Eden Bound

by Darrell Maloney

  He’d lost the perfect dog once, several years before, when Bonnie finally succumbed to old age.

  He refused to lose her doppelganger as well. As long as it took him, he was going to find that puppy.

  Karen let him go without any fanfare, since she knew how committed he was to finding Lucy. He’d already put out word, the day she was born, that he was adopting her and that everybody else better keep their mitts off of her.

  Nobody argued the point. They all knew how much Bonnie meant to him. And Lucy was not only from the same bloodline, she also bore a remarkable resemblance to her.

  Besides, Karen had other things to worry about.

  Hannah’s crew had called the mine by ham radio just before they left San Antonio.

  That was more than six hours ago.

  Granted, the roads were icy, but the snow pack wasn’t too terribly deep.

  They should be getting close.

  Certainly close enough to be in radio range.

  Yet Bryan had been trying to hail them every fifteen minutes for over an hour and hadn’t had any luck at all.

  Perhaps Karen would have better results.

  -32-

  “Hannah, Debbie, this is the SCC. Do you read?”

  No answer.

  She tried again, this time adding a bit extra.

  “Hannah or Debbie, please come in. Hell, I’ll even settle for Brad if he’s the only one available. We’re starting to worry about you.”

  All over the mine people chuckled.

  Most of the adults who took turns at the Security Control Center wore two way radios on their belts. They very seldom used them when they weren’t actually on duty. But it was a good way to monitor what was going on in the mine.

  Especially on certain days like today. Today was a banner day because not one, but two things were happening which were breaking the monotony and causing a stir.

  Their friends were coming home, for one.

  And that blasted little puppy with the black snout and big sad eyes was hiding out there somewhere refusing to help his searchers find him.

  Sami got on the radio and told Karen, “Hey, now. You’re not talking bad about my loving husband now are you?”

  Karen was expecting the comment and was quick with a retort.

  “No worse than I usually talk about him.”

  Bryan joined in.

  “And nowhere near as bad as I talk about him.”

  David said, “Or me.”

  Mark, Hannah’s husband, said, “Or me. If I ever said something nice about him the poor fool would fall over dead with a heart attack.”

  Sami took it all in stride, knowing it was meant in good fun.

  “I guess I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  Karen summed it up for everyone by saying, “Ya think?”

  There were a few seconds of radio silence as everyone tried to regain their composure and get serious again. Then a long burst of static.

  Static sometimes meant someone just on the edge of radio range was trying to get hold of them.

  Everyone grew silent.

  Then, finally, a familiar voice came over the airwaves.

  “Hey, this is Hannah. Anybody at the SCC listening in today?”

  Karen wasted no time in responding.

  “Hannah! It’s about time. We’ve been trying to reach you for hours. Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, everything’s fine. Now. We were wondering if you guys cared enough to check on us. I was saying you must not love us anymore, since you knew we were out here in Iceville and didn’t even care enough to call up and check on us.

  “Then we realized we never turned the radio on.”

  Another voice came over the radio. It was Debbie’s voice, and was much louder. It was obvious to everyone that Debbie was trying to talk over Hannah to make herself heard.

  “In other words,” Debbie almost shouted, “Hannah is an idiot.”

  “It’s true,” Hannah admitted. “I was the one sitting closest to the radio. And I was the one who was complaining loudest that you never called to check on us. I was in the best position to notice that the power button on the radio wasn’t lit up. I just never thought to check. I thought it was always on.”

  Karen said, “Never mind that. We’re talking now, so it no longer matters. Where are you?”

  There was a pause as Hannah asked Marty their general location.

  “Marty says we’re about twenty minutes from Eden. We’ll drop him and Al off and stay long enough for coffee and to warm up. Then we’ll be headed your way.”

  Another pause.

  “Marty says we should be there around six p.m., give or take half an hour or so.”

  “How are the roads?”

  “Marty says they’re slippery, but no match for the Hummer. There are three inches or so of new snow that fell since he plowed it three weeks ago, but not even enough to make the Hummer work hard.”

  “How’s Al doing?”

  “Oh, he’s good. Wanna talk to him?”

  “Yeah, if he’s up to it.”

  Hannah handed the microphone to him.

  “Hello, Karen.”

  “Don’t you ‘Hello Karen’ me, mister mayor.”

  Al was a bit taken aback. He expected a friendly greeting. Perhaps a bit of congratulations for coming through his surgery and getting out of the hospital.

  The very last thing he expected was to get chewed out.

  “What… what did I do?” he meekly asked like a little boy in trouble.

  “It’s not what you did, Al,” Karen said. “It’s what you didn’t do. We expected you to have Marty bring you here first so we could visit for awhile. We’ve got roast beef simmering in the oven because we called Eden and asked them what your favorite food was. They said roast beef and mashed potatoes.

  “We asked if you’d settle for instant potatoes, since the only real potatoes we have here are the seed potatoes in the green house that’ll provide our first planting when the thaw comes.

  “They said you were used to instant potatoes since that’s all you’ve been getting for awhile. So now you have some explaining to do, bubba. How come you didn’t come by to visit us like you were supposed to?”

  Once he found out he wasn’t guilty of anything except ruining Karen’s dinner plans Al breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Well, first of all, Karen, nobody ever gets used to instant potatoes. I only eat them because real ones aren’t available right now. Once the thaw comes and we can plant potatoes again I doubt if I’ll ever eat instant again.

  “As for the decision to bypass you guys and come to Eden first, I’ll have to defer to Marty.”

  -33-

  Marty’s voice came on the radio.

  “What’s up, Karen?”

  “Not a lot, Marty. We just thought you were coming by here first to say hello before you and Al went back to Eden. That’s all.”

  “We said hello when we picked up Hannah and Debbie and Brad.”

  “I know. But that didn’t count. Al was in a lot of pain then and needed to get to the hospital. We were hoping to host you guys in a more relaxed and enjoyable setting.”

  “I’m sorry, Karen. It’s nothing personal. It’s just that… well, let me think for a moment to find the right words to explain.”

  “The right words?”

  “Oh, okay. I know. You know that sound somebody makes when they scrape their fingernails on a blackboard?”

  “Yes. Kind of a screeching, squeaking sound? Yes. I hate that. It makes me want to put my hands on my ears and run away.”

  “Yes!” Marty said. “Me too!”

  “But what has that got to do with anything?”

  “I found out on this trip that when you spend too much time around Hannah, her voice starts to sound exactly like that screeching sound. And I’ve got to get back to Eden as quickly as possible before it drives me totally mad. Ouch!”

  The “ouch” part was because Hannah punched Marty squarely in the arm
.

  And Hannah could pack quite a punch. She’d gotten quite good at using her punching power to keep her husband Mark in line for years.

  “I’m just kidding,” he went on. “Actually, I would have loved to stay and visit for awhile, but I’m missing Glenna and the kids and just wanted to get home again. And Al’s wife said it’s his turn to do the dishes tonight and he’d better be there to do them.

  “And, of course, we didn’t know anything about your dinner plans.”

  “That’s because it was supposed to be a surprise. The very nature of a surprise is that you’re not supposed to know about it.”

  She had a point.

  “Can we take a rain check?”

  “Of course. Maybe you can come next week and bring the family.”

  “That would be nice.”

  “That might be better anyway. By that time Frank will be back. You can see him again.”

  Marty was stunned.

  “Frank? Frank Woodard? But I thought he was…”

  “Dead? Yeah, we did too. He called on the ham a few days ago.”

  “Where the heck is he?”

  “Right now we don’t know. Somewhere north of here. He called from Lubbock and said he was trying to make his way back here. But that the snow pack up there was pretty bad and it might take him awhile.”

  “How far is Lubbock from you guys?”

  “We’re not sure. We couldn’t exactly Google it or GPS it. We think it’s a little over three hundred miles.

  “But that’s not the best part.”

  “What’s the best part?”

  “He’s bringing his new bride.”

  “Oh, now I know you’re kidding. There’s no way on earth Frank would find somebody to marry him. He’s grouchy and ugly and old. And nobody would marry him for his money because he doesn’t have any.”

  “Oh, that’s not fair, Marty. Frank’s got lots of good qualities.”

  “Name one.”

  Karen grew silent.

  “See? I rest my case.”

  Sami chose that moment to get on the radio herself.

  “You two stop. If Frank was here you wouldn’t be saying those mean things about him.”

  “Of course we wouldn’t,” Karen said. “Because Frank always carries a gun and he’s a good shot.”

  It was all in good fun.

  Everyone loved Frank.

  While he could be grouchy, as most older men are, he was also a sweetheart and everybody’s friend.

  And Sami was wrong. Even if Frank was standing beside them, Karen and Marty would still denigrate him. Frank had a great sense of humor and would take it all in stride.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Marty said. “If you’ll let us know when Frank and his bride get back, we’ll make a dinner date and come help you welcome him.”

  “Okay, one more question, though. How in heck did he go out looking for supplies and end up in Lubbock?”

  “Apparently he was carjacked. By his brother-in-law.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yep.”

  “Boy, I’ll bet that makes for an uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner, huh?

  “Well, we’re getting ready to pull into the Eden Shelter. I’m going to turn the Hummer over to Brad and he’ll be headed back your way shortly.

  “And he said to tell Sami that if y’all dare start talking bad about him he’s going to take Hannah and Debbie to his old girlfriend’s house in Junction and hold them for ransom.”

  Brad grabbed the radio from Marty’s hand and said, “He’s lying. I never said any such thing.”

  But it was too late.

  Sami had already made her comeback.

  “Bull. The women in Junction are way too smart to have ever dated my husband. And that idea would fail anyway. No way would we ever pay ransom for Debbie and Hannah.

  “In fact, we’ve been kicking around the idea of moving while y’all were gone so you couldn’t bring them back.”

  So there it was.

  A group of friends who’d been separated and missing each other were glad to be back together again.

  Despite their snippy comments.

  The homecoming would be joyful and fulfilling. And it would soon be followed by another homecoming, as Frank’s return would soon come to pass.

  That homecoming would be joyful too.

  But it would be problematic as well, for it would involve all kinds of not-so-pleasant surprises.

  -34-

  Frank Woodard could plainly see in his rear view mirror that the lights of Johnny’s pickup truck were getting smaller and smaller.

  It didn’t bother him.

  It happened all the time.

  Every time Johnny or Tina, or often both at the same time, needed to relieve their bladders, he knew they’d stop and do their thing and catch up with him later.

  Occasionally they stopped to switch positions as driver and passenger, and if both felt too tired to drive, they sometimes catnapped for half an hour or so.

  Invariably and eventually, the lights of the pickup would shine once again in his mirror and they’d fall back in behind him.

  So Frank didn’t think a thing about a little bit of distance being placed between himself and the truck behind him.

  Besides, he had other things to worry about.

  An easterly wind had been getting stronger and the loose snow on top of the snow pack was beginning to drift a bit.

  There was no additional snow falling, and the big Humvee was plowing the pack out of the way like it was warm butter, so that much wasn’t a problem.

  What was the problem was that the drifting snow was starting to accumulate against the top two inches of the reflector poles that Frank was using to guide him.

  They were becoming harder and harder to see.

  If the howling wind caused the drifts to cover the poles completely he’d have to go back to driving three miles an hour and feeling for the highway knobs beneath his wheels.

  That was a major pain in the neck, and he hoped it didn’t come to that.

  In the meantime, he was having to focus extra hard on the tops of the reflector poles and hoped to make it to Big Spring before they disappeared completely from view.

  Focusing wasn’t easy, since Eddie had made it down to one hundred bottles of beer on the wall. He’d celebrated the milestone by taking a short break, taking a deep breath, and then doubling the volume of his singing for the remainder of the song.

  He didn’t mind. Eddie’s singing was loud and monotonous, but it gave him something to occupy his time and kept him from asking Frank every five minutes, “Are we there yet?”

  Of course, Josie wasn’t bothered by any of it.

  She’d fallen sound asleep and was now snoring very loudly.

  It was those two things: the fact that there was now almost half a mile of distance between Frank’s Hummer and the black pickup behind them; and that the cab of the Hummer was awash with a multitude of noises, that Frank didn’t hear the gunshot which felled Deputy Sonmore.

  Even if he had heard, there was nothing he could have done to save the officer anyway.

  Unaware Sonmore had been shot, Frank kept driving. And half a mile behind him all hell was breaking loose.

  Sonmore immediately fell to the ground.

  The bullet shattered his spine just above the back of the ninth rib and took out the seventh rib just to the left of the sternum.

  It tore a hole completely through his left lung and pushed a good-sized chunk of the seventh rib through the exit wound on the front of his body.

  If he’d been walking Johnny back to his patrol vehicle at the time, there was a good chance Johnny would have been shot as well.

  But Johnny was lucky.

  Lucky in that he wasn’t up and walking when the big deputy was shot. He was still on the ground, hands cuffed behind his back, and out of the bullet’s deadly line of fire.

  He was also very lucky he had a girlfriend with the wherewithal to protect her m
an.

  That part surprised him, for she’d always given him the impression she was opposed to needlessly killing another human being. And he never took her as someone who had the guts to be a cop killer.

  But he was glad she stepped up.

  In Johnny Connolly’s world the life of another man wasn’t worth his freedom. Not at all.

  Sonmore fell beside him, their faces just inches apart.

  He was still conscious and his facial expression read like a book to Johnny.

  It was equal parts confusion and terror.

  Even then, a split second after he fell to the ground, he knew he was going to die.

  He knew she’d taken out his spinal cord. He not only couldn’t move his legs. He couldn’t even feel them.

  He could feel his arms, but they were too heavy to move, as though someone were standing on them.

  What he noticed most of all, what he couldn’t ignore even as much as he wanted, was the incredible pain he was feeling. The front of his body, though resting on an icy highway, was on fire.

  He desperately tried to stay conscious, even as his peripheral vision started to darken. He was clear-headed and kept his wits about him, though his wits would do him no good in his present situation.

  He shivered.

  He wished he’d brought his jacket with him when he stepped out the passenger side of his unit. He was a man who liked his warmth and kept his heater cranked up as high as it would go. Ordinarily he’d have put his uniform jacket on to chase away the cold, but had to move quickly to sneak up on Johnny and get the jump on him.

  Now he’d spend his last minutes on earth shivering almost uncontrollably, and he knew not bringing his jacket would prolong his misery.

  He knew a lot about anatomy and the various ways the human body reacts to trauma. And he knew that being very cold would bring him even more agony in his final minutes of life.

  For being cold would take him longer to die.

  -35-

  Early in Deputy Sonmore’s career the department mandated its deputies take college-level courses in first aid and basic medical training. The county was having trouble hiring paramedics at that time, and the sheriff wanted his deputies to have the tools to save the lives of any accident victims they came across.