by Irene, Susan
“No problem, here you go.” She threw the Frisbee to them, and it was then she spotted her friend Gwen. She had not seen her in months and wondered if she had finished school. Then she wondered more if she had tried to leave.
“I’ll be right back. I’m going to say hello to my friend Gwen.” She got up and walked the short distance across the beach to the blonde girl under the red and white beach umbrella.
“Hi Gwen how are you? I haven’t seen you in awhile.” Louise said to her.
“Oh…hi.” She replied, sounding unsure as to who she was saying hi to. Louise knew it had been a while but not that long.
“It’s me Megan. We lived in the dorms together.” Louise was not sure why Gwen was not recognizing her but her delayed responses made Louise suspicious. “Did you finish school yet? I expected you would have been off on your adventure by now.”
“My adventure?” Her speech was slurred.
“You know, leaving Genesee.”
“You’re funny lady. No one leaves Genesee.” The words sent shockwaves through Louise. What had they done to her?
“Excuse me, can I help you?” An older woman walked up behind Louise.
“Hi, I was just saying hello to my friend Gwen. We lived in the dorms together about a year ago.” Louise extended her hand. The older woman shook it and then spoke.
“Gwen isn’t herself these days. She…had an accident. Her memory isn’t the same.”
“Oh I’m so sorry.” Louise said to the woman and then turned to Gwen. “It was nice seeing you again Gwen.”
“Okay funny lady. Bye.”
Louise made her way back to where Jordan was laying on the beach. She told him about her friend Gwen and what she had suspected happened. The thought that they would do such a thing to a young girl scared Louise. What would they do to her and Jordan if they tried to leave? She now realized this was going to be more difficult than they had anticipated. She lay down and tried to allow the warm sun to push away the bad feelings that were slowly creeping in but Jordan had other ideas.
“Hey lets go for a swim.” Jordan pulled her up from her blanket. Keeping her at arms’ length, he admired her beautiful body and his reaction showed. He pulled her close and walked behind her to the water. He could not control his urges when she was this undressed. They entered the water and swam out a good distance from the shore to an area less crowded. He pulled her close and she could feel his need. They slipped off their bottoms and he picked her up and set her on him. As he entered, they both moaned in pleasure. It had been months since they had been together. Despite being betrayed by Arlin and wanting to pick up where they left off when she first go the news of the betrayal, she could not carry on a relationship with Jordan. However, she soon found that he was always there for her and she welcomed that feeling and slowly allowed him into her life again. They had not made love though. She just was not comfortable being unfaithful to Arlin. Now, here with him on this beautiful day and the love she felt for him overcame her and erased all the anxiety she had about her friend; she was finally able to give all of herself to him. This was not what they had planned for their first time again but some things are better not planned. When they finished they slipped their bottoms back on and decided they had enough of the sun and water. They swam back to the beach and collected their towels. Jordan carried the inner tubes to the car and came back to help carry the food Louise had packed away. They drove back to Louise’s place leaving the food in the car they ran into the house. Now that the door was open for them to explore each other again, they could not get enough.
The summer days flew by and Louise was sad to see them go. It had been the happiest summer she had in a long time. Now with the changing seasons she was afraid of what other changes might happen. Jordan told her that he was not going anywhere. They had even talked about moving in together. Louise was not sure if she was ready for that step. She was enjoying her independence as well as being with him. Even though they would never be married or live a married life, she was not sure if she could ever make that commitment again. For the time being, they enjoyed each other’s company every moment they could, sleeping over at each other’s house more often than not.
As fall came and went, they planned for the holidays. She had so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. She had Jordan in her life and with him, she felt so alive. She was thankful for Arlin to have chosen this alternative, and more thankful to the people of Genesee for not having killed her but rather, as their brochure read, allowing her to experience a brand new life. She was more alive now than she ever had been with Arlin. She knows that this would not have been what Arlin wanted, but he did not get to choose how she lived the life that the people, he had sent her, gave her. Christmas would be special too. There was nothing holding her back from not knowing her past. She knew it, all of it. This Christmas she was ready to celebrate, even if only in the privacy of their homes, as Louise and Jordan. Not pretending to be someone they were not. With every passing day, she was falling more in love with him and as New Years wrapped up the holiday festivities, the clocked chimed midnight she made a wish to live forever with Jordan by her side.
Chapter Nineteen
The doorbell rang as Louise slipped her t-shirt over her head. Whom could that be she wondered? She wasn’t expecting anyone. She had planned to stay in and do some spring-cleaning. With the warm weather, she wanted to open all the windows and let the warm air wash away the dry, stagnant winter air that was suffocating her slowly as the winter dragged on. When the day’s chores were completed, she looked forward to some quiet time settled out on the back patio, nestled in a warm blanket and a good book.
The doorbell rang again. Her delay in answering did not deter the person at the door. Maybe it was the neighbor, she was expecting any day now. With this thought, Louise ran to the door anticipating the visitor needing her help. She opened the door and was pleasantly surprised to see Jordan standing there with a picnic basket and a smile.
“Hey what’s all this? I told you I was going to stay in today and get some cleaning done.”
“What on this beautiful day? No way am I letting that happen. We’re going to the park for a picnic.” He lifted the basket for her to take a closer look. “I have all your favorites and a surprise or two. So what do you say?”
“Jordan this is nice but I was really looking forward to my plans; that, if I recall correctly I shared with you yesterday.” She jabbed him in the chest.
He gently took her hand. “The cleaning will be here tomorrow, but the sun may not.”
“I’m not dressed to go to the park.” It wouldn’t have taken much to slip on something else but she was not going to budge.
“You look fine.” He checked out her worn sweatpants and bleached stained t-shirt. “Well on second thought, you need to get some new cleaning clothes.”
She laughed as she looked down at herself. “Yah you’re probably right, but this proves my point that I’m not dressed to go to the park.”
“Well I know for a fact that you do have some clothes that are suitable for the park and a day like today. So off you go, get dressed or you’ll force me to rip those clothes off you and dress you myself.” He set the basket down and took her in his arms. He lifted her chin and softly kissed her lips. “Won’t you please come out and play with me?”
She could not resist him ever. She was like butter in his arms. She moaned softly as he caressed her, moving his lips to her neck breathing ever so lightly sending chills throughout her fevering body. “Well, Mr. Kohl, if that’s how you want to play, then I will get my way after all and we get to stay in after all.”
“For now.” With that, he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom.
As they lay, spent from the pleasure they had given each other, Louise knew her plans were not going to happen, not today anyway, but what better way to spend a beautiful day then with the one she loved. They dressed and headed for the door. Megan picked up the basket,
“
Hey it’s empty; I thought we were going on a picnic.’ She tossed the basket at him.
“Well as you know, I’m a gourmet cook.” He gave her a smirk.
“Okay, okay, so are you expecting me to cook my own food now for the picnic you planned for me?” She stood with her hands on her hips showing she was going to challenge this request.
“No, I’m going to cheat like I usually do. This time though the food wasn’t ready yet so I’ll have to pick it up on the way to the park. See I knew I had to be here early enough before you actually got busy or there would’ve been no convincing you to come with me.” He stood proud that he had thought of everything, he hoped.
“You know me too well.” She grabbed his hand. “What are we waiting for?” They headed out the door.
On the way to the park, they stopped at Patsy’s Diner. “You stay here; I’ll be back soon.” He gave her a quick kiss and grabbed the empty basket.
He was not gone long and when he did return, it was under the struggle of a weighted down basket. Patsy sure did like Jordan and always took care of him. He had told Louise that Patsy reminded him of his grandmother.
He put the basket in the back seat and slid back behind the steering wheel. Louise slipped out of her seatbelt and leaned across the seat to take a peak but Jordan playfully slapped on her butt. “No peeking, you need to wait.”
“Fine but we better hurry, it smells good and I’m starving.” She held her stomach as it growled in agreement.
They arrived at the park and went to their favorite spot on top of a little knoll overlooking the lake. In summer, a 25-foot maple tree would comfortably shade the spot. The lake still had a film of ice over it. The slight breeze blowing in their direction from across the lake was chilled but Louise was all warm inside as she watch Jordan lay out the blanket and the goodies he had picked up from Patsy.
There was fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and a variety of fruits lay out on the red and white checkered blanket. After he had carefully laid out each item he turned and reached for Louise’s hand and pulled her down on the blanket.
“You know how I feel about you right?” He held her hand and stared into her deep green eyes.
“Yes,” Louise stammered. A lump suddenly formed in her throat.
“Good cause I’m starving and didn’t want to have to convince you again that you made the right decision to come with me today.” He raised his arm to defend himself from her hand swatting at his chest.
After devouring the chicken, salad, and beans, Louise laid resting her head in Jordan’s lap as he gently brushed her hair with his hand and feeding her grapes.
“Has the treatment helped your hair any?” He stopped brushing her hair knowing he was treading on sensitive territory.
“No!” She hated when he would talk about her hair. She hated wearing a wig but she would not be seen without it. “Why are you bringing that up? You know I don’t like talking about it.”
“I know but you never told me if it helped and I care about you.” He pulled her up so he could look at her.
She was on the verge of tears, “Well it didn’t work. In fact I think it made it worse.”
He hated what he was about to do but knew he had no choice. “Can I see it?”
She jolted back as if he had just slapped her in the face. She just stared, speechless. He knew this was off limits. “Why are you doing this? I put off my plans to spend a nice day with you and now you want to be mean. What’s your problem?”
“You know why and if you don’t, well that is more of a reason to do it.” He said sternly. “You need to face the truth that for some reason you have been pushing away all winter long.”
“What truth? That I love you and I thought you loved me too.” She was raising her voice now, something she never did with Jordan.
“This truth!” Jordan ripped the wig from her head, grabbed her hand and made her feel what hair she had. “Do you remember who did this? Do you remember who put you here? Most importantly do you remember who you are trying to get back to?”
Daggers darted from her eyes. “You DON’T need to remind me of what I’m trying to get back to. I think about them every day. Every day I wake up wondering what they are doing today, what did they do yesterday. Did they have a good baseball season? What did they get for Christmas? Did they have cake for their birthdays? Do they remember me? How dare you!?”
“Really I wouldn’t have known that. It would seem to me that the fire in your eyes that burned from the day we vowed to get out of here and do so no matter what it took has gone out. It’s not only gone out but it’s been replaced with something else.” He was baiting her. He wanted her to say it; not have to be told it.
“You’re wrong. I want, more than anything, to get out of here and back to my kids. But you said yourself it would be best to wait until spring or summer.” She was calming down as she remembered the conversation they had. She had not given up. No, she would not believe what he was saying.
“Really do you remember what else I said? What about what might happen if we are caught and even if we aren’t caught, we may not be able to stay together. We would have to go our separate ways to protect you. Do you remember any of that?” He was begging her to remember it all not just the parts that were not going to hurt.
“No.” She was pleading. “We can change our plans. They would expect us to separate. Maybe it would be best…”
“Louise, no, we talked about this. As hard as it is for me to have to leave you it’s the only way it’ll work to get you back to your kids.” He tried to reach for her but she pulled back.
“You don’t love me or you wouldn’t want to leave me.” She was praying she was wrong. She loved him so much. Maybe he was right; had she forgotten what she was to be fighting for by growing too close to him. No she would not believe it, she still wanted to get home but she did not want to lose him either.
“I love you Jordan, I don’t want to lose you. Please there has to be another way?” She reached out to him this time.
“I was worried about this; us getting too close and forgetting what we needed to do. But it just may not be a possibility for us to stay together. I don’t know maybe we can think of something.” He had to hold her back as she grabbed at him. He could see she still had a lot of convincing. He could never live with himself if she gave up her kids for him.
“Maybe I said; I need you to understand that. I also want you to know that if we can’t work something out once this is put behind us and these animals are locked away I’m coming for you. I love you Louise and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But we need to get out of here first.”
“Maybe if they see us together as a couple they’d just let us leave?” She knew she was talking nonsense but she was not ready to give him up.
“No, Louise, you know that’ll never happen. You’re supposed to be dead. How do you expect to walk back into your old life and claim your kids?” His voice was so tender but pleading for her to see this is the way it had to be, begging her not to give up her fight. She broke down in tears and he held her as she cried. She cried for the life she had lost, cried for the life she will lose, and cried for the life she hoped she could still have.
Chapter Twenty
“Hey Megan,” Jordan walked up to her desk. “You almost out of here? I thought we’d take a drive. It is a beautiful afternoon.”
“Ya, just give me a minute so I can shut down my computer.” She closed her files and waited for her computer to shut down completely. She had gotten in trouble a few months ago because she had not made sure it shut down and in her hurry, she forgot to push the last button. “So where are we going?”
“I don’t know. I heard there’s a waterfall south of here I thought we’d take a drive to.” He had his devilish smile and Louise wondered what he was really planning.
“Okay all ready. Let’s go.” She grabbed the jacket draped on the back of her chair and they headed out holding hands as they walked through the offic
e.
When they reached Jordan’s car he filled her in on his plans. “You know as long as I’ve been here and have actually had the ability to drive around freely, I’ve never been able to leave this place.” They got in the car and drove off toward the center of town. “I’ve a suspicion and want to confirm it now rather than on the day we leave. There are five roads out of the center of town, four of them leading to the four different housing developments. My suspicion is they all circle back on to each other and lead back into town.”
“And the fifth road, where does that go?”
“A place you don’t want to go to again.”
They headed east out of town and ended up at a dead end at the park and lake. They turned around and drove though some of the housing developments on that side of town, each road only leading back to the main one, which would lead them back to town. They now took the road heading south toward the mountains. He knew where this road led, to a waterfall that she would love and he wanted them to enjoy it before the sun set. As they pulled up to the picnic area, there were already several people parked and unloading their cars for an early season picnic. Jordan parked the car, leaned over the back of the front seat and grabbed the picnic basket from the back. They both got out of the car and walked around meeting each other in the front of the car. He grabbed Louise’s hand and they walked off into the woods down a well worn, yet still snow covered path. The tall trees, even though bare did not leave the light or warmth of the sun in to melt the snow. They walked in silence, holding hands until they came to a small river where they turned east. Following the river, the roaring got louder and Louise squeezed Jordan’s hand a little tighter. As they came around the bend there it was, a waterfall cascading down the jagged face of the mountain. Here the sun shined and the snow, held captive above, was now free to flow down to form a river.
Jordan pulled a blanket out of the basket and laid it down on the moist, cold ground. The blanket was thick and well insulated and the cold of the ground was held at bay. Jordan sat down, pulling Louise to him. “So what do you think?”