ShadowShot : L'enfant Guerrier

by T. M. Deans

  “You’re right about the old French uniform, but it’s neither my father nor the uncle we grew up with. It is our uncle, but not one we’ve ever met. He was the oldest of the three brothers. He left here for France in the 1920’s to make a better life for himself. Before France declared war on Germany he enlisted. When France was defeated he joined the resistance. Regrettably he was killed. We only had word of his death after the war was over. One of his comrades wrote to us.

  I asked, “Would you by chance still have that letter?”

  “Why yes. It’s in my file I will get it for you. It will only take a moment.”

  With the deepest sadness, I regret to inform you that your uncle Peter was killed while fighting in the resistance. He was a soldier and a true warrior of France. He was my best friend. When I joined the resistance I was in my teens. Peter took me under his wing and more than once saved my life and many others, putting his own life in danger.

  There were no medals and no commendations. There was only the knowing that we served France in her hour of need, and this was enough for all of us. Peter’s last action was to give his life in a firefight saving one of our own. His last words were. ‘Did we save our comrade?’ Peter was our leader’s second-in-command. He is sorely missed by all of us. I’m sorry that it took so long to write you. I’m sure that you are aware that during the German occupation it was not possible to write. Our leader whose name was Peppy, asked me to write at the first opportunity.

  When I read the name Peppy, I reeled. My hand went to my forehead. I pushed back in the chair staring at the ceiling. Albert asked if I was all right. Jada came over to me and put her hand on my head.

  “My God this is totally unbelievable! So this is what it’s all about. I thought that some strange force in the universe had guided me here to find you both alive. But there’s more, much more. What I’m about to tell you, I believe you will find truly amazing.”

  I started at the beginning. I told them I was born in France, separated by war from my mother and grandmother. My father had been killed. I told them everything George told me about being with Marie Claude and Peppy, killing the Germans, being captured, and being smuggled out of Portugal. I stopped in mid-sentence. Could this mean that Albert and Jada’s uncle Peter was killed trying to save me? I thought, no dear God. Don’t let it be that they’ve lost their father, their mother, and uncle in part because of me. Then I voiced it.

  Jada declared, “We don’t know that, and even if it is so, it was war and you would’ve only been eight years old. It would not have been your fault. Our uncle died with valor.”

  Albert spoke, “Jack it would only mean that you are even more a part of our family.”

  What incredible people these two were.

  I continued, “During the escape I was shot and banged my head severely putting me in a coma. My mother grandmother and I were smuggled to England, and from there, to the States.” I told them about my new identity and George. I told them that I knew nothing about the first eight years of my life till George told me. I finished telling them everything I knew.

  Albert replied, “Jack I sense you’re not a very religious man, but as you know we are Christians. All I can say is God certainly moves in strange ways. I would never believe that something like this could happen.”

  Jada said nothing. She just came over to the chair where I was sitting. She sat down on the arm and took my hand in hers. I finished reading the letter. He would be happy to answer any other questions we had. I asked if they knew if their uncle wrote to him. They did not know.

  I knew what I had to do. I had to go to France I had to find this man.

  “Albert, can you get me to France? I must find this man named Gerard.”

  “Yes of course Jack. I will start immediately seeing if this address is of any use. It’s very old. There are however many letters from Peter to my father, and to our other uncle from before the war. There could be some clues in them, which might be of help. I think there might have been one other letter from Gerard, but I’m not sure. I will look for it.”

  “I thank you both. If you don’t mind, I have a major headache. I think I best go lie down.”

  Jada replied, “I will help my brother find what letters we can, and then bring them up to you before dinner. You should rest Jack.”

  I went up to my room and lay down, but not before taking a double dose of painkillers. My head was splitting. This was all too weird. I felt like I was being pulled apart. There was too much to think about, too many different directions going on all at the same time.

  I should’ve just been able to feel sorry for myself, having lost Misha and Lana. Instead all of these strange coincidences were simultaneously bombarding me. Wouldn’t it be nice to just be home riding my horses, being with my dogs, and having fun spending the money George gave me. My head felt like a melon that had been dropped, but hadn’t broken. Thankfully it wasn’t long before the painkillers kicked in and I was out. When I awoke it was late afternoon. I had a long sleep.

  If I had I more than one dream, I don’t remember. The one I do remember would stay with me for the rest of my life. I had not dreamed about the raid when I tried to save the woman and her children from the sergeant for long time. The dream had always been the same, but this time it was very different.

  Once again I was standing in the clearing. I was alone. It was hard to see because there was so much smoke and the smell of gunpowder, more like black powder. Then the smoke started to dissipate. In the upper left-hand corner of the clearing they were there, exactly in the same place they always were. The woman was lying down on the ground, trying to cover her children. This time the little girl started to rise up. She slowly walked over to me. She was smiling, and was unhurt. She reached out and took my hand in hers. Then the little boy rose up and came to me smiling. He took my other hand. The mother moved in my direction. She had blood on her. I pulled back but the children squeezed my hands tighter and pulled me towards her. Tears started running down my face and I kept saying, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I tried to save you.” When she was in front of me, she touched the right side of my face and wiped away my tears with her hand. She smiled at me and touched her children. They were smiling back up at her, holding her dress. They did not seem to notice there was blood all over it. She turned to me, smiled, and nodded her head. She looked down at her children once more, turned around, and started to walk out of the clearing. When she got to the edge, she turned one last time before disappearing into the jungle, and her face started to change into a woman I knew well as a child, but could not remember. I felt comforted when she smiled and nodded her head. I was standing there alone with the children. They were still holding my hand. They both let go at the same moment and walked off in the opposite direction from where their mother had gone. When they got to the edge of the clearing they turned around, smiled, and waved to me before they disappeared. That is when I woke up.

  I put my hand to the right side of my face. It was dry. But when I put my hand on the left side, it was wet with tears.

  Later that evening Jada called up to my room. She asked if I would like to come down for dinner, or would I prefer that she brought something up. I thought I best go down. After we finished eating she said she had an errand to attend to, but would be back with all the letters they had found.

  Albert declared, “Jack, as soon as the plane returns and serviced, we can get you to France when you’re ready. Jada and I have considered what to do, and we would both feel better if you had an escort. She and Boom-Boom want to go with you.”

  “Albert you can’t be serious. The Arabs are still out there. A lot of people have already died. I can’t allow that. Isn’t it enough that I have already been present at the death of your father, mother, and probably your uncle?”

  “Jack, there are many things you don’t know about my sister. Besides being beautiful, she’s extremely intelligent and headstrong. Perhaps because of our childhood experiences my sister and I have a unique
closeness and a mutual respect for each other. It’s an unusual relationship in an African nation. While everything we own is equally shared between the two of us, I have taken the reins of our business ventures. She chooses to be in charge of all security, which she’s very good at. The reason she is very good at it is, because after what happened to us as children, she vowed never to allow herself to be helpless or in a vulnerable position. Thus since childhood, often to the frustration of my uncle, she has trained in every martial arts and weaponry aspect that is possible. I assure you she has proven herself on innumerable occasions. Besides that, my beautiful sister does not take no for an answer.”

  “She is really not very traditional in the male-female role for this part of the world. So if you think that you can dissuade her feel free to try, but I have been unsuccessful all my life to do so, when she makes up her mind. By the way, she owns the plane and is also a pilot.”

  I was speechless and he did not fail to notice.

  “So Jack by your absence of speech, I take it that you acquiesce.” I just nodded.

  “There is one other thing I want you to know. I think my sister is very fond of you and what ever happens between you, you would have my blessings.”

  To this, my jaw dropped slightly. He smiled more than slightly. Not that I would have really known what to say after that, but luckily she returned at that moment with what looked like a pile of letters. Albert excused himself for the evening.

  She said, “Let us take this up to your room and see what we can find.”

  If there was another letter from Gerard she had not been able to find it. There were stacks from Peter to his family over the years. We disregarded any from before the declaration of war.

  She said, “I suppose my brother has told you I’m going with you, and Boom-Boom as well.”

  “Yes. That’s madness. You would be putting yourselves in a lot of danger. The Arabs would no doubt realize that your brother had deceived them, which could bring consequences at some point. Jada, I am starting to believe that there are people on the planet who would like to kill me but don’t even know it yet.”

  “None of that matters to us. We have a blood obligation to protect you.”

  I said, “We are even. By saving me from the Arabs we’re more than even.”

  “No, that is not our way. Don’t you see, that I must go and find out about our uncle? I am his niece. It is my place to do this.”

  We waded through stacks of letters, but finally we had to quit for the night. All we had come up with was a few old addresses, which may or may not have been helpful.

  I wanted to tell her about the dream. When I finished her eyes were tearing.

  She took my hands in hers, “Our mother has forgiven you as we have Jack.”

  I took her in my arms and hugged her. I gently took my hand and dried the tears on her cheeks as her mother had done to me in the dream. Her face was very close to mine and she kissed me. The kiss was long and deep.

  She said, “Jack make love to me. I want you. I need you.”

  “Jada please, why would you want me? You could have any man in the world you wanted. Is there not some man in your life right now? A younger man?”

  She took my hand in hers and led me to the bed.

  She said let me explain to you. Please don’t laugh at me. The day in the clearing was the day I fell in love with you. I know it was only a childhood fantasy, but it was a fantasy that I’ve had all my life. You see in this country, a boy’s life is worth much more than a girl’s.”

  “Though my mother tried to shield me as well as Albert, I was able to lift my head up. I watched the whole fight. I saw how you tried to save us, even after the sergeant had fired his weapon into us. I was hit, but I still watched and saw your sergeant try to kill you. I saw you kill him.

  “I knew that I would always love you. You would always be my hero. Even when I became a teenager nothing changed for me. Then as a woman my feelings were still the same for you. Now you see me stand before you as a mature woman, and I still love you. As a woman who knows exactly what she wants. I know it could easily be called an obsession, but it’s my obsession. Even though there were times when I never thought I would see you again, I always knew that somehow you would come back into my life. And I was not wrong. Here you are.”

  “Jada I don’t know what to say. Were you never married? No children?”

  “No Jack. I never met a man who I wanted to marry or have children with. I had lovers, but they were always short-term. I could never give enough of myself to them to be able to make a commitment. My life centered on our family business and training that would never allow me to be helpless, no matter what situation arose. Take me Jack. I’m yours if you want me.”

  I wanted to be honorable so I said, “Let me tell you about all my failed romances. Then if you’re still obsessed with me you can have me.”

  I gave her the short version. I tried to convince her that I was surrounded by too many problems, but it didn’t seem to matter to her. Much later that night we lay in bed holding each other while talking. I told her I really liked the name Jada. It was a good name and matched her. She told me her great grandfather was half Portuguese and French. He ended up in the Congo ship wrecked, while sailing from Portugal to Angola.

  “Even then my family was reasonably well off with landholdings. When my great-grandfather saw what potential the Congo had for becoming an entrepreneur, he fell in love with my great grandmother overnight. Her father, who was known to be a shrewd chief, had seen how European men would take a Congolese woman and then discard her when he no longer needed her. He would have none of that. He told my great-grandfather that he would help him in every way possible, if he married his daughter, but if he ever left her, he would never leave the Congo alive. It is said that my great-grandmother was a very wonderful and beautiful woman. It was not surprising they had many children together and lived their whole lives in harmony. Grandfather’s one stipulation was that they become Christians.”

  The next morning we went down to breakfast hand-in-hand. I must admit I was a little apprehensive even though Albert had given me his blessings. It still seemed very strange. I wondered if Jada’s story about the old chief saying if you ever leave my daughter you will never leave the Congo alive had specific meaning for me. However, I need not have worried. Albert was already seated eating breakfast. When we walked in we both had big smiles on our faces, although mine might have been a little bit on the sheepish side. He broke into a big smile himself, got up, walked around to the table, and embraced us both in a big hug. He said his sister’s dream has come true. He really was quite a guy. It was easy to see that Albert and Jada both loved and cared for each other. There was another special thing about them even though they weren’t twins. They might as well have been, since they always knew what the other one was thinking without voicing it, even when one of them was coming from another part of the house or was about to enter the room. It was the way brothers and sisters should be, although unfortunately all too often, were not.

  52

  LANA’S FLIGHT

  During the last part of Lana’s flight, she was lost in thought about everything that had happened lately. It was true that the Arabs would not be very happy with her. They had paid her but they didn’t get what they paid for. She had delivered Jack into their hands. Of course it was her fault he escaped, but they would never know that. Should it come to a showdown with them talking would not matter. Oh well there’s nothing to be done for it.

  It gave her a warm feeling inside to think about Jack. She knew she could never love a man who was sweet and nice and a gentleman. He would have to be at least as tough as she was. She had known young men in the military who were tougher and stronger than Jack, but probably not smarter, and definitely not funny and nice and a gentleman. They all had one thing in common. None of them could accept her as an equal. Only Jack could do that. He didn’t seem to mind that she might be even tougher than he was. He was completely a
ssured of his masculinity. He didn’t have to prove anything and made her feel that she didn’t have to prove anything to him. For that, she could fall in love with him.

  When he asked if there was some horrible experience in her past that made her so angry at the kind of men who always thought they could take advantage of a woman, she had said no. Actually there was. When she was 16, there was a boy she had a crush on. When he asked her out she could hardly believe it.

  They made a plan to meet the next night, but instead of a movie or something nice she was dreaming of, he was with his friend and they both raped her. She became pregnant and had to have an illegal abortion. The doctor’s fee was to fuck her. She never reported it but she swore revenge.

  After her faked death in the military, she had cosmetic facial surgery to give her a new look. The first contract she was going to fulfill was her own. The two young men had stayed friends, and had both gone into the drug dealing business as well as other things. It wasn’t surprising when you start off with a rape as a teenager. Neither of them were very well liked, so when she killed them both it was just supposed by the police, that it had to do with drugs. End of story.

  All that was way behind her now. Jack was the only man she ever respected and admired. She knew that she could love him and she felt that he could love her. It was as he said, always the big (but). The ‘but’ was he wanted to be done with this type of life. She couldn’t blame him. He had told her his history. She questioned if she had started when she was six years old, she would feel the same way. So that was all there was to it. She hoped that he would be all right. She felt sure that he was going to hook up with Jada. They had an undeniable bond with each other.

  53

  THE FLIGHT TO FRANCE

  By the end of the day, the plan was set for me to be accompanied by Jada and Boom-Boom to France. We would fly as soon as the plane returned from bringing Lana to Europe. It was unfortunate she left when she did. Otherwise we all could have gone in one trip. But then my connection with Jada might not have happened when it did. I was starting to believe in destiny. At least it was feeling that way. I decided not to fight it and just go along for the ride.