“Well, don’t you think you need to know how the people you’ll be representing are actually doing in order to properly help them?”
“Ellie, that’s idealistic talk. You know we’d all like to believe that, but it’s not how it happens in real life.” He pulled over by the front doors.
She sat quietly thinking about all that he had said. “And what about us? Are we ideal or are we real?”
He licked his lips. “Ellie, sweetheart, you’re everything I’ve ever wanted.” He lifted up her hand and kissed it.
“That’s not what I asked,” she pulled her hand away.
He ran a tired hand through his hair. “What do we have to do with Sector 8 Central?”
“A lot, as a matter of fact,” she replied flatly. “I want to know if the man I’m marrying is marrying me to impress my father or is he genuinely interested in helping people who need us most.”
“Ellie, of course I’m marrying you because I love you,” he let out in frustration. “Come on, we’ve been together since university. It just so happened that your father was the governor of Sector 8 and he decided to give me a boost in my political career. But what I feel for you is totally and absolutely real.”
“Then why haven’t you ever discussed your visions on helping the people of Sector 8?”
“My visions for Sector 8 are reserved strictly to my job. They’re confidential matters, Ellie. And besides, you don’t want me bringing all that mess from work to our home, do you?” He toyed with a strand of her hair. “You don’t want to talk about the plight of the poor and their debilitating housing issues over the dinner table?”
She looked up at him determinedly. “Maybe I do.”
Edmund threw his head back tiredly against the car seat. “Ellie…”
“Sometimes, I think Edmund, that you’re expecting me to be this little wife who’d dye her hair blonde, wear her uptown designer skirts and shoes and then wait obediently for her husband to return from work so they could talk about how good each other’s day was over the dinner table before elegantly striding up the stair case to fuck like good little rabbits and have cute adoring little bunnies. So they can have this one god-damned perfect family and live this one god-damned perfect life!” She threw open her car door and stepped angrily outside.
Edmund rushed after her. “And what’s wrong with that? Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what every married couple wants?!”
“No, Edmund. I am not everyone. I am me and I want you to start treating me like an equal. How you used to.”
“That’s not fair! I do treat you like an equal. I just don’t want to discuss politics with you.”
“Why? Because you think it would be way over my head? I’d never understand it? You forget Edmund, I am a sociology, social theory major and I sat in the same class as you, in the same fucking university!”
“Okay, stop with the language,” he warned. “It’s not becoming.”
She stared at him with her mouth gaped open in disbelief. “You’re deriding me again?”
“I’m not…,” he started to protest and then decided against it. He put his hands on his hips and pulled in a deep breath. “I can’t talk about Sector 8 Central because of certain confidential clauses in my employment. I’d seriously be held accountable, Ellie, if anything got accidently disclosed. Your father is not a patient or forgiving man. You’ve got to understand that.” He stopped, thinking for a while. “But I tell you what,” he dropped his voice down, gathering her hands tenderly into his. “I’ll try and answer any questions you have as sincerely and openly as I can. Okay?”
She grew quiet again. He moved to hug her and she let him wrap his arms around her.
“Truce?” he whispered into her ear.
She nodded.
He kissed her on her forehead. “I’ll be going into the Capitol tomorrow so you won’t be seeing me for a while. Is that okay with you?”
She nodded again.
“I love you,” he said.
She didn’t answer but stared at the pin-striped patterns on his suit.
“Hey, I love you?” he said again.
“I love you,” she muttered. But somehow she didn’t believe those words anymore. Something had changed over the course of that evening. Something that had to do with Jared Ryder.
*****
The twigs crackled in the fire. Sparks danced into the air as Jared threw another dry sprig into it. Wolf sat beside him chewing on a deer bone. He stroked his head and the husky gave a throaty growl.
He chuckled. “Okay, I won’t bother you anymore.”
It had been three days since he had left home. His temper with Tara had subsided but his blood still heated at the mere thought of Ellie Callum. She had frozen his heart the moment she had glided into that hallway in that despicable robe. It had clung silkily to her body, revealing her curves. He had immediately grown possessive of her and he wondered if he would have reacted objectionably had another man other than fatherly Sam seen her in it.
He had tried denying his attraction for her at first, dealing them with sarcasm and anger to fight his feelings for her. But then she had taken in that sigh. She had closed her eyes and in that instant a magnetic hue had fallen over her, pulling him into her spell. The moment he had touched her, wrapped his arms around her waist, he had wanted to run his fingers over her body.
Her touch on his skin had jostled electricity through every atom inside of him. And as she had dragged her fingers across his nape, feeling his skin, she had hardened him to his brink. When she had stepped away from him, he had felt her loss immediately. He had grown cold; almost inanimate. He didn’t understand why his body had responded to hers so quickly. The instant she had touched him, his soul had recognized her as being a part of him. And now he felt like an invalid, clinging to life, desperate to live because she had become as vital to him as air.
“I’m crazy, Wolf, aren’t I? She’s the enemy,” he pulled a deep breath in, watching the shadows of the flames dance on the walls of the small cave. He tried to rationalize his sudden attraction for her. Perhaps, she was forbidden fruit. Perhaps, that was why he found her seductive.
“I’ve lost my mind, haven’t I boy?”
The husky licked his face and returned to chew on his bone. He chuckled and picked up his long bow. He checked the tightness in his bow-string. He ran his hand along the wood. The bow had belonged to his father. He had clung to it in the first few months of his arrest, hoping he would return home soon. But as the months flew by, he realized that he might never see his father again.
He lay down onto the fern covered floor of the cave, snuggling up to Wolf for warmth. Wolf made a throaty sound as he lay on his paws, blinking lazily at the fire.
“Yes, boy. It’s time to go home. We’ll go home tomorrow,” he mumbled tiredly.
As for Ellie Callum, he would have to dismiss her as momentary lust. He would never allow her to be anything more. She was a witch, casting her spell of love over him. But he would not be deluded. He would never let her touch his heart.
But he could dream of her- of how he would possess her mouth, and her body. Of how he would learn every curve in it- with his hands, with his lips. Of how she would cry into the night, moaning his name, begging him to take her, to pleasure her. In his dreams, she would be his alone.
*****
The birds broke the serenity of the forest. Twilight pervaded the darkness, providing enough light for Jared and Wolf to crawl out from beneath the fence before the guards would commence their morning routes.
He strolled over to his house. As he neared it, he noticed Fern was sitting on the steps of the front door with his head on his lap.
“Hey,” he said. “You’re up early.”
Fern looked up at him lazily, not surprised to see him at all. “Nan’s been worried about you and letting us know about it all day, all night, all morning-”
Jared chuckled and slumped beside him. “That bad, huh? Sorry.”
“So, where�
�ve you been?”
“Here and there. How’s your mom doing?”
Fern shrugged. “Okay, I guess. She’s been awfully quiet, though. It’s quite unlike her.”
They grew quiet, watching the inhabitants of Sector 8 Central rise out of their slumber. Jared wondered about Tara’s unusual reticence on his disappearance. Normal would have been Tara and their mother on a screaming contest as to how wrong or right he was on the Callums. No, there was certainly something bothering Tara. Had he overdone it this time? He winced inwardly.
“Uncle Jared?” Fern asked slowly. “Do you go to the woods?”
Jared glanced at him with a frown, unsure of how he should answer him. “What makes you say that?”
Fern shrugged again. “Everyone knows Pap went to the woods to hunt. Isn’t that why he was arrested?”
“Yeah. So?” Jared watched his neighbors walk glumly towards their jobs.
“Morning, Jared,” said one.
He nodded with a polite smile. “Morning.”
“So, I think you go to the woods to hunt too,” Fern continued.
Wolf licked at Jared’s fingers and he rubbed its belly, trying to buy time on how he should answer Fern.
“I don’t go to the woods,” he said at last.
“Where do you get all that meat from?”
“The venison?”
“The deer, yeah.”
“They’re strays on the highway.”
“Uncle Jared, come on,” Fern rolled his eyes.
“It’s the truth,” he mumbled, squinting at the rising sun in the horizon.
“I heard Pap took you to the woods and taught you archery at nine and I’m eleven. Come on, Uncle Jared. I won’t squeal. I promise,” the boy begged.
Jared looked at him with amusement. His father had certainly taken him to the woods at nine; only because, like Fern, he had begged for it. Melancholic waves washed over him as he recalled the memory. He gave a small smile despite his urge to dive into a forlorn mood in some lonely corner of the woods again. “Nan’s been talking.”
Fern cast his eyes down sadly. “Actually Mom is. She told me all about it a couple of days ago- after you disappeared.”
Jared turned to him with surprise. Tara had never shared his enthusiasm for the woods and his weaponry. She would rather live on bread and chicken for the rest of her lives than watch him be arrested or killed, she’d pontifically remind him whenever she could and almost rather often. “Are you saying your mom, my sister told you all about it?” he asked again in disbelief.
“Yeah, she did.”
He chuckled. Miracles happened after all. “She’s got an active imagination,” he said, trying to dispel the boy’s sudden fixation for the woods and archery. He wasn’t as strong as his father in risking the boy’s life. He would never live with himself if anything happened to Fern because of the woods or the archery. The burden was for him to bear alone. He would never allow his family to become any more vulnerable than they already were.
“Uncle Jared,-” the boy started to insist again.
Jared put an arm over his shoulder. “I’ve heard you’ve been playing hookey?”
Fern grew quiet as he ran his fingers through Wolf’s thick coat. “I don’t like school. They teach algebra and geometry and verbs and how to talk. Things that we don’t ever gonna need.”
“Won’t ever,” Jared corrected.
“Yeah, won’t ever need,” Fern repeated. “I want to be useful and do the proper stuff.”
“School is the proper stuff,” Jared murmured. “And you’re not helping any of us by wagging it.”
“I want to hunt. I don’t want to study all that algebra shit.” He paused, biting his lips as if he was contemplating something. “They tease me in school too,” he finally revealed.
Jared’s hand tightened involuntary at his shoulders. “Yeah?” he asked, forcing some composure into his voice. “Tease you like how?”
“Well, they say Dad was a squealer; that he was a drunk and he betrayed his people for the dogs and got people arrested too. And that’s why he lives in some big fancy house in the Capitol as a government dog.”
Jared recalled the tall lean man with chiseled features that Tara had fallen in love with at the mere age of seventeen. Unfortunately, his father had seen through his façade very early on. Tara saw no choice then but to elope with the man who would later leave her for his avarice dangled before him like a carrot by the government.
“I think everyone’s gone through that awkward phase and faced those bullies. I’ve had them myself,” he comforted, trying to detract from the subject of Fred Wilson.
“You had kids bully you?” Fern asked in surprise.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “I was a pretty small kid for my age. And because of my height and scrawny built, they called me ‘Gherkin’.”
“Gherkin?” Fern spat out in disgust. “Like a pickled cucumber?”
Jared laughed. “Yes.”
“Really? Wow,” he breathed out with disbelief.
“Wow is right,” Jared patted his shoulder. “And I turned out just fine.”
Fern shrugged. “But Uncle Jared, those were the old days. They weren’t as bad as they are now.”
Jared chuckled again, reminiscing how he had used an almost similar line with his father. And he also remembered another that his father had said to him. “I’ll make you a deal. If you go to school and make an impressive effort, I will think about the… woods.”
Fern brightened. “Really? You mean that?”
“I swear,” Jared slapped his back. “Just don’t make me regret it.”
CHAPTER 6
Tara sat across him slitting pea pods into a bowl. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, without looking up at him.
Jared stared at her, unsure of what she was sorry about. She had never once apologized about him storming into the Callum’s residence and pulling her out of there.
“I didn’t know about Da,” she continued. “I never knew what had happened to him. I had always blamed his arrest on his bow and his fascination for the woods. I didn’t know he was unarmed though, when he was arrested.”
Jared rocked his cup slowly, contemplating all she was saying. “Ma didn’t want to tell you because-”
“I know,” she cut him short. “Let’s not go there now, okay? I was wrong and I simply wanted to tell you that. I also wanted to let you know that you won’t be getting any more trouble from me on going back to the Callums. I’m not returning to work at Callum’s Hill.”
He twisted his lips thoughtfully. He should have been elated on hearing her say that. But something tugged at his heart, stealing any joy in this little victory. There was no longer any reason for him to return to Callum’s Hill and implausible as it was now of all times, he desperately needed one to go back.
“I would miss Ellie Callum, though,” she said, watching him over her eyebrows. “She was really nice. She never said a harsh word to me. Nor have I heard her use one against any of the staff.”
“Well, she certainly had a lot to say to me,” he murmured.
“That’s because you were being such a jerk,” she snapped. “All she was doing was defending me from someone she thought was abusing me.”
Jared swallowed. So much for first impressions. He remembered how she had been utterly outraged at his behavior, challenging his decision to take Tara away. Her eyes had flared. And while she had continued to rage at him, he had been busily entranced by the way her tresses had danced about her face, how her almost amber eyes had glowed in her ire.
He ran a palm over his face. He didn’t have much of a chance now, did he? The thought clenched his heart. “How is it that you never mentioned her before?” he asked carefully.
“When were you ever interested in learning about the Callums?” she retorted. She pulled in a tired breath. “Miss Ellie has been living in the Capitol. She was studying at some fine university there. She only comes over occasionally to the house to visit her father. Unfortuna
tely, I never met her until her current trip to Callum’s Hill. I doubt she will stay any longer though. She’s here temporarily. You see, she’s engaged to Edmund Farriss and she’s here to plan their wedding that they’re going to have at the end of the year. By the way, he’s just as mighty fine as she is.”
His face grew dark and pensive. His limbs felt as heavy as lead. “Edmund Farriss?”
“Yeah, he works for the Governor. I heard Governor Callum’s grooming him to take his office after he retires.”
Perhaps, it was for the best. What were his chances anyway? Ellie Callum would never fall for him- unless of course she slipped again, literally. He stood up abruptly from his chair. “Tell Ma, I’ll be back soon.”
He wandered aimlessly through the small hamlet. So he finally got Tara to stop working at Callum’s Hill anymore and he would never have to see Ellie Callum. Now what? He reflected on his life and his future and he realized he didn’t like what he was seeing. He watched Wolf bound about him. “I guess it’s gonna be just you and me, boy,” he muttered.
He returned home, feeling more dejected than when he had left it. A dark SUV cut across him, pulling into his driveway. He stopped immediately, studying the vehicle for a while. No one he knew owned an expensive vehicle as that. In fact, he didn’t know anyone who did. Vehicles were too expensive for their class. But even if anyone could afford it, there was the equally expensive application for permission to the Governor to own one. Politicians called it a necessary measure to rectify the damage their ancestors had done to the climate a thousand years ago. In light of the fuss that anyone would need to endure to own and retain a vehicle, it wasn’t surprising no one bothered applying for one. Even Baker Felix and the butcher preferred a horse and cart to motorized vehicles. Since each sector was required to be self-sufficient, there was rarely any shipment of goods between sectors at all. Population was tightly controlled with people retained to their own birth sectors. Immigration between sectors was strictly disallowed subject to genuine reasons such as the proven likelihood of interbreeding. Some people like sixty year old Marge from two houses down, chose to rather die a spinster than move to another sector and never see her friends or family again. If he were in Marge’s place, he would probably have opted for the same.
Claimed Page 5