by Susan Lowry
Her palms explored him while Jack reached beneath her blouse, spread out his fingers and as he held her breast firmly, Rose suddenly gasped and glided further down on the cushions nudging him on top of her. He found the hem of her skirt and began to massage her thigh moving his hand upward.
Chapter Fourteen
Locking Horns
(September 25th, Year Two, PA)
“How fricking unfair can you be?” Sarah cried. She suddenly wasn’t certain who that man was at the table.
Chris chewed the last of his breakfast muffin and leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed. “Why are you getting so upset Sarah? I’m just saying that I’ve experienced men like Jack before. It stems from deep-seated insecurities and they’re blinded by them, always having to be right. That can be dangerous in a survival situation like ours. He’ll lock horns with anyone who makes a decision that isn’t his. You’ll see.”
Sarah felt on the verge of tears. If anyone was controlling it was Chris; he didn’t even realize he was describing himself. And it was not like, if things got unbearable, she could take their future children and move to another city. She would be trapped in yet another unnatural, and completely dependent relationship, similar to the one the plague had allowed her to escape.
Sarah picked up another glass and wiped it dry, unable to stop thinking about Lillie, the woman that had ruled her life since she was three — not a mother at all, but an unstable and abusive captor. She had accepted her fate so easily and even formed a bond with the imposter. The truly frightening part of it was that only recently did the extent of this control strike her as bizarre.
Sure, she had only been three when it started and could forgive herself for having Stockholm syndrome, or whatever that was; but she had stuck by the woman into her twenties which now seemed absurd. Each time the truth hit her, it was a jarring and disturbing blow.
The baby Sarah had believed the woman’s lies and the adolescent Sarah was afraid to destroy their relationship, and even the adult Sarah, bound by the love for her captor, had been content to let it be, not able to imagine another way.
Her relationship with Chris might be the beginning of more oppression. Sarah didn’t want another bond on those terms; it was unthinkable. She gazed at him as if looking at a different species. Everything had happened way too fast and it had all been totally out of her control.
To be honest with herself, if the plague had never happened he wouldn’t have been her type. But it did happen and she suddenly felt squeezed into a box. A glass, which she placed with her shaky hand on the bottom shelf, tipped over and cracked; and she tossed it in the garbage bin.
“Jack’s finding his way back from hell,” she barked. “And he’s doing an excellent job of it too! He’d die for Kate and Ben – probably for any one of us, including you!”
She picked up a plate and began to wipe furiously, realizing she was over-reacting, and that she needed to calm herself. She wasn’t usually like this. She wasn’t even sure if her anger was rational. She took in a deep breath and let it out, hanging her head and trying to gain her composure.
Then she said calmly. “I’m just surprised that someone like you could be so judgemental. Don’t you see what I’m talking about?”
Chris shook his head and gazed at her almost blankly. “I’m sorry I said anything.”
Sarah could feel her heart beating in her throat. She threw her dish towel in the sink. “Then just forget about it Chris. I’m going out.”
***
In the wicker chair across from Kate with a tumbler of iced tea, Lucy lifted her long hair, allowing the sweat to evaporate from her neck.
Kate took a bite of her cookie and continued. “Of course we feel bad for Kevin, but, we have to be careful sweetie, we don’t want him to run for the hills now, do we? He needs us even more than we need him.”
Lucy crossed her knees and began to swing her bare foot back and forth. “Oh Kate, I think Kevin’s more open-minded than you realize. And he’s been with us nearly two months,” she spouted, noticing Sarah, who was rushing off towards the road.
Jack had just come out onto the patio. Kate smiled at him and then spoke under her breath. “I’m sure he is, but, honey, please try to imagine Kevin’s point of view. You’ve been telepathic all your life but for us, it was such a struggle to believe it, even with our own abilities. So how can we expect someone like Kevin to understand?”
“I guess.”
“If we try to tell him something like that, he’ll think we’re a bunch of lunatics – maybe a crazed cult or something, poor guy.” Lucy couldn’t help but laugh at the humorous, twisted expression on Kate’s face.
“Well, what about giving him some credit?” Lucy insisted, sucking on an ice cube.
Kate sighed. “I do give him credit… but he needs some time or we’re going to lose him. You don’t want that do you?”
“Definitely not.” Lucy took a cookie from the plate that Jack had set in front of them. She remembered the frustration of being treated like a freak whenever she’d tried to tell anyone. It had never worked.
Up until now, Jack had stood quietly with his hands on the back of Kate’s chair. Kate glanced over her shoulder and Lucy gazed up at him through her dark glasses, waiting for his opinion.
He shrugged and his dark hair brushed his bare shoulders. “If I hadn’t experienced it myself, I doubt I would be able to believe it was real. I’m too scientific for that.”
He stepped around Kate’s chair and then squatted by Ben, resting his hand on the top of the playpen. “But, I’m afraid we’ve got a bigger problem Lucy. Kevin’s got his own mysteries… he’s definitely hiding something important from us, and I think we ought to know what that is. We need to gain his trust or he’s never going to come clean.”
“What do you think he’s hiding — aside from not getting sick with the plague like we did?” Kate asked.
“I wish I knew. But the fact that he didn’t tell us the truth about that… well, it makes me wonder why he feels the need to be so secretive.”
“He trusts me. I’ll bet I can find out,” Lucy proposed.
Jack helped himself to a cookie, and then reached for Ben’s rattle. “Where’s Mama and Papa Ben? Eh?” he said, turning towards her finally with a more serious expression.
“Lucy, I hope you’ll be careful.” He got up, tweaked Ben’s nose, and came over to sit down in the chair beside her with a parental gaze.
She immediately understood his context and put her empty glass on the table. “I have no desire to do any such thing! Why do you even bother to ping with me? It is obviously a complete waste of your time,” she said, crossing her arms. She thought it had been obvious that her feelings were still for Christopher.
He sat forward in his chair and squirmed a little. “In all fairness Lucy, I’m trying. But you really are complicated.”
“Well, I was quite clear about that!”
“I’m just saying, you can feel one way, and then, in the blink of an eye, things can change.”
Lucy snorted a laugh and slapped her knee. Jack was too adorable sometimes to be angry at him and now he was cracking her up.
He grinned. “You’re a sea of hormones young woman and it doesn’t take much at your age, though you may think differently.”
Lucy laughed smugly this time. “You think I need a lecture about the birds and the bees now?”
“Jack,” Kate said softly, flicking her silky hair from her neck and peering at Lucy. “He’s just trying to help sweetie.”
“And I appreciate the support Kate. But really, none of you seem to get me at all.”
“We know you’ve had a lot to contend with. And I suspect not being able to speak about your relationship with Travis was a burden while growing up,” Kate suggested sympathetically.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Lucy snapped.
“No. But I hope one day you will tell us. Well, I trust you’ll make the right decision anyway Lucy. You’re a very i
ntelligent young woman. Would you like some more tea?”
“No thanks.”
“Cookie?”
Lucy turned her head toward the lake and huffed, “I have to head off. Rose wants me for something.”
“We’ll see you a little later then?” Kate said gingerly.
“I’ll be back in a while. I’ve completed all the math assignments you gave me. But I want to review those lessons for Travis before we start on mine though, if you don’t mind. He’s losing interest, and, maybe a change would help.”
Chapter Fifteen
Avoiding the Shadows
(September 29th, Year Two, PA)
Travis was struck by a chorus of laughter coming from inside Lucy’s cottage and stopped himself from knocking, his restrained fist tightening. He paused for a moment, but there was something about the smell of the overly-heated paint which was chipping off the doorframe in green blisters that was making him feel sick. Humidity always drew out the bad smells.
He had something far more important to accomplish. Striding determinedly across the parking lot, he vowed never again to waste precious time vying for Lucy’s attention; using her as an excuse for postponing his plans was no longer an option if he wanted to succeed. None of them could be a part of this, and it was a good thing she was so preoccupied. That’s exactly what he needed from all of them.
Once on the road he began kicking small stones with the toe of his shoe, flinging them over the top of cornstalks that had grown taller than him without him noticing. He continued heading north past the pumpkin patch, counting twenty future jack-o-lanterns the size of human heads already. Slaked by the water the men had piped in from the lake they seemed to have popped up overnight; their vines creeping resolutely along the soil to take over the patch in no time at all.
Then it was on to the field of potatoes where the buds were suddenly bursting, thousands of white petals grinning up at the sun. He almost didn’t notice he had made it to the immense oak trees which lined the sides of the road up ahead casting long, dark shadows in his path.
He stopped just before them and a sickening ache wrenched in his gut. But in the protecting sunlight, he sent out a message, and waited, his eyes gazing out to the distant woods.
A faint breeze brought the odors from miles away, good smells of life and mingling diversity that he inhaled with a sigh; and with that, finally, it arrived — his verification for everything that he was about to do. The truth was there within him as blatant as ever it could be and his pulse quickened with excitement.
With his eyes steady he rushed into the shadows until he was half-way into the tunnel of elms, their branches swaying gently far above him. He wasted no time plunging down into the ditch to the left side of the road and climbing up the other side where the shade was deeper than on the road. A crow swooped up abruptly from its perch on the gate, which was snared with overgrowth.
Frantically he managed to clear the latch, but tugging until the entire fence began to rock back and forth, the gate seemed hopelessly entwined. And while he searched for a place to climb over top of it, a wraithlike entity began to materialize in the darkness beneath the bushes.
He tried not to look. But he was enveloped in deep shade with the foul odour entering his nose and the sneering image becoming clearer by the second. He had anticipated its menacing presence hoping to outrun it, but the gate into the sunny field would not open and now it was too late.
***
“I’m going to tell you something Kevin. Something I haven’t told you yet,” Lucy began, as she pulled a brush through her wet hair. They were sitting on a wide slab of granite fitted into the earth to form a step that led from the water up to her cottage. He hoped she had something enlightening to offer.
Maybe, if he was lucky, she would tell him the truth and it would be what he wanted to hear, that Lucy and her people had nothing to do with what had happened to the world. Sometimes her eyes appeared almost grey, but with the lake framing her face and the sun on her hair, they were stark blue.
“I want you to understand who we are Kevin, because I know you are confused. You’ve been here too long not to notice the inconsistencies. And, there shouldn’t be secrets among us.”
That’s all Kevin wanted. As she spoke he watched her finger delicately sort some tiny pebbles into wavy lines on the sandy step between them, her face in full concentration, not looking up at him.
“When I was almost three, I was on a holiday with my parents. There was only one day with them that I remember clearly, from my entire childhood, and that was it. Both of them were holding my hands on either side of me as we walked along this road of sand and together they lifted me as they climbed up what must have been dunes and swung me like parents do. On the other side of what seemed like a white mountain to me, there was the ocean. I was so excited to see it. My mom and dad were happy too. I remember that more than anything. Do you want something to drink?”
Kevin shook his head.
“Well, the next thing I know the water was pushing me and then tossing me around like I was in a washing machine. And then – there was just blackness. I was at the bottom of a dark, salty tomb of seawater.”
“No kidding? Like a tsunami?”
“I’m serious. That’s all I remember of it. It killed my mom and dad. After that, I was with my first foster family. Can’t remember a thing of what happened in between.”
Kevin was trying to think of something to say, something about his dad, or mom that might… but Lucy continued.
“One day, they told me they had to move out of state and so they couldn’t keep me anymore; and the next family took in four of us at once. One of the boys was mean but, the other one… I think he was just evil. I don’t want to say what I did Kevin, it’s too hideous… but they soon got rid of me.”
“Really?!”
“I’m only telling you this because I want you to know I’m not normal. That’s okay, I trust you and I’m okay with it,” she said, still playing with her stones on the rock, not looking up.
Kevin felt her pain so deeply it surprised him in fact, since after everything that had happened he hadn’t believed anything would ever faze him again. “Lucy…” he began, not quite sure what to say, “What a horrible story. But it doesn’t mean you’re not normal. Abused little kids are often forced to find odd ways to seek the help they need.”
“Wait until I finish, then you’ll see. That was just the beginning.
“I almost died two more times after that. So it was three altogether, when you include the tsunami. The second time was just before I was about to be adopted. It took so many years and foster families, but finally – I think it was because I finally figured out how to be a decent person, but anyway – they were so good to me Kevin. And they had money too. Sent me for music lessons, private schooling, and took me shopping for beautiful clothes. They were everything I ever wanted. I was there almost two whole years when it happened. But of course, the good times couldn’t continue, not for someone like me.”
“What happened?”
“Since you’ve had such a good life Kevin, I wonder if it’s difficult to believe it’s even possible to have the kind of bad luck I did… but, that’s what I wanted to tell you. I’m cursed. I don’t know why it happens, some people are naturally lucky and others are not. I knew a woman who won the lottery three times in two years. That’s just the way life is.”
When she finally peered at him again, her eyes seemed to have darkened a shade as if her sorrow could change them, and her lips were in a pout. “It isn’t funny Kevin. It’s absolutely true. Wait until you hear this. So, it was about the fourth time my foster dad had taken us in his Cessna. He loved to fly, and was an excellent pilot. But, something went wrong with the engine. I — I remember the instant we all realized we were in trouble and there was nothing he could do. The trees were coming at us and I screamed when we hit. Never heard any of them make a sound though. My leg was broken and of course I was banged up really bad just about
everywhere, but they rescued me a few hours later. And there I was, without a family again.”
The way she had told it, Kevin had no doubt it was true. All he could do was shake his head. “Fucking shit Lucy. You may be right about the bad luck – first a tsunami, and then that?”
He gazed across the lake. “But, at least you survived. I mean, in spite of it being so horrible – I’m not sure if you can even call that unlucky.”
Lucy laughed. “I guess so. I tried to keep positive about it. Couldn’t believe my foster grandparents would take me in. But they did. Of course that only lasted… um, six months I think — everything before and after the plague is a huge blur. And you know what happened after that. Christopher came along and rescued me. I would have died if he hadn’t because I really didn’t want to live anymore. Enough was enough. But somehow he managed to convince me that everything was going to be okay and that it would be worth it to get better. So I did.”
“This can’t be a bad life for you, here at Moonstone. Is it?”
Lucy sighed. “What I’m trying to say is, well, Christopher, the only way to describe him is… well, like a stubborn mule. I imagine all astronauts would have to be like that. You can’t get more of a demanding career so you have to know what you want and focus hard on getting it.
“He isn’t swayed easily, not when he’s made up his mind. But don’t get me wrong. When he has to bend, he will, and he knows when that is important. A good trait if you want to survive in space.”
Kevin was feeling confused about what she was getting at and by her expression, he thought she might be too. But, he let her continue. Her eyes were suddenly as stark as he had ever seen them.
“What do you think about Christopher and Sarah having children together?”
Kevin gazed at her. “I — what do you mean?”