Celia's Puppies

by Claudia Hall Christian

  “That first night, we dropped most of our possessions. I kept food, water and Valerie’s pictures. I had the pictures in this pouch right next to my heart. I knew exactly where I was going. I was hiking home… to Valerie.

  “It never occurred to us that someone was tracking us. In all my years in the Rockies, I never saw anyone. But no one lives in caves in the Rockies.

  “We were picked up about two days into our hike.”

  Mike stopped talking. For a moment, his mind flooded with images.

  “I’ve thought a lot about this,” Mike said. “We invaded their land, their country. I’ve thought about how I’d feel if I found three foreign soldiers in the middle of the Rockies or walking down the street… We… Anyway, they took us back to their camp.

  “There was a lot of yelling, hitting, and all the stuff you can imagine. They wanted to know why we were there and we wouldn’t tell them. Truth was that we weren’t supposed to be there. But why would they believe us? By the time they hiked to the crash site, the Army had been there and gone. The Army took everything – men, chopper, everything. The Army even cleaned up the char marks from the crash and the fire. When they got back? The shit hit the fan.

  Mike shrugged.

  “They sent someone to get the head guy in their region. After the initial drama, things fell into a normal pattern. It was hard for us Americans. We were used to doing what we wanted when we wanted, even in the Army. We were captives. We did what we were told.

  “The guys and I were strong and capable. We knew someone would come for us eventually. As long as we were of value to them, they fed us. So we worked and worked and worked and worked.

  “I told you I had the photos next to my heart. I didn’t know Val was pregnant. She was my life, my heart, my soul. I... I just focused on the pictures. When I was alone, I would take them out. She has this smile in those pictures. A kind of, ‘I have a secret’ smile. I’d imagine we were talking or laughing. Those pictures and Val saved me.”

  “The photos we just talked about?” the interviewer asked.

  Mike nodded.

  “What was it like for you, Val?”

  “I went numb for a while,” she said. “Then I got mad. I told the Army that I wanted Mike’s body. I insisted, in fact. I hired lawyers, talked to Senators and banged on any door I could bang on. When we just got bullshit back, we started to look for Mike.”

  “We?”

  “My brother and I,” Valerie said. “We hired ex-military or ex-CIA guys to search for him. We compiled stacks of paper, spent… lots of money, but never found Mike. We were able to convince the Army there was a possibility Mike was alive.”

  “So Val’s looking for Mike. And Mike you’re waiting for the head guy to determine your fate?”

  “Yeah. We were there about six months before that guy showed up. And wanted information. They... I don’t remember most of it. Then they found the photos. Pornography. Evil. I fought for them, which made things worse for me. They pinned me down and cut my face.” Mike pointed to a scar on his jaw. “I thought they were going to cut my face off. I wouldn’t give up the photos. So they… Anyway, I lost the photos.”

  The room was silent. Every face held round, shocked eyes. Even the interviewer was at a loss for words. The cameraman wiped a renegade tear. When Alex cleared her throat, the interviewer startled then came back to herself.

  “What was that like?” the interviewer asked.

  “I lost my mind. Days passed. One guy tried to kill himself.”

  “He said you kept him from bleeding to death,” the interviewer said.

  “Yeah, I guess I did. I wanted to kill myself but...”

  He looked at Valerie then stroked her face with his hand. She smiled.

  “In my insanity, I would draw Val’s picture in the dirt. I wasn’t an artist or a painter or anything. I thought I’d go to medical school when I got out.”

  “What happened to the photos?”

  “I thought they destroyed the photos. Pornography, you know,” Mike said. “But they needed money. Bad. They put the photos up for sale. Val’s Dad found them in like two hours and paid a lot of money for them.”

  “Do you know how much?” the interviewer asked.

  “Two or three million I think,” Mike said. “He won’t say.”

  “My Dad and I weren’t in contact then,” Valerie said. “I didn’t know he bought the photos. He took the photos and my brother’s file on Mike to our Colorado Senator, Patrick Hargreaves. The Senator took the photos and file from my Dad and said he’d take care of it.”

  “Did you know that?” the interviewer asked.

  “No,” Valerie said. “I was already an actress. I had put this shell around me… so I couldn’t get hurt, I guess. By then, I wasn’t speaking to my brother or my father.”

  Mike pulled her closer to him then kissed her head.

  “Those photos? That’s how they found me,” Mike said. “Senator Hargreaves sent them through the channels and the Fey team was notified within forty-eight hours. They were in the air within a week.”

  “The Fey team?” the interviewer asked.

  “Special Forces. They used to get hostages. That’s what they did. Retrieved hostages. They were killed a couple years ago.”

  Mike looked across at Alex. She gave him a ‘good job’ smile.

  “What happened when they rescued you?”

  “I’ll tell you what I remember. At night, they chained me up in this area with the other guys. I mean, I wasn’t really sane. I’d sleep a couple hours then draw Val’s photos. The guys helped me get more charcoal or chalky rocks for the photos. I guess these pictures, so full of beauty and love, bolstered us. Well, they found them and it was not good.

  “They figured that I drew them, so they isolated me from the rest. I was sure they were going to kill me. I just knew it. After one particularly bad… evening, I fell flat on the floor. My arms were out in front of me. I wanted to die. I wanted to just disappear. That’s how I was when the Fey team found me.

  “I’m laying there, mostly crazy, and I hear this: ‘Damn, Michael, I didn’t know you even WANTED to be a priest.’”

  “What?” the interviewer asked.

  “Priests lay like that before the alter when they are ordained. Guess you’re not Catholic.”

  “No,” she said.

  “Makes it less funny then.” Mike smiled.

  “What happened next?”

  “I tried to roll over but I was in pretty bad shape. Their medic put me out. That’s all I remember until waking up on the plane home. They knocked me out in the hospital. I had a couple surgeries. The moment I could move, I was out of the hospital and caught a plane to LA.”

  “Did you know he was alive, Val?”

  “No,” Valerie said. “I had alienated a lot of people with my… insistence on searching for Mike. I think they wanted to have him… in hand and healthy before they told me.”

  “I flew to LA and watched Entertainment tonight. I waited outside the Ivy and…” Mike shrugged.

  “I fainted when I saw him,” Valerie said. “We spent a month together. I tried...”

  “I was insane,” Mike said. “God, poor Val. I was still in bandages from the surgeries, bruised up, AWOL and a complete mess.”

  “I wasn’t much better,” Valerie said. “He left about a month later. Checked himself into the VA. By the time he came back, I was publically engaged to Sean.”

  “We have an interview with Sean where he says that he’s gay,” the interviewer said. “His mother had terminal cancer.”

  “Sean thought his mother would die at peace if she knew he was ‘over’ his gayness. He told her it was a phase and we were getting married. She died a couple days later,” Valerie said. “It’s not the most politically correct thing to do, so Sean and I hid it.”

  “That’s what he said,” the interviewer said. “He also said you did the same thing for his partner a few years later.”

  Valerie nodded.

>   “But Mike saw those engagements as a betrayal...” Valerie said. “Of course.”

  “We had a lot of push, pull,” Mike said. “I didn’t have a job or a life. I camped out in the garage of this place.”

  “Your studio,” the interviewer said.

  “Not then. It was a garage. No running water, no heat. I camped there, went to therapy. Delphie, the woman who lived here, in the Castle, had no idea I was in the garage. Valerie and I saw each other probably twice a month. Valerie would come see me or I would go there,” Mike said. “Val was like an obsession. When she was gone, I thought of her constantly. When she was here, I couldn’t stand myself.”

  “It was the same for me,” Valerie said.

  “Then Val’s brother, Jake, moved back to Colorado,” Mike said.

  “Jake’s a spark.” Valerie beamed. “He gets fires going. He got Mike working on the Castle and playing hockey again. The studio was covered in these drawings of me. Jake bought paints and left them for Mike. After a few missteps, Mike picked up oil painting like he was born to it. The first completed canvass is the one that’s in the museum.”

  “I’d drawn the image so many times, it was like just getting it down,” Mike said. “Once I started, I didn’t stop.”

  “What about Wes?”

  “Mike and I fell into a rhythm of seeing each other a week a month and some weekends,” Valerie said. “But we struggled. I became enamored with Wes. Wes is so normal, so slick. Mike and I had a fight about him, then Wes sent a car for me.”

  “A car?”

  “An Aston Martin,” Valerie said. “Mike was furious. He threw me out of the house, told me never ever to come back.”

  “I’m a real asshole,” Mike said. “You don’t have to wonder why she left.”

  “I deserved it,” Valerie said. “I walked the edge, never committing to Mike or anyone for a long time. I couldn’t stand losing him again. It would kill me. Just kill me. I couldn’t have Mike and I couldn’t be away from him. I went back to LA and started a relationship with Wes.”

  Valerie fell silent. She closed and opened her eyes then let out a breath.

  “This man lay on the floor while men kicked him, broke his bones and refused to give up photos of me. They cut his face with some tribal knife and he wouldn’t give them up.” Tears streamed down Valerie’s face. “And when he came back, I was too afraid to love him.

  “Everyone’s said all this stuff about my lowlife husband. I mean, Wes said that I preferred a stable animal to a thoroughbred champion. But Mike’s the hero who fought for me.

  “This time I’m going to fight for him. For us.”

  When Valerie broke down, Mike pulled her onto his lap. There was not a dry eye in the room. For at least a minute, the only sound in the room was sniffing.

  “That’s a wrap,” the producer choked out.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Slaying a Tiger

  Mike nodded his good-bye then walked off the stage. Deeply embarrassed at the standing ovation, he craved the quiet dark of backstage. He reached behind him for Valerie’s hand and felt the immediate pulse of her. Spinning in place, he wrapped himself around her. In each other’s tight embrace, they regained some sense of balance.

  “I’m sorry,” Alex Hargreaves said. “We have to keep moving. There’s a crowd outside and we understand one growing around the Castle. You still want to go home?”

  “I need to go home,” Mike said over Valerie’s shoulder. “Can I have…?”

  “We’ll head out. Two minutes?” Alex asked.

  Mike nodded. Alex and her team went down the hall way to the stage door. Dressed in digital fatigues, dark glasses, hats and exposed side arms, the team had held Valerie’s fans at bay when they arrived by limousine. Judging by the sound, there was a Black Hawk waiting for them somewhere close. When Alex opened the door to the street, they heard people, a lot of people, cheer.

  “I love you,” Valerie said. “I never, ever thought you would do this.”

  “I do anything for you, Val,” Mike said. “I’m sorry about Wes.”

  “You mean when he told Oprah I was a selfish bitch? Or the part about how I betrayed him and stole from him?”

  “The whole thing,” Mike said. He pulled her even closer.

  “He’s said much worse. They must have edited,” Valerie said.

  “How did you know?”

  “Jill’s friend Tanisha brought me a couple of magazines. She wanted me to know exactly what a ‘bitch-ass’ he was being. She didn’t want me to go back to him and destroy my life.”

  “But you’re Ok...”

  “Mikhail, my love and hero, has just slayed a tiger for me. Why should I care what the jester says?”

  “A tiger?” Mike put his hands around her face then kissed her.

  She nodded. He laughed. She kissed him.

  “Time to go,” Captain Mac Clenaghan, Alex’s second in command, said. “We want you at the center of a diamond formation. There are a lot of people out here. Wave to the crowd like the prom king and queen then we’ll surround you. Got it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mike said.

  He looked at Valerie and she nodded. They followed the Captain to the door.

  “Stand here. Go out only on my say so.”

  Mike took Valerie’s hand. They nodded. The Captain pushed open the door. A call went through the crowd for Valerie, and Mike.

  “Ok go ahead,” the Captain said.

  Mike stepped through the door first then laughed. Parting the sea of people, a hundred soldiers, active and veterans, stood guard in their dress uniform. They created a tight corridor for Valerie and Mike to walk through. Valerie stepped next to him.

  “Guess you have some friends,” Valerie said.

  Mike looked down at Valerie then smiled.

  “Prom king and queen,” the Captain said.

  Still holding hands, Mike and Valerie raised their hands to wave at the crowd. As they walked down the corridor, the soldiers popped to salute.

  “That’s for you,” Valerie said into Mike’s ear.

  He puzzled at her then smiled. Waving they went down the corridor to the helicopter. One of Alex’s team bent down to help Valerie through the doors and into her seat. The team helped Valerie strap in and Mike sat next to her. Within moments, they were flying west-southwest over the city of Chicago a straight line for Denver.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Thursday afternoon

  “What exactly are you saying?” Aden asked the Social Services investigator.

  “We’ve interviewed the children, spoken with their therapist, reviewed your employment files and had a detailed conversation with your ex-wife. At this point, it’s our belief that it is not in your children’s best interest to interact with their mother.”

  “And that means?”

  Aden was so freaked out about having any kind of conversation with Social Services that he couldn’t grasp what the woman was saying.

  “We are requesting that you work with a Special Advocate to determine the conditions of Nuala’s return to your children’s life.”

  “But don’t they need contact with their mother?” Aden asked. “What about the custody arrangement?”

  “Sir, we went over this a moment ago,” the Social Services representative said. “Are you feeling all right?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m too anxious to think straight.. Would you mind if I get someone to help? I mean, I know you didn’t want...”

  “Please,” the woman said. Her impatient look spoke volumes.

  Aden opened the door to the hall where Blane and Jacob waited for him.

  “She’s saying something but I...” Aden started.

  Jacob smiled at Aden. He and Blane followed Aden into the office.

  “I apologize for my friend, ma’am,” Jacob said. “His kids are everything to him. He’s been upset about this entire situation. I’m Jacob Marlowe and this is Blane Lipson.”

  Jacob and Blane sat on either side of Aden.


  “We are recommending Noelle and Nash Norsen no longer have contact with their mother, Nuala Norsen.”

  The woman raised her eyebrows at Jacob and Blane after she repeated what she had said to Aden.

  “That’s what I don’t understand,” Aden said. He leaned back against his chair.

  “I understand that you are recommending no contact between Noelle, Nash and their mother,” Jacob said.

  “That’s correct.”

  “I think what’s confusing is that after this incident, which includes an attempt to prostitute her ten year old daughter for drugs, Nuala retains her parental rights.” Jacob raised his eyebrows with indignation.

  “Right. That’s exactly right,” Aden said. “So we’ll go through this again in a year? Two years?”

  “Sir, Nuala Norsen has told our investigator that she’s entering rehab to give up drugs.” The investigator read her report, curled her lip at the information, and then nodded. “That’s what it says. She’s already talking to the district attorney to make a plea bargain for her case.”

  “But she’ll come back. As soon as she’s out of jail, she’ll come...”

  Aden’s pressured voice revealed his panic. Blane put his hand on Aden’s shoulder to silence his anxious sputter.

  “Ma’am,” Blane said. “If Aden wanted to eliminate this threat from his children’s lives, what would he need to do?”

  The woman smiled as if finally they were getting somewhere.

  “I’m not an attorney, Mr. Lipson. But I would suggest that Mr. Norsen speak with an attorney. We will be happy to support the best interest of the children.”

  “And the best interest of the children right now is…?” Jacob asked.

  “They have no contact with their mother at this time,” the woman said.

  “And their father will become their sole custodian? Is that correct?” Jacob asked.

  “Yes, sir,” the woman said. “I cannot speak to the legalities but our recommendations are that the children live with their father in his home.”

  Jacob laughed and clapped Aden on the back. Aden looked at Jacob then shook his head.