The Ring of Fire: The Dragon Dream: Book Two

by Robin Janney

  “So,” asked Mike as he bit into his glazed donut. “Last I heard you were living in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Still am,” answered Craig. “I just changed states. We live in Montana now.”

  “God, I loved your grandmother’s cabin.” Mike brushed at crumbs on his lips. “Wait, we?”

  “I’ve been married for almost five years.” Craig grinned as his friend’s jaw dropped. “Our anniversary’s in February.”

  “No shit,” replied the other man. “I hadn’t heard about that! That’s a bit of surprise, but congratulations.”

  “It was a bit of a surprise to me too,” replied Craig. He pulled his iPhone out and was showing Mike pictures as he told the story of how Angela came to work at the store and drew him out of the cold world he’d imprisoned himself in. He didn’t tell everything, guarding Angela’s past hurts from others was second nature to him. He shared how the kidnapping had ended up leading them to leave their little town for his grandmother’s cabin, which had in turn led to the ranch. “About a year after that, she asked for a horse…so I bought her a ranch.”

  “You don’t do things halfway. I remember that much about you.” Mike shook his head. “What did you do with the cabin?”

  “I kept it until Baxter died last year. Then I deeded it to my cousin Gwen.” Craig shrugged. The cabin hadn’t felt the same without the kindly old man. “She and the kids will make better use of it than I would right now. Angela and I are happy on our ranch.”

  “Gwen? Yeah, she was fun.” Mike shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he checked the time on his old wristwatch. “Give me a second to make a phone call?”

  “Sure.”

  Mike pulled out a Blackberry and in moments was talking with what had to be his wife. “Hon? I’m going to be a bit late tonight. I ran into an old friend.”

  To Craig’s surprise, his friend winced at the reply.

  “Actually, you’re never going to believe who. Craig Moore. Yeah, really.” Mike blushed, an awkward color for a man who already sported a ruddy complexion. “Yeah, sure.” His friend lowered the phone and covered the bottom with his fingers. “You mind saying hi to Amber-Lynn?”

  “You married Amber-Lynn Prescott?” asked Craig in hushed surprise. Just because his friend had fingers over the phone didn’t mean she wouldn’t be able to hear.

  “Thirteen years ago, last month.”

  Craig smiled and held his hand out for the phone. “Hi Amber-Lynn,” he said into the mouthpiece as the phone came to rest against the side of his face.

  “Oh my God!” came the deep sultry reply. She had never quite lost her southern accent. “He wasn’t kidding!”

  “No ma’am,” answered Craig.

  “How long are you in the city for?”

  “Not sure,” Craig told her. “I haven’t gotten a chance to tell Mikey this yet, but my father was shot in a drive-by two weeks ago. I’m here for a bit.”

  There were two sounds of shock at this news, one from Mike at his side and the other from the woman on the other end of the phone.

  “I am so sorry,” Amber-Lynn said. “How badly was he injured?”

  “He’s alive and breathing, but not back to walking just yet. Getting a little cabin fever.”

  “I bet!” the woman on the phone said. “Let us know if you need anything. Let me talk to my husband again.”

  “No problem. It was nice hearing your voice again.” Craig passed the phone back to his friend.

  “See?” Mike said into the phone. He nodded at her, unseen. “Sure, I will. Love you, babe.” Mike disconnected and put the phone away. “I’m supposed to invite you over for dinner some night. Not tonight because she’s had no time to plan.”

  Craig chuckled. “No problem. I’m not keeping you out past curfew, am I?”

  “Just a little,” the other man admitted. He shrugged. “I screwed up about two years ago. Had an affair. Got caught. Been working on fixing things ever since. Part of that fixing is letting her know when I’m going to be home late and why.”

  Craig didn’t know what to say.

  “So, is that why you’re out pacing the streets like you did back when you were a kid?” Mike asked. “Cuz you’re worried about your dad?”

  “A little.” Craig shrugged uncomfortably, reminding himself he was talking with the man who’d been his best friend in high school. “A lot. The doctors aren’t sure yet if he’ll regain use of his legs.”

  Mike blew air out through his lips. “I don’t see that slowing the old man down any.”

  “No, he’s already trying to twist the doctor’s arms into letting him go home already. He still has stitches in his back!”

  Mike just shook his head. “I’m sure the doctors won’t send him back too early.”

  “I hope not.” Craig sighed as he tasted his coffee. He liked his coffee simple, and simple seemed so hard to get at coffee shops; this cup was far too sweet, even for him, but he suspected his wife would have liked it. “Do you keep in touch with Donnie or Raph?”

  A strange look passed over Mike’s face, but his friend let him change the subject. The others in their small circle from high school had always viewed him as their leader, and seldom challenged him when he didn’t want to talk about whatever was bothering him, even pre-abuse. “Yeah, Raph and I chat from time to time. Though he likes to be called Jason now. I take it no one told you about Donnie?”

  Craig shook his head wordlessly.

  Mike sighed. “He died a few years out of high school. The diabetes took him.”

  Rubbing at his face tiredly, Craig said, “He always tried so hard to eat right.”

  But the other man shook his head. “Not after graduation. He fell apart, Craig. If it wasn’t nailed down, he’d eat it. Stopped checking his sugar like he was supposed to, stopped taking his medicine, stopped going to the doctors.”

  “I don’t understand. What happened? Why didn’t anyone tell me?” asked Craig, knowing the answer to the last even as he asked.

  Mike cleared his throat. “You know why no one told you, Craig. You didn’t want anything to do with anybody anymore, not even your best friends. And as for Donnie, well. A girl used him, and it was someone he really liked. He never got over it. Especially after she aborted their baby.”

  Leaning back in his seat, Craig looked out the window into the busy street. It wasn’t quite the rush-hour crowd yet, but he could see it gearing up. “Those were hard years,” he said softly.

  “I don’t know what happened to change you Craig, I don’t need to know if you don’t want me to. We lived by our creed: ‘Once a Turtle, always a Turtle.’ Just because we may have parted ways after graduation, well that happens to the best of us.” Mike pushed his unfinished donut away from him. He laughed suddenly. “At least Donnie and I had nicknames that matched our real names!”

  Craig grinned. “That did make it a little less confusing.”

  “Oh please, you liked being called Leonardo just like Raph liked being called…oh my God, if I slip up next time I talk to Jason, I’m blaming you.”

  The next few minutes were spent regaling each other with ‘remember when?’ For the next few minutes, Craig relaxed for the first time in weeks and was able to breathe as he reminisced with his friend from high school.

  Finally, Mike checked the time again and said, “I really need to be going, Leo…Craig.”

  “Old habits die hard,” replied Craig, his smile fading. “Mikey.”

  Mike laughed. “Maybe I can get Raph…Jason to come into the city before you leave and the three of us can hang a bit.”

  “Do that,” said Craig.

  Fumbling in his pockets, Mike pulled out slightly crumpled business cards and passed one to his friend. “Here. Phone numbers, emails.”

  “Thanks.” For a moment, Craig was lost. He didn’t have a business card to exchange. “I’ll send my info to you then.”

  “No problem, no problem.” Mike slid away from the table and stood. “Hey, don’t be afraid to
call, day or night, if you need anything. I mean that Craig…Leo.”

  “Thanks Mikey.”

  “Don’t wait too long to get your number to me, remember – Amber-Lynn wants to invite you to dinner. And trust me, my wife is a good cook.” Mike patted his ample belly as proof.

  Craig laughed. “I wouldn’t pass that up.”

  “Good. Catch ya later!” Mike held his hand out and Craig shook it.

  “Later.” Craig watched his friend leave the coffee shop and wasn’t surprised when the depression he’d been battling returned. Pulling his smartphone out he checked the time and smiled at the texts his wife has sent him while he’d been visiting with Mike.

  Opening the messages, he opened the pictures to full size and smiled wider. The first one was of Jared on Aster, one of their work horses. The boy looked at home on a horse as his sister did.

  The second picture was a selfie of Angela and Jared, Jared flashing the camera thumbs up while Angela’s free arm was around her brother. Both had wide grins on their faces. He was glad they were happy together. Ever since Angela’s kidnapping, or more precisely the events after she’d awakened from her coma, there had been a strain between the siblings who had once been two peas in a pod despite the age gap between them. He was glad to see the strain easing as the two were able to spend time together at the ranch; he hadn’t been lying when he had told her it was his motivation for leaving her there…it just hadn’t been the whole of it.

  And then there was the third picture. This time of Angela on her own, sitting on a hay bale in the barn. Jared must have taken the picture for her, because she sat there with her knees pulled to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. She was smiling, but his practiced eye could pick out the tired worry around her eyes. How much sleep had she been getting? The early morning rising he’d witnessed almost ten hours ago probably wasn’t the first one she’d had since he’d left to come to the city.

  The simple text she’d sent after the pictures caused him to double-check the time.

  What time are we chatting tonight? she had asked.

  Craig did some time conversion in his head, decided he’d go back to the hospital for a bit before heading to his father’s penthouse. About 8 your time. He sent the message to her and waited a moment to see if she was going to reply. When he saw the bubble pop up indicating that she was writing, he switched gears and called her. At the sound of her upbeat, “Hi!” the knot in his chest lessened.

  “Hi,” he answered back. Before he returned to his father’s hospital room, he just needed to hear her voice. He leaned back in his chair, his other hand toying with his almost empty coffee. “So, what are you and Jared up to now?”

  As she began to talk, Craig just listened and let the sound of her voice seep into him like he was back to sitting on the back deck of the Cupboard while she worked in the deli behind him. The way sound carried out the window and door of the deli had been the entire reason he’d shuffled things around, so she’d be in the deli more often. If he closed his eyes, Craig could pretend he was sitting next to her now.

  S ensing her husband’s need to hear her voice, Angela kept talking. Inconsequential things like how Jared had already been put to work since Rick felt the teen was competent enough on the horse they’d chosen, how Cassie and her girlfriend would be visiting shortly, how Princess was acting clingy. Silly things, some of it.

  He was so quiet and didn’t really want to say much of anything. Craig answered her questions in short sentences. Mostly with ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I’m not sure’. She didn’t even bother to ask him this time whether she could come to the city or not. She knew the answer to that one. ‘Not yet.’ was the persistent answer.

  Hanging up with the promise to be at the laptop for their webcam chat at eight, Angela slid her phone into her pocket and began rocking the rocking chair she was sitting in. She was sitting on their large front porch, enjoying the view as she looked out on the rolling hills and fields below their ranch house. The cattle didn’t graze out front often, but it wasn’t uncommon either. Today there was a group below her, but she knew it was only a portion of the herd.

  No more memories had resurfaced since she’d remembered being in the same movie theater as her husband before she’d gone to work at his store. Pat had no answers for her, had even accused her of making the memories up.

  You need to talk to the other people in these memories, Angela. You need to make sure you’re remembering correctly. Pat had tapped her notepad with her pencil as she spoke, a sparkle in her eye letting Angela know her doctor was purposely trying to irritate her. She was pissed it always worked.

  Talk to those in the memory. What a discouraging notion! Look what had happened when she’d discussed it with Michelle. Not only had the other woman said the memory was correct, but she had said Angela wasn’t allowed to break their pinky promise. That Michelle had already done so with a psychologist apparently didn’t count.

  A psychologist who had confronted Angela about it as if she was in denial about her own sexual identity. Her flesh still crawled at the confrontation. She remembered enough of herself to know what she liked in bed. Craig’s touch satisfied her in ways her teenaged experimentation never had.

  Some conversations needed to be had in person. Not over the phone or over a webcam chat.

  Letting the motions of the rocking chair lift her to her feet, Angela stood and opened the front door to her house, holding it open so Princess could follow her inside. She wanted her husband home, so she could talk to him. Talking to her doctor Pat was alright, but she didn’t understand Angela like Craig did. Not even Toni understood her as well.

  At least she’d been cleared to ride and drive again. Angela had been spending most of her time on Belle or Crescent. Mostly Belle. Now if she could just manage to go for a trail ride without a couple of the ranch hands following at a distance, that’d be just great. But they had orders from Craig which she couldn’t overrule.

  Grateful that for once Nan wasn’t in the kitchen, which was odd with the dinner hour approaching. Nothing seemed to be in the works for a meal, so she was just going to make what she was craving. Angela began pulling out ingredients for grilled cheese sandwiches. She didn’t remember what she’d told Nan to make for tonight, maybe she’d given the woman the night off and forgotten.

  There was ice cream in the freezer, and cookies in the cookie jar, so dessert was already taken care of. But that would be for later. Right now, Angela wanted grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. One of the memories she hadn’t lost, was of her husband making this meal for her before they’d even been an official couple. His always tasted better than hers, but she was on her own, wasn’t she?

  20

  S ettling back in his recliner chair, Les sighed.

  “God, it’s good to be home,” he muttered. Even if he did have two fluttering nursemaids at his side. Although his wife was the only one fluttering, what Craig was doing was more hovering than actual fluttering. Idly he wondered if this was how his son had behaved when Angela had come out of her coma years ago. Missing memories aside, if his son had hovered like this, Les had a new appreciation for why she had requested to go to the farm before getting on with her life. It was mildly intimidating to have his son hovering. Hovering for Christ’s sake!

  But then, Craig had always been like this. It had been hard getting his youngest to sleep in his own room after Tim’s appendix had come out. He’d found the younger in his sleeping bag on his brother’s floor more than once. Tim had thought it was funny but had allowed it. As different as the two boys were, they had been inseparable for years.

  “Here you go darling,” said Veronica as she covered his immobile legs with a light lap blanket. “How does that feel?”

  “It feels fine,” he lied. More of a fib, really. As he had no feeling in his lower extremities, it could very well be ‘fine’ and he just wasn’t aware of it. He had to tolerate this for now. The aides he had hired for in-house daily help, such as hel
ping him from the recliner to his wheelchair, wouldn’t be starting until later tonight. He probably should have waited an extra day before coming home, but once he had the doctor’s approval he hadn’t wanted to give her the chance to change her mind.

  “Do you want anything to eat or drink?” Craig asked from his perch on the edge of the couch.

  “I’m fine,” said Les for the umpteenth time, trying not to sound as irritated as he felt. He sighed. “Really. You two need to relax.”

  “We’re just trying to make you comfortable,” soothed Veronica.

  Like he was a child! He decided to let it pass. “I promise to tell you if there’s anything I need or want. Right now, I just want to relax in my recliner and watch a bit of television.”

  Both looked skeptical. Granted, he had never been much of a screen watcher, but he had little else to hold his attention right now. His cases had been passed to his senior partner for the time being, even if Eddie did call several times a day asking various questions. Especially since Rodriguez and her partner were looking deeper into his pro bono cases.

  There wasn’t a long list of hobbies to occupy his sudden free time. Unless he wanted to take up reading, which wasn’t high on Les’ list of things to do. The sole exception would be the silly comic book his son put out every few months, and it wasn’t time for the next episode yet.

  “I’m fine,” he repeated to them. So what if he had a catheter in and wore a diaper in case he didn’t feel the need for a bowel movement in time? Which he was getting better at. Which Dr. Rashid said was a good sign. “Look, Ronnie why don’t you go shopping or something, and Craig, why don’t you go do something fun for a change? Hell, call your wife and have her come out for a couple of weeks before you go home.”