Turning swiftly he relaxed as he saw her sitting up several feet away, but immediately tensed again, as he saw how pale she was. She smiled wanly, as he crawled stiffly over to her.
“My landing gear didn’t quite deploy I’m afraid Sir. Busted a wing up a bit and lost a wheel.”
One of her legs was obviously broken and she was cradling one arm. Talaric quietly set to work. He pulled several pieces of wood from off of the box with the Ta’lont crest on it.
He didn’t even bother glancing at what was in the box, as his sole focus was on Eleanor. He set her leg, which thankfully had not broken through the skin.
It wasn’t a bad break, but it had to be mind bendingly painful what she was going through. She never so much as whimpered, the only evidence of the screams that she held inside being the unchecked flow of tears coming from her eyes.
“I don’t think your arm is broken just badly sprained.” Talaric said softly, as he gently situated it in a sling he had made from parts of the parachute.
With what little bravado she had left Eleanor drew herself up a little and said, trying to sound her usual self, “Thank you for the patch job, but it’s high time you were off and that you leave me to enjoy my sunset. We Britts always did enjoy a good sunset. Tea would make it better, but I’ll have to carry on in my enjoyment without it.”
Talaric shook his head and reached out and grabbed his pack and slung it on and then gently scooped up Eleanor in his arms and started to walk out across the desert.
Eleanor protested but was too injured to resist much, “Oh, come on Captain, we may have nicknamed you Clark Kent, but that doesn’t make you Superman! Really, you must put me down in the name of survival. You’ll never make it with dead weight like me strapped on to you!”
Talaric ignored her, “Save that stiff upper lip and all that British pride you cloak yourself with, you’re going and that’s final!”
There was silence for a little while until Talaric added, “Besides I couldn’t leave you here anyway. Some unsuspecting jackal might wonder by and make a snack out of you only to find himself with a horrible case of indigestion later.”
She would’ve laughed at any other time, but she was in too much pain right now.
With a tinge of humor to her tone she replied, as her head rested against his shoulder, “We Britts are a tough lot to swallow.”
Her tone was regretful and Talaric barely heard her mumbled words.
“Why did they have to blow up my island? No home now. All gone! No one left just me.”
Her voice was forlorn sounding and Talaric clutched her a little tighter. The British Isles had been the victim of a terrorist strike three years prior that had left the islands a barren radioactive wasteland.
“There is more than enough room for you on my world and my home will always be open to you. I’ll set you up with some muscle bound oaf of a man, who doesn’t mind it when you complement him and insult him in the same sentence. He’ll keep you so pregnant that you’ll soon replicate an army of little sharp tongued hellions.”
“He has to be blonde and have as much muscle as you do. More would be better.” She said softly.
“Consider it done, even if I have to nail a blonde wig to his head!” Talaric said matter-of-factly not really joking at all with her.
Eleanor was as dear to him as one of his own sisters. More than anything he wanted to see her genuinely happy instead of just her graceful sharp tongued self, who created a façade of toughness to hide the softy that she was at heart.
He heard her mumble, “You have yourself a deal.”
His strides lengthened some, but the shifting sand of the desert before him seemed endless.
I had taken to sleeping and resting during the day for the most part, while staying awake at night. It was so much cooler and more bearable then. Sparky preferred to work at night anyway.
The little man I’d come to care for deeply did not like to sweat. I had just left him after yet another grueling session that ranged from everything from social comportment, to how to use a dagger in the best fashion, even different fighting skills and his favorite things above all else to teach, technology.
I had never so much as seen a computer up close and personal, let alone touched one before. His little roped off cubicle was filled with them and their blinking lights. I did my best to grasp what he taught and to my surprise I was learning a lot. I wasn’t sure if it was due to any amount of concentration on my part, but rather a statement to the fact of just how good of a teacher he was.
I was mentally exhausted and I decided to lay down for a while. The sleeping quarters were all shared and I slipped into my bunk without arousing anyone. I lay there for a moment reflecting on how blessed I felt and I had just started to drift off to sleep, when some noise brought me back to alertness.
Someone was moaning in their sleep and it didn’t sound good. It was Cat. I debated about going to wake her up from whatever nightmare she lay gripped in. I’d probably end up shot for my troubles. The little mean blonde often went to sleep clutching one of her pistols, and she had a submachine gun resting against her bunk and who knew what else.
Almost immediately I felt a prick to my spirit for the harshness of my thoughts. Everyone deserves to be woken out of a nightmare!
I started to get up, when Cat rose up out of her sleep on a choked off scream. I watched, as she panted for breath, as sweat streamed off of her and I sharply regretted not waking her sooner. In the half light I watched as she brought the pistol up that she still gripped until it was before her face. She turned it until it faced her!
She gripped the gun with both hands, every muscle and tendon in her arms tensed. I was on the verge of crying out to her to stop from killing herself, when with a disgusted grunt she threw the pistol to the side and got up off her bunk and stalked out into the night.
I got to my feet to follow after her, but a big black hand closed over my entire shoulder and stopped me. Titus’s deep voice rumbled out from the bunk above mine.
“That little girl is plum messed up! Past fixing by my recollection. She may have left that pistol in here, but you can sure bet she’s got something stashed somewhere. You best stay in here. Dat little girl got no love for you in her heart for sure!”
I reached up and touched the massive hand, “I missed one opportunity tonight already, don’t make me miss another Titus.”
Reluctantly the big hand let go and I walked forward out into the night. There was a half moon out and it wasn’t hard to spot the bright platinum blonde hair against the darker desert background. Cautiously, not trying to shield her from the sounds of my approach, I stopped to stand ten feet behind her.
Sullenly she asked as she stood with arms folded tightly, “What do you want?”
“To help.” I responded softly.
“To help! Look lady if you want to help me then you could disappear back to wherever you came from! That’s how you can help me!”
I shook my head softly, which was a wasted gesture seeing as she had her back to me.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“No! You probably can’t, so why shouldn’t I end your perfect little set up here and now?” She said, as she wheeled around to face me with a tiny little pistol gripped in one hand pointed directly at my heart.
Instead of anger I felt only sympathy for her, as I saw the raw pain in her eyes. I had stared death in the face before, but frequent exposure to it can’t completely callus one to its paralyzing force.
“Put the gun down. I’m not your enemy. I only want to be your friend.” I said softly and cautiously, even as I was ready to dive off to the side at a moment’s notice.
“Yes you are!” Cat intoned angrily as she pointed hard with the gun at my head.
“I had a chance, maybe not much of one, but at least something of a shot with him! But now he has someone perfect like you and he’ll never bother to look at me again!”
“This is all about Talaric?” I asked incredul
ously.
She didn’t answer, but just stood there holding on to the gun.
“You think I’m perfect! I assure you I’m far from that! You know what I was when Talaric found me? A cheap whore! You think that I deserved to come along with him? I didn’t! You think that I planned any of this? Because I tell you I didn’t! Am I taking advantage of what God has given me? Yes! Do I hope that this amazing ride continues? With all my heart and if you think I’m going to let a little blond headed idiot like you take it all away from me you’ve got another thing coming!”
I walked up to her and closed my hand over the end of the small pistol and wrenched it from her fingers and threw it to the side. She stared at me in a mixture of dazed shock and amazement, which mirrored how I felt inside in relation to my own actions.
“Now let’s get this straight! I haven’t stolen Talaric! He claimed me and I’ll willingly be whatever he asks me to be and be grateful for it! If he had wanted you he would’ve let you know, because he is a gentleman. I can well understand the loss you are feeling for him, because he is one of the rarest of men alive, but that does not give you an excuse to try to ruin my happiness! My advice to you is to pull your head up out of the sand. If you are so dissatisfied with life and have no hope of it ever getting any better than go ahead and pull the trigger and blow your fool head off and do the rest of us the favor of not having to step lightly in and around the unstable emotional mess that you are! However, if you decide you want to make a go of it and really be a part of this team and turn over a new leaf then I want you to know that I’m here for you! I’ll help you out however I can. I’ll pray for you, I’ll even be your friend, if you’ll let me, but it all starts with you. How about it?”
She stared at me for all of two seconds before bursting into tears and curling in on herself. I couldn’t but help to step forward and put my arms around her. She seemed to welcome my embrace and stepped in closer to me and literally balled her heart out against me.
Layers of bitterness seemed to wash out of her and I tried to calm her, “Easy Cat.”
Her voice was blubbery from crying as she said against my chest, “Please don’t call me that!”
My hands stilled on her back, as I sensed something deeper in her statement.
“Is Catherine okay?”
She nodded not looking up. I waited a little while and then asked softly still holding onto her firmly, “What are the nightmares about Catherine?”
She shook her head no and I leaned forward laying my cheek on her practically white hair sensing the jist of what was eating up the little woman in my arms. I commiserated all the more for her.
“I know how it feels to talk about things that are deeply sensitive. Things that make you feel ashamed, even as I understand why you don’t want to talk about it I can still tell you that the best thing for you is to do what’s hardest to do.”
Catherine had stopped crying for the most part and was only quivering slightly from the aftermath of her outburst. I pulled her head to the side so she could breathe easier and I combed her hair with the fingers of one hand, waiting.
“You know what the worst thing about being around really good people like Talaric, Sparky, Titus and even you is?”
I nodded my chin no against her head.
“It’s the knowledge that no matter how much I try I’ll never be as good and that I’m destined for hell!”
“That isn’t the way God looks at things Catherine! Nothing you’ve done or have had done to you is unforgivable!”
Stubbornly she twisted her head back and forth in denial, “You don’t understand!”
“Then help me understand Catherine!”
There was silence for a while and then I decided to press her.
“Were you molested?” Grudgingly she nodded slightly.
“Someone close to you?”
“My daddy.”
She was quiet for a little while and then started to talk, “My dad and mom were always fighting. I hated it, especially my mom. She always came out on top of everything it seemed and she cheated on daddy and told him about it in front of us all the time. I hated how she shamed him.”
“You loved your daddy a lot didn’t you.” I interjected softly.
“Yes, he was always nice to us, unlike mom! She never would have anything to do with us, said we were just a burden on her. Then daddy started playing around with me. I didn’t think anything of it at first and then it became more and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t tell anyone. There wasn’t anyone I could tell anyway. He said he needed it and that if I wasn’t there for him that he might just end it all. So I did what he wanted.”
“Your father didn’t love you like he should have Catherine. You thought he loved you only to find out as he used you that he really didn’t. He cared more about his own selfish feelings than any love for you or responsibility as a parent.”
“Yes.” Catherine said softly.
“Your mother found out didn’t she?”
She nodded, “I thought she was going to kill him, but she didn’t. He hadn’t done anything to my younger sister and my mother took her away to live with a sister of hers. She kept me in the car with her and told me that she hadn’t realized how far she had pushed daddy for him to do what he had with me. She said that she was still in love with him and was going to try to make another go of it with him. She turned to me then and said that there was only room in the house for one whore and it wasn’t me. She told me to get out of the car and she drove off leaving me on the street corner. That was the last I saw of her or my family.”
I had thought my life story was bad! I had at least had a mother who loved me.
“That isn’t all of it is it honey?” I asked holding her tighter, as I felt a deep rising shake quiver through her whole body.
“No! I was pregnant!”
My eyes closed and I just held her, “How old were you?”
“Ten.” She sobbed out.
“A charity took me in. They asked a lot of questions, but I didn’t tell them anything. I hated everyone and everything, but most of all I hated the unborn life inside of me. I gave birth and the doctor told me the baby was born dead. Stillborn. I was elated at the news and then I saw the baby. He was beautiful! All I could think of was that my poor baby would have been born alive, if it had sensed the love that a true mother should have had. Instead I had acted like my own mother whom I detested. I killed my baby as surely, as if I had pulled the trigger. I’m going to hell!”
“No, no, no! Catherine that is not the way of it at all! Oh honey listen to me please!”
We talked and talked for hours and I broke through a lot of the bitter layers and abuses she had heaped up on herself. She already had a faith in God, probably gained simply by the company that she had kept the past few years. She just hadn’t believed that she was redeemable.
I still marveled at the gift of grace and how it had been poured out over my own life. By the time we were done she had a workable framework to start over with and a friend to help her along on her journey. I had never thought that God could use my own disappointments and weaknesses in life to minister to someone else’s needs and yet it had just happened.
I felt sort of like I had helped pay forward what had been given to me, only God had given me both the opportunity to try and the strength to do it and all I had supplied was the choice, of which I had grudgingly agreed to at the time. It had been so worth it though.
I felt unbelievably good, like I was a part of something that was truly special. Something truly worth doing and I hoped that I would be more willing and ready the next opportunity I got to share the grace given to me.
Catherine stayed behind in the desert to be with God for little while before the sun finished peaking up over the horizon. As I drew closer to the plane I picked out the darker outline of Titus casually leaning against the plane’s side. In the shadowy darkness his teeth shone out like chips of alabaster marble.
“You sure knows how to grab
the bull by the horns Miss Eva! Lord have mercy you’re a spunky gal! Captain better watch himself around you honey!”
I ducked my head in embarrassment only to have a big finger pull my chin up.
The smile was gone and replaced with a look of utter seriousness, “That was a mighty fine thing you’ve done for dat girl. Looks like ya helped her get her soul back on track. That’s about the best thing anyone can do for another, I reckon, in this here life. You can be proud of yourself . You did good!”
I nodded and started to go in when I caught sight of the rifled leaning up against the side of the plane.
My eyes rose questioning up to Titus’s and he grinned again, “I got your back Miss Eva. No sense in telling Blondie over there how close she came to being a redhead I reckon.”
I blinked as his meaning became clear and strange enough I didn’t doubt what he had said at all. I looked out at the rising sun. It was good to have friends that had your back when you needed it. It was a new experience for me and one that I was relishing along with everything else in my life right now.
My eyes widened, as I stared out into the desert, “Titus!” I screamed before taking off as fast as my feet could carry me in the direction I had been looking at moments before.
It was Talaric and Eleanor. Before I reached them I saw Talaric stumble to his knees and then I was diving onto the sand beside them. They were both badly burned and their lips were cracked and bleeding.
Talaric appeared as if he was unconscious, even as he was kneeling upright. Titus grabbed a hold of him and held him up. Moments later Sparky and Catherine arrived and lifted Eleanor gently out of Talaric’s arms.
She was mumbling something about repopulating the old island and the joys and rich rewards of duck hunting. Titus picked Talaric up, as if he was a feather and started for the plane following after Sparky and Catherine, who were carrying Eleanor.
Over his shoulder Titus said, “Bring the pack along Miss Eva. It sure must be important for him to drag it across the desert like he has.”
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