My Dusk My Dawn

by Henrietta Georgia

  2

  DOWN SOUTH

  “I say we stop over in Alice for a little while, rest, then head for Edna,” he suggested. “I can’t keep my eyes open for much longer, I’m afraid,” he said, sounding tired all of a sudden. It had been a long night. “Any objection to that?”

  “No, I’m with you. When in Rome,” I replied, feeling extremely exhausted myself.

  We reached Alice around 3 am. Checked into the Sundowner Hotel, which was basic, sparsely decorated but clean. Daniel took the single bed closest to the door, while I took the one closest to the window.

  “Try to rest,” he suggested, kicking off his boots with reckless abandon and sinking into the bed for some much needed sleep.

  After downing a glass of water, I slept but I tossed and turned relentlessly.

  Thoughts of Duayne pervaded my mind as I slept, and I fought him off in my sleep. I cried in my sleep, only to find those same tears on my face as I woke.

  When I opened my eyes, I found Daniel kneeling at the edge of my bed. Staring into me, his ocean blue eyes were full of concern. “You slept fitfully,” he noted, concerned.

  Wiping the tears off my face, I told him, “I’m hoping it’ll get better in time.”

  “It will,” he said firmly, before leaning in to embrace me. “Maybe you’re experiencing a few side effects of the medication you took as well?”

  I nodded in response. The nausea and light headedness I was feeling definitely was.

  The watch on his wrist read 5 am. We’d gotten to Alice around 3 am. Hardly any sleep had been had by either of us.

  “Why don’t you just get back to bed and try and get some more sleep?” I suggested. “You’ve done a lot for me tonight, get some sleep, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

  He sat on the bed next to me. “As much as I want to get some shut eye, I don’t want to miss a moment with you. My arms are all yours if you want me to hold you,” he said boldly.

  I pondered for a moment at the sudden overture. Ordinarily, the last thing I would want was be to be embraced by another man. A man I hardly knew. At this time. But he was gentle and kind, and he was what I needed.

  “Okay,” I said, leaning into him, grateful for the comfort. He squeezed me with such fortitude I felt I would melt in his embrace.

  “Take your own advice and get some sleep. It’s still dark out,” he said. “Sometimes it helps to try and sleep with a bit of white noise. Try and get some sleep.”

  I nodded in response, believing him. He switched the television on. White noise.

  My stomach churned when I saw Duayne on the screen, giving a most sensational screen performance. “I just hope we can find her in good enough time. It isn’t like her to up and leave like this,” he said, his emerald green eyes brimming with tears and feigned concern. “If anyone knows where she is, please get her to get in touch. I need her to come home.”

  “There’s that APB we were tryin’ to avoid,” Daniel interjected. “…and I guess that’s Duayne,” he said. “Somehow he looks familiar to me,” he thought out loud. “What does he do for a livin’?”

  “He’s a lawyer and an architect. Works for Saunders and Co.,” I told him.

  “They handle a few of the housing developments in the Austin and Dallas area,” I explained.

  “I see,” he said. “I must’ve seen him around in the course of business.”

  I shrugged in response. He could’ve met Duayne in any number of ways and in any number of places. Duayne was everywhere and nowhere, as I discovered much too late.

  “This is a mess, and that’s putting it mildly,” I announced, somewhat stating the obvious. “I can’t lay charges on him now, it’ll be his word against mine, no one’ll believe me…”

  “No,” Daniel started. “You can. You’ve got enough evidence to do so. I believe you, others will.”

  I shook my head in response. I could just see it all. Me being cross-examined and Duayne’s legal team crucifying me on the stand, casting doubt on my character, saying anything and everything they could to tarnish my reputation and my career. The decision to charge him would be at the expense of my career. I wasn’t prepared to do that now, and risk losing everything.

  “Talk to me,” Daniel urged, not liking my silence.

  “I can’t go back right now.”

  “Okay,” he acknowledged. “You don’t have to. Call work, tell them you’re okay.”

  I didn’t even want to do that, but I knew I had to. Didn’t want Daniel to be implicated in anything untoward.

  “Jensen, isn’t it? The head of the Department?” he asked.

  I nodded in response.

  “Okay. How about you call her, we get something to eat, and keep headin’ south. My property in Edna’s not too far away, we can hang there for a while. If you prefer somewhere more secluded, we can take the houseboat out to my shack on the edge of Lake Texana, after Edna.”

  A lot of options, too many almost, but I was grateful for all possibilities he put forward. “That all sounds good,” I said.

  “Alright then,” he replied, suddenly abuzz with energy and optimism. He motioned towards the phone in the room. Scrolling through his mobile phone, he located the number of the State Prosecutor’s office. I made my way over to the phone, flipped on the desk lamp and lifted the phone off the receiver, ready to dial. Daniel stopped me.

  “Withhold Caller ID,” he advised, dialing a few numbers before dialing the number he’d retrieved from his phone. “Make it quick. Don’t give them enough time to trace the call,” he suggested, pressing the speaker button on.

  The phone rang out initially, before it rang into another line. “Jensen’s office, Carla speaking.”

  “Carla, this is Teme.” Silence greeted me on the other line. Eventually she spoke.

  “Temwani? Star Prosecutor?”

  “Yes…”

  “Right, right! You’re missing!” she exclaimed.

  “Just out of town for the moment,” I told her.

  “Where are you, what’s happened to you – your fiancé’s been on the news…”

  Fiancé. That we’d almost gotten engaged made me feel sick to the stomach.

  “Just tell Jensen I’m fine,” I told her. “I’ll be in touch. Taking a leave of absence for now.”

  Daniel motioned for me to wrap up the conversation.

  “…but the Skyler Brief, the trial starts this week…” she started.

  “Thanks Carla, tell Jensen I’ll be in touch. Tell everyone else I’m fine,” I said, hanging up, keeping it short as Daniel had suggested.

  “That was dramatic, hanging up on her. You could’ve ended it on a good note,” Daniel stated, half laughing.

  I shrugged in response. “You told me to wrap it up,” I confirmed.

  “Yes, but not like that,” he said, laughing lightly. “Anyway…” he said, flipping the desk light off. “Fiancé?” he questioned not long after.

  “Apparently. He’s obviously running around town telling tales – we were not engaged to be married.” I hadn’t accepted his proposal, which was part of the reason why I’d ended up where I did.

  “I see,” Daniel said softly. After a brief pause, he stated, “Well, he’s cruisin’ for a bruisin’ if he keeps this up. I can think of a few boys I can round up to give him a good ass whoppin’, show him who’s boss.”

  I laughed at the suggestion.

  “Glad I can make you laugh,” he said, in a serious tone, though he was part smiling. “But I’m being serious. He can’t just go around doing what he’s doing. Lawyer or otherwise.”

  I nodded in agreement, but somehow I knew with Duayne, things wouldn’t stick. Not for long anyway. I sighed heavily at the prospect of having to deal with him at all, again. Before I could dwell on the thought, Daniel interjected, “Look, I’m really sorry you have to go through this. I don’t mean no disrespect, but I don’t believe this all happened for nothing,” he said. “This isn’t how your story ends. You’ll see. I’m here wi
th you now. You’re safe with me.”

  I fell into his arms again and slept deeply this time, to the sound of his heart beating in his chest. His words echoed in my mind. This isn’t how your story ends. With him holding me, it felt as though my story was just beginning.

  Half an hour out from Alice, we stopped at a diner along the way, and had pancakes for breakfast. While I was hungry, my stomach didn’t feel settled enough to eat much. I ate enough to allow me to take another dose of the PEP medication and antibiotics without feeling too sick.

  Daniel on the other hand ate heartily, pouring an almost too generous amount of syrup onto the stacked pancakes on his plate. I smiled, thinking about how food would be one way to this man’s heart. One taste of my cooking and he’d be sprung, I thought, but my own thoughts caught up to me. Don’t get ahead of yourself. You’ve just gotten away from Duayne. You hardly know Daniel. That may be true, I thought to myself, but you know how he makes you feel, and that’s real.

  “A penny for your thoughts?” he asked after a long silence between us while we ate.

  “I’m just thinking about everything there is to think about right now. Thinking about how lucky I was that you found me when you did.”

  He dabbed his mouth lightly with a napkin before he said, “Luck’s got something to do with it, but not everything to do with it.”

  “Meaning?” I asked.

  “I’ll tell you in the car,” he said, raising his hand to get the attention of the waitress, so he could settle the bill. She turned slightly and smiled. He’d gotten her attention, though she was busy tending to another patron. He wrote on the back of the bill: Thanks for the breakfast, keep the change.

  Slipping a fifty dollar bill into the bill holder before closing it, he got up, offered his hand to me which I graciously took. This is becoming somewhat of a habit, I thought. As we walked out, he caught the eye of the waitress, tipped his hat at her, and mouthed, “Thank you.” I knew not long after, in his absence, she’d be thanking him for the generous forty dollar tip he’d left after a ten dollar breakfast.

  Heart in my throat, once we were in the car I asked again, “What did you mean?”

  “Before I tell you, know that I’m here with you because I want to be here with you. Know that the obligation side of things ended the moment I had you in my car,” he started.

  “Daniel, just say what you have to say,” I insisted, suddenly on edge.

  “I got a message the night I met you. The message was to rescue a young lady of your description and to get her to safety. The instructions were vague yet precise enough for me to recognize you when I saw you.”

  I tried to hide my surprise but I couldn’t. “And?”

  “As I said, the obligation and the job ended for me when I got you in my car.”

  “Who ordered the job?” I asked.

  “Beats me. All I know is they gave me an advance for the job, and left no name or number to return the call on.”

  “Pretty mysterious if you ask me,” I said.

  “Someone’s looking out for you,” he stated.

  “Why you?” I questioned. “Whoever it was, why did they choose you?” I asked.

  “Lady, your guess is as good as mine,” he said, “…though I’ve done some retrieval work in the past, so that could be something to do with it.”

  “Oh,” I said flatly, feeling slightly discouraged. “I guess this is where we part ways then? Job’s over, I can get back to whatever’s waiting for me back in Austin, while you can go back to whatever it was you were doing before you felt obligated to help me and got roped into saving me?”

  “No,” he said firmly. “As I said, the obligation part of things ended the moment I took one look at you and realized that I wanted to be a part of your story. So even before I got you in my car, I … well, I couldn’t help but fall for you. So, please. Lie low with me until this tempest in your life blows over. Let me weather this storm with you.”

  I felt passion rise within me, and in his eyes I saw hope, compassion and to my surprise, love.

  “So what d’you say?” he asked.

  “You’re such a believer,” I stated. “Yes, I will lie low with you until this all blows over.”

  “Good,” he said, starting the ignition. “Thank you for putting your trust in me. You won’t regret it.”

  We hit Edna a few hours later. Daniel parked his car under the house by the lake shore, and we decided to stay there for a few hours before heading out onto the water.

  His house was sparsely decorated but felt homely. Pictures of boats, rivers and mountains peppered the walls, and a sole picture of a middle aged, beautiful blonde haired woman rested on the mantel. Before I could ask, he answered. “Jolène,” he stated. “My mom.”

  “She’s beautiful.”

  “Yeah, well, don’t tell her that when you meet her, it’ll go right to her head,” he said jokingly.

  “She lives here in Edna?”

  “No,” he replied. “She lives in Austin.”

  He didn’t mention anything about a father or siblings so I didn’t ask. I figured there’d be plenty of time to find out.

  On the living room wall, a Swiss wall mantle clock caught my eye.

  “Switzerland?” I asked.

  “Yes. I partly grew up there.”

  “Français où Allemande? French or German?” I asked, excited at the prospect of a Swiss connection. Though it had been many years since I’d been back, Switzerland held a special place in my heart.

  “Français,” he replied. “I see we’ve got something else in common now.”

  I smiled in response but not for long. Suddenly, the house phone rang, startling us both. “Strange,” he said, letting it ring out. “Unless someone’s seen us drive out here, no one knows I’m here.”

  His mobile rang not long after. We stared at the screen together. Private number. He picked up, only to be met with a dead line.

  “Strange,” I said this time.

  A text message came through moments later. Job done? Have you seen the news? Is she safe?

  Daniel gave me a knowing look and we spoke without saying words. He dialed the number, only to be met with a service unavailable message, in German. “I’ll text back,” he said aloud. Job’s done, she’s safe, he texted.

  A few seconds later, a reply came through. Thank you.

  Heart in my throat, I searched for an explanation and perhaps a clue.

  “This is coming from Germany,” Daniel said. I nodded in agreement, recalling the out of service message in German, and the number the text came from. “Job’s done. Let’s hope this is it,” he said in conclusion, not wanting to hear from whoever it was, again.

  I silently echoed the sentiment, though I longed to know who cared enough to have hired him to ensure my safety.

  Slightly spooked from the odd interaction with someone neither of us had met before, presumably, that was, we decided to head out onto his house boat and onwards to his cabin on the lake. Sleep would come later, and in safety. At least this was what we hoped.

  The river lapped at the base of his shanty style house boat, as it coasted steadily in the dark, deep waters of Lake Texana.

  “So, you’ve lived in Texas most of your life, apart from your time in Switzerland?” I asked.

  “Yep. Born and bred in Texas,” he replied. “I would’ve thought my southern drawl would have given it away?”

  I shrugged in response.

  “I guess I’m the last to learn that you’re quite popular in Austin. Lead Prosecutor?”

  “Yep,” I replied. Not for much longer, I thought. Not unless I managed to keep what happened between Duayne and I, a secret.

  “How long you been in Texas for?” he asked.

  “Two years now.”

  “And where were you before then?”

  “Georgia.”

  “And before that?” he asked.

  “The UK,” I replied.

  “And before that?” he asked again.


  “Switzerland. La Suisse.”

  “Where? Où exactement?,” he asked.

  “Commugny, Canton de Vaud,” I replied. “Daniel, why don’t you just ask me where I’m from?” I suggested.

  He smiled in response. “Would you prefer another line of questioning, Counsellor?”

  I smiled back. “Perhaps.”

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Okay,” I replied. “You know, you don’t have to ask me how I am every minute. I’ll be fine.”

  “I’m just concerned, is all,” he said. “You’re barely eating, you’ve avoided talking about what happened last night, and I feel somewhat responsible for getting you happy again.”

  “I didn’t ask you to take responsibility for my happiness,” I replied, curtly.

  “Sorry, that came out wrong,” he said. “I meant to say, I wanna be the one who makes you happy.”

  “I’m damaged goods,” I told him, regretting the words as soon as they left my mouth. I’d said those words in my mind many times over since Duayne had left me in that carpark.

  “I can fix you,” he said, leaving the helm of the boat to join me on the boat’s shoulder. “I can’t take away what happened to you, but I can make your life from here on out, better. I can at least try to,” he said. “I can help put the pieces of your life back together again.”

  “How do you propose to do that, Counsellor?”

  “Let me love you,” he beckoned. “Let me show you what love can be.”

  I sighed in response. Words, and promises. I’d had enough of those to last a lifetime.

  “You’re not feeling me,” he concluded. “Am I not your type?”

  Slightly taken aback, I stated, “I didn’t say that.”

  “What are you saying, then?” he asked, reaching over to take my hand. I let him. The weight of my hands in his felt comforting and reassuring.

  “I’m just not too hot on words and promises at the moment.”

  “Right,” he said in response. “That’s understandable, given what you’ve just been through. How about I show you?” he asked. “Just agree to be with me on a trial basis, and if you don’t like what you see, we can part ways.”