Karen came back a few minutes later, cocking an eyebrow at the empty room. Ciera and Hannah were sitting on one couch and I paced behind them. “Did I run everyone off?”
I smiled. “I think it was more everyone wanted to give us some private time for our reunion.”
She nodded, then walked over to the front window. “You think Anthem will be alright out there? I didn’t see any grass to tie him up on.”
I headed over to the other couch, taking one of the end seats. “As far as traffic, he should be fine. I don’t think we’ve seen a single other car moving in two days. Can’t really help you on the grass.”
She made her way over to my couch across from the girls, and took the middle seat, studying the girls for a minute and making me just a little uncomfortable with her proximity. Minion came over sniffing at her, his tail still wagging like mad.
Hannah was still smiling and Ciera was still unreadable. Her leg was bouncing about a mile a second though, so I assumed she was somewhere between anxious and angry.
Karen scratched her head a couple of times and looked at each of us in turn. “I don’t even know where to start, really. This last week has been . . . I don’t even know what word to use. That was always your thing, Adam.”
I sympathized with her more than a little bit, but I was also angry with her. A few hours ago, my daughter was bawling her eyes out, thinking her mother despised her. When Hannah came out, Karen had wailed about failing as a mother and whined about never being able to have grandchildren. She’d never shown any interest in meeting Ciera and refused to hear anything about their relationship. Ben was just as bad, if not worse. He flat-out refused to speak to Hannah after her announcement. I wasn’t inclined to make this—whatever “this” was going to be—any easier for her. Then again, maybe I could throw her one bone. “Well, can you start with just the last couple of days? I know you left with Ben and his son a couple of days after this happened. Are they still okay?”
“I don’t care if that son-of-a-bitch stubs his toe and dies from gangrene.”
Hannah snickered. “I guess that’s got something to do with using your maiden name when you introduced yourself.”
“That man is one of the most narcissistic, arrogant, emotionally abusive bastards I’ve ever met. I thought it was self-confidence when I first met him, and I liked it. I thought it was a little sexy.” She rolled her eyes. “There was a lot I didn’t know about him, I found out.”
Ciera perked up at “abusive.” “What did he do?”
“Did Hannah ever tell you about the fiasco when she told us she was gay?”
Both girls nodded, neither one looking happy.
“I’ll take full responsibility for what I said. It was ignorant and wrong of me to react that way. We’ll talk more about that later. But he fed on that. He seized on that comment I made about being a failure and ran with it. Every time I made a mistake, he’d say something like, ‘Oh, another failure, another mistake, you can’t do anything right, why did I marry someone like you?’ It wasn’t quite as obvious as that all the time, but he did it often enough that it started to sink in. It was downright insidious. And I can give you even more examples if you’re interested. But he was just so sneaky about it that I didn’t realize how much he was beating me down. And then when this . . . thing happened, and he announced we weren’t going to talk to anyone, or come up here after you? I guess that was the proverbial straw for me.” She said Ben and his son had destroyed everyone’s phones, then forced her into the wagon and headed for his family’s enclave. “I’d only met a few of them, but if they’re any indicator, that’s going to be a mess. Think far right evangelicals and Civil War-era plantation owners. Then move a little further right.”
It took me a minute to absorb all of that. “So how did you get away?”
“He talked about tying me up, but decided I needed to be able to walk around to ‘take care of my duties’ each night when we made camp. So that first night, I grabbed a change of clothes, a few MREs, and Anthem and I hit the road, as it were. I got back to the house late Saturday night, then took off early Sunday morning. Pushed Anthem pretty hard. Slept where I could. Then here I am.” She went back to the window. “I really need to get him some water and some grass. Do you guys have any yard space around here?”
Hannah shook her head. “The back of the building is all parking. There’s a park a couple of blocks away though, and lawns here and there. Probably not the best thing for him, but maybe it’s better than nothing? And I’ve got a mop bucket we could rinse out. Would that work?”
“Probably. And I’m probably paranoid because I pushed him so hard. He got to run a lot, which he hardly ever gets to do. But it’s been a long few days.” She rejoined me on the couch. “So. Who’s got questions?”
We talked for a couple of hours, mostly learning more about Ben. The more she talked about him, the more he sounded like a closeted white supremacist. He seemed to have similar views, based on what she said. No mixing of the races, a woman’s place is the home, and so forth. Karen didn’t know much about his son before the boy arrived, only that Ben’s first wife was a Russian woman he’d met through a website. “I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’s on the spectrum, or whatever the terminology is these days. He wasn’t exactly anti-social, but there was just something not right about him. Then again, it’s not like I’m a therapist or anything.”
We took a short break to go down and check on Anthem. He took to the water bucket well enough to make Karen happy, but we couldn’t find any decent grass close by. “We’ll figure something out, I suppose,” she said as she pulled the saddle off.
“You given any thought to what you’re going to do next?”
“Baby, the only thing on my mind for the last week has been getting to my daughter. I haven’t even thought about where I’m sleeping tonight.” Baby? She hadn’t called me that since before the divorce.
We piled the tack in the upstairs hallway for now, then headed back into the apartment. Minion whined and sniffed at Karen and almost pouted when he smelled Anthem on me. “So, if you know about Ben’s son, you must have stopped by the house.”
I nodded and told her what the Sands had to say, and what I’d seen at the house.
“He’d become quite the blacksmith over the last few years. That’s supposed to be our job at the family homestead in Virginia. He’d make a killing during the reenactment weekends, too. Sold quite a bit online.”
I stretched before joining her on the couch. “But even with what he took, you could get by down there, don’t you think?”
Karen didn’t respond right away. Hannah explained what we’d been talking about right before she’d shown up. “I bet the farm would be better than staying here in town.”
“Hmm. I suppose so, at least for the most part. All of the horses are gone, of course. But I’d probably be able to rescue a few that don’t have anyone to take care of them. I could probably find a few cows the same way. The car and the truck are probably repairable unless he poured something into them.”
I mentioned what Doug Sands had said about watching the farm for Ben. “You think there’s any reason to worry about them telling Ben where you are, or him coming after you?”
She rubbed her chin for a moment. “I doubt Jason would. He and Laura taught me a lot about being country life. They could have written a book about what they know about that lifestyle. Did you see Laura? Did he mention her?”
“No to both. Neither one of them mentioned anything about survivors. Sorry.”
“I may try to call him later. If any of the Sands would say anything, it’d be Doug’s sister, Connie. She was more into the religious side of Ben’s beliefs than the racial stuff, but I can definitely see her trying to contact him. She got hooked into some independent church in Hagerstown, but if she survived, I can totally see her coming back to the farm. I’m not really worried about him coming back though. I think in his mind I’m a lost cause, so I’m not worth his effort. Suits me just fine.”
The more the four of us talked, the more it seemed like a good idea. And if it didn’t work out at their farm for some reason, we’d probably have Rory’s family to fall back on. I wasn’t completely sold though. Then Hannah asked the obvious question. “So, are we talking about just the four of us? The girls from the church? What about Paige and Monica?”
“I’m fine with inviting everyone,” Ciera said. “I wouldn’t feel right not asking the younger kids, to be honest. I know it’s your place and all, but that’s just my two cents.”
Hannah’s phone buzzed with a text, making her jump. Then she laughed. “It’s Monica asking how things are going and letting us know they’ve got meatloaf ready in about twenty minutes.” Her thumbs danced on the keyboard. “Here’s what I sent: ‘Sounds good. Be over in a few. Got another option to our talk earlier.’ So what do you think, Dad?”
I wasn’t sure at all where I stood and told them so. “I know my first priority is checking on Sarah and Taylor. From there, I want to keep trying to find out about Gabe and Cece. But Gettysburg seems to be as good a base for me as Paducah. They’ve got the advantage of being close to the river, so the winters are probably a little more mild, and that opens up another transportation route.” I shrugged. “I don’t know that I want to have all that much say in where y’all go. I’ll be happy to offer suggestions, but I don’t think I want you to base your decision on me. Make it based on what’s best for you.”
Ciera snickered. “Dude, really? ‘What’s best for us?’ What’s best for us is keeping a family together.” She gestured to each of us. “You guys are my family. You’re probably all I’ve got left. So as far as I’m concerned, we’re family.” Karen started to say something, but Ciera shook her head. “Youse just be quiet. I said what I said, and I meant it.”
Karen blinked fast a few times, but couldn’t keep all of the tears in. “Well, let’s go next door. I haven’t eaten since yesterday.”
Monica’s dining room table wasn’t big enough, so the kids ate there and the adults scattered around the living room and kitchen. They’d done a good job cleaning the place up since the last time I was in there. I pulled Monica aside while we were serving and asked quietly about the blood I’d seen on the wall.
“I’ve got no clue. That wasn’t there when we left, and nothing seems to be missing.” She shrugged. “We may never know.”
The kids peppered Karen with questions about the farm and her hundred-and-fifty-mile horse ride. It probably seemed like a great big adventure to them, and to her credit, Karen tried to downplay that aspect of it. “I didn’t have a tent. I didn’t have a sleeping bag. Couldn’t make a fire, and the only water I had was what I found in streams.”
“But you got to sleep out under the stars,” Paige said. “I haven’t been camping like that in a while.”
“Let me tell you, it got pretty doggoned cold out there under the stars. I couldn’t even cuddle up with Anthem.”
“Why not?” Meriah asked.
“I know! ‘Cause horses sleep standing up.” Renee was very proud of herself.
“That’s right! Some might lay down in a pasture they know, but not out in the woods like we were.” Karen smiled at the young girl. “You seem to know a lot about horses.”
Renee just grinned and nodded.
As dinner wrapped up, we talked more pointedly about the farm as a possible destination. The younger girls were pretty much all in with the idea, Paige seemed mildly interested, and Monica was unreadable. Ciera and Paige worked on putting leftovers away, then carried some of the extra food over to our place. When they got back, Ciera gave me a thumbs-up.
“Adam, why don’t we take a vote?” Karen asked.
I was still very uncomfortable with the idea of leading anyone, especially this group. I didn’t want it to seem like I was taking charge because I was the man, and frankly, the idea of suddenly being responsible for so many people almost terrified me. I had a hard enough time with just me, Kevin, and the dog sometimes. “Did you forget what I said before dinner?”
Ciera cleared her throat. “Did you forget what I said?”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, we’ll take a vote. But we do a secret paper ballot. I don’t want to feel like we’re pressuring anyone.”
Renee raised her hand. “Do I get to vote too?”
Karen laughed and hugged her. “Of course you do. We all get a vote.”
Ten minutes later, Hannah had the votes tallied: nine votes for the farm, none for Rory, and one undecided. I groaned, trying to keep a calm face. “Someone’s obviously got some questions or some thinking to do. It’s getting late, and we still need to work on taking care of Anthem for the night. How about we put this all aside for now and talk about it more in the morning?”
By unspoken agreement, the younger girls stayed with Paige and Monica and the rest of us went back to Hannah’s apartment. A quick online search told us that Doylestown actually had a feed store, which surprised everyone except Karen. We took my truck over and picked up three bales of hay, some horse feed, and a few other supplies. When we got back, we “field-engineered” a small stall for Anthem using the building’s dumpster, the back porch, a bunch of ropes and a whole lot of farm ingenuity. Then it was time for bed.
Karen and I stared at each other in the living room for an awkward time. “I can sleep on the couch. I’ll be fine,” she said.
“It’s a full-sized bed. There’s room for both of us. We’re adults, right?” I instantly regretted the statement.
She put up a smile I recognized from long ago. “Adam Ktokolwiek, are you trying to entice me into your bed?”
Okay, she started it. “That depends. You still sleep naked?” I winked at her.
“Haven’t for years. But I could be convinced.” She reached for the hem of her shirt.
I raised a hand, unsure of how serious she was and completely unprepared to explore that limit. “Okay, you win.”
“Oh, I won a long time ago. And then I got stupid.” She kissed me on the cheek, barely caressing me, then did the deep eye look thing you see in movies. “I’m sorry. For so much.”
Copyright © 2019 Bob Mueller
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