"I thought we were holding out 'til the wedding." Trent turned around and locked his lips passionately onto hers, not allowing an immediate response. Several moments in, they heard the baby groan.
"I'll check on him," Tina said, pressing her lips together and heading over to the baby. Noticing that he was almost asleep, she gently rubbed his back, then she noticed something.
Turning towards Trent, she motioned for his attention. Her efforts futile, she said in a loud whisper, "Honey!"
Trent looked back.
"Come here."
Reading her lips, he dropped the pair of white, cotton socks he had tied together and went over to her.
"Look at his hair," she said softly.
Trent moved in closer, leaning over the bed. "What?" He asked, straightening back up.
"It must have grown a full two inches since I set him down a minute ago."
"No way," Trent scowled. "I don't think that's possible. His hair must've always been that length."
"You know that's not true!" Tina's whisper got louder and coarser. She was visibly peeved by his apparent ignorance.
Looking back at the baby, Trent saw that he had fallen off to sleep. He took Tina by the hand and led her outside into the hallway. "Think about what you said in there Tina. Does it sound rational at all?"
"I agree it doesn't, but a child's hair growing two inches in less than 72 hours after its birth doesn’t seem rational or even possible either."
Trent shrugged. "So what if it's true? What's the big deal about it? Aren't you glad your son's hair is healthy? Otherwise, it won't grow so fast."
She tilted her head back for a moment. "I guess you're right. It's probably no big deal. I just hope that by the end of the week, with all the healthy growth, his hair doesn't make it all the way down to his ankles!"
Trent laughed, then took her hands into his. "I have to go into the office for a few hours today. I have a meeting with the new clients I told you about."
Tina started to speak.
"I know you've just had our baby and I promise, I'm taking time off work to help around here, but I have to go in for a while to try and close this deal. Okay? "He had a pitiful look.
"Okay, I understand," Tina acceded. "I think at least a week or two at home with us after you take care of this is in order. I know you have a business to run, so I don't expect more than that."
"You're so understanding, my beauty." He kissed her on the cheek. "See why I love you so much?"
"I guess. Go get ready then."
* * *
"Oh my! What happened to you?" Sonia exclaimed after finding Solange alone in their so-called lounge. "You look like road-kill. Didn't sleep well last night?"
"I'm fine," Solange responded softly. "You just got in?"
"Yeah." Sonia removed her purse and set it in the top cabinet. "Got up a little later than usual this morning. Harry and me… last night, you know."
"That's good, Sonia."
"By the way, I heard Sam out there asking for you when I walked in."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Solange got up immediately.
Sonia's look turned more to a stare. "You've been crying. Haven't you?"
Solange looked down, shook her head and started to leave. "I can't talk right now. I have to see what Mister Fung wants."
"Lunch time then… we'll chat?" Sonia proposed behind her.
Solange nodded and left.
"You were looking for me, sir?" Solange asked Sam in the kitchen. The chef and three other helpers were all in the elongated room that screamed for extra space.
"Yes." He looked down at his wrist-watch. "We're about to open now, but I have to step out for a few hours. I need you to take over for me until I get back." His demeanor was unusually serious.
"Me?" Solange was surprised.
"Yes… you," Sam pointed.
"Okay. Sure." She could tell that he was in a bit of a rush.
"Pat hasn't come in yet, so let two of the girls take over her tables until she gets in, okay?"
"Okay, sir… but who should I ask to do it?"
Sam removed his apron. "That's your job. I'm off the clock now. You figure it out."
"Yes, sir. No problem," Solange replied.
Sam headed to the front door and Solange followed.
"Where'd Sam go?" Sonia asked next to her.
"I don't know."
"What did he want with you? Bet he asked you out!"
Solange gaped at her friend as if she had completely lost her mind. "No, Sonia. He didn't ask me out. He just left me in charge until he gets back."
Sonia stepped back as if a strong wind had pushed her. "You see that! I told you he has the hots for you! Most of us have been here a lot longer than you, even Clyde and Joe in the back there…" she pointed with her chin towards the kitchen, "…and he didn't leave any of us in charge. Imagine that! Next thing he's gonna do is ask you out. Watch and see." She spoke excitedly.
"I really don't want to talk about such things. I'm not in the mood for any of that today," Solange returned. The burden she felt in her heart over Victor's passing proved overwhelming.
Sonia stopped smiling. "What's the matter? I don't think this could wait 'til lunch."
"I can't talk about this right now. Sam wants two of the girls to tend to Pat's tables until she gets in; she's running late. Can you help me do it?"
"Sure. No problem," Sonia replied. "I hope she gets in soon though 'cause it's gonna get real busy in a minute."
"I know."
* * *
With Trent gone and Little Foster still fast asleep, the house was very quiet. Tina ventured back upstairs with the coffee she had warmed in the microwave. She was feeling so lucky to be a new mother and now soon-to-be wife of one of the wealthiest and most honorable men in the city.
Resting her mug on the night-stand, she strolled over to one of the large, double windows on the western side of the master bedroom. Her eyes immediately caught hold of the dense, dark woods that surrounded three sides of the house. It seemed to envelope its own uncanny mystery. Then she looked down and what came into view startled her. There were dozens of hooded figures of average height, dressed in black garments which hung all the way down to their ankles, standing around the house. Their heads were all slightly lowered. They couldn't have been no further than thirty feet away. Tina moved in closer to the window. Their faces… she couldn't see their faces. Only blackness filled the space where their faces should have been. Covering her mouth to prevent herself from screaming — thus startling the sleeping child — Tina rushed over to the northern window, looked down and found that there were more of them.
Instinctively, she dashed out of the room and into another bedroom still on the northern end of the house. Looking outside, she was terrified to see them there as well. Then onto a room on the eastern side of the house and the southern side — more were there. They had completely surrounded the entire building! It must be well over a hundred of them, she thought — all standing in the very same pose with their heads slightly lowered. Tina ran downstairs and over to the front door, her heart pounding so hard that she felt it was about to explode. Still covering her mouth with one hand to prevent her screams from escaping, she quickly placed the chain across the door, then hurried over to the back sliding doors to ensure they were all locked. While proceeding toward the sliding doors, she had moved edge-wise along the wall where she deemed she would not be seen by the strangers lined off on that side of the mansion. Then she darted over to the phone that was in the living room, picked up the handset and was immediately met with a harrowing feeling of déjà vu. It was just as it was when she was about to give birth to Little Foster — the line was completely dead. Pressing the dial hurriedly and repeatedly did not revive it, so she ran upstairs into the master bedroom and crouching down a little, grabbed her purse that was sitting next to the bed. She pulled out her cell phone. Again… no dial tone. Panicked, she was stuck! Weird-looking figures had surrounded the house and there was no help i
n sight.
Glancing over at the child, whose sleep seemed serene, she got back up and headed over to the western window again. Peeping out, she noticed that the hooded figures had enclosed the yard by at least another fifteen feet. They were much closer to the house now. As she stood there horrified and unsure of what to do, she noticed that they were now all looking up — as if at her! She backed away from the window - out of view, then seconds later, looked back. They were still looking up towards the window. The black holes where their faces should have been were more prominent now and Tina felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She was not as frightened for herself as she was for her defenseless baby. Then looking back at the bed, she noticed that Little Foster, still fast asleep, was slowly levitating off the mattress in horizontal alignment as his previous sleeping position. Tina screamed — unable to hold back any longer. Slowly, the baby went up, not awakened by the cry; his mother now standing frozen in awe. All the way up to the ceiling he went, stopping only a few inches from the pine that coated it. The figures outside were still looking up; Tina still whimpering - unable to move. Then slowly, the baby descended until he gently touched the bed and was back in his former spot. He had slept straight through the mind-boggling episode and Tina felt that at any moment, she would collapse to the floor. Seconds later, she did.
"Honey, wake up!" Trent lightly slapped her face.
Catapulted out of a seemingly dreamless sleep, Tina pitched up, attempting to get up out of bed, but Trent prevented her.
"Where are they, huh? Where are they?" She asked, eyes darting wildly around the room.
"Who do you mean, Tina? Where are who?" He was perplexed.
"What have they done with the baby? Where is he? Answer me, dammit!"
"The baby is in the nursery. He's fine," Trent said. "I found you passed out on the floor over there. Do you remember what happened?"
"Let me up!" She demanded.
"Okay... easy. I just didn't want you to spring up too suddenly after waking up," he said, giving her space.
She hurried over to the window. "They're… gone now."
"Who in the world are you talking about, Tina?"
"The weird, hooded people," she answered as she left the room.
"What? What did you say?" Trent followed her.
"Thank God, he's all right," Tina said, standing over the baby's crib with a huge sense of relief. The baby was looking at her as she tenderly reached inside and caressed his face. She had felt helpless — even guilty while watching him levitate from the bed, her own feet stuck to the floor. She didn't know if it was crippling fear or some otherworldly force that had prevented her from jumping onto the bed and reaching up as high as she could to grab him.
She left the room and quickly went around checking the yard, peering outside of the windows like she did when she had first spotted the hooded strangers.
"Tina…" Trent followed her closely.
Tina was silent — completely focused on the mission at hand. She had to make sure they were really gone. After looking outside the front lawn and noticing nothing but greenery, shrubs and colorful flowers, she walked over to the couch and slumped onto it. "They're all gone now," she said softly.
Trent sat facing her. "Tina, do you mind telling me what this is all about?"
She looked at him, her eyes wild and glassy, then as if a sudden jolt of energy had rushed throughout her body, she sprung up from the chair, went over and sat next to him.
"I know you're gonna think I'm crazy..." she started, "…but this house was surrounded by strange, eerie-looking people with no faces — just black holes where their faces should've been. It must've been maybe a hundred or two hundred of them. They were all dressed in black from head to toe," she explained.
Trent was shocked by what he was hearing. That story topped everything else that Tina ever came up with. It couldn't be true since all that supernatural stuff had ended six months earlier when he defeated Tarrow.
"Tina, I should get you to a doctor to find out why you blacked out like that and I really think you ought to speak with a therapist," he replied, making no mention of the scene she described. "This whole thing may just be attributed to that post-partum thing some women deal with after giving birth."
"I knew it!" Tina shook her head. "I knew you'd think I was crazy. I don't need a medical doctor and I definitely don't need a therapist. What I saw out there on this property was the most frightening thing I have ever seen, Trent. I didn't know what to do! I tried calling the police, but the phone was dead — even my cell wouldn't work."
She got up and checked the land-line again. "Figures! It has a dial tone now."
"But the line couldn't have been dead, Tina." Trent asserted. "You called me, remember?"
Tina looked at him suspiciously. "I called you when?"
"Maybe twenty or twenty-five minutes after I left the house. I was just pulling up at the office when your call came through. This land-line registered on my cell."
"That can't be," Tina slumped onto the couch. "Both phones were dead — there was no way I got through."
"Honey, I spoke with you. That's why I'm back here already. You specifically told me that you needed me back at the house, but you wouldn't say why, so I drove back here as fast as I could. When I walked in, I heard the baby crying. After I called out to you and didn't get an answer, I rushed upstairs and that's when I found you," Trent replied.
"But that's just not possible, Trent!" Tina vehemently countered. "I never called you." She paused for a moment, then asked, "Did you see them when you got here?"
"Who?"
"Those people."
"No, honey. I didn't see anyone when I got here," Trent candidly expressed. "Look, I had to cancel the meeting today and thankfully, Mister Bradshaw was very understanding when I explained to him that I had an emergency. We've agreed to meet tomorrow morning instead. What I'm thinking of doing is getting someone in here to help you out with the baby while I'm gone."
"I don't need any help," Tina returned. "You need to call the police and tell them about these strange people."
"Tell them what, Tina? That you saw faceless, hooded people in the yard?" Trent's tone was clearly cynical.
"Well, I don't need any help. I'm taking care of my baby myself, but I'm telling you now… I'm getting a gun and if anyone shows up here like that again, I'll kill all of 'em."
Then as if in a sudden daze, she got up and Trent watched as she slowly mounted the stairs.
* * *
"Did everything go well while I was gone?" Sam asked.
"Yes, sir. Everything is fine," Solange replied.
He glanced at his watch. "Okay. I think it's time you took your lunch break. Thanks for filling in."
"You're welcome, sir."
Solange sat at the long table in the lounge. She slipped off her shoes and started nibbling on a chocolate bar she had previously stashed in her apron pocket.
"Hi Missy." Sonia walked in moments later. "Ready to have that talk now?" She asked, sitting across from her.
"You're persistent, aren't you?" Solange looked at her.
"Didn't I tell you?"
"What?"
"That persistence is my middle name?"
"Yeah. Sure, Sonia… and 'Fed up' is mine." Solange wasn't smiling.
"Okay, all fun and jokes aside. Why do you look like road-kill?"
Solange was amazed at how animated Sonia was. She put down the chocolate bar. "My uncle died a few months ago. I just found out last night."
Sonia reached across the desk and put her hand on top of Solange's. "Oh, I'm so sorry, dear. You did mention once how close you and your uncle were. I'm so, so sorry he's passed."
"Thank you," Solange replied softly and tears she had struggled all day to restrain, suddenly gushed out with a vengeance. "He was the only one I had left. I have no one now!" Her voice was breaking.
Sonia grabbed some napkins from a box nearby and handed them to her friend. "I can imagine how you feel,
honey, but you do have family."
"I know." Solange gently squeezed Sonia's hand. "You are just like my own family; we're more like sisters than friends."
"You're right, but I wasn’t talking about me, Liza. I was talking about you still having real family left — your own blood brother, remember?"
Solange was wondering what it would take to convince Sonia that she was tired of having that conversation.
"I know you don't wanna hear it, Liza, but you must!" Sonia continued. "I believe in providence - in that there's a reason for everything that happens in this life. Yes, it's sad and all that your uncle died, but maybe by his passing, it serves as room for you to see how important it is for you to finally connect with your brother. I know you're not after any money — you'd rather slave like a pig in this joint and drop dead before you ask your brother for even a penny or claim what I keep telling you is rightfully yours. But I know you need to feel a real sense of belonging. I'm your friend and we're just like family and we always will be, but your real family — I mean the one that has your DNA is just a few blocks down from here in First Provincial Bank. Please, dear — go and reveal yourself to your brother. Now is the time. You believe that?" Sonia's stare was gentle, yet intense.
Solange sat quietly for a few moments drying her face with the napkins. For the first time, she was beginning to feel that, perhaps, Sonia was right about this connecting with her brother thing.
"Okay," she finally said.
"Okay… what?"
"I'll do it. I'll meet with him again, but this time, I'm not making any appointment. I'm just going to walk right in that place and ask to see him. Hopefully, he won't refuse me since the last time I did nothing but waste his time."
"So when are you going?" Sonia asked eagerly.
"I don't know. Soon."
"Why not today? It's just as good as any."
"I've already agreed to go and see him again, Sonia. Don't push it!" Solange demanded.
"Okay, I won't." Sonia humbly conceded. She reached over and touched her hand. "Liza, you'll be fine. You'll grieve for your uncle for a while, but you'll be fine. I know he would want this for you."
Immortals- The Complete Real Illusions Series Page 21