until Glory told them that Adam was on a US governmental mission.

  This seemed to scare the boys in blue off and they refused to help her. Neither of the cops on duty was ranked high enough or had enough experience to know how to report a case to the American FBI investigators.

  Glory was just taking a chance by approaching the police. How could she be sure that Adam was indeed missing?

  “Glory!” screamed Betsy Carter from the lounge.

  “Check your Tablet computer! I think its Adam!”

  Glory left the twins in their crib and charged into the lounge of Adam’s apartment.

  She pushed the ‘Enter’ button on her Tablet and waited. It seemed like an eternity before the video message started to play.

  Adam suddenly appeared on the screen of her device. He looked thin and weak. His speech was also disjointed. Again, Adam mentioned that he wasn’t sure when he would be returning home Something was seriously wrong on the mission!

  If it was any form of comfort to Glory, at least she knew that Adam was still alive and trying to make contact with her.

  His last words on the message sent a chill down her spine.

  “Whatever you do, Glory, don’t contact the government or the law enforcement agencies. This is a top-secret mission”.

  Glory burst into tears and her mother moved over to console her daughter.

  “Something is wrong, Ma,” said the new mother of twins.

  “Look at Adam!”

  Besty Carter did her best to lift the spirits of her daughter and offered to take Glory and the twins out for coffee and chocolate cake.

  Glory had just finished feeding and changing the diapers of the twins on Thursday afternoon when Betsy yelled that another incoming video message from Adam was awaiting downloading on her daughter’s Tablet computer.

  With a baby on each arm, Glory rushed to the lounge and again pushed ‘Enter’ on her Tablet. If only Adam could see their children. Adam Jnr looked like a younger version of him while Rachel would almost certainly turn out to be a carbon copy of her mother.

  This time, there was no video footage but an audio message only.

  ‘We regret to inform family and friends of the secret mission that all involved with the project have been lost. While the loss of human life has not yet been confirmed, we request your patience over the next few days as our agencies attempt to trace the whereabouts of your loved ones. We thank you in advance for your patience in this regard. 1416’.

  Glory did not even have enough energy left in her body to cry. She began to shout out the keywords of the message.

  “’Lost! Trace! Patience!”

  Again, Betsy Carter attempted to console her daughter and took the twins from her when it looked like Glory was about to collapse with them to the floor.

  “Adam!” screamed Glory at her Tablet computer in the hope that her boyfriend could hear her.

  “I need you! Your kids need you!”

  She turned to Betsy.

  “He is alive, Ma. I know he is. He is out there!”

  Chapter Five

  Adam’s Disappearing Act sinks in

  Glory was in a state of shock. She played the latest message over and over again and each time, it felt like she was on the brink of having a heart attack. Betsy had made her daughter’s favourite meal for supper – lasagna.

  “You should have been born Italian,” the mother often said to her daughter over the years, as a young Glory gulped down the pasta food. This time though, Glory hardly touched her dinner and Betsy could fully understand.

  The mother picked up the remote control for the television set.

  “Should I change the channel to 14 for the news?” she asked.

  Suddenly, something as powerful as the light ray that she had seen back in the university laboratory, hit Glory. She felt like she had been hit by a baseball bat as an idea went through her head.

  Of course, Glory, she thought and switched on her Tablet computer to replay the message that she had received.

  “Oh, darling, you are not going to listen to the message again, are you?” asked Betsy, as she tried to get her daughter’s attention away from the unfolding drama for a few hours.

  “Ma, you said ‘14’ for the channel,” remarked Glory.

  “Well, what are these 1416 digits at the end of the message?”

  Betsy shrugged her shoulders.

  “I don’t know, you are the one with the brains in this family.”

  Glory shook her head.

  “No, it must mean something. It is a sign,” she said.

  Betsy did not want to get her daughter’s hopes up.

  “It could be just some sort of computer coding to get the message to you,” said the mother.

  Again Glory shook her head aggressively.

  “No, Ma, it’s some sort of secret message from Adam. I know it is!”

  The conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.

  Betsy Carter went to the door and welcomed the visitor. Glory’s heart skipped a beat.

  “Was it Adam?”

  “Oh, hello, Alan Falcon,” she said with a slight smile, as the physicist appeared in the doorway.

  Dressed in a light blue suit, Alan was on a mission. The bunch of red roses in his right hand was proof of this.

  “I will give you two some space,” said Betsy, as she collected the twins and took them to the bedroom.

  Once the older woman had left the lounge, Alan held the bunch of roses out towards Glory.

  “These flowers will never be as beautiful as you are,” began Alan.

  Glory tried to cut him short.

  “Alan, stop, you know I am in a relationship with…”

  “Adam is gone, Glory,” he said.

  “He is never coming back. So what do you want to do? Sit around and dream for the rest of your days of what could have been. I have loved you since the first time that I laid my eyes on you. It is fate that is drawing us together. Don’t you understand that?”

  Glory’s top lip began to get the jitters.

  “Alan, I have twins with Adam and he will come back one day. I know he will.” she said.

  Alan sat down on the sofa next to Glory as she stared at him more with different emotions going through her mind.

  “Glory, if only you know about my life history,” he said in a serious tone.

  “I was never one of the popular boys at school and used to be bullied,” he began.

  “Then when my parents divorced, I was physically and emotionally abused by my mother’s new boyfriend when we moved in with him. Life was hell, Glory. However, I believe that my luck is now changing.”

  He put a hand on each of Glory’s shoulders.

  “Marry me, Glory and I will give you whatever your heart desires,” pleaded Alan.

  “Money is not a problem. As for your kids, I am impotent and can’t have children so your young ones w
ill be mine too. Just say yes, Glory, please, just say yes. I don’t want to live my life alone. I need a family around me.”

  Glory’s heart was pumping with emotions.

  “What about Adam?” she asked in a squeaky voice.

  “Glory, Adam is gone,” summarized Alan.

  “If he was alive, then he would have made contact with you by now. Think about it, Glory. You and I can be so good together. There is no challenge that will be too great for us to surpass.”

  Glory stood up from the sofa.

  She was caught in two minds. Her love for Adam was one thing but everything else that Alan was saying made complete sense. She couldn’t wait and waste her life away. What if, as Alan eluded too, Adam never came back?

  “Alan, please give me a day or two to think about it, ok?” she asked.

  Alan nodded.

  “I know it’s a big decision and I won’t rush you,” he said as he stood up and embraced her before kissing her gently on the cheek.

  “I will wait to hear from you,” he concluded and left the room.

  “Don’t worry, I will see myself out.”

  Glory heard the front door of the apartment shut behind Alan and his footsteps on the tiled corridor floor as he headed away.

  Alan Falcon was so gentle and kind, Glory thought.

  If Adam was indeed missing forever, Alan would be the perfect next in line for her. But was the father of the twins really gone?

  Glory sighed. She never discussed the contents of her meeting with her mother. Betsy Carter wasn’t a nosy person and didn’t even probe her daughter on the chat in the lounge.

  For the next two days, Glory Carter thought the Adam/Glory and Alan/Glory scenario through from every possible angle.

  Eventually, she had to concede that Alan was right. If Adam was alive, he would have made contact with her by now. After all, he had been gone for a few months now.

  She picked up her mobile phone and dialled Alan’s number.

  “Alan Falcon, its Mrs Falcon-to-be here, when is our wedding date?”

  Alan shrieked with excitement while holding his mobile phone on the other end of the call.

  “I am glad you came to your senses, Glory,” he said.