by D. R. Mather
Paul was going to get all he could while he was there. If Grant could launder the corporate money like he said he could, then Paul would be sitting on enough dough hidden in the Cayman banks to live out a very rich retirement.
“Those assholes at the attorney general’s office won’t find a thing wrong after tomorrow evening. Grant said the paper trail will be completely gone by then,” he said to himself.
He heard the doorbell and got up, putting his drink down. He liked his scotch; the very expensive stuff. As he opened the door to the evening air, he was stood face-to-face with a man in a leather trench coat. Rhodes was a fast thinker. Why, he even prided himself on it. This was what kept him one step ahead of the law and it had always served him well.
‘Trench coat: the feds wear trench coats, but not normally leather,’ Paul instantly thought, still dismissing this man as a Fed. Paul had just begun to ask if he could help when his words were cut off by the abrupt touching of his shoulder.
“I think you’ve done enough.”
That was the last thing Paul heard. He dropped to the ground and thus ended a long, luxurious retirement.
The man in the trench coat turned and walked away into the night.
***
Kevin finished with his missions for the night and was in no hurry to get back to the hotel. Instead, Kevin’s mind wandered through the past. What could have been and what was supposed to be, all vanished in an instant, and he was expected to pick up the pieces and just roll along like it was nothing? If this was life, then the whole thing was one very unfunny joke. Time was never going to heal the wound; he’d already committed himself to a private life of solitude. Nothing could ever replace it – nothing. If only he could have held them one more time, given them one more kiss, one more “I love you”.
Kevin walked under a street light and then off into the dark, his life followed and haunted his every step.
Chapter Three
Morning had come to Indiana. The sun began to crest the horizon as a man in a trench coat walked to the door of his hotel room.
Kevin picked up the morning newspaper that was always left outside his room. As he entered the room he saw the headlines…
’THREE LOCAL GANG MEMBERS FOUND DEAD IN GRUESOME ATTACKS’.
Kevin sat in a chair and read about how the three thugs seemed not to be affiliated with one single gang and that each was found in a very different location. However, the cause of death was the same in each incident. All three men were strangled to death so severely that it broke their necks. Police were keeping any other details to themselves for now, as it was an ongoing investigation. The paper speculated that it could be the work of rival gangs or a vigilante.
In another column there was a story on local politician Paul Rhodes, who seemed to have died of a massive coronary the night before. This politician had suffered a lot of problems of late, with accusations of corruption and financial kickbacks. He was going to be arraigned this Thursday, according to the attorney general’s office. And the story went on…..
Vigilante: that was his cue; it was a part of the voice’s instructions. Once words like vigilante, vengeance and such were printed for all to read, it was time to move on.
“Good,” Kevin thought. “The voice won’t come tonight. I can get some much-needed rest.”
He sat in the chair and put his head back. As he grabbed for a cigarette, he thought how funny it was that the hotel didn’t allow smoking in the rooms, yet they came in every evening to clean and had never said a word to him. He left the ashtray right on the end table and it was cleaned with everything else each evening. The evening cleaning was a request Kevin had made with management. He simply explained it would be best and management never argued. He requested it was done only after 8:30 p.m., never before that.
As Kevin lay back, he thought of the night before. Everything was clear; he remembered it all. He felt his eyes weighing down and snuffed out the cigarette. He drifted, the lights and sounds fading. As he fell off to sleep, new sounds and lights filled his mind. The old Kevin and his life before…
“Mary? Have you seen my shoe polish?”
“Which one hun, the black or brown?”
“The black,” Kevin yelled out from the bedroom. He knew Mary was busy with the kids, he hated to bother her, but he had to look good today. Mary called back that he should look in the bottom drawer of his dresser.
“I FOUND IT HUN, THANKS!”
“Your welcome,” Mary called back.
Fifteen minutes later, a rather dapper looking Kevin entered the living room and saw Mary wrestling with Timmy and Anne. Mary, to him at least, was the most beautiful woman to ever walk the face of the earth. She had black hair which used to be long, but she had it shortened once the kids started yanking on it all the time as babies will do. Just above her right sleeve, hidden by what she wore now, was a tiny African Lion tattoo. It wasn’t large, maybe an inch at the most. To Kevin, Mary was sexy; VERY sexy.
Tim was three, With Anne following close behind at two. He stared in silence for a minute, just an observer in a world he helped to create. Apparently a two year old with a television remote had hands twice the speed of a fully grown adult woman. He decided to participate by saying:
“Anne would do well in the world of MMA with moves like that.”
“Shut up jerk,” Mary snapped back, grinning from ear to ear. “Anne had the edge; she doesn’t have to bend almost to the floor like I do. And besides, I didn’t really want the damn thing anyway!”
“Of course not hun,” Kevin said, “or else you’d already have it, right?”
“Smart ass!” Mary retorted. “Just for that, you’re having cold cereal for breakfast.”
“I thought you said we were having that already?”
“Yeah, well, now you can pour your own milk!”
Kevin snickered as he headed to the kitchen, leaving the battle to those better equipped for it. As he sat and ate his kid’s cereal, Mary came in and sat next to him. Kevin looked up from his bowl.
“Who won?” he asked.
“To the victor go the spoils,” Mary quipped, flashing the remote in front of him, a big grin spilling from her face.
Kevin leaned back, raised his hands and announced, “My champion!”
“Say hun, if you get this job, can we think about number three?”
Kevin stared at her for a brief second or two then said, “It will mean three years of steady work with very good pay.”
“We did agree on three children, right?” Mary added, trying to defend her position.
“Yes hun, we did indeed.” It was now Kevin’s turn to grin.
“GREAT,” shouted Mary, “I’ll get the bubbly ready. You KNOW how that makes me!”
“Yes hun, all I have to do is look in the living room and I can see how it makes you.”
“HEY!”
“I have to go!” Kevin stood, gave his wife a MASSIVE kiss and told her to wish him luck.
“Kevin, don’t forget your tape and tools or you’re going to be sleeping on the sofa for the rest of your life!”
The afternoon was in full swing and the kids were sharing a set of building blocks on the kitchen table. Mary was cooking a roast. She heard the outer door close and for one brief instant she couldn’t breathe. She stared at the door as it opened and in walked Kevin. No smile, no frown, just a blank stare.
“Oh no,” Mary said quietly.
Kevin looked her in the eyes and from behind him, pulled out a HUGE BOTTLE OF BUBBLY!
“HA,” he shouted to the roof, “I out bid the other three builders by a good amount, but we’re still going to have a great Christmas!”
The evening went perfect. The roast was perfectly done, the champagne was great and the kids were angels. It wasn’t even hard to get them to bed; something that had probably only happened twice before. When all was quiet, promises that had been made were kept.
As he lay beside her in their bed, he talked about a larger family. Could M
ary handle a third child? She said she could and Kevin believed her. As he rolled over and began, he found her quite ready for him. He told her how much he loved her and how it could never have been anyone but her. This was music to her ears. Not just because he had said it, but she also knew it to be true for her as well.
Their embrace was powerful. They wrestled as lovers who were on their last ride together. As he penetrated her, he heard her cries of pleasure. She grabbed onto him and held on for dear life as he embarked down the road to child number three. The thrusts were both hard and gentle. She received him each and every time, matching his rhythm, movement by movement. He kissed her on every inch of her face and she returned the thrill. As Kevin decided he could no longer hold back the flood, he heard her squeal. He knew that sound well. As climax hit, they hit it together, gyrating together as he released into her waiting motherhood. After all was done and the blood had returned to their heads, they lay side by side, holding each other in silence. She finally turned to him and spoke;
“You need your sleep stud; you have to start earning the new baby bedroom.”
Kevin leaned and kissed her deeply then drifted off to sleep.
***
Two weeks later, Kevin came home to find his wife, the greatest friend he had in the world, sitting in the kitchen with a big grin on her face.
“Hi baby,” he greeted her.
Mary looked at him and could barely contain herself. “IT’S POSITVE!” she yelled out.
For the next few months, Kevin worked his job for ten hours a day, and then came home at night to work on the new addition to the house. He had, in his words, “A bitch of a time” finding a good place to add on to the house, because of “that damn hallway design”. But he did it. He had to relocate a bathroom into another section of their bedroom, but hey, they both agreed the room was far too big to begin with anyway. Even with the new bathroom walls up, the bedroom was still plenty big enough. Besides, it gave them the room they needed to add on to the side of the house.
Kevin was insulating when Mary came in with a nice hot coffee and handed it to him.
“Here, take a break honey before you kill yourself. Between your job and this room, you’re working 15 hours a day, seven days a week.”
“I know, but I want to get this done in time.”
“Well, once you get the drywall set up, I can do the painting for you.”
“No, no! You’re not going to be breathing in those paint fumes in your condition hun. Maybe I’ll let Tim and Anne do it!”
Mary stared at him for a second, and then said, “You’re kidding, right?”
Kevin burst out laughing at the sight of Mary’s serious face. “Can you imagine the paint job?”
“Yeah,” said Mary, “it would take over a month to remove the paint from the window panes alone.”
“Ok now, come on, Daddy has work to do.”
“Well, alright, but I don’t want you to burn your ass out for this, we still have a lot of time. Besides, I may still need that ass for other things,” Mary said with a grin and a wink.
Kevin smiled as he turned back to work, “Careful baby, I’m working WITH wood, I don’t WANT wood, at least not right now.”
Mary chuckled a devilish chuckle as she walked out of the new baby’s room.
“How about Rebecca?” she yelled back to him as she moved down the hall.
Kevin stopped and stood still, thought for a few seconds, then yelled back, “I LOVE IT!”
“Then Rebecca it shall be!” Mary headed off into the living room.
A week later and the ball game changed again; it seemed it would be Rebecca and Randy; Mary was carrying twins.
The lovemaking was getting awkward for Kevin again, just as it had done with the other pregnancies. He was afraid he was going to hurt Mary or the babies. Mary coaxed Kevin through it though. In fact, because he slowed down in order to prevent injury, Mary actually got a lot more out of it. His thrusts were slower and he was much gentler with her. Mary laughed out loud sometimes.
“Honey, you won’t break me, I promise.”
“Well, I don’t want to break Rebecca and Randy either.”
“Oh I see, did you get bigger and forget to tell me?”
They laughed together, they loved together. The climaxes were wonderful together. Later, as they lay beside each other, Kevin lit a cigarette.
“You know dear, you probably shouldn’t be smoking around me now.”
“Mary, let’s face facts here, I shouldn’t be smoking around ME either.” That was good for another laugh, but Kevin got the point. He snuffed it out and made a mental note, ‘No more smoking in the house‘. Kevin always lived up to his mental notes. It was the foundation of his business and his life.
Six months goes flying by when you’re carrying a child or in this case, twins. The kids were in for their nap. Mary was in the laundry room folding clothes when she heard the sound from the kitchen.
“What the hell was that?”
She initially thought it sounded like broken glass. As she headed down the hall to take a look, she walked past the kids’ room and instinctively glanced to the left and saw the kids in their beds. She heard it just before she got to the kitchen. It was the distinctive sound of a man whispering to another person. Mary stopped dead in her tracks. Panic set in instantly. She spun and bolted for the kids’ room. She heard slamming in the kitchen. She grabbed both kids from their beds and rushed to the closet. She went inside and huddled in the back. Both kids slept through it.
“OH GOD, OH GOD!” She whispered to herself. She suddenly realized that she didn’t have the phone. They were trapped in there. Kevin’s handgun was way down the hall, in the bedroom. She could hear the talk as it got louder. There were at least four voices that she could make out. All of them were male. They were trashing the house and going from room to room.
‘Oh SHIT,’ Mary thought.
She could hear them clearly now, right outside the kids’ door.
“Hey man, we should take a dump on the kid’s bed!” said one of the voices. Then she heard them all laugh.
One word, that’s all it took.
“Mommy?” Tim woke and looked up at her.
There was a sudden silence from the room. Mary saw their shadows as they flickered across the bottom of the closet door and then a sudden bright light appeared as the door was yanked open.
“WELL….look what we have here!” One said, “Must be the three little pigs!”
A man grabbed her and the kids tumbled out with her.
“OH YEAH,” said the first guy; “she MUST be a pig, look at that gut!”
“Well then,” said another, “lets PORK HER!”
Yet another guy grabbed the two kids, threw them on a bed and sat in front of them. The children were silent.
They took their turns with her; sometimes not even waiting for a turn, but just diving in.
Mary’s clothes were torn away, she laid there bleeding and crying. When they’d had their fill, she barely heard them talking to each other. She barely heard anything at all. One of them moved close to her and leaned over her.
BOOM!
He turned to the kids.
BOOM, BOOM!
The man’s gun was smoldering in his hand. The guys looked at one another.
“Let’s get out of here now!” said the leader.
***
“Twins…our...twins…” Kevin moaned, and then screamed out in his sleep. He couldn’t stop it. Even the ‘voice’ wouldn’t stop it. As Kevin jumped up out of his nightmare, he didn’t know where he was for a brief moment. The he realized it was the dream, a frequent one. He screamed out loud but it would never help. Nothing could help. Had it been three years already? That meant it was two years since the voice first came to him. Two years of living in hotels and out of a suitcase. Two years with hell on his heels. There was so much more to do. Meanwhile, Kevin couldn’t get that damn song out of his head. As he sat and smoked. It played over and over in his head
:
I close my eyes
Only for a moment and the moment's gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes with curiosity
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
Same old song
Just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do,
Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see
(Aa aa aa)
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
Oh, ho, ho
Now don't hang on
Nothing' lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away
And all your money won't another minute buy
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
(All we are is dust in the wind)
Dust in the wind
(Everything is dust in the wind)
Everything is dust in the wind
(In the wind)
Dust in the wind by Kansas was a great song. He was beginning to hate all music though; it all seems so haunting now.
Chapter Four
Cindy didn’t waste any time that morning. She had waited for the administration’s office to open at the community college. She was twenty-six years old now, and smart enough to know that she could put her money to much better use by using the community college instead of the big campus college. Cindy spent the early morning figuring out the time she would need to complete the courses that she required, followed by the two years of culinary courses.
This was her chance; her only chance. She absently caressed her belly with one hand as she did figures with the other.
“I can make it work,” she figured. “If I stay at the truck stop part-time, I can make it work.”
Cindy knew something in her mind, something that lay hidden for now, but wouldn’t stay hidden for long. That was another good reason for doing the community college. There were a lot of older people there from all walks of life: single, married with kids, working parents – you name it. No one seemed to pay much attention to one another unless they became friends. She didn’t know why this was important, but it felt right. Shortly after 9 a.m., she finished talking to the office at the college. She made an appointment to sign up in two days. She felt good this morning, as if she has been recharged.