Seneca Falls

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Seneca Falls Page 16

by Jesse J. Thoma


  “I think we can arrange a little of each. We can head to Sophia for a workout and then hit the shops. You and I ought to be quite dangerous alone with a naughty and nice list, a credit card, and no supervision.”

  “Quite a sight, is more like it,” Seneca said, regaining some of the good mood that had left her as she watched Dylan’s parents drive her away for the break. Things were just getting good between them. A month seemed like a long time apart. Dylan seemed like she was committed to Seneca and what they had together, but Seneca was still nervous about how long they had to go without seeing each other. Her mom had seemed to really like her when they were shopping, but Dylan said she wasn’t thrilled with the idea of her daughter dating women. Maybe she would try to talk Dylan out of it. Or maybe this career path crisis would make her rethink other parts of her life. Seneca was making herself crazy. Kate was looking at her, clearly picking up on Seneca’s contemplative turn and she tried to refocus. “I don’t see you as the shopping type.”

  “What gave me away?”

  Seneca shrugged. “Lucky guess.” If she couldn’t be with Dylan, spending the day with Kate seemed like a decent alternative, and while they were shopping, she could have Kate help her pick something out for Dylan.

  *

  After their workout, they showered quickly and decided to walk downtown. Although it was only a few days before Christmas, it was unseasonably warm. Lisa had made sure Seneca was prepared for an arctic blizzard, but Seneca begged Kate not to tell as she stripped off the gloves, scarf, and large coat.

  “Keep the hat. She worries about your ears,” Kate said, agreeing to the subterfuge, removing some of her extra layers as well.

  “My ears?”

  “Hair’s short. Doesn’t cover them. See mine? Covers the ears. No one said she isn’t quirky.” Kate pulled off her ball cap and displayed the longer hair around her ears. “I’m gonna run in for some coffee. You want anything?” Kate asked, stopping in front of the small local coffee shop.

  Seneca shook her head and indicated she would wait outside. The weather was too beautiful to spend any extra time indoors. New England had a way of redefining just what beautiful weather was. Forty-five degrees and sunny in the middle of December could take your breath away. The crystal white snow glistened at every angle, and there was no wind chill to drop the temperature. In a few days, the snow would be slushy and brown and no one would pay it a second’s notice, except to wish it weren’t slowing their travel and sticking to their boots and pant legs. Today, Seneca wanted to enjoy it. Besides, the coffee sucked there anyway.

  She plopped on a bench and watched the world go by. The Christmas spirit infused the air, and other last-minute shoppers walked by looking happy, or stressed, or a strange combination of the two. She had an overwhelming urge to share the moment with Dylan, but she wasn’t there. Seneca pulled out the brand new cell phone Kate and Lisa had given her, ready to call Dylan and explain the fabulous feeling of peace that had settled over her. She wished the feeling could last forever.

  She was interrupted by Kate returning from her coffee errand. When Kate came out of the coffee shop, her latte in one hand, her cell phone pressed to her ear in the other, and a confused, slightly worried look on her face, Seneca’s stomach dropped. She didn’t know what it was about the look on Kate’s face. Maybe it was something about the way her mouth was barely moving when she spoke, or how intensely her eyes were focused, but Seneca knew, just knew. Her peaceful world was about to come crashing down around her. She stood shakily to face the truth.

  “Someone’s on the phone for you, Sen,” Kate said. “They won’t tell me what it’s about. They’re calling from California.”

  There was only one person that would be calling on Kate’s phone from California. She had had to put two contact numbers down and since she didn’t have a cell phone at the time, Kate had said she could put hers as the alternate. Seneca didn’t think this call would ever come. Seneca was sweating, even though she had stripped off enough layers and had been sitting long enough that the chilly winter air had penetrated her clothes. She tried to back away from the phone, but backed into the bench and ended up sitting again. She waved off the phone, but Kate held it out insistently.

  “They won’t talk to anyone but you. I’m sorry, kiddo. I tried.”

  Seneca took the phone and held it lightly, shrinking her body size down as small as she could on the bench. Even if it wasn’t Shannon on the other end of the line, it had to be about her. She didn’t know anyone else in California. She brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her free arm around them. She took a deep breath.

  “This is Seneca King.”

  She listened to the man on the other end of the line. He hadn’t finished, but she couldn’t take anymore. She dropped the phone on the bench and ran. She had to get as far away from that link to her past as she could. The man on the line was a link to Shannon, and if Shannon was linked to her, then she was also linked to the people Seneca cared about. Which put everyone in her life in danger.

  She could hear Kate yelling after her, even chasing after her, but Seneca was running on fear and adrenaline and pain. Not the kind of pain that usually held her back, however, the kind of pain so deep it fuels you and allows for feats of inhuman magnitude. The pain in her leg seemed to feed the inner pain and make it stronger. There was no stopping her. Kate had no chance.

  Chapter Twenty

  Dylan twirled happily when she saw Kate’s phone number pop up on her caller ID. It was earlier than she expected Seneca to call her, but she certainly wasn’t complaining. Being away from Seneca felt like torture, so any chance to talk to her was welcome.

  “Hello, gorgeous,” Dylan said happily.

  “I’m sorry, Dylan.” A woman who was most certainly not Seneca was on the other end. “It’s Kate, Seneca’s friend and supervisor from the training room.”

  Dylan felt like a black hole opened in her chest.

  “Of course, Kate. Seneca adores you,” Dylan said. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know what’s wrong,” Kate said. “Seneca got a phone call from some guy. I don’t know who because he wouldn’t say anything except that he needed to talk to her. She got extremely upset and took off at a sprint and I can’t find her. Have you heard from her? I’ve been looking for an hour.”

  Dylan was scared. She could tell by Kate’s voice that she was scared too. She felt wild with fear. What must have happened to send her running from Kate? And now she was alone somewhere, facing whatever nightmare that phone call had brought, by herself.

  “No, I haven’t heard anything. I assumed it was her calling me on your phone. I’m less than an hour away, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  Kate gave Dylan Seneca’s new phone number, and she promised to keep calling it, and to let Kate know right away if she heard anything. Dylan rushed to get ready and was out of the house in record time. She barely remembered to leave a note for her parents.

  *

  Dylan found Kate pacing in front of the Sophia College gates, where they had agreed to meet. It had taken everything in her power to go to the meeting point instead of running around campus wildly yelling Seneca’s name. As it was, she had practically sprinted to the gates, looking left and right searching for the familiar tall, lanky form. But no luck.

  She hugged Kate tightly despite never having met her. They both loved Seneca, and that was enough to make them friends. “I called Britt, Seneca’s roommate,” Dylan said. “She should be here any minute.”

  While they waited for Britt, Dylan repeatedly called Seneca’s cell phone, hoping each time it rang that Seneca would finally decide to pick up. She had called ten times before Britt finally arrived, out of breath from her hasty journey.

  “Where is she?” Britt asked, her face tight with worry. She looked as distressed as Dylan felt.

  “We don’t know. She’s not answering her phone. We have no idea where she went.”

  Kate ran her hands through her h
air, knocking off her Red Sox hat in the process. She didn’t seem to notice, and it lay on the ground next to her until Britt retrieved it and plopped it back on Kate’s head. Kate let out a worried sigh.

  “I don’t understand,” Dylan said. “What happened?”

  Kate steered them toward a nearby bench and they sat. Once they were settled, Kate recounted the phone call Seneca received.

  “I got a call from someone at the California Department of Corrections. They wanted to talk to Seneca and said that they would only talk to her. I tried to take a message because we were downtown and she wasn’t in the mood to talk, but they were insistent. After Seneca got on the phone, I couldn’t hear much, but I did hear the name Shannon Clarke. After Seneca heard that name, she turned white and looked like she reverted back to when I first met her. She was limping really badly when she took off. I tried to follow her, but she was sprinting. She was headed back up the hill toward campus, but that could lead anywhere.”

  “Does anyone know who Shannon is?” Dylan asked. She had heard Seneca call out that name in the night during one of her nightmares, but they’d never talked about it.

  “No,” Kate said.

  “She, uh, sometimes Seneca talks to someone named Shannon in her dreams,” Britt said, looking a little uncomfortable.

  “I’ve heard it too,” Dylan said, giving Britt’s hand a squeeze. “She never seems happy to see Shannon in the dreams, does she?”

  “Yeah, she’s usually begging her to leave her alone. At the end of the bad ones she just curls up and holds her leg.”

  Dylan nodded. That was exactly what she had witnessed as well.

  “She said she was shot,” Kate said. She looked like she was thinking back to a previous conversation.

  Dylan figured her expression must mirror the flabbergasted look on Britt’s face. There were so many rumors floating around campus about Seneca, and her getting shot was one of them, but Dylan hadn’t even considered it possible. She’d actually thought Seneca must have been in a terrible accident because it seemed more likely than anything else, although it didn’t explain all of the scars.

  “I didn’t know that,” Dylan whispered. She was a little hurt that Seneca trusted Kate more than she trusted her with that information.

  “Me either,” Britt said.

  “She told me one day when we were working out. I said her limp was better and she agreed. I asked what had happened. I expected her to tell me to fuck off, but she didn’t. I think she was testing how I would react so she could eventually tell you guys,” Kate said.

  “So are we going with the assumption that this Shannon character is the one who shot her?” Dylan asked, suddenly eager to get out and start looking.

  “Not sure it matters, but hopefully, she’ll tell us if we can find her,” Britt said.

  “Any ideas where to look?” Kate asked.

  Dylan pulled out her cell phone and dialed Seneca. It went straight to voice mail.

  “Shit, she turned her phone off,” Dylan said, finally giving in to the overwhelming emotions and starting to cry. Seneca could be anywhere.

  “Maybe we should split up so we can cover more ground,” Britt said, clearly also ready to begin the search.

  “No,” Dylan said forcefully. “We stick together. If she’s this upset, it might take all of us together to get her back. She needs us.”

  Dylan pulled Britt and Kate to their feet. It was time for action, and since they didn’t know where Seneca was, action meant wandering around in the dark hoping to get lucky. What a plan.

  Britt called a friend of hers that lived down the hall and asked her to check for Seneca. It was unlikely that she would have gone home, but they had to check.

  Kate led them through the athletic building, searching any room that Seneca would have access to. She was nowhere to be found. They checked the student center, Dylan’s dorm, and both libraries. Periodically, Dylan pulled out her cell phone, checked for messages, and tried to call Seneca. It was still off. Finally, she sent a text message, wanting there to be a breadcrumb if Seneca turned her phone on. It said simply, “I love you.”

  When they had exhausted the possibilities on campus, where it was relatively well lit, they borrowed flashlights from the training room and crossed the small bridge that lead to the athletic fields. She wasn’t in the field house or on the soccer field. There wasn’t anyone on the softball or field hockey fields either. They climbed the hill and surveyed the track. No one was visible, although their flashlights didn’t penetrate the deep shadows created by the stand of trees edging the far straightaway.

  Dylan was starting to feel desperation overtake her. It was cold and Seneca was out here somewhere, alone and afraid. It was eating at her that she couldn’t find her and ease some of the fear. Suddenly, she thought of where she had first met Seneca. The thought that Seneca might have gone back to the bar to pick up a stranger made her want to vomit, but if it meant Seneca was safe, there was a part of her that hoped that was exactly where she was.

  “Kate, can you call the bar and see if she went there?”

  “Dylan,” Kate said. “She wouldn’t go there. She has you.”

  “I didn’t think she’d take off at a sprint away from you either,” Dylan said. “I just want to know where she is.” She felt like crying again and couldn’t quite contain the sob that broke through the silent night. Britt hugged her while Kate called the bar. Dylan was both relieved and disappointed that Seneca wasn’t there.

  Dylan took one final look around and turned to leave. There wasn’t any reason to linger on the track any longer. As the three of them turned away, Dylan’s cell phone pinged. She had a new text message. It said, “I love you too.”

  “Where are you, sweetheart?” Dylan asked the night, relief flooding her so quickly she nearly lost her balance.

  She tapped the question into her phone and pressed send. In the distance, Dylan swore she heard a beep.

  “Did you hear that?” Kate whispered excitedly.

  “It was a beep. I definitely heard a beep,” Britt said.

  “I think it was from across the field. Send her another one, Dylan,” Kate said.

  Dylan wrote another message and sent it. A short time later, another beep, this time quite clear, pinged through the dark. They headed in the direction of the sound, and Dylan punched in Seneca’s number. There was no answer, but the ring tone sounded close by. Dylan broke into a run, honing in on the noise. Kate and Britt were close on her heels. When she was within ten feet of the trees, Dylan saw a huddled dark shape. She dropped her phone and sprinted toward Seneca. She vaguely registered the other two slow and then stop. It was up to her to make first contact. Who knew how Seneca would receive any of them?

  Dylan dropped to her knees in front of Seneca, who was huddled inside her jacket, her head resting on her drawn up knees. One hand absently massaged her damaged right thigh. Her cell phone rested next to her feet, lit up, showing twenty missed calls. Dylan pulled Seneca to her and held her tight. She was trembling, her breathing raspy. Dylan held her and whispered that she was safe now.

  Kate and Britt approached and also dropped down next to Seneca. Kate rubbed her back and Britt slipped her hand into Seneca’s.

  “You all right, kiddo?” Kate asked, trying unsuccessfully to hide her worry.

  “I’m sorry you had to come all this way,” Seneca said, looking at Dylan with pain-filled eyes. “And you two, sorry about dragging you out here, Britt. And for taking off like that, Kate. I just needed to…I don’t know.”

  “Shh.” Dylan held Seneca to her until she felt her relax into the embrace.

  They sat like that a while, silently supporting Seneca until she was ready to speak to them.

  Seneca squeezed Dylan tightly and then pulled out of her arms. She turned and embraced Kate and then Britt. “It’s a little chilly out here don’t you think?” Seneca asked. “Think we could head inside?”

  Although her voice was light, Dylan still felt the tension se
eping from Seneca’s pores and the tremor in her hands as she grasped Dylan’s for help up. As they started across the track toward civilization, Seneca clung to Dylan, squeezing her hand painfully in her fear. She was barely able to walk, probably from the pain and the cold, and leaned on Dylan for help.

  Dylan and Seneca led the way to the field house and Kate let them in. They settled in the open room strewn with odd furniture and run-down couches.

  Dylan settled them on one of the couches and Britt and Kate pulled up chairs nearby. All eyes were on Seneca, whose eyes were on her shoes. She looked exceedingly nervous.

  Kate leaned forward and cupped Seneca’s cheek in her palm.

  “Would you like to speak to Dylan alone, kiddo? She was worried about you and determined to track you down.”

  Seneca shook her head. “Don’t go. You either, Britt. Don’t think I don’t know about your pile of earplugs behind your desk. I don’t know why you chose to be nice to me, but I am forever grateful. I probably should have told you all of this before, but I’ll be honest, I was, and I still am, scared shitless.”

  Dylan flung her arm around Seneca’s shoulders and hugged her close. Kate took one offered hand and Britt the other. Seneca held each tightly before letting go. She looked down at her damaged leg once and began.

  “My parents died in a car accident when I was five. I don’t have any relatives so I went into foster care. For some reason, I was never adopted and I moved from home to home. I’ve heard most foster families are wonderful, but I guess I had crappy luck. I ran away from the last one when I was fifteen. My foster father used me as his ashtray and whipping post when he drank.”

  Dylan’s hand strayed to Seneca’s abdomen where she envisioned all the cigarette-sized circular scars. Anger unlike any she had ever known welled inside her. She felt as if she could kill the man who had hurt Seneca so badly.

 

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