by Lauren Wood
It was getting later, so we just started back without much more information than when we started. I had gained a headache and a ten-pound vase though. I knew that it was going to be a long walk, made worse by this vase that seemed far heavier after only an hour than it had been when I first picked it up. It was old looking and seemed fragile. I had no way to wrap it up, so I just started to set it down every now and again, changing positions and arms that was affected.
“I can’t believe that you’re actually going to carry that back to the hotel.”
I didn’t say anything. I was regretting it now and since it was almost dark, there was no way that I could walk any faster because of it. We were going to be stuck on the road at night and I didn’t like the prospect of that very much. The fact that we should have turned back before was now blaring in my ears.
I tried not to get spooked as night fell, but I was. We were in a foreign country and I was starting to think we were lost as well. The final fork was not coming ahead, and I stopped, unsure what to do.
“What?”
“Are you sure we are going the right way?”
Callie shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not the best at directions. You know that.”
I sighed to myself and then straightened up when I saw lights ahead of us from a vehicle. I was really hoping that we could get some help and I started to feel some relief. Everything was going to be okay.
Then there was shouting in another language I assumed was Vietnamese and though I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I knew that we were telling us to stop. It was the police, but when I tried to pull out the translation book, they raised their weapons and I froze. The sinking feeling was right. We should have turned back.
There were two police officers. They were young and both male. They wanted to know why we were there on the street so late I would imagine, but even when I pulled out the book, they didn’t understand me. I tried pointing like I had back at the village, but it didn’t seem to help. He kept saying Cambodia and I wasn’t sure what that meant. I knew we were close to the border, but not that close. We shouldn’t be anyways.
One of them was interested in the vase that I was still carrying. He took it from me and I didn’t think that saying too much was going to help me out. He didn’t look like he wanted to talk about it.
The next thing I know, we’re being arrested or something of the like because we were put into the back of their car and taken off the way we had just came. I didn’t know where the hell we were, but I knew that I didn’t want to be here. This was not part of the plan.
I saw a sign that said Cambodia, several and it made sense why I couldn’t understand or communicate even the simplest of terms. I was speaking in the wrong language! How this happened, I don’t know. All I know is that we’re in the wrong country and I’d heard about borders being an issue here.
Callie hadn’t said much. “What are we going to do Eve?”
Now she was worried.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s going to be okay. We’re American citizens and we weren’t doing anything wrong. This is just all a misunderstanding and we will be back at the hotel before you know it.”
I wanted to believe it myself, but I knew deep down that it wasn’t going to be the case. My gut said that we were in trouble and when the car pulled up to a rough looking jail, I knew that my gut was right this time.
“I wonder if you get a phone call here?”
I didn’t know if she was joking or not. I was already thinking about who I was going to call. My parents were gone. I was going to have to call my brother and see if he could help me out. I wasn’t sure what kind of help I needed, just that I was going to need some and quickly.
Chapter 3
Stan
“Carl, it’s been a while. What’s going on? How’s Scott?”
“I’m good, he’s good. What have you been up to?”
He had a strain to his voice and though I hadn’t heard from him in a while, I knew that something was wrong. The very fact that he was calling me after all this time was proof enough. He wasn’t calling to see how I was, so I didn’t really answer. I preferred to just be straight and get to the heart of the matter.
“Not much, what’s up?”
“I think I need your help.”
I knew that. “Like I said, what’s up Carl. You don’t have to beat around the bush.”
“It’s my sister.”
“Linsey?”
“No, the other one, my oldest sister Eve.”
“How is she? I haven’t seen her since graduation.”
“She’s good. Works at a paper now, but that’s not what I’m calling about. She’s on vacation right now and I just got a disturbing call from her from jail.”
“I didn’t know Eve got in trouble. She always seemed so straight and narrow before.”
“She is. I don’t really know what happened. She was hiking with a friend and they somehow ended up in Cambodia with an ancient artifact that is considered a cultural artifact and apparently, it’s a big deal. She said that they have been there a week now and she just now found out what she was charged with. Can they do that?”
I sighed out loud as I tried to remember what I knew of their laws. It wasn’t much, and they were sweeping.
“It’s not America. They aren’t going to have the same rights as they would here. A cultural artifact?”
“Eve says it was a vase that she bought at a small village for a hundred bucks. I don’t know. She only had a few minutes, and no one can contact her except her lawyer.”
Now it was making sense and I looked at my schedule. It was full, but for Carl I was going to have to free it. I spent many summers with Carl and Scott. We’d been the three musketeers, but I’d went off to college and started a different path. We saw each other occasionally, caught up, but I hadn’t been able to really be there for them. I knew that this was a time that I needed to be.
“So, you want me to find out what I can?”
“Ah man, please. Would you mind? I know that you’re a fancy lawyer now with butlers and such. I would appreciate it.”
It was a dig. “I don’t have a butler. I have maids. They have much nicer asses to look at while they clean.”
He chuckled, but it was short lived. I could tell that he was worried, and, in my opinion, he ought to be. There were many laws in countries like that and when they started throwing around words like cultural artifacts, it sounded like it could get serious.
I told Carl that I would make some phone calls and I would get back to him as soon as I could. I didn’t know what I was going to find out, but I knew that I had to try, for old times sake.
***
“It’s not looking too good Carl. I’m not going to lie. It’s a mess and your sister is there at one of the worst times. There is an election going on, so the penalty could be stiffer to send a message of toughness on tourists that go there to do illegal activity. I’m afraid that Eve has been pulled into this and that isn’t a good thing.”
“Give me some good news Stan.”
“I’m going to go down there and see what I can do. I have some pro-bono time that I’m going to take off but right now I can’t make any promises.”
“Really? I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how I’m going to pay your rate Stan, but we will figure something out. The shop is doing better, and I can’t let anything happen to Eve.”
At the rate that shop was making money, he would never pay me off. So, I told him not to worry about it. He could buy me a beer when it was all done.
It was a bigger problem than I was letting on. Not only was Eve in a country that she wasn’t supposed to be in, but she also had an artifact that it looked like she was trying to smuggle out. I hadn’t really been able to talk to her much and the only way that I was really going to be able to make a difference in this case was to go down there myself and see what I could come up with. I still wasn’t sure if it was going to come up with anything, but
I had to try. That’s what I kept telling myself. I had to figure something out or Eve could truly be in big trouble. They could lock her away for years if something wasn’t done. I was going to make sure that it all worked out. I owed her brother that much because he was always there for me when we were kids. I was the new kid at one point and Carl and Scott had brought me into their little group. I was always grateful for that kindness.
Now I had to return it and when I got off the phone with Carl, I was worried what I was even going to be able to do. I had money to help grease some wheels and I knew their laws a little better now that I’d studied it. I hoped that a little luck would all be enough to get her out of there. I don’t remember Eve all that much because she was never home, but it didn’t matter. It was Carl that I was trying to help in the end.
I told my assistant to cancel the next week for me and she looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had or maybe I’d been looking for an excuse to get out of here for a while. Debbie was on me about marriage again and a few days without her nagging the issue would be perfect for me.
“Denise, just call everyone and reschedule. Tell them I am going to be out of the country for the next week and I’ll be back as soon as I can. A woman’s life is in the balance.”
“Do you want me to add the last part?”
She knew me well. “No, skip that part. Just do what you can and if they start getting angry, send them through to my cell. I don’t mind fielding calls at the airport.”
“Okay Stan, whatever you say. So, what do you want me to do for the week?”
“Take one off on me. Field calls on your cell phone and do what you want. You don’t even have to answer the calls if you don’t want to.”
“The partners are not going to be happy.”
“They never are, are they? You’re my assistant so don’t let them tell you any different. They have no say in what you do.”
Denise didn’t like confrontation and that’s why I didn’t even want her to come in. One of the others would put her to work and I didn’t want that. She was a good assistant and she made my life easier, so if I could make hers easier as well with no cost to me, of course I was going to do that. It would go a long way later.
I left the office and got in my car to go home and pack. I was Cambodia bound and I still wasn’t sure what to expect. Either way, I needed some time away and I wanted to help. That’s all that mattered. That and getting the hell out of here for a while. I needed a break from my own problems and jumping into someone else’s always helped.
Chapter 4
Eve
“Please tell me that you didn’t really call Stan. Stan Meyers of all people?”
He seemed confused at what the problem was and I knew then that he had called his old high school buddy. It was the only lawyer that he knew, and my heart clenched a little in my chest with the very thought. I could still remember the last night I’d seen Stan and what had been going through my head. It was something that I couldn’t forget, and I didn’t like the idea of seeing him again.
“I wish you wouldn’t have done that.”
“Why wouldn’t I? He is a defense attorney, a good one that knows international law and he’s willing to help for free. Why wouldn’t I call him? He was one of my best friends when we were in school.”
I remembered him well because I’d had a little bit of a crush on him before the night I caught him in my bed with another girl. He wouldn’t have given me the time of day of course. How could he when I was so much younger than him? It hadn’t stopped me from fantasizing and freaking out when he was in the house though. Many of my brother’s friends were handsome, but there had always been something about Stan that had drawn me in. How embarrassing that Carl had called him of all people!
“I know, it’s just, God Carl, this is super humiliating. The last thing that I wanted you to do was get him involved.”
Carl didn’t get it and he wouldn’t because he never knew how I felt about Stan. No one did, save for Callie. She’d known that I’d been head over heels in love with him as only a teenager can be. It hadn’t done me any good and now he was finally going to ‘see’ me, but it was necessary in the light of present circumstances. I’d already seen him, all of him and it was going to be impossible to be around him and not think of that night, as I had many times before.
I pushed the thought away. I was a grown woman now. It was a bit too late to be worried about Stan now. I’d been turned on and hurt back then when I had seen it, sure that we were meant to be together and then finding out I was wrong. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I had. I’d also learned what I wanted from a man and how I wanted to feel. At the time, I remember thinking if I can’t have him, I at least want a man that could make me feel the way he made that skank feel on my bed.
“Well, you’re in a damn prison in Cambodia, Eve. I don’t know what else to do. They are talking about giving you some serious time and I don’t want that to happen.”
I didn’t want that to happen either. He was right. I was going to have to swallow my pride and accept help wherever I could get it at this point.
“I know, this is crazy. I don’t know how this even happened. We took a wrong turn and now we are here. I wish you could see this place. Its horrible. If I ever get out of here, I don’t think I’m going to be able to take enough showers to ever get clean. You know they don’t have to let you shower here?”
I was getting away from myself and I had to stop blabbing. They didn’t give us very much time on the phone and I wanted to make sure I knew what was going on. I wanted to be sure because it was going to be a while before I was able to call again.
“So, what is Stan going to do? Has he told you anything?”
“I don’t think he knows yet to be honest. This is going to be a challenge. I mean, they think you’re trying to leave the country with their culture.”
He started to crack up and honestly, I needed to laugh. It was kind of crazy when I really thought about it. There was no way that I would have done such things and I certainly wasn’t trying to leave the country. It was all an accident and I was still holding onto hope that they would hear the truth, see it for what it was, and I would be able to get back on with my life.
“I know, crazy right? Just tell me that you’re going to get me out of here? I must get out of here or I’m going to go crazy. I think Callie already has a little bit.”
“I’m going to get you out of there one way or another. Okay?”
I wanted to believe him and even if he was telling me what I wanted to hear, it was what I wanted to hear. I wanted this to all go away and for me to get back home, so I took his promise at face value.
“Thanks bro. I’ll see you soon.”
“I’m sorry I can’t come right now, but things are hectic.”
“Its okay, really. I know that you’d be here if you could be.”
I hung up because I was getting a dirty look from the guards. They didn’t talk to me much, usually just pushed me one way or another. I’d learned a few words of their language, but I really wish I would have studied up on the neighboring countries languages as well. It would have been damn handy now that I was here.
I walked back to Callie to tell her the news.
“Do you really think that they are going to get us out of here?”
Her blonde hair was a dark brown at this point and her clothes were disheveled. It was the same ones that we’d been wearing when we went for our hike last week. If I would have known that I would be wearing them this long, I would have maybe picked something a little lighter and stretcher. I was so sick of my slacks and shirt that I’d picked out that morning. It seemed like so long ago now.
“I hope so. Carl said that Stan is on his way and he’s going to try to help get us out. It’s our best chance so far, so I’m going to be hopeful. Carl said that he was some big shot lawyer in New York now and that’s why they never saw each other much anymore. It sounds like he could actually help us.”
&n
bsp; I wasn’t sure how much of that I believed, but at the end of the day I had to make sure that I kept us both positive. It was easy to fall into despair when living in such situations with the way things were around me. It wasn’t the sort of place I wanted to stay longer than I had to, not in the least bit. It was the sort of place that people went to rot, and I refused to let that happen to us. We were going to make it.
“Good, because I can’t stay here much longer.”
“It might be a little while, a few more days, weeks, but you have to stay strong. This is just a roadblock.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t said it Eve. I know that I would if I were you.”
“Say what?”
“That you were right, and we shouldn’t have went down the road that wasn’t on the map.”
“Maybe it wasn’t on the map because it was in Cambodia or it led there. Still not sure what all happened, but I would never blame this on you. I agreed to go, so we made the decision together.”
She smiled, and I knew that she felt bad. I wouldn’t have had to say anything at all. Callie was beating herself up already and it wasn’t going to do us any good to rub it in and make it worse. We had to stick together to get out of this and we would.
I hope Stan was as big of a big shot as Carl thought he was. He was our last chance now.
Chapter 5
Stan
The city was hot as hell and as soon as I touched down, everything that I was wearing proceeded to stick to me like it’s very life depended on it. I pulled my shirt away from my chest and took my jacket off. I certainly wasn’t going to be needing this for a while.
I did as much as I could from the states. Now I was here to see what I could do on location. Cambodia was a beautiful place, a place that one had to stop and just stare off into the scenery for a while, but it was hot as hell and I had a meeting with the police officers that arrested Eve, as well as a couple of international lawyers that I knew from the embassy. I was glad for all my college contacts now. It was hopefully going to speed up this process.