Celia's Puppies

by Claudia Hall Christian

  And Jill was talking about her day.

  “So Katy’s napping on my lap and Paddie was asleep against Colin’s shoulder,” Jill said. “Well, Alex says, ‘I’ve fought my little brother three times this year. Who do you think won?’”

  Jacob smirked.

  “Do you know the answer?” Jill asked.

  Jacob nodded.

  “This man with silver hair and blue eyes walks in the room like he owns it. Alex and Colin bow to him. I guess he’s their teacher. Anyway, he makes Colin show me how much bigger he is than Alex. His arms are long and he’s like five inches bigger than Alex. He’s like fifty or sixty pounds heavier. Anyway, the teacher asks me: ‘Who would win if these two fought?’ I say, ‘Colin, of course’. But...”

  “Alex won every time,” Jacob said.

  “Isn’t that amazing? The teacher said if you aren’t the biggest, you have to think the fastest to out maneuver your opponent. He said Alex thinks really fast, so she always wins. He said the only way to win against Trevor is to out think him. Go after him head to head, and I will lose like I always have in the past. Then he showed me some simple movements that would keep Trevor off me. When Katy woke up, Alex taught them to Katy.”

  “Sounds like you were pretty impressed with Miss Alex,” Jacob said.

  “How do you know them?” she asked.

  “I met them through Mike,” Jacob said. “ I’ve also rehabbed a couple houses for them. I play hockey with Colin. I think mostly, they’re always up for some adventure. We’ve been fly fishing, backpacking, hunting...”

  “Adventure? Yeah. I mean, who knew? Alex showed me her scars and stuff. I...” Jill beamed. “I feel really hopeful, like everything is going to work out.”

  Jill looked down at her hands. While she talked, she had been playing with an object in her hand. She looked up at Jacob, then smiled.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “For what?” Jacob asked.

  “For not being mad about my hair,” Jill said.

  “I’m mad about your hair,” he said.

  “Well, not being mad at me,” Jill said. “It feels really good to be here with you and...”

  “And?”

  “I don’t know.” Jill looked back down at the object in her hand.

  “What is that?” Jacob asked.

  “This?” Jill held up a gold button. “It’s not anything really. I play with it when I’m having a hard time. I’d forgotten about it. I mean, everything has been so hard this year. Sandy reminded me of it when she did my hair. She got it from my purse when I started crying.”

  “May I see it?”

  Jill set it in his hand. Made out of some kind of metal, the button was gold in color. It was round on the top, flat at the back with a simple metal loop to connect it to a jacket or maybe a shirt.

  “I’ve had the button with me through almost every really hard thing for… Oh, I guess, the last four or five years.”

  “I can feel the bumps, but I’m not sure what’s on it.” Jacob set the button in her hand.

  “I don’t really know. There used to be a pattern but I think I rubbed it off. I run my finger over it when I’m worried.”

  “What does it mean?” Jacob asked.

  “It’s a very long story and...” Jill sighed. “You’ll be asleep again soon. I’d rather you sleep, and get better, than stay up all night listening to me talk about the past.”

  “Will you tell me tomorrow?” Jacob stretched his left arm out in a yawn. Jill was right about going back to sleep.

  “Let’s see what tomorrow brings,” Jill said. “Mike asked Megan, Steve, Candy and me to be here with him today. Everyone is coming at eight. Oprah’s going to be here all day and...”

  “But you’ll tell me.”

  “Of course. I was thinking...”

  She raised her eyebrow then smiled.

  “Yes, I do want to make love with you.”

  “I’m so glad,” Jill whispered.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Thursday morning — 5:20 A.M.

  Fort Logan Cemetery

  “Did you bring it?” Mike asked Alex Hargreaves.

  Alex set a package of incense in his hands. Her team stood guard in the area. Two men had blocked off the road to the memorial. Alex and Mike walked toward the monument for the Fey Special Forces team. Eleven black granite slabs set in a semi-circle. A tall black granite obelisk marked the middle of the semi-circle. Alex gave him a Zippo lighter

  Mike went from stone to stone saying a prayer and setting the incense.

  Today was his big day. Today he would tell the world about what happened to him all those years ago. He had to come here this morning. He hoped the guys would be with him in spirit when he told the world about them.

  Clicking the lighter, he hoped that he would do his dead saviors justice. He hoped...

  “Ten minutes, Roper,” one of the men yelled.

  Moving from stone to stone, he lit the incense. He stepped back to look at his work when he heard.

  “Ah fuck.”

  Turning, he saw a news van pull up to road block. A reporter and videographer jumped from the van and were arguing with the soldiers. He knew Alex and her team could easily destroy the transmission. Hell, they had equipment that could wreck a camera without ever touching it.

  He whirled around to look at Alex. She shrugged.

  It was up to him.

  Blowing out a breath, he went to talk to the reporter.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Valerie and Mike

  Thursday mid-day

  The Castle

  “Okay, Mike?” the producer asked. “Can you sit right here?”

  Mike sat on the ornate Victorian style sofa.

  “Val honey? Can you sit next to him?”

  Valerie sat down next to him. As always, the molecular draw to each other took immediate effect. The space between them shrank until they were touching.

  “Sit a little apart,” the producer said.

  Mike scooted over. When he put his arm to the back of the couch, Valerie slipped closer to him.

  “Maybe we should get two chairs?”

  They were sitting in the sitting room where Ramon had spent the last twenty four hours converting into a studio set. The small room was packed with people, equipment, and wires. Sam, Jacob, Jill, Megan, Candy and Steve sat on the floor along the wall of the room.

  The plan was to tape Mike and Valerie’s interview at the Castle. While Mike and Valerie made their way to Chicago, the television editing magic would happen. This interview would be interwoven with the variety of video interviews taken in the last few days. Mike and Valerie would arrive for the airing of their interview and answer questions live. That was the plan.

  They just needed to get this interview done.

  The rehearsal was sheer chaos. They blew fuses. The family talked in the background. The room was so hot that even Valerie was wet with sweat. This take was going to have to do.

  “They’re fine,” the camera man said. “At least they’re in the frame.”

  “Everyone happy? Everyone quiet?” the producer grimaced at the family.

  Everyone nodded their heads in unison.

  “All right, let’s check the lights? We are going to tape...”

  When the producer turned to Mike and Valerie, they were kissing.

  “We need makeup...”

  A flurry of people came forward to touch up their make up. The woman facilitating their interview sat down across from Mike and Valerie.

  “We’d better start or we’ll never get this done,” the producer said.

  “Let’s start with how you met,” the interviewer said.

  “Even though we lived only a few blocks from each other, Mike and I had never met. I went to public school and Mike went to Catholic school,” Valerie said. “I’d never seen him before. My family went skiing for a weekend at Copper Mountain. I was on the lift when he sat next to me.”

  “I had this bet with my buddies. T
he guy who could sit on the lift with the prettiest girl won. Of course, I was a fourteen year old alter boy. Just sitting next to a girl was a thrill. I hadn’t seen Valerie’s face. I... One of the guys pointed her out and said she would win the day. Well, I couldn’t let him win. My friends and I followed Valerie and her family around Copper. I tried get on her chair in three different lifts. But her parents always sat with Valerie and her brother. Finally, I cut her father off to sit next to her.”

  Valerie and Mike looked at each other.

  “And?” the interviewer asked.

  “I don’t know. It’s one of those things,” Mike said. “One moment, I was hanging out with my buddies hoping to win the bet. The next moment, my life changed forever.”

  “What happened?”

  “I smiled at him,” Valerie said. “He stammered. Jake, my brother, said something silly and we all laughed. It was a long lift ride and when we got to the top...”

  “We weren’t really apart after that,” Mike said. “We spent every moment we could together. Valerie’s parents had this rule: as long as we got good grades, participated in school, and worked our jobs, we could hang out at their house. We were ‘A’ students, star athletes and model employees.”

  Valerie laughed.

  “It sounds wonderful,” the interviewer said.

  “It is wonderful,” Valerie said.

  “What happened?” the interviewer asked.

  “My parents died,” Mike said. “A stupid accident. I have three younger siblings. Megan, my older sister, and I wanted to keep the family together but we don’t have any other relatives. Meg went to work and I... I joined the Army.”

  Mike and Valerie’s eyes held for a moment. Like a current, sorrow and regret flowed between them.

  “What was that?” the interviewer asked.

  “I was intimidated by Val and her family,” Mike said. “I joined to Army because I thought I would make something of myself. I wanted to be good enough… for her and myself, I guess. But I left her.”

  “I think it’s one of those things,” Valerie said. “You have such an amazing thing when you are so young... I don’t think either of us appreciated the preciousness of our relationship. We took our relationship for granted because... I don’t know.”

  “Because it was so easy,” Mike said.

  “Yeah.” Valerie nodded. “We had no idea what it meant to be in the Army. But once he left for basic training, Mike was basically gone.”

  “What was that like?”

  “It sucked.” Mike and Valerie said in unison. They laughed.

  “I finished high school and Mike worked,” Valerie said. “I didn’t see him for six months then he was gone for...”

  “Two years,” Mike said. He reached to hold Valerie’s hand. “When I came back, she had graduated high school and was on her way to UCLA. I had been around the country and some of the world.”

  “And the desire to be together was still there,” Valerie said. “I thought he’d finished his two years. He was done. He was home. We’d move to LA together and... But after a few weeks of leave, he was gone.”

  “That was about a hundred times harder than the horrible first time,” Mike said. “And I don’t think things really were the same after that. Until Monterey.”

  “Until Monterey.”

  “Monterey?” the interviewer asked.

  “My team was assigned to Fort Irwin for training. Valerie moved to Barstow to be near me. When she went back to school, we saw each other every weekend.”

  “We got married on New Year’s Eve,” Valerie said.

  “Val, we’ve looked for your marriage license and we haven’t found one for you,” the interviewer said.

  “I have both of my parent’s last names. I’m Valerie Marlowe Lipson. I was married as Valerie Marlowe and Mike...”

  “My family name was Repin. When I entered the Army, I had to dig out my birth certificate. Low and behold, Megan and I are Repins. Our other siblings were born here in Denver. They’re Ropers. I was married under my legal name Mikhail Repin.”

  “But your name is Roper?” the interviewer asked

  “Yes, ma’am. We still called ourselves Mike and Val Roper, we married under our official names,” Mike said. “Megan sorted our names out after I died.”

  “What?” the interviewer almost jumped from her chair.

  Valerie gave the interviewer a soft smile then continued with their story.

  “We lived in Monterey. I finished school early and we played house. It was a truly magical time in my life.”

  “Mine too.” Mike shrugged his shoulders. His sigh spoke volumes. “Then it ended.”

  “My team was assigned to the Middle East,” Mike said. “Val and I had been through this so many, many times that you’d think we’d have gotten used to it. I know people who learn to deal with it. But for us, it was…”

  “Horribly sad.” Valerie finished his sentence.

  “Val made it work for me. She is a great actress. She put on a bright face and helped me every step of the way. She was… a delight on every phone call. She sent me those pictures...”

  “Pictures?”

  “You know the ones. The poses of me naked? I think the entire world has seen them. Well, I took them for Mike. I was in our bedroom. You can see the ocean in a couple of them.”

  “I’ve seen them,” the interviewer said. “I’d say they are more seductive photos than nudes.”

  “That’s nice of you to say,” Valerie said. “I... I wanted to make him miss me… a lot.”

  “She’s right, Val,” Mike said. “They’re not like Penthouse or Playboy. No full frontal nudity. They’re just you and the camera. They’re very seductive.”

  Valerie gave him a soft smile.

  “She sent me a photo a week,” Mike said. “And we tried to talk every night. I noticed her body was changing but...”

  “I was pregnant,” Valerie said.

  Mike’s eyes filled. When he turned to look at Valerie, she kissed him.

  “Mike went on a mission. I was going to tell him when he came back, but I met two Army men instead. They told me Mike was missing and I should assume he was dead,” Valerie said. “My mother died the next day and I lost the baby a few days later. In the course of a few days, I lost the three people that mattered most to me. I… barely survived.”

  “And where were you, Mike?” the interviewer asked.

  Mike looked at the woman then looked at Valerie. With the question, his mouth was cotton ball dry. His eyes flicked across his brother and sisters, Valerie’s family, and the billion people in that tiny room. Like an oasis in the desert, his eyes landed on Alex Hargreaves. Wearing a ridiculous maid’s costume, her green arm band tattoo peaking from the ruffled edges of her sleeve, she winked at him. He let out a breath.

  “That’s the question. I have no idea. My team was in a transport helicopter out of Turkey and... I was so focused on what we had to do, what I had to do, that the where wasn’t important. I was rehearsing in my mind what I would do when the pilot came on the headsets to tell us the electric systems were malfunctioning. We strapped in and waited for him to land.

  “If you talk to people who have been through this kind of thing, you never expect that something bad is going to happen. You just do what’s next – strap in and wait.”

  Mike rubbed his forehead and looked up. Alex Hargreaves nodded and he continued.

  “Then WHAM, everything fell apart. The Army says the helicopter crashed against an object the pilot didn’t see. I’ll tell you, it felt like a small bomb went off. I dropped forward to avoid… fire, metal, body parts, objects… I don’t know… stuff coming at me.

  “I don’t remember landing. I may have passed out. I injured my head,” Mike pointed to a thin scar just under his hair line. “I woke up strapped to my seat. We started with twelve men and four pilots. Ten of us survived the crash.

  “I grew up here… in Colorado. I spent most of my youth in the mountains camping or ski
ing. We landed in the mountains. I wasn’t in charge of the group, but I was the only one who knew what to do.”

  “From growing up in the mountains?” the interviewer asked.

  “Exactly. Under my direction, we bandaged people, built fires and looked over our supplies. We separated out the dead men. We were situated just as night fall came. I...” Mike’s eyes filled. “We lost a couple men that night.”

  Valerie slipped her hand into his. He looked into her smile and love filled eyes then gave a soft smile.

  “We were perched on this rocky ledge. We couldn’t stay there. No way. We only had the water and food we scavenged from the wreckage. We decided to split up. We built a shelter for the men who couldn’t travel and gave them most of our food and water.”

  “Why didn’t the Army come for you?” the interviewer asked.

  “We think of the world as easily accessible. But the Army wasn’t sure where we went down. They sent someone for us immediately but it was eight hours to where we started then another twelve to where we refueled then...”

  Mike shrugged.

  “We’ve talked to a couple of the men who were left behind,” the interviewer said. “They said the Army arrived three days after you left.”

  “Three days,” Mike said. “The guys had food and water for a day, maybe two.”

  “But they survived. Every one of them said they survived because of you. You made a fire from a stick?”

  “Well, yeah, that’s what you’re supposed to do. You settle in and wait.” Mike shrugged.

  “The Army searched for you,” the interviewer said. “They never found you. What happened?”

  “We set off to find water and food. That meant we had to head down off the mountain. We weren’t in the greatest shape so the going was slow. But we were Army hardened. We stumbled, fell, walked for as long as we could stay on our feet. We made camp the first night.”

  “What about your GPS and equipment?”

  “Most of our equipment was destroyed in the crash. And you can ask anybody about GPS in the mountains. When it works, it’s inaccurate about 60% of the time. We couldn’t get a signal and the map was wrong.