Redemption

by R. R. Banks

  I turn at the sound of Danny's voice and try to offer him a smile, but feel it falter before it ever crosses my face. I can feel the tears welling in my eyes and curse myself. The last thing I need is for the townspeople to see me crying – or Danny comforting me.

  I have no idea how Raymond knows the things he knows. The only answer that makes sense is that he has spies among the people in town. Spies that report back to him, tell him what we're doing when we're in town. Elk Plains is a small town and we tend to stick out like sore thumbs, so it wouldn't be too difficult to keep tabs on us.

  It's one of the reasons Danny and I keep our relationship a secret. Why we jump through a million different hoops to see one another. He keeps a cell phone for me in his cabin that I use to contact him when I'm going into town. We take separate routes to the cabin and arrive at different times.

  We take every precaution we can think of to keep from being seen together – and still I worry. The last thing I want is for anything bad to happen to Danny because of me. Because of our relationship.

  “You okay?” he asks.

  I pick up an apple and pretend to inspect it, gritting my teeth and willing away the tears threatening to spill down my cheeks.

  “No, not really,” I whisper.

  “Did he do something to you?”

  I shake my head. “Can we go to the cabin?” I ask. “We need to talk.”

  Danny looks around and nods, a pensive look upon his face. “Yeah, sure,” he says. “I just need to get Tom to watch the stand.”

  During the school year, Danny is a teacher. But he also helps out at his friend's fruit and vegetable stand when school isn't in session – which is where we meet when I'm able to slip into town on my own. It's actually where we met for the first time – he'd been working and I was picking some things up for the compound.

  “Okay, I'll meet you there,” I said. “Oh, I need you to pick something up first.”

  “Sure, what?”

  When I told him what I needed him to pick up, his eyes grew wide and his face paled. But he nodded and said he'd grab it and meet me there.

  I pay for the apples and leave the stand, walking back the way I'd come – back toward Danny's hunting cabin out in the woods. It's in a secluded section of the forest and he owns the land around it, making it a nice little hideaway. One well away from prying eyes where we can be together without having to worry about being discovered.

  Danny's cabin is where I began to put the shattered pieces of my life – myself – back together again. It's where I discovered that I'm not what Raymond made me believe I am. It's where I learned that I'm not just an extension of Raymond, that despite what he's made me believe, I am my own person, free to have my own thoughts and feelings. Free to form my own opinions. Free to question.

  Danny's cabin is where I've been finding salvation and redemption for myself.

  But now, I'm terrified that all of the work I've done is going to be undone. That my world is about to come crashing down around me.

  Please – if there is a God out there – don't let my worst fears be true.

  ~ooo000ooo~

  “I – I can't believe it,” he says.

  Danny is sitting across from me at the kitchen table in his cabin looking every bit as dumbfounded and shell-shocked as I feel. I look again at the stick in my hand and shake my head. I can't believe it. I really can't believe it.

  “I'm pregnant,” I say, my voice a quavering whisper.

  Danny sits back in his seat and runs his hand over his face. “I – I can't believe this,” he says again.

  “How did this happen?” I ask. “We've always been so careful. So safe.”

  He sighs. “Nothing is ever one hundred percent,” he says. “We happened to roll snake eyes.”

  It feels like there is a physical pressure to the air around us that's pressing down on me. My heart is thundering in my chest and the adrenaline is flowing freely through my veins. I look at the pregnancy test again and see the trembling in my hand is getting even worse. Honestly, I'm terrified.

  Danny stands up and paces around the room, running his hand through his short, brown hair. His face is tight, his eyes pinched. He's the picture of stress. And I can only imagine the look on my face mirrors his.

  Maybe it was stupid. Naive. Or maybe I'd just been too caught up in enjoying the first taste of freedom I've ever had in my life. Danny was the first man I'd ever willingly given myself to. He's a good man with a good heart. He's the polar opposite of Raymond. I enjoy our times together. Enjoy being with him – not just sexually, but in every other way.

  But pregnancy was not something I ever really thought about.

  I look up and see Danny turn to me, a smile on his face. He sits back down across from me, his smile seeming to grow even wider and looks like he'd just had the most brilliant thought to ever cross the mind of man.

  “Danny, I don't think we have much to be smiling about right now.”

  He nods his head. “Actually, we do,” he says. “We're just looking at this the wrong way, Calee.”

  I shake my head, not knowing what to say to him. Turning up pregnant at the Ark – given that I'm one of the Fruitless and have supposedly been untouched by any man since I was set aside – is surely going to mean my death. Raymond doesn't tolerate betrayal, and even though he has a dozen other wives, he isn't going to see this as anything but that – a betrayal.

  “I don't understand,” I say. “I don't know what other way there is to look at this.”

  “This is actually great news,” he says.

  “Great news?” I ask. “I don't see how this –”

  Reaching across the table, he takes my hands in his. “This gives us our way out, Calee.”

  “Our way out?”

  He nods and gives my hands a squeeze. “You know you can't stay out there with Raymond,” he says. “Not being pregnant with somebody else's child.”

  “I know.”

  “I know you're scared to leave the Ark,” he says. “I know you've been waiting for the time to be right or whatever. Maybe this is your sign that the time is right.”

  “Where will I go though, Danny?” I ask. “I have no money. No job. No place to stay. I can't just leave and –”

  “We can figure all of that out,” he says.

  “We?”

  He nods eagerly, his smile even wider. “Yes, we,” he says. “You, me, and our child. We can leave here and start fresh somewhere else. We can build a life together, Calee.”

  His words hit me like a sledgehammer and I don't know what to think or say. Whenever I thought about running away, it was always just me. I've always pictured myself building a new life somewhere alone.

  “I love you, Calee,” Danny says. “And I want to us to be together, hon. This gives us that chance. Don't you see that?”

  “Danny, I –”

  “We can be a family,” he says.

  Love. It's such a small word but one that has so much meaning. I've never really thought about whether or not I love Danny. I enjoy our time together. Enjoy being with him. But do I love him? I don't know. I really don't know. I certainly care about Danny. That's not even a question. But love? I'm just not sure.

  My automatic reflex is to say yes. To tell him what he wants to hear. To tell Danny I love him and want to run away and start a family with him somewhere. It's been second nature for me to make others happy – but I know that's the default setting Raymond had programmed into me. For so long, it was something ground into me. Ingrained into me. As Raymond's wife, my only thought, my only goal, was to say or do whatever it took to make him happy.

  But after spending the last couple of years de-programming myself and asserting my own personality, I see things differently. I'm thinking differently. I've grown stronger. I feel like for the first time, I'm my own person. And it's a feeling I'm not ready or willing to give up again.

  And I find it somewhat grimly ironic that it's Danny who helped me get to the point inside mysel
f that I'm at.

  “What do you think, Calee?” he asked, excitement coloring his voice.

  “I – I don't know, Danny,” I say. “I'm scared. Probably more terrified than I've ever been in my life.”

  He nods. “I think that's probably to be expected,” he says. “Life out on the Ark is about the only life you've ever known. The idea of leavin' it – no matter how horrible it is out there – has to be scary.”

  That much is true. No matter how terrible life on the Ark is, it's the life I know. And as backwards and twisted as I know it sounds, there's a sense of comfortability in the familiar. I don't want to be there, but being somewhere else – somewhere unfamiliar – fills me with an anxiety unlike anything else I've ever felt.

  He stands up abruptly and runs to a closet. Flinging the door open, he grabs a box from the top shelf and brings it back to the table and sets it down, the smile on his face making him look like a delighted child. He takes the top off the box and removes a smaller box from it.

  “I put aside a little cash. It's not much, but it'd be a start,” he says. “It's sort of my rainy-day fund and from where I'm standin', it looks like it's rainin'.”

  I stare at the roll of cash in his hand. There's probably a few hundred dollars there. I know I don't know much about the outside world, but I don't think a few hundred dollars will get us very far. I look up at him, offering a weak smile.

  “I also got you some clothes,” he says, holding up some jeans and shirts. “Y'know, just in case.”

  “Sounds like you've been planning this,” I say.

  He shrugs. “Kinda,” he says. “I guess, more like hopin', really.”

  “I need time to think, Danny,” I say. “I – I'm scared.”

  He comes around the table and kneels down beside me, taking my hand in his. “I know you are,” he says. “And I understand. Think about it. But don't take too much time, Calee. We don't know when you're gonna start to show.”

  I nod. “I won't,” I say and glance at my watch. “I should go.”

  Danny holds my hand as he walks me to the door, holding it open for me. I turn and pull him into a tight embrace.

  “Thank you, Danny,” I say. “For everything.”

  “You're welcome,” he replies. “I love you, Calee.”

  I give him a chaste kiss and then turn, heading back through the forest and to the road that will take me back to the Ark.

  Chapter Ten

  Eric

  “Thought I might find you here.”

  I look up as Vance walks to my table and takes a seat. Waving the waitress over, I order the both of us a round. I glance at my watch and then over at him, arching an eyebrow.

  “It's only two in the afternoon,” I say.

  He shrugs. “What's good for the goose.”

  We're sitting in a bar called Biggs' that sits on the top floor of a hotel in San Diego's famous Gaslamp Quarter. From the bar, I've got a view of the ocean, downtown San Diego, and even Petco Park – the stadium that houses the Padres.

  I've been coming to Biggs' for a while. Aside from a great view, it's quiet. It's not one of those loud, crowded meat markets where singles all go to find somebody to take home for the night – not that I don't indulge myself in those kinds of places too. I've gone to one of those kinds of bars for a drink and a girl more times than I can count.

  But Biggs' is where I can come to get away. Clear my head and think. Nobody bothers me. And today is one of those days when I really don't want to be bothered.

  The waitress brings our drinks to the table and sets them down. “Two scotch on the rocks, fellas,” she says. “It's happy hour somewhere, right?”

  I give her a smile and nod. “Absolutely,” I say. “Thanks, Amanda.”

  She gives me a flirty little smile and walks off, putting a little extra swish in her hips. She's young – maybe twenty-two, if that. Blonde, blue eyes, gorgeous figure, legs up to her neck and back – she's gorgeous. She's been working here for the last couple of months and had started flirting with me almost right off the bat. At first, I thought it was the typical cocktail waitress flirting for tips act. But lately, I've started to wonder.

  And if I weren't half way to shitfaced already, I would definitely take a crack at her. Maybe I'll get her number before I leave and get together with her when my happy buzz isn't just covering up a really shitty mood.

  Vance whistles and shakes his head, giving me a rueful grin. “Every once in a while, when I see a piece of ass like that, I miss being single,” he says.

  “Better not let Victoria hear you talk like that,” I say. “She'll give you a cockectomy while you sleep.”

  He chuckles. “Yeah, I know,” he says with a dramatic sigh. “I remember being back in med school – you and I were always knee deep in co-ed panties.”

  I raise my glass. “Yes, yes we were.”

  “Seems like you still are,” he replies.

  I tap my glass against his and smile. “And with any luck, I always will be.”

  Vance talks like he's envious, but I know him better than that. He's crazy in love with his wife – and why wouldn't he be? She's tall, blonde, built, and drop-dead gorgeous – a former model. Vance most definitely married up and he knows it.

  But even more than just her physical looks, she's one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. And I know that's like catnip to him. Vance likes strong, intelligent women. Always has.

  And even though he talks like he misses running around chasing tail like we did back in med school, I know that he's happy being married. Happy with his two children, nice home, and quiet, suburban life – because that's Vance. He partied hard back in the day, but he's a man who craves stability and prefers being a one-woman kind of man.

  But I let him reminisce and pretend he'd rather still be banging a different co-ed every night of the week than going home to Victoria and his kids every night.

  “Thought you were helping Jean at the office?” I ask.

  He shrugs. “Light patient load today,” he replies. “Nothing she can't handle.”

  I nod, already knowing where this is going. “So, I take it, you're here to lecture me.”

  Vance takes a swallow of his drink. “What? I can't just be here to enjoy a drink with my best friend?”

  I chuckle. “Sure,” I say. “So, let's get the bullshit out of the way so we can enjoy that drink.”

  Vance is one of my oldest friends. Truth be told, he's probably my best friend. I've known him since we went to med school up at Stanford. We were assigned to the same suite and had hit it off pretty quickly. But after we graduated, he went the normal route and I, feeling a little unsettled, had enlisted.

  When I got back from the Shit, we got back in touch. He was working at a hospital in San Diego – though, he admitted to being tired of all the red tape and bureaucracy he had to deal with. I, on the other hand, had no idea what in the hell I was going to do.

  But over a good number of drinks one night, we came up with an idea to start our own practice. I remember that night – we were actually sitting in Biggs' – and were excited by the idea. I was particularly excited since, given the fact that I had just gotten out of the military, finally had some direction.

  The next day though, as I nursed a nasty hangover, I found our notes scrawled on some cocktail napkins and shook my head. The idiot blathering of a couple of drunks. I hadn't counted on Vance even remembering our conversation.

  But he showed up at my place later that day like somebody had set his ass on fire. I remember that he talked about a mile a minute, showing me potential locations for our offices, and laying out the framework for our business plan. Vance seemed energize by the idea of operating a private practice and wanted to take point on getting it off the ground. So, I'd let him.

  And it didn't take long for our drunken dream to become a reality. And the rest, as they say, is history.

  “Jean offered me her resignation,” Vance says.

  “A little dramatic, don't
you think?”

  He shrugs. “You really got under her skin today.”

  “And she got under mine, so we're even.”

  We both take a swallow from our drinks, letting the silence settle over us for a moment. And the longer we sit there though, the more I feel like an asshole. My shitty mood isn't Jean's fault. I know that she's just the handy scapegoat. She just happened to be in the vicinity and pissed me off at the wrong time.

  “Look, I know I was out of line,” I finally say. “I'll apologize to her.”

  “I'm sure she'd appreciate that.”

  I sigh and drain the last of my drink, giving the waitress the sign that we need a couple more.

  “What's going on with you, Eric?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He shrugs. “You've just seemed especially tense lately,” he says. “More on edge than usual. You haven't been acting like yourself and frankly, you've got me a little worried.”

  I laugh ruefully. “Worried that I'm going to snap and shoot up the office?”

  “Not my first thought,” he replies with a grin. “But, now that you mention it...”

  I chuckle and give him the finger. Vance's belief that I'm more tense and on edge lately is true. I've been having more flashbacks to the war than usual that have been leaving me feeling more shaken than usual. A shrink would probably say I've got PTSD. But I know what's triggering the memories. I know what the underlying cause of my tension is. And I know why I've been a bigger asshole than usual lately.

  I sigh. “I got a call a few days ago,” I say, feeling my mood already growing darker – at least the booze had been able to keep the worst of it at bay, if only temporarily. “A good friend of mine from the service is dying.”

  “Shit,” Vance says. “I- I'm sorry, man.”

  I nod. “Pancreatic cancer. Stage four.”

  “Jesus,” Vance says, running a hand through his hair.

  “The bitch of it is – and the thing that's really screwing with me – is that I think I should be able to do something,” I say. “I'm a doctor, I should be able to do something about this.”

  “You know that's not the way it works, Eric,” Vance says. “You're a doctor, not God.”