When Love Comes Around Page 12

  “Réveillez-vous. Réveillez-vous.”

  I slowly open my eyes, groaning at the pain shooting through my head. A worried pair of beautiful green eyes stares back at me. For a moment I think I’m at home, and those are Megan’s emerald eyes filled with worry.

  “Esc e que tu vas bien?”

  “Ça ira.” My reply is automatic, as I’m focusing on the fact that this woman is definitely not Megan. This lady has a peaches and cream complexion hidden under layers of dirt and matted chestnut-brown hair reaching just past her shoulders.

  “Êtes-vous partie de l’armée de terre?”

  Am I part of the land Army? What? My thoughts are muddled by the incessant pounding in my head. I wish she’d stop staring at me like that. She continues to ask me questions in French as she leans over me and runs her hand over my scalp. Biting back a moan I grab her wrist, stopping her from exploring the wound any further.

  “Don’t,” I manage through gritted teeth, as I try to sit up. Bad idea. The pain in my side as I try to get into a sitting position is ten times worse than the pain in my head.

  “Oh, so you’re an American.” The woman says with a light French accent. “You’re French is impeccable.”

  “Thanks. So is your English, Alisanne Lemaire.”

  “You know my name? You’re here for me?” Her voice is hushed, but her face belies her excitement and relief. Tears shine in her eyes, but then she looks doubtful. “Where are my people? Are you the only one?”

  I can’t answer her questions right away. I need to figure out where we are and I have no clue how many ears may be listening. Noticing the look on my face, her demeanor changes instantly. She nods her head in understanding even though I haven’t spoken a word. Seeing her take hold of her emotions brings me great relief knowing I won’t have a helpless sniveling victim on my hands. She appears resilient and intelligent. I can definitely work with that.

  “Do you know exactly where we are?” I ask her, grunting as I still try to pull myself to a sitting position. Alisanne gives me a helping hand, propping me up against a wooden beam in the middle of the room. Suddenly she’s on her feet, pacing the confines of the hut.

  “We’re in the village of Kautikari. That’s all I know.”

  “Isn’t this one of the villages devastated by attacks of the Boko Haram a year or two ago when those schoolgirls were abducted?”

  “Exactly,” she replies, shoving her hands into the pockets of her tan cargo pants. For the first time, I notice the blood and mud smeared all over her clothing, and I’m praying it’s mine and not hers. Alisanne stops her pacing and looks down at herself. The look in her eyes is fierce and determined when she looks back at me. “I’m alive, and that’s more than I can say for some.”

  She’s confirmed my suspicions, but there’s no time to console her now. She’s right, she’s alive, and she’s obviously a fighter. We need to concentrate on getting out of here alive.

  “Did you see what happened to the man that was with me?” I ask anxiously, suddenly remembering Adetekumbo.

  “I never saw him. I heard some of the men arguing about him getting away.”

  Thank God.

  “How did you understand the men arguing? Do you speak Hausa?”

  “No. I’ve picked up quite a bit of Kibaku in the last six months. That’s the primary dialect around these parts. I think that’s how you guys were found out. Your man spoke Hausa didn’t he?”

  “Yeah he does,” I admit.

  “That should have gotten him by, but maybe he doesn’t speak Hausa as well as you speak French.”

  “I guess not.” Shaking my head in quiet disgust, I remove my shirt and begin tearing it into long strips. No use wasting time trying to figure out how I was captured. The best thing to do now, is to focus on how we’re going to escape.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Well, Alisanne, I think I have a couple cracked ribs so I’m going to try and bind them before I start working on an escape plan.”

  “Yes, some of the monsters were kicking you while you were out. Here let me help you with that. And please, call me Ali. We’re going to be best friends after this.”

  “Yeah. No doubt.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Megan

  “Ms. Kane? Ms. Kane, are you alright?”

  “Hmm? What’s that?” Snapping out of my daze, I see my student aid staring at me, her big brown eyes appearing even larger through the lenses of her glasses. “What can I help you with Kaydie?”

  “I wanted to know if you still wanted me to make copies of these worksheets for you?” she asks, holding up the sheet about the U.S. House of Representatives. “Didn’t we do that already?” Kaydie looks at me with concern. This little girl definitely has an old soul, because I feel like the student and she’s the teacher.

  “What’s wrong with you Ms. Kane? You’ve been staring off into space more often than not. We’ve watched more videos in the past week since we came off Christmas break than we have since school started. I’m starting to get worried about you – everyone is. Are you okay?”

  I can’t believe I’m failing my babies like this. I’ve got a twelve-year-old talking to me like she’s a concerned parent. I’ve got to get my shit together. I lost it after Evie told me that Trevor went MIA – hell, we all did – but I have to get it together for my kids. Even if that means faking it, and I’ve never been a believer in faking it.

  “I’m good, Kaydie, I’ve just got a lot on my mind. Thanks for asking, though.”

  “Is it Ms. Woods’ brother?” Kaydie presses. “I saw on the news that he went missing on some secret mission. They wouldn’t even say where it was. I remember Ms. Woods when you brought her and her fiancé to class to talk about their professions.” I notice Kaydie blush at the mention of Hunter, Evie’s fiancé. He is a handsome man, but not as attractive as my Trevor.

  That thought causes an ache in my chest because Trevor isn’t mine. I turned him down. And now he’s missing, in god-knows-where, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to tell him that I’m willing to give it a try. I’m pretty sure I’ll mess things up, and he’ll regret ever wanting me to be his girlfriend. But I’d do it if he’d only come back to us.

  “Ms. Woods’s brother is a good friend of mine too,” I finally tell her.

  “Do you think there’s anything we could do? Like maybe send care packages?”

  I’m sure care packages wouldn’t get to Trevor seeing as how we have no idea where he is, but of course, I don’t tell her that. Having the class make care packages for other troops overseas isn’t a bad idea, though. It might actually help keep my mind occupied and the class too.

  “That's a very good idea, Kaydie. I’ll present the idea to all my classes tomorrow and see what they think about it.” I give her a reassuring smile, and she does the unexpected, giving me a hug that almost knocks me out of my seat. She quickly pulls away and grabs her books off her desk.

  “See you tomorrow Ms. Kane,” she says over her shoulder, before darting out of the classroom.

  Children can be such frustratingly fantastic little creatures. One minute you want to strangle them and the next minute you’re wondering how you ever survived without them. I’m still smiling, when my cell phone rings. I can hear it rumbling around in my desk because it’s on vibrate.

  “Hey, Mom,” I answer the phone.

  “So have you thought about it?”

  No, hi. How are you? It’s just straight to the point with her. I wish she were like that about everything and not just when it suits her. She’s referring to the two open-ended plane tickets she got me for Christmas. They’re roundtrip tickets to Las Vegas to see my father. I know she’s pressing the issue because of the stipulations my father made about some trust fund money for me, but I could really give a damn right now.

  “It 's not really a pressing issue on my mind right now,” I tell her.

  “I know, honey. And I get that, but you know there’s a time limit on his
invitation.”

  “Yes, I know. I have to go see him by my birthday or else he’ll cut me out of his will or whatnot. I don’t care, mother.”

  “I know you don’t care about the money, but what about any children you might have? Wouldn’t you want to have the means to give them anything they wanted or needed?” she coaxes.

  “Needed, yes. Wanted? Not so much. I don’t make a ton of money, but I’m sure I could provide anything a hypothetical child of mine would need.”

  “Fine. If you won’t do it for the money, do it for the closure.”

  Do I need closure?

  I’ve always wondered if my father ever loved my mother and why he never tried to see me. I hate admitting it, even to myself, but the absence of a father’s love has kind of messed me up. He just might be the reason I have no faith in love.

  “Fine, but only when I’m ready and I have one other condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You’re coming with me.”

  There’s complete silence on the other end. I pull my cellphone away from my ear, checking to make sure the call didn’t drop.

  “Hello?”

  “I’ll have to think about it. I’ll get back to you.”

  Silence again, but this time I know she hung up. She’s rattled. That’s exactly what I wanted. My mother is trying to push me into seeing my father after twenty-five years of absence, well then, she can suffer through the reunion with me. I’m still in no rush to fly to Las Vegas and see him anytime soon. So she still has plenty of time to get her thoughts and emotions together before she has to face him. And so do I.

  **********

  “Megan!” Evie hugs me, holding on like I’m the last life preserver on the Titanic. We haven’t seen each other much in the last month. Mostly my doing, I’ve been avoiding her out of guilt. I told her what happened between Trevor and me the night he left. She looked sad when I told her, but she didn’t say anything about it.

  Finally loosening her embrace, she holds me away from her looking at me. “You’ve lost a lot of weight. Are you doing okay?”

  Looking down at myself, I see that my clothes are more than a little baggy on me. How did I not notice that before? I have had a loss of appetite since Trevor went missing, but Evie seems to be looking good. Glowing even.

  “Evelynn Rae Woods! Are you pregnant?” I can’t help it as my voice rises a little with each word. People in the café are starting to stare at us. Calming myself down, I pull up a chair at the bistro table, and Evie does the same, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

  “Am I showing already?” She whispers in horror.

  “No, no. You have your natural curvy figure. It’s your face, you’ve got a glow about you. It’s stunning, really,” I say reassuringly, and it’s the truth.

  “You’re the only person that knows.” She smiles happily at me, and I can’t help but smile back.

  “What about Hunter?”

  “He’ll find out soon enough. I wanted to share this with you, but you guessed it before I could even tell you,” Evie says accusingly.

  “Why did you tell me first?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugs her shoulders lightly, then looks me in the eyes. “Maybe because I felt my best friend slipping away, and I thought this would bring us closer.”

  Now I feel like an asshole. I’m the one who messed things up with Trevor, and I’m the one who started pulling away from Evie because of it, and she’s the one trying to patch things up between us.

  “I don’t deserve you.”

  “Don’t say that. I know you feel sorry about what happened between you and Trevor, but we all knew it was a possibility that things might not work out between you two. It’s a possibility in every relationship. You’re both adults, and you make your own decisions. I’m not mad at you for dumping my brother – if you can even call it that. That’s between you and him, and it has nothing to do with our friendship.”

  “Thanks, Evie.”

  “I didn’t do anything, so what are you thanking me for? What you need to do, is order a pie, or a whole cake, and put some meat back on them bones,” she teases me.

  “I’ll try,” I laughingly reply, picking up the menu. Evie follows suit.

  “Sooo, I heard you had all of your classes make care packages for deployed soldiers. Their families donated non-perishables, and the kids wrote letters and made drawings to accompany the boxes?”

  “Yeah. Who told you about that?” I ask.

  “Jamie. I wish you had told me what you were doing. I would have liked to have helped. It would have been good for me, for all of us, to feel like we were doing something instead of sitting idly at home waiting for news of Trevor.” Tears spring into her eyes, and I believe mine become misty as well.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t think of it like that. It was actually one of my kid’s ideas. Kaydie Sims saw that I was feeling down. She remembered you and Hunter from that occupation day we had at school earlier this year. Smart girl that she is, she put two-and-two together about Trevor being your brother and suggested we do care packages.”

  “That was sweet of her,” Evie replies, fanning her hand in front of her eyes. “I’m sorry, I get emotional at the drop of a hat these days.”

  It’s not her fault, it’s mine. I’ve been selfish, only thinking of my own feelings over the past month. Inviting her and Hunter to participate in making the care packages is exactly what I should have done. Instead, I’ve been spending most of my time hiding out at Jamie’s place, avoiding everyone else. But, apparently, he was keeping Evie updated on what I was doing.

  “Jamie has a big mouth,” I grumble, my mouth full of the ice cream and apple pie I ordered.

  “Come on, you know Jamie can’t hold ice water. Besides, his loyalties lie with me,” she says, giving me a smug smile. Then she pats my hand. “I was just trying to let you have the space you seemed to so desperately need, but you took too long to come back to your senses, so here I am.”

  Yes. Yes, you are.

  “So, if it’s a girl, are you naming her after me?”

  “Ha! You wish.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Trevor

  “He’s heavily sedated right now. We can call you when he wakes up. I’m just going to check his vitals for now.”

  “Lsisse-moi tranquile, Alisanne. Leave me alone, Ali” I repeat, pushing her away from me. It takes me a moment to realize that the voice I heard was not Alisanne’s and there are other people in the room as well.

  “Où suis-je?” I ask groggily.

  “English please Lt. Woods.”

  English? Lt. Woods?

  “Where am I?”

  “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  What is the last thing I remember?

  After several days of being locked up in the guarded hut, Alisanne and I had tricked one of the guards to come inside by telling him I was dead. The guard could care less that I died. His only concern was to remove my body from the hut before it started to stink, which in that oppressive heat, would be quick.

  I’d gotten progressively weaker since I was first captured. I wasn’t dead, but I felt perilously close to it. Even with the element of surprise, it had required every ounce of strength I’d had to take the man down. Jumping on him from behind, I knocked him down to the dirt floor in a stranglehold, not letting up until I felt him go still beneath me.

  That wasn’t the first time I had taken a man’s life, but I’d never had a civilian witness my deeds from such close proximity. I’d thought that Ali would fall apart, but she didn’t, she grabbed the guard’s assault rifle, and handed it to me. Then she stood by the door of the hut, waiting for me to lead the way.

  We escaped under the shroud of darkness. As if the fear of being caught and killed by the militiamen holding us captive wasn’t enough, we had to brave Africa’s wildlife at night. We pushed through the tall grasses, making sure we stayed off the main road. I knew that Chibok was located north of Kautikari by
about 46 kilometers, which is approximately 30 miles. If I had been uninjured, well-fed, at full strength, and could use the main roads, it would have taken almost nine hours to walk there. As it happened, it took two days.

  I’m not even sure we reached Chibok proper. I had been afraid to make contact with any people we saw along the way, never knowing who were friend or foe, but Ali had seen a woman she recognized when we reached a more populated area, and she called out to her from the bushes.

  “Alisanne’s friend helped us. We found our guys. Took me to Camp Lemonnier.”

  My head is swimming, and my eyes feel heavy. I can’t string the thoughts in my head into a proper sentence.

  “That’s right.” The nurse quietly agrees. “Shh just lay back now and close your eyes.”

  “Alisanne?”

  “She’s fine. You were both taken care of at Camp Lemmonier, but it seems you took a turn for the worse after they got you on a plane home. Seems that they missed the fact that you had pneumonia. It got pretty bad there for a while, but you’re on the mend now.”

  I want to ask if my family has been notified that I’m back stateside, but I feel myself drifting off to sleep before I can get the words out.

  **********

  “You’re looking good,” Alisanne says, as she smiles and rests her hand on my cheek.

  “So do you,” I respond, smiling back at her. I had no idea she was this beautiful. Her peaches and cream complexion is devoid of mud for the first time since I’ve met her. Her dark brown hair falls into soft waves just above her shoulders. Without thinking, I reach my hand up and rub the silky strands between my fingers. Her hair is as soft as it looks. “How are you feeling?”

  “Me, I’m fine. You’re the one still in the hospital, silly.”

  “I don’t mean physically.”

  The smile on her face slowly slips away, replaced by a sad look in her eyes. Even though she’s never spoken of it, I know what happened to her before I found her in that hut. For whatever reason, she wasn’t abused once I arrived, but we both know that’s not the case before I got there.